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Freeware Games

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Video Games that can be downloaded and distributed legally for free.

One genre that tends 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 Interactive Fiction games.

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

  • FreeIndieGam.es features freeware games as well as web games. Sadly, it no longer updates, but the archive is being maintained as of this writing.
  • IFDB covers interactive fiction games. For the freeware ones, it includes links to download or play online.
  • Indiegames.com: The Weblog is a regularly updated blog that informs about indie video games. While not all indie games are free, many of them are.
  • Top free games - itch.io a listing of all the games on itch.io sites that are free.
  • The Independent Gaming Source is a website dedicated to indie games. Like the above one, not all the games are free but many are featured.
  • Play This Thing! also has quite a few listed, with the option of filtering the list for free games only. (broken link)
  • FreeGamer is devoted exclusively to Free and Open Source Software.
  • RMN focuses primarily on freeware RPGs oftentimes made using the RPG Maker series.
  • RPG Maker Wiki has links to download games, it has entries on, if they're available.
  • Freem! focuses primarily on freeware PC doujin games.
  • JayIsGames focuses on Flash games, freeware and indie titles.
  • Pixel Prospector, an indie gaming blog with a collection of commercial and freeware games.
  • Vector is a website which provides doujin game downloads for various platforms (alongside with other independent software). Not all of the games are free, but most of them are.
  • The Free Bundle organizes bundles of various freeware games with a new bundle every few weeks.
  • Game Jolt is a site where you can download and play indie games that numerous users have uploaded to the site.

The Other Wiki keeps a list of available freeware games, as well as lists for commercial games released as freeware and open-source games note . 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. A longer list (with descriptions) can be found at their wiki.

If the game advertises itself as free but is only partly free (for instance, by requiring payment to access high-tier abilities or equipment), 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 Abandonware. If it was made after an existing game, it's a Fan Remake or Fan Sequel (not all of them are free games proper, what with game mods using commercial engines).

Also see Web Games and Rereleased for Free.

    open/close all folders 

    Multi-Platform 
Action Games
  • Abuse
  • Garden Gnome Carnage (initially Windows-only made in Game Maker, then re-released as a Flash game, and later re-released for Xbox Live Indie Games)
  • Kemono Friends Cellien May Cry (a Kemono Friends stylish action/roguelike fangame; made in Unity)
  • Power Bomberman (originally Windows-only, it later got ported to macOS; made in Game Maker)

Action-Adventure

Adventure Games

Audio Games

Beat 'Em Up

Dating Sim

Edutainment Games

Fighting Games

First-Person Shooters

Horror

Genre Busting

Genre Roulette

Interactive Fiction

Music/Rhythm

  • Frets on Fire (and various mods)
  • osu!
  • Phigros (unusual for a Rhythm Game not based on user-produced content due to the licensing costs typically associated with sourcing songs, and is required to be free as per some song licensing contracts)
  • StepMania

Platformers

Puzzle 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

Card Games

  • PsyCard (free for PC only. Mobile versions are paid.)

Edutainment Games

Fighting Games

Beat 'em Ups

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

Rhythm Games

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

Alternative Title(s): Freeware Game, Freeware

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