Released in the last hour of 2016, I present: Tiny Heist! Scale the tower, avoid patrol bots and reach the rooftop with as many gems as you can find!

A little flash game from Terry Cavanagh, creator of Dicey Dungeons, Super Hexagon, and VVVVVV

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/26228828

Even though the polygons don't exactly merit much of a second look, I'm shocked by how smoothly it runs and just generally how well-implemented the engine is. Especially with the incredible diversity of the different factions, it sort of feels like a more relaxed but still tactical WarCraft 3-like RTS. You have gold, wood, stone, and a food quota to manage, but some factions function so differently; one sort of copies StarCraft's Zerg or Protoss in the way that it has existing units irreversibly upgrade and specialize in specific forms, and another summons some units on the fly instead of at a base building.

I also see that it's extremely moddable and some people tried to make sci-fi total conversions, but I unfortunately see none that have had any recent work (sci-fi's really my jam).

Full discussion here

A bit of a non-standard post as I don't think you can actually play them for free yet (I can't see any binaries available and there's a disclaimer that you need to already own the games, presumably for assets/art), but a pleasant surprise and hopefully something to keep an eye on!

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/post/490628

NEW RELEASE - Welcome Home

Where home feels wrong, and you're anything but welcome

Widelands is a free, open source real-time strategy game with singleplayer campaigns and a multiplayer mode. The game was inspired by Settlers II™ (© Bluebyte) but has significantly more variety and depth to it.

Plenty of discussion on Lemmy too

Educational software for toddlers and kids.

Released under the AGPL. Multi-platform.

Great for kids 2-12.

Grapples Galore is a fast-paced online multiplayer arena shooter with physics-based grappling hook movement, active ragdolls, and thrilling gunplay.

cross-posted from: https://swg-empire.de/post/2109620

you're just imagining it - A Chronic Illness Game

I saw this posted a month or so ago:

The game runs surprisingly well. You can download the DRM-free version of the game from BioMedia Project. The files are hosted with the permission of the LEGO Group. The only fix I did was enabling widescreen support with modern screen resolutions. The instructions for that are here.

I never played any of the Bionicle games but I have very fond memories of the Lego! As well as a (what I assume to be Windows) ISO, you can also play it on Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Wii, DS, GameBoy Advance, and even "Java (Phone)".

The freegames community has been going for a year and a half now, probably time I updated the info.

What to post

This is a place to post limited-time giveaways of full video games that are then yours to keep forever at no cost. Please use the search to check what you're posting hasn't already been posted, and start your posts with [Source] so that people can ignore giveaways they're not interested in. For example, if Fanatical were giving away a Steam key for Pong, I'd title the post [Fanatical/Steam] Pong.

I post deals as I find them (sometimes spread out over a few days or bundled together so it doesn't get too noisy) but feel free to post them if you find them first.

If you have keys that you'd like to give away then [email protected] and [email protected] are the best places to post.

Forever-Free Friday

The main exception to the limited-time giveaways only rule is for the occasional posting of games which are always free. On Fridays you can post a

A bit of a different one this week as this is technically a subscription service with a free-to-play option, but put down your pitchforks and hear me out!

BGA is a platform for playing board games online, and about half of the games I'm aware of IRL are available, from simple classics like Carcassonne and Yahtzee to multi-day slogs like Unconditional Surrender and Scythe. Some games are free for anyone to play, "premium" ones require that the person who starts the game is a paying member (but that means that one enthusiast can pay a few quid a month and invite their friends to play for free). There are rankings and tournaments if you want to take it seriously, or you can exclusively play solo or with friends.

Not everyone's cup of tea, but still quite a cool site you can enjoy without paying.

As it's spooky season we have a creepy "vhs style" weird meta-game mystery about being trapped in a video game.

traverse the digital wasteland of a shooter game long-abandoned. but don't let looks deceive you, the game is just a remnant distracting you from its real purpose.

The game has already been remastered (Windows only) though the original for Linux and Windows is also free, and it's apparently coming to Steam too. Pay-what-you-want on itch.io.

Blast, slide, and tear through waves of monsters in Harbinger's retro-inspired combat, a free boomer shooter bringing '90s combat into the modern era. Fight through waves of enemies in brutal arenas and regroup at the tavern to upgrade your arsenal.

Hand-drawn indie platformer for Windows, originally released in 2013 but had an "anniversary edition" QoL update last year. Pay-what-you-want on Itch.io.