Follow Us on Tumblr

troperville

tools

toys

SubpagesMain

main index

Narrative

Genre

Media

Topical Tropes

Other Categories

TV Tropes Org
random
Freeware Games
aka: Freeware
Video Games that can be downloaded and distributed for free legally (not that illegality stops some people.)

One genre that tend to have a lot of freeware games is the Interactive Fiction genre as since the 1990s, the genre hasn't been as commercially viable. An annual contest for shorter works generally turns up at least two or three genuinely excellent examples of freeware IF games.

There are several websites dedicated to covering and hosting freeware games:

  • liberatedgames.com is a site for formerly commercial games that are now available for free (Technically, not all of them are distributable; some may be downloaded for free, but only from the original company.)
  • The Indiegames.com weblog is a regularly updated blog that informs about indie video games. While not all indie games are free, many of them are.
  • Play This Thing! also has quite a few listed, with the option of filtering the list for free games only.
  • FreeGamer, is devoted exclusively to Free and Open Source Software.
  • RMN focuses primarily on freeware RPGs oftentimes made using the RPG Maker series.

The Other Wiki keeps a list of available freeware games, as well as lists for commercial games released as freeware and open source games. Linux users have a lot of these available and updated via software repositories.

For those of you who have no idea what games to choose, this guide presents some of the best voted on by /v/. Fair warning: not all of these games run on all operating systems.

If the game advertises itself as free but is only partly free, the game is an Allegedly Free Game. If the game's developers have forgotten about it or vanished entirely, but its exact legal standing is still questionable, it may be Abandon Ware. If it was made after an existing game, it's Fan Remake or Fan Sequel (not all of them are free games proper, what with game mods using commercial engines).

Also see Web Games.
    open/close all folders 

    Multi-Platform 
Action Games:

Action Adventure:

Adventure Games:

Beat 'Em Up:

Edutainment Games:

First-Person Shooters:

Genre Busting:

Genre Roulette:

Interactive Fiction:

Music/Rhythm:
  • StepMania
  • Osu!
  • Frets on Fire (and various mods)

Platformers:

Puzzle Games:

Racing Games:

Real-Time Strategy:

Roguelikes:

Role Playing Games:
Action RPGs

Eastern RPGs

Western RPGs

Shoot 'Em Up:

Simulation Games:

Space Simulators:

Turn-Based Strategy:

Visual Novels:

Miscellaneous:

    Windows-Only 
Action Adventure:

Action Games:

Adventure Games:

Fighting Games:

First-Person Shooters:

Horror:

Interactive Fiction:

Metroidvanias:

Music/Rhythm:

Platformers:

Ordinary Platformers

Puzzle Platformers Ambient/Exploration Platformers

Puzzle Games:

Racing Games:

Real-Time Strategy and Tactics:

Roguelikes:

Role Playing Games:

Action RPGs

Eastern RPGs

Western RPGs

Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs

Shoot 'Em Up:

Space Simulators:

Sport Games:

Stealth Games:

Third-Person Shooters:

Turn-Based Strategy

Visual Novels:

Wide Open Sandbox:

Miscellaneous:

Unknown:

    Adventure Game Studio Games (Windows and Linux only, though an old OS X runtime exists) 

    Other Platforms 
Initially commercial

Always freeware

Episodic GameVideo Game GenresAllegedly Free Game
Freelook ButtonVideogame TropesGame-Favored Gender
Franchise IndexIndex IndexFranco-Belgian Comics

alternative title(s): Freeware Game; Freeware
random
83970
2