2D jump’n’run game SuperTux released 0.6.3 Beta recently with many exciting new features.
SuperTux is a free open-source side-scroller inspired from the Super Mario Bros. Player may control a penguin called Tux in game to run and jump through multiple worlds, fighting off enemies, and reclaim Penny.
By releasing the 0.6.3 Beta, the game supports for WASM compilation. So, it can be played directly in the browser. There are also many great new features introduced in the release, including:
Swimming
Wall jumping
Autotiles
New snow tiles, objects
Add-on creator
Optional integration with Discord
Official binaries for FreeBSD, Linux 32-bit and Ubuntu Touch
For Ubuntu and other Linux, it’s available in the system repositories. Just search for and install it via your system app store (Ubuntu Software).
And the package for the latest 0.6.3 Beta is available to download in Github releases via Assets. For Linux user, download the ‘.Appimage’ package, add executable permission in file Properties dialog, and finally click run it to start the game.
After more than 2 years of development, the new major Battle for Wesnoth 1.16.0 was finally available to download.
With Wesnoth 1.15.x development releases, it introduced new campaign: Wings of Victory, an Intermediate level Drake campaign with 11 scenarios. A new new single player or coop survival scenario, Isle of Mists is added.
The add-on World Conquest II (now called World Conquest) has translations support. And users now has ability to add translated titles and descriptions to add-ons.
It has overhauled the Dunefolk to improve balance against the six Default factions. Most of the Dunefolk faction’s units have new and-or updated animations. There is also a new unit called falconer, which is a branch in the skirmisher line.
For multiplayer, it added roll N chat command, new Information button in the lobby to show server related information and ongoing tournaments being held. It’s possible to press F1 to view in-game help in the multiplayer lobby. And, the Private Replay checkbox is available in the game create screen.
It also merged several experimental AI candidate actions (CAs). The campaign AI Controller feature is now deprecated, and has been removed from mainline campaigns.
Linux user may play the game via Steam or itch.io. It’s also available to install separately via the universal Flatpak package in Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.10, Ubuntu 18.04 and even older releases. And below will tell you how:
1.) Setup Flatpak daemon.
Firstly, search for and open terminal from start menu (activities overview). When it opens, run command to install the daemon:
sudo apt install flatpak
For old Ubuntu releases, e.g., Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 18.04, you need to add this PPA first.
Next, add the Flathub repository that hosts the software packages via command:
The popular kart racing game SuperTuxKart 1.3 finally goes stable! Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu 21.04.
After a year of development, the game now is ported to Switch though you need to have Homebrew installed. So the 3D open-source arcade racer now works on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, iOS (beta), and Nintendo Switch.
photo via erik mclean (edited)
Thanks to SDL2 and Mary, there’s an option to enable force feedback. You can find it in ‘Options -> Controls’ if you have a controller that support the feature.
The graphics settings now provides “render resolution” option. With it, the resolution can be lowered by up to 50% to get better frame rates.
Then extract, right-click on the “run_game.sh” file and select Run to launch the game.
Ubuntu PPA:
The racing game has an official Ubuntu PPA that contains packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.04, Ubuntu 21.10, and their based systems, e.g., Linux Mint 20 and Zorin OS 16.
1.) To add the PPA. Open terminal by either pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard or searching from the activities overview screen. When it opens, run command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stk/dev
2.) Next, update the system package cache. This is done automatically in Ubuntu 20.04 and higher, though Ubuntu 18.04 and some Ubuntu based systems need to run this command manually:
sudo apt update
3.) Finally, install the game package via apt command:
sudo apt install supertuxkart
How to Remove SuperTuxkart:
To remove kart racing game, simply run the apt command with remove flag in terminal window:
Real-time strategy video game 0 A.D. released version Alpha 25 a day ago. Code name is “Yaunã”.
0 A.D. (pronounced “zero ey-dee”) is a free and open-source RTS game under development by Wildfire Games, that works on Windows, Linux, and MAC. It is a historically-based war/economy game that allows players to relive or rewrite the history of Western civilizations, focusing on the years between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D.
“Yaunã” comes with the twenty-fifth alpha version that initially implements Single Player Campaigns, along with other big ones including:
Improved Pathfinding, Performance And Reduced Game Lag.
Push new orders to the front Of their production queues.
Improved Unit AI.
New Biomes incorporating wew 2k textures and normal/specular maps.
GUI improvements.
Extended Graphics options.
Improved Mod support and game filtering in the multiplayer lobby.
Ongoing civilization balancing.
Various other game stability bug fixes and speedups.
See video about 0 A.D. Alpha 25:
How to Install 0 A.D in Ubuntu:
The game package is available in Ubuntu repository but always old! To get the latest version, keep an eye on this Ubuntu PPA while the official one is not being updated for long time.
Usually, maintainers update the latest software packages a few days after the release note. For beginners, you can follow this tutorial to add the PPA and install 0 A.D. once the new package published.
Want to get better performance when playing games in Linux? Try GameMode!
GameMode is a free open-source Linux project allows games to request a set of optimizations be temporarily applied to the host and/or game process.
The project was originally designed as a stop-gap solution to problems with Intel and AMD CPU powersave or ondemand governors. But now GameMode supports for optimizations including:
CPU governor
I/O priority
Process niceness
Kernel scheduler
Screensaver inhibiting
GPU performance mode (NVIDIA and AMD), GPU overclocking (NVIDIA)
Custom scripts
1. How to Install GameMode in Ubuntu Linux:
The package is available in Ubuntu as well as most other Linux repositories.
Firstly open terminal by either searching from ‘Activities’ overview screen, or pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard. When terminal opens, run command to install it:
sudo apt install gamemode
For Fedora and CentOS Linux, you can install it via command:
sudo dnf install gamemode
(Optional) Install GameMode indicator:
For choice, you can install an indicator applet that shows the current status of GameMode. It’s an extension for the default Gnome desktop.
a.) Open terminal and run command to make sure chrome-gnome-shell browser integration is installed:
If you don’t see the toggle icon, click the “click here to install browser extension” link to install browser extension and reload the page.
Finally, search for and open ‘Gnome Extensions App’ from start menu. And click on the gear button to configure the status indicator.
2. How to Run Game in GameMode:
Some games and platforms have integrated GameMode support. Which means you don’t have to do anything to activate it. They are:
DiRT 4
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia
Total War: Three Kingdoms
Total War: WARHAMMER II
ATLauncher Minecraft launcher
Lutris
For other games, you can now run the executable command by adding gamemoderun at the beginning. For example, run SuperTux2 in GameMode via:
gamemoderun supertux2
For steam, you can simply add gamemoderun %command% as launch option.
And without launching game every time from command line, write the rule into app shortcut file. They are .desktop files generally locate in “/usr/share/applications” directory.
For example, edit SuperTux 2 app shortcut via command:
When the file opens, add gamemoderun before executable command in Exec line.
For Hybrid GPU users, the GameMode supports environment variable via GAMEMODERUNEXEC. So you can run GameMode while using dedicated gpu for rendering game which will be displayed using the integrated card. For example:
