Open source games roundup

Week of July 20 - July 26, 2014

It's good to be back! I had a blast at the beach last week and avoided looking at screens pretty much the whole time. Aside from some Cards Against Humanity and some Jungle Speed, the only games I played were rum- and beach-related.

In this week's edition of our open source games news roundup, we take a look at GOG's Linux offerings, speculations on the Steam Controller, and more.

GOG officially supporting Linux games

Back in March, the digital games distribution site GOG.com (which, believe it or not, is owned by Poland's CD Projekt RED) announced it would be adding support for Linux. This week, ahead of schedule, 50 games were released on the site with support for Ubuntu and Linux Mint. Most of the games on the list were already released with Linux support, but a few notables are out on Linux for the first time. Check out GamingOnLinux for an interview about the release and be sure to check out the promotional sale before it ends on Monday.

New Steam Controller layout found in latest Steam Beta

The Steam Controller is still shrouded in mystery, but the latest Steam Beta contains an image that looks much more like a traditional game controller. Earlier prototypes eschewed analog thumbsticks for directional buttons and dual touchpads, but this image has a thumbstick right where you'd expect. Some who've used the prototypes claim that a thumbstick makes a lot of sense for various reasons, but until Valve comes out with an official design, this is all speculation.

Raspberry Pi + Game Boy = Super Mega Ultra Pi Boy 64 Thingy

Game Boys are pretty easy to come by at thrift stores and on eBay, but the elusive Game Boy Light? Not so much. Instead of relying on lame third party lamp accessories, this version—available only in Japan—had a built-in Indiglo-style backlight. This dude decided he'd just make his own with a Raspberry Pi, a hollowed-out Game Boy, and some basic electronic components. I wouldn't call his buildout easy, but it's certainly a fun and rewarding way to spend some free time.

What's the deal with open source games?

This week, we put a new resource page on the site to help answer the question: What is open gaming? Big, huge thanks to Opensource.com summer intern Bryan Behrenshausen for writing this awesome overview of the open gaming movement. It covers everything from digital games, game engines, and hardware, to board and card games. Head over to the page, give it a read, and share it with all your friends when they ask you what you're going on about when you start ranting about open source games. And please let us know in the comments below if we left anything out!

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