alt.hn

4/6/2026 at 5:37:38 PM

Battle for Wesnoth: open-source, turn-based strategy game

 https://www.wesnoth.org

by akyuu

4/6/2026 at 6:47:20 PM

Highly suggest connecting with one of the lead developers, Charles Dang/Vultraz, if you have any C++ jobs in the USA.

He's been a developer on Wesnoth since 2012 but only graduated university in 2024. Unfortunately, it's been an absolutely brutal market for new graduates. Even if you're a maintainer on one of the most popular OSS C++ projects on GitHub.

I can't recommend him enough.

edit: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-dang-10994b1b4

by jjmarr

4/6/2026 at 8:45:04 PM

Even with 5 (albeit small) linux kernel patches, 2 Firefox patches.. employers weren’t interested. I’ve stopped contributing to open source completely. I’m considering switching fields. It was interesting but these days I need some ROI, personally.

by EmeraldSky

4/7/2026 at 12:53:31 AM

[dead]

by sieabahlpark

4/6/2026 at 7:11:45 PM

Thanks,our company is in the DC area so I just reached out with an offer to chat. Wesnoth is an incredible project, I can't believe he doesn't have a programming job.

by wwilson

4/7/2026 at 12:30:04 AM

[dead]

by CookieTonsure

4/6/2026 at 7:18:32 PM

> Unfortunately, it's been an absolutely brutal market for new graduates.

Furthermore, more and more companies are looking for "professional" devs using AI tools such as Claude Code. By "professional" I mean proficient in using those AI tools, not actual knowledge. And they don't even specify this in the job offer and you learn this during the interview.

by szmarczak

4/6/2026 at 8:44:54 PM

I don't understand why you're downvoted. Many of my 2025 graduate friends are seeing this problem.

Unlimited token-based usage of Claude Code is not in the budget for many students and employees.

At the same time, companies are demanding experience with these tools.

This is stratifying the industry. I have many talented classmates that can only use free GitHub Copilot. They're likely being screened out in favour of rich classmates with $200/month Claude subs.

As a result, they'll be more likely to get low-paying jobs that don't provide access to top-tier AI tools and the effect will compound.

I think this'll be even worse as Claude phases out subsidies.

If $2000/month subscription to Claude for 4 years of university is the minimum required for a Big Tech job, this field is going to become law/finance levels of cliquey.

Nobody is talking about that because it's bad for both AI booster and skeptic narratives but it's happening.

by jjmarr

4/6/2026 at 10:35:15 PM

i expect students have or will get claude access via their university, pr at a discount if they register with their university email?

students generally get specific subsidized/free tiers for all kinds of tech

by 8note

4/6/2026 at 10:54:07 PM

Claude has partnerships with specific universities but not the one I attended.

I don't believe there's a general student discount for Claude.

by jjmarr

4/7/2026 at 1:28:39 AM

$2000/month is cheaper than university tuition. Why attend the university?

by gowld

4/7/2026 at 8:25:52 AM

This field really is doomed. We are entering a dark age of software. Github reaching zero 9s of availability is only the beginning.

by LAC-Tech

4/6/2026 at 7:27:04 PM

I am very surprised if he can't find a job, as an American, in DC, with 12 years of C++ experience. Sure companies aren't great at assessing open source experience, but there is one area its easy to find a job as a dev: work that requires a clearance.

by ecshafer

4/6/2026 at 8:24:10 PM

St. John’s college is a great place that draws a special type of young person, but its graduates are not very STEM-legible. As far as I know they still offer no choice of major & no hands-on classes — just the great books.

Of course that makes this person’s skill all the more impressive.

by setgree

4/7/2026 at 3:49:31 AM

Huh. I graduated from there and about a third of my class (including me) works in tech in some form. Though being a sysadmin seems to be more common than being a programmer. But I had no idea the Wesnoth dev went there too!

by bandrami

4/7/2026 at 10:58:22 PM

Did you do a coding bootcamp or such?

by setgree

4/8/2026 at 5:45:25 AM

No, the email system was a Unix server you telneted to from the Mac SEs in the computer lab so I just kind of picked up Unix usage. Then once I graduated I got a job tending a BIND and sendmail cluster for a local ISP (the "training" was handing me the Cricket book and the Bat book on the first day). The jaw-dropping salary for that was $22K at the time (this was the 90s; about $46K in today's money). That led to learning Perl (via the Camel book) to automate some of the tasks, which led to some CGI work, but I've never really been a "programmer" per se, always a sysadmin.

by bandrami

4/7/2026 at 1:27:46 AM

For software development, degree is irrelevant. Employer-managed competency exams and public experience dominate.

by gowld

4/8/2026 at 12:04:55 PM

You aren't getting to the exam stage without that degree though

by Discordian93

4/6/2026 at 10:03:59 PM

Not everyone will take a job that requires clearance because they are usually "defense" related.

by henryfjordan

4/6/2026 at 10:18:02 PM

Also, acquiring said clearance is not always straightforward, even if you lack sufficient scruples to be willing to pursue it in the first place.

by nimih

4/7/2026 at 2:07:38 AM

>Also, acquiring said clearance is not always straightforward

This, had a friend whose clearance was held up because he knew a bunch of foreign people, people that he had met through a government job with a lower level of clearance.

by Suppafly

4/8/2026 at 1:39:30 AM

I'd argue there's easily more folks lacking said "scruples" in tech's private sector than the typical on the ground government employee or contractor.

Half of what actually makes money in tech these days involves active spying on consumers or manipulation of base human desires at scale. Not exactly the paragon of morality.

by drzaiusx11

4/7/2026 at 7:09:25 AM

even if you lack sufficient scruples to be willing to pursue it in the first place.

What an absurd thing to say. As a Canuck, I may even spend some days wondering if I'll have to defend my country from the US, but I can clearly see that there are many governmental and military jobs that are incredibly valuable, ethical, beneficial.

Wikipedia says there are ~2M US governmental employees, and ~2M in the military. The military doesn't use such clearances. When it comes to securing data systems for the government, a clearance is required, even if it's about any number of domestic things, some of which, yes, are valuable and helpful, and needed.

It should be noted that there are all types of security clearances, including very simple ones. In Canada, we have (for example) 'enhanced reliability' and 'secret level II' for governmental work, the first being a simple background, criminal record check, with 10 year's history.

Selling services, even say... cloud based wordprocessing software as a service would require most employees to have such clearances. But of course, what is effectively selling paper and pens, eg wordpro software, is a morally bankrupt thing in your context?!

This is a governmental program: https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R42353#_Ref471832706

Description: Provides supplemental, nutrient-rich foods; nutrition education and counseling; and breastfeeding promotion and support to low-income women, infants, and children.

But I guess, because this requires handling money, and therefore a security clearance, you'd be ethically challenged to seek clearance? Or to write software for this?

To paint every job which requires a clearance as morally bankrupt, to paint working for the government to be morally bankrupt, is frankly disgusting. You should literally be ashamed of yourself.

Get your head on straight. Please.

Don't let whatever weirdo US team politics-of-the-day exists, leave you making overreaching statements. The US, as a nation, needs GOOD people in such programs, not ones feeling shame.

I personally feel the US is on a terrible course currently, but it won't be fixed by tearing it down further. And if a time does come to change that course, the framework you have, needs to be filled with good people.

Do you not realise that by acting this way, you're working to ensure that only morally bankrupt people will apply for such jobs? If you make working for the government a badge of shame, it will become true in time? That even the most noblest of jobs, such as helping to feed poor children will only be filled by those with no scruples?

How is this attitude helping?

How is it any better than whatever other team the US has?

by b112

4/7/2026 at 11:35:12 AM

> To paint every job which requires a clearance as morally bankrupt, to paint working for the government to be morally bankrupt, is frankly disgusting.

Sometimes you don't know the exact nature of the task until after you've gone through the rigmarole of applying, getting clearance, etc. In that case if you consider some of the jobs to be morally bankrupt, you consider all of them to potentially be morally bankrupt. You could go through all the hassle then turn it down, or leave during a probationary period when you discover the details, but that is a significant wasted time risk to take.

> You should literally be ashamed of yourself.

Many people state-side are ashamed of their government, and don't want to feel their reputation is tarnished by working directly for it, and quite frankly I don't blame them right now nor would I have at all at numerous points over recent years. And that is before considering those who want “conscientious objector” status with regard to anything military related.

> If you make working for the government a badge of shame, it will become true in time?

For some, it has become true. That time is now or before.

As much as “join and fight the corruption from within” is a laudable goal, I entirely understand people not thinking that they've got the nerve for that. Especially given that the first thing a bad administration does to someone raising concerns is to sack and blacklist them in a way that will affect future employment opportunities.

> such as helping to feed poor children

The “but think of the children” argument cuts both ways: many governments have, directly or indirectly, done and continue to do, terrible things to children. It may not be possible in the short/medium term to do anything truly useful about that (you go try tell the current administration over there to refund the good works that have been gutted recently and see how seriously they take you!) and dealing with the crap until things stear back towards the good is too much for some.

Not everyone has the fortunate needed to fight a bad system from within, or the desire to, no matter how many heartstrings you pull to try shame them into reconsidering the good within the bad.

by dspillett

4/7/2026 at 11:57:00 AM

> To paint every job which requires a clearance as morally bankrupt, to paint working for the government to be morally bankrupt, is frankly disgusting.

Sometimes you don't know the exact nature of the task until after you've gone through the rigmarole of applying, getting clearance, etc.

I literally said "every job". You're saying "sometimes" they might be. What is your point? It certainly doesn't counter or answer the point I raise.

> You should literally be ashamed of yourself.

Many people state-side are ashamed of their government, and don't want to feel their reputation is tarnished by working directly for it, and quite frankly I don't blame them

Well I do blame them. And I specifically excluded the military. As I mentioned, the government is a vast and immense entity. Further, my response was to someone saying that to get a clearance would be morally bankrupt. I provided examples as to why that may not be the case. What you are doing, is painting all government as bad, because a specific team is in play right now.

This is literally what is wrong with the US currently. 90% of the issues are due to team politics on both sides. Politics before people. Politics before sensibility. Politics, instead of examining the moral and ethical considerations of each action one takes.

> If you make working for the government a badge of shame, it will become true in time?

As much as “join and fight the corruption from within” is a laudable goal,

You do not have to fight corruption to take a job feeding babies. Or the large amount of good that the government does. You can simply take and do that job. That's my point here. You're doing what the poster upstream did, painting the entire body of the US government as a single entity.

It's OK to say "I don't think this part of government is ethical, I won't work for that part of government", but to say that any government job is morally repugnant is disgusting.

> such as helping to feed poor children

The “but think of the children” argument

It's not a "think of the children" argument in any traditionally way. That argument is typically defined by taking rights away from someone, to "protect kids". This is simply feeding the poor, and babies. No comparison.

Not everyone has the fortunate needed to fight a bad system from within, or the desire to, no matter how many heartstrings you pull to try shame them into reconsidering the good within the bad.

The government is not bad. A tiny part (the current administration) is the problem.

To give context, you'd need a string of "one team" government for decades to turn the course of the entire government. Programs enacted by both US teams are currently in play. Some programs are decades old, and supported by both parties.

Anyone who thinks that a certain team gets into power, and then "all government bad" is not thinking clearly. What you need to do, is look at what each department and each program does. Determine if they are good. It absolutely does not matter which administration passed it, or when. All that matters is "is this thing good?".

The government should be viewed as series of literally tens of thousands of companies. Each has its own task, provides specific services, and so on. To paint them all bad is nutty.

by b112

4/7/2026 at 1:17:10 PM

> I literally said "every job". You're saying "sometimes" they might be. What is your point?

You are completely ignoring the “you don't always know the full nature of the task until after clearance” part. If you don't know it isn't one that will be a problem for you, it could be one that is. My point there is that bit.

> And I specifically excluded the military.

So did I. Hence I explicitly said afterwards “And that is before considering those who want “conscientious objector” status with regard to anything military related."

I stopped reading at this point because if you didn't bother properly reading my previous before blurting out a response, then explaining more, giving you more to not fully read, will likely achieve nothing beyond consuming my time.

by dspillett

4/7/2026 at 10:03:34 AM

To take this logic to it's extreme: Would you have signed up for a job in Nazi Germany that required clearance?

If not, it's all down to value judgements and your personal evaluation of the current power structures.

Personally, I would feel guilty if I did anything that empowered the Trump regime.

by vrganj

4/7/2026 at 11:16:31 AM

First, referencing "Nazi" has an age old tradition of immediately meaning you lose the debate. That's back to old Usenet and mailing list ethics.

Regardless, absolutely, yes, I would take a job in Nazi Germany which required clearance, if that job was to feed poor children. What the hell? I literally used feeding babies as an example, please provide some context in where innocent babies should be left to starve. Children are literally the absolute concept of innocence, and a baby is beyond culpability!

That is... unless you're advocating some form of weird let babies starve, because of the crimes of their parents?! Which is effectively along the lines of suggesting ethnic cleansing???

Any form of ideological stance which is this extreme, is realistically actually inline with fascism, for it puts politics before people.

by b112

4/7/2026 at 11:39:55 AM

> First, referencing "Nazi" has an age old tradition of immediately meaning you lose the debate.

True. Though to be frank, before typing my longer response I did consider just telling you the same about the “but forget everything else and think of the children” line of reasoning.

by dspillett

4/7/2026 at 12:17:44 PM

First, I purposefully avoided drawing direct comparisons to the Nazis, I only used the extreme end of the logic to illustrate my point, that it's a spectrum and value judgement, not an absolute.

Nobody said Trump is literally Hitler. But literal Hitler did exist, so it all becomes a question of where do you personally draw the line?. For you, it seems to be somewhere between Trump and Hitler. For me, it's somewhere before Trump. I'm not establishing equivalency, I'm establishing subjectivity.

Along those lines, who said anything about crimes of parents?

Let me be more concrete: Would you feed children on camera so the propaganda apparatus can film a movie about a concentration camp titled "The Führer gifts a City to the Jews"? [0]

Everything you do can and will be instrumentalized by the regime. The innocents, too, are just a medium for their machinations.

There is a treshold at which even nominally good acts become morally reprehensible because they serve to sustain a harmful system. The only question is which system do you consider harmful enough to pass that treshold?

You're presenting your moral line as if it's objectively correct. I’m pointing out it's a judgment call with no easy absolutes.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresienstadt_(1944_film)

by vrganj

4/7/2026 at 9:21:13 PM

Nobody said Trump is literally Hitler. But literal Hitler did exist, so it all becomes a question of where do you personally draw the line?. For you, it seems to be somewhere between Trump and Hitler. For me, it's somewhere before Trump. I'm not establishing equivalency, I'm establishing subjectivity.

None of that is relevant. Why? My statements have been quite clear; the government is not the party in power. And further, that there may be portions of the government that may offend, that saying "all parts" is obscene and inane.

Recall the original conversation. It's not the mess you've made of it now. Recall my objection was to someone saying that any government job was bad.

I cited a government department with a specific outcome. Feeding children. The counter with the Nazis, therefore, is inline with that statement of mine. Yes, in Nazi Germany, I would work for the government to feed children.

The sensible inference is that my statement is akin to the same for the current US government feeding children. You've now changed that condition to, instead, being some sort of actor for films about feeding children.

This is not what we were discussing. For the record, no, I would not star in a propaganda film willingly.

In as this entire conversation has revolved around how the US government has a myriad of programs which are ethical and moral, and how it therefore would not be untoward to seek clearance and work in those jobs, yes I stand my ground.

I have also indicated that if one found the job questionable, then don't take it! And naturally one can quit if the job changes.

It's such an enormous stretch to try to claim that every single possible job the US government has is reprehensible. The notion is absurd, see my other post about how some of these departments have been unchanged for decades. Lived through both parties.

So yes, there is an easy absolute here. That currently (because, no one can claim to know the future), there are government jobs which are moral and ethical. Period. Hands down. Absolute certainty.

You wonder about the "crimes of the parent". Well, if you refuse to feed children because their parents are in Nazi Germany, then presumably part of that has to do with their parents. For example, would you feed the children of dissenters? If the answer is "yes", yet when asked "would you feed the hungry children of Nazi zealots" you say "no", then you are indeed punishing babies for the crimes of their parents.

A child is a child is a child, and to feed that child is noble. To feed the children of your enemy is noble. To feed the children of someone who murdered your children is noble. To feed the children of those who wish you harm is noble.

There is no ground where not feeding children is reasonable. None. Nada. Ziltch.

Children are not a political game. Children are not something you use to do battle. Children are not something cease helping, because you worry about it helping the enemy.

You. Feed. Children.

Period.

by b112

4/7/2026 at 9:27:59 PM

I would feed the children of both Nazis and Dissenters, but not under Nazi command.

To do so reinforces and legitimizes the power structure, and that is what I take issues with. Children are not enemies, I am fully with you on that.

The enemy is power structures and me not supporting a particularly harmful one might save more children than the concrete act of me feeding them personally.

by vrganj

4/7/2026 at 9:45:59 PM

And yet you have not even remotely addressed how this translates to every US government job being a morally / ethically bankrupt job.

You wave your hands about, and cite far flung examples of how it could be, then there is not here, but then is not now, the future is not now, and we are speaking of the current.

If your concern is that it "could be" at some point, well I hate to break it to you, but that also covers every type of job you might imagine. "Could be" covers a lot of change and time. "Could be" is a wide brush to paint with, especially considering the object isn't even before us, but a misty, intangible, not yet formed thing.

by b112

4/6/2026 at 7:56:44 PM

That is sad. Maintaining something like this really takes almost all the skills also needed for enterprise, or a dozen places.

That it doesn't get him instant hired is the sad part, what are we coming to.

by FrustratedMonky

4/7/2026 at 1:51:52 PM

I work on the mapping team at Zoox (self driving) and we have c++ roles at the entry and mid levels. Requires onsite in the Bay Area though. Charles, if you're reading and would like to chat, I (Carl Chatfield) have sent you a linkedin request.

Thank you for your work on Wesnoth, I spent many hours playing back in the day. There's also a good android port.

by 0xfaded

4/7/2026 at 8:54:09 AM

It's sad to admit, but being a chef étoilé does not make it easier to find a job in the fast food industry. It can even be detrimental.

by rixed

4/7/2026 at 5:48:35 AM

Would highly recommend. Worked with Vult for years, on Wesnoth and on Frogatto, a sister project from some of the same folk who did Wesnoth.

So, uh, I'm now one of the leads of Frogatto and boy howdy could I use a job too after a recent mass staff reduction at my day job.

edit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-roberts-b9410654/

by DDR0

4/7/2026 at 2:37:11 PM

Thank you for your work DDR, seeing Frogatto evolve over the years has been so fun. I remember finding it on the Linux Mint software store around a decade ago, and how one of you guys gave me a Steam code in 2023 when I revisited the game so I wouldn't have to compile it on my old Macbook. I'm not an employer or anything but I wish you the best.

by xfce4

4/6/2026 at 6:33:32 PM

My only gripe with the game is that healing doesn't give XP to the healing units. This means you need to place them in combat to level up instead of placing them behind the fighters like they are intended to be, and with them initially having low health they are very squishy. I know you can kinda cheese it by reducing a monster to 1-2 HP and then getting them to attack, but it feels like going against their role.

by rhdunn

4/6/2026 at 7:38:37 PM

> Frequently Proposed Ideas (FPIs)

> 7. Healing/leadership should give experience

> It is felt that allowing units to gain experience without risk would make leveling-up of such units inevitable. Further, one of the motivating examples of this is so that units such as shaman can have a hope to level up in multiplayer. It is pointed out that if the experience gains were high enough to allow shaman to level up in a single multiplayer game, then it would be trivial to gain the best type of healing unit in a campaign very quickly.

https://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=34904#w0fpi7 (2011)

by thih9

4/6/2026 at 8:01:01 PM

There's various ways around this (like capping amount of experience per level by source), but ain't game design fun?

by a_t48

4/6/2026 at 8:53:21 PM

It depends. Personally I think they should make alternatives more easy. For instance, under Options, for people to pick other ways to level up. Does not have to be 1000000 ways, just, say 3-5 ways in total, first one being the main default and only the main default is kept balanced, the rest can be unbalanced, just allowed per option as-is.

by shevy-java

4/6/2026 at 8:46:01 PM

Other aspects of the game or mod-able, but such things as this I guess is against the grain enough to probably be difficult.

by SubiculumCode

4/6/2026 at 7:01:25 PM

I've enjoyed this, honestly. There's a whole short-term pain/long-term gain tradeoff to risking healers that adds more strategy to the campaign.

> I know you can kinda cheese it by reducing a monster to 1-2 HP

In practice, I've found it difficult to get monsters to 1-2 HP since it often means not using your most powerful attacks. On harder difficulties I usually can't afford the opportunity cost.

by jjmarr

4/6/2026 at 7:19:28 PM

Yeah I personally found this to be a big part of the tactical and strategic challenge. It reminded me a lot of Pokemon where you have a similar challenge, of slotting "exposure to fighting" into a limited action and HP budget.

Edit: Now that I think about it, most turn-based games have this mechanic. It's almost an idiomatic balance/design decision in gaming.

Compare to Dota where support heroes have acquired more and more opportunities for assist gold/XP, it does in some sense make the game "easier" for the support players, but then the game is harder in other ways because now the supports are all way more farmed and dangerous than in older versions. It's the difference between controlling an army of many units and having to manage them all, versus controlling one unit and needing to work together within a team.

by gwerbin

4/6/2026 at 8:05:34 PM

Dota/League does this because each hero is controlled by a human, and humans don't like playing low-impact, low-wealth, low-exp supports.

by vkou

4/7/2026 at 1:04:21 PM

20 year Dota player here. I always play support and I’m ok with low wealth/ low xp. High impact tho!

Only thing I’m good at carrying is wards.

by lotrjohn

4/6/2026 at 10:37:21 PM

gloomhaven has a reasonable solution to this - some heals give experience, others dont, and often times gaining experience comes with giving up other resources

by 8note

4/7/2026 at 2:14:05 AM

There's actually an add-on for this (and a bunch of other things too): Advance Wesnoth Wars. It adds options for XP-for-healing but also for making terrain affect damage taken rather than chance to hit (which is fun when you get tired of the randomness).

This fork[0] of a fork of the original allegedly works with 1.18. I haven't tested it, because these days I play with the built-in predictable RNG and it suffices for me.

https://github.com/ilya-ilya/Advance_Wesnoth_Wars

by MarsIronPI

4/7/2026 at 5:43:33 AM

> built-in predictable RNG

What's that?

by tasuki

4/7/2026 at 1:10:43 PM

Essentially it makes it so that if your attack is 4 swings attacking a unit on 50% defense territory, it will hit twice and miss twice every time. Any remainders are dealt with randomly, but the seed is based on the save, so it removes save-scumming (which has always tempted me, and I don't like).

by MarsIronPI

4/6/2026 at 8:50:45 PM

Isn't the strategy then to keep them behind the fighter units, wait until an enemy is 1 HP away from death, make the healer advance and make a kill, then put a fighter in front of them again?

by otikik

4/6/2026 at 9:18:08 PM

Yes, but people don't like that because everyonce in a while a unit misses completely and then it will be targeted and die the next turn.

by bluGill

4/6/2026 at 9:31:08 PM

No risk, no gain

by otikik

4/7/2026 at 12:23:50 PM

At the more difficult levels it is really easy to get to a point where your strategy relies on a high probability event (a healer landing just one hit on a low HP unit) and then losing because it went against you. Which is frustrating, even if completely expected.

by bluGill

4/7/2026 at 8:17:32 AM

My big gripe is that ranged weapons are not ranged. It just feels wrong and stops you trying some interesting tactics.

by graemep

4/6/2026 at 8:52:14 PM

An indirect compensation is that these units require less XP to advance, but I understand your concern too.

> I know you can kinda cheese it by reducing a monster to 1-2 HP and then getting them to attack, but it feels like going against their role.

This is a problem with the XP-per-kill system. Wesnoth could use a variant instead. I use the above strategy all the time to level the healers up.

Note that elven units have slow (their healers), which is very powerful in its own right for getting a kill on a unit. First slow, then deal damage with other units.

by shevy-java

4/6/2026 at 6:48:20 PM

It's OSS, no?

by marknutter

4/6/2026 at 6:56:31 PM

It is, but making a change that doesn't mess up the balance of the game can be tricky.

by tmtvl

4/6/2026 at 6:18:19 PM

I played the heck out of this about a decade ago. It's an amazing game, and I'd love to return to it and see what has changed.

by everdrive

4/6/2026 at 7:21:01 PM

Same, i think It was on my first Linux OS. The good old days hehe

by myky22

4/6/2026 at 6:26:55 PM

Same!

by thatoneengineer

4/6/2026 at 7:02:20 PM

Same! Just downloaded the latest version for nostalgia’s sake.

by drob518

4/7/2026 at 2:18:25 AM

I'm still nostalgic for the pre-1.12 Heir to the Throne portraits. Bring back anime Konrad and Li'sar!

(There's an add-on for that too btw)

by MarsIronPI

4/6/2026 at 6:17:43 PM

A+! They even had an iOS version a while back: `https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-battle-for-wesnoth/id14507...` (this may be the "Mac" version, see: `https://www.reddit.com/r/wesnoth/comments/1pjkwbw/i_had_wesn...`).

If that's your jam then there's also a (non-open-source) "Hero's Hour" which tickles the old Heroes of Might and Magic stylings, works reasonably well on Xbox, where I've been doing most of my gaming lately.

As far as Open Source gaming success stories, I'd put this up there in the Top 5 for "Original IP and Concept" (if that makes sense). Just a stellar labor of love, worth giving it a shot to play!

by ramses0

4/7/2026 at 9:10:57 AM

It's a pity that it's no longer available on iOS.

I do wonder how realistic it would be to maybe crowdfund the dev team with 3 weeks of Claude Code in order to achieve a working WASM port?

by busfahrer

4/6/2026 at 7:16:01 PM

Sweet! Does anyone have a list of high-quality open source games like this?

(Subjective interpretation, but something like, "I couldn't believe it's free, I would have paid for it anyway.")

by wiradikusuma

4/6/2026 at 8:07:46 PM

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead: Like Dwarf Fortress but post-apocalyptic survival horror. Endless Sky: top-down space shooter inspired by Escape Velocity SuperTux: inspired by Super Mario SuperTuxKart: inspired by Mario Kart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_video_game... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_video_games...

by fwipsy

4/6/2026 at 8:27:01 PM

Well:

- Supertux2, it got recently revamped, the quality skyrocketed. Much better controls and artwork.

- Supetux Advance, this is really great too.

- Retux (More Wariolike than Mario)

- Nethack/Slashem. A Roguelike more bound to interaction/exploration/mechanics than combat, but Slashem makes combat crazy with the Doppleganger Monk, which is basically a Shonen Manga, the role. (Dragon Ball/Naruto depending on your age).

- DCSS. Basically, not Nethack/Slashem, much more combat oriented than the Slashem combinatorics playing with the Monk a la Jackie Chan, this is more like an ARPG made a Rogue.

- Frotz/Lectrote/Winfrotz/whatver Z Machine interpreter and "All Things Devour". Spiritwrak, too. Great libre text adventures and still enganing because of weird mechanics.

- Frozen Bubble

- OpenArena.

- FreeDoom, better compiled with Deutex on daily builds.

- FreeCiv.

- OpenTTD today can be standalone enough.

- Frozen Bubble

- Minetest+tons of subgames such as Glitch, Nodecore...

- OOlite

- Speed Dreams. If the controls are hard, try the arcade mode. If the controls are still hard, get SupertuxKart, pick some real life car from the addons and get all the SD tracks from the inline downloader, they are several.

by anthk

4/7/2026 at 2:21:49 AM

> Minetest

Heads up: they recently changed name to Luanti to get away from the "it's Minecraft but worse" perception. They also un-bundled the built-in game and are trying to be a game engine these days.

I recommend looking into Age of Mending. It's still in alpha, but if it's ever finished it'll give Minecraft a good run for its money, especially among the builder-minded players.

by MarsIronPI

4/7/2026 at 3:53:11 AM

Luanti had an annoying habit of regenerating terrain while I was still walking on it. In my book it is very much still "minecraft but worse." I was on a very weak ARM device though.

by fwipsy

4/7/2026 at 12:05:56 PM

Regenerating? Luanti doesn't ever regenerate terrain. Do you mean generating the first time? Or loading? I've had it happen that I run into the edge of the mapblock and can't walk into the next one because it's loading or still generating. Maybe give it another chance, because I can't picture the behavior you're describing.

by MarsIronPI

4/6/2026 at 9:09:55 PM

OpenArena even has a browser version these days but sadly it doesn't seem to have any active servers anymore. I had progressed to the point where I could strafe jump and rocket jump all day.

by avadodin

4/7/2026 at 5:56:31 AM

> Speed Dreams

I wonder why that isn't in the Debian repos?

by tasuki

4/7/2026 at 9:05:50 AM

Non free data were real life tracks have copyright.

by anthk

4/7/2026 at 12:55:33 PM

If you like Endless Sky you may also like Naev, which is very, very similar.

by tmtvl

4/7/2026 at 2:19:23 AM

Seconded SuperTuxKart! The engine is really impressive when they push it.

by MarsIronPI

4/7/2026 at 12:50:36 AM

If you like RTS Beyond All Reason is pretty amazing.

https://www.beyondallreason.info/

The amount of care they put into the little quality of life ui stuff is impressive. Something about how you can tell when the developers enjoy playing their game.

by somat

4/6/2026 at 7:34:10 PM

I know it's a very niche domain, but I feel this way about Lizard.

My lizard is the lizard of website: https://rainwarrior.ca/lizard/

My lizard is the lizard of source: https://github.com/bbbradsmith/lizard_src_demo/

by jordigh

4/7/2026 at 2:37:18 PM

Also Brad Smith is a heavyweight in the NES ROM/Emulation scene, once you know his name you’ll start to notice it pop up all over the place. (e.g. nsfplay)

by mock-possum

4/6/2026 at 7:29:31 PM

The Free Civ and Free Colonization games are good. Brogue, Nethack, DCSS are good if you like roguelikes. OpenMW is a totally open source reimplementation of Morrowind, so that might fit the bill.

by ecshafer

4/6/2026 at 8:43:53 PM

If you like arena shooters, Xonotic is quite remarkable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xonotic

by efskap

4/6/2026 at 9:29:03 PM

Oh, yeah! And I believe there are not many games which have Linux, Windows and MacOS versions allowing interplay. Several years ago we had one or two LAN parties with hardware running all three operating systems.

by tzot

4/6/2026 at 11:25:04 PM

https://www.beyondallreason.info/ is high quality and in active, open development. And fun. For some weird reason 8v8 is the default experience but there are several other modes: PVE, 1v1, etc.

by jpwgarrison

4/6/2026 at 8:29:41 PM

0ad https://play0ad.com/

My first reaction was exactly that; I can't believe it's free!

by FergusArgyll

4/7/2026 at 6:15:20 AM

Surprised this isn't at the top, alongside Mindustry.

0 A.D. is like a free Age of Empires and is lovely to play!

I'd probably also put Luanti up there, and maybe OpenTTD (despite the niche UI).

by KronisLV

4/6/2026 at 9:55:44 PM

Not Open Source but still/now free to play (these are my favs, I played them through back and forth):

- Trackmania Nations Forever (e.g. via Steam) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj2u2OrZ2vI

- Starcraft Brood War - though I have not tested it via the battlenet.exe, played it when it still was payware.

- Gemcraft Labyrinth - played it when flash was a thing, but now it is again, e.g. on Armorgames

And, I got games like Portal 1 & 2, Outer Wilds, Osmos, Manifold Garden, Planet Crafter and many more for under ten, some for under five Euros each when they were on special offer on Steam. I once got Just Cause 3 for three Euros.

by nilslindemann

4/8/2026 at 9:09:05 AM

Wagic the Homebrew and MtG Forge are both high-quality FOSS Magic the Gathering simulators.

by pidgeon_lover

4/6/2026 at 8:18:58 PM

Luanti aka minetest

Widelands as a settler clone

by throw_await

4/7/2026 at 1:22:15 PM

Stepmania comes to mind, although the legal status of the content the community made for it is dubious at best.

by tmtvl

4/6/2026 at 7:47:38 PM

OpenRCT2 is a reimplementation of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2.

Just like its cousing OpenTTD which is a reimplementation of Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon.

by reddalo

4/7/2026 at 1:31:44 AM

Stardew Valley isn't open source, but it has been decompiled (.Net) and has a an open-source modding API inclding Harmony integration for patching the base game code and and a huge open-source modding community.

ttps://github.com/pardeike/Harmony

by gowld

4/6/2026 at 9:13:11 PM

Endless Sky, GPLv3 space trading game. Being a space trucker is dangerously addictive.

by mikkupikku

4/6/2026 at 6:04:42 PM

Grew up playing Wesnoth, still adore the game. There is a TON of third party content and a serious extended universe, too!

by rpmisms

4/6/2026 at 6:20:00 PM

Could you name a few places to find 3rd party content?

by hyperionultra

4/6/2026 at 7:37:51 PM

It's under the "add-ons" menu in game. I would recommend playing the top-ranked campaigns. Some amazing stuff in there. I adore Legend of the Invincibles. Fun story, tons of new gameplay mechanics.

by rpmisms

4/7/2026 at 3:52:41 AM

There was (still is?) a Middle East themed campaign with just absolutely gorgeous artwork.

by bandrami

4/6/2026 at 6:58:44 PM

Last time I checked there was an option on the main menu to download user-made campaigns.

by tmtvl

4/6/2026 at 6:59:31 PM

There's a "addons" browser in the game.

by IsTom

4/6/2026 at 7:45:28 PM

My kids and I have been playing this for about 20 years. It's worked on Linux, Mac and Windows and has never stopped working.

In the meantime so many other favorite games have disappeared or become obsolete.

There's no absolute reason great games can't be as immortal as chess. Maybe Wesnoth can be.

by dhbradshaw

4/7/2026 at 9:14:06 AM

Nethack/Slashem too in case of Roguelikes. Nethack adds tons of Terry Pratchett references as and homage and it's cool but Slashem has tons of weapons, classes, objects, environments... And supertux2 has both the main campaingn add tons of downloadable ones too.

Ditto with Oolite, tons of community content.

Shattered Pixel Dungeon it's a fork and still has tons of contents and it might be the most playable FLOSS game in Android among Unciv. Oh, and it can be run on potatos.

Sometimes you don't need AAA graphics.

by anthk

4/7/2026 at 3:52:10 AM

Because of the level-up mechanics of Wesnoth, I don't think its really possible to balance a long-running campaign. The tier3 or tier4 units are just so much more powerful than the earlier tiers... and yet a "recall" costs only 20G.

I'm not sure how I'd balance the game. You want the feeling of progression, but its too "slippery", the game gets easier if the player feeds their units and lets them grow. But it feels like the player could get "trapped" if they had unfortunate or unlucky losses at the incorrect time.

On the other hand, I always thought the "single map" or "scenario maps" of Wesnoth were excellent. I mean, I like the campaigns its just... tough to figure out the proper design scope there.

by dragontamer

4/6/2026 at 8:33:33 PM

I loved this game playing on an Arch Thinkpad in university with budget graphics capability.

The best part is being able to pin locations on the map for your teammates, so we were able to plot the adventures and battlegrounds of a goated unit by naming the pins "Ronant's Triumph," "Ronant's Revenge," "Ronant's Folly," and ultimately "Ronant's Last Stand." Great times with a few beers and the lads.

RIP Ronant, Wesnoth will never see another hero of your like again.

by rdevilla

4/6/2026 at 6:00:27 PM

An absolute gem I came across randomly many years ago. Picked up Mewgenics and it left me wishing it had some mechanics from Wesnoth like faster animations (Mewgenics caps at 4x), undo action (at least if the action doesn't trigger any rng/damage behavior), skip enemy turns.

I only wish they added more campaigns into the official lore.

by bedroom_jabroni

4/7/2026 at 1:59:19 AM

It's been probably 20 years since I played this game. But I still think it's the best Open Source game I've ever played. I had lots of fun, and more than a few late nights, running through some of the campaigns.

I would love to see a Nintendo Switch port of this game, if anyone is interested in making one!

by freetime2

4/7/2026 at 2:16:02 AM

> I would love to see a Nintendo Switch port of this game, if anyone is interested in making one!

I think many would be, but AIUI it's illegal. It would require modifying the source to use Nintendo's SDK which is under NDA. The GPL would require releasing the modified source, which would be prohibited by the NDA. So it's legally impossible without special permission from every single Wesnoth contributor ever.

Unless you mean a homebrew port, in which case it's doable.

by MarsIronPI

4/7/2026 at 2:32:02 AM

Someday I hope Wesnoth will have Fire Emblem-esque cutscenes. I can dream.

Oh, and I'd really like them to be in the original style of Heir to the Throne. I'm a sucker for the old anime style of 1.10.

by MarsIronPI

4/6/2026 at 7:16:21 PM

I heard about this game many many times due to software developers showcasing it as an example of a good libre videogame. However, I don't know a single person who played it and I have never seen anyone recommending it for its gameplay.

by philip-b

4/6/2026 at 7:27:06 PM

It is a relatively simple formula that is very combat heavy with extremely simple economy. The campaigns are excellent though and as long as the true randomness of attacks/defense doesn't drive you crazy it is a lot of fun. Very challenging and has real strategic and tactical depth as well as pretty well balanced.

I personally never did multiplayer but last I checked the multiplayer community was pretty healthy.

by azrazalea

4/6/2026 at 8:37:45 PM

That’s absurd. It is the only game I’ve ever played other than chess. Maybe it’s not popular with FPS gamers, but a lot of people don’t like FPS.

by bitwank

4/6/2026 at 7:19:48 PM

i played it, its fine, its a solid game. Easily can lose several hours in a session and probably played over 40 in total. Its enjoyable to play through due to the upgrading mechanics and wanting to see all the potential evolutions. That said, I'm not always a huge fan of the level design as you're often encouraged to play into negative fights (e.g. the timing for meeting the enemy aligns with their daytime bonuses) which forces you to play a bit more defensively than I'd like.

by Quarrelsome

4/6/2026 at 11:12:54 PM

Just downloaded Wesnoth due to this post. I'll try it out this weekend maybe. I was wrong in my other post -- I believe I played it around 20 years ago.

by everdrive

4/7/2026 at 3:10:53 AM

It's been a long time ago since I last played and I was one of those rng haters (that's why i never got hooked... i want to have fun, not some pseudo random roll the bones simulator). I just took a look and I see three different "rng modes"... i have to laugh and give credit to the devs for sticking to their guns.

by throw7

4/6/2026 at 6:53:03 PM

Blocked by Anubis? Just says "invalid response" with no explanation or instructions for how to fix it. Chrome on Android - not exactly niche.

Thanks for that.

by mattlondon

4/6/2026 at 7:17:44 PM

Same happened for me when I clicked on the link, I had to delete the cookies for wesnoth.org and then load the site again. I think their Anubis setup might be broken a bit

by tetromino_

4/6/2026 at 7:12:16 PM

I've been playing this for 10+ years :) it's one awesome game and the details for sprites and art direction is sweet.

by coolgoose

4/6/2026 at 5:43:47 PM

I love this game. It is also fairly easy to tinker with the units if you are like me, that is a big win.

by uberman

4/6/2026 at 10:07:29 PM

There is even an Android build since this year https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.wesnoth.Wesnoth/

by midzer

4/6/2026 at 10:37:28 PM

I tried it on my tablet last month, and it's pretty unplayable. The touchscreen input needs a lot of work, half the time it does something completely wrong and random, like selecting a tile halfway across the screen from where you touched.

by pferde

4/7/2026 at 2:25:31 AM

Wait, how is that build different from the one Alessandro Pira (?) has been publishing for years now?

by MarsIronPI

4/7/2026 at 6:01:22 AM

Oh man

My first distro was a live cd with Knoppix.

It had this game, I played so much. This, and Kobo deluxe.

So many good memories

by wise_blood

4/6/2026 at 7:09:13 PM

In high school I kept a USB drive full of portable apps. This was one of them. I can still recommend it.

by plutokras

4/6/2026 at 6:51:57 PM

What would need to happen that more players are available for online games?

by orangesilk

4/7/2026 at 2:26:01 AM

I would need more time on my hands.

by MarsIronPI

4/7/2026 at 3:20:42 AM

stupid question: if your game is open source, how do you prevent some random dude from ripping your code and releasing a slightly different version?

by vivzkestrel

4/7/2026 at 5:49:47 AM

> how do you prevent

You don't. Giving people the right to do this is the whole point of open source.

If that possibility is not acceptable then don't open source your game.

by wavemode

4/7/2026 at 3:34:43 AM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Dungeon is an example of that. The bad forks dont become popular

by TYMorningCoffee

4/7/2026 at 4:04:18 AM

And if it's a better fork... it's still open source, so you can switch to it or fork it back.

Open source licenses shouldn't be viewed as a marketing strategy; it's a gift.

by kbelder

4/6/2026 at 7:02:31 PM

So it's like HMM but the whole map is in battle mode?

by macleginn

4/6/2026 at 11:11:43 PM

It feels more like a war game to be honest. I played both for a while and they share some aesthetic, but not much beyond that.

by Svoka

4/6/2026 at 8:06:03 PM

I remember playing this a lot back in the Ubuntu 6 days.

by steviedotboston

4/6/2026 at 11:30:29 PM

I think this was featured on the Ubuntu software manager at some point and that’s how I discovered it. It was one of the few games on Linux that’s was genuinely fun to play

by totetsu

4/6/2026 at 7:37:21 PM

Fond memories, playing this throughout my youth :')

by helle253

4/6/2026 at 7:08:32 PM

Interesting! Is this similar to Age of Empires?

by MinimalAction

4/6/2026 at 8:19:12 PM

0 A.D. https://play0ad.com/ is more similar to Age of Empires.

by mdtrooper

4/6/2026 at 7:25:24 PM

More like Heroes of Might and Magic. It's a turn-based strategy game where battles take place on a hex grid map. It's got full campaigns, lots of factions and units, resources to gather... it's one of my favorite OSS projects. Wesnoth has been in active development forever and is a real labor of love, as well as a showcase of collaborative game development.

by brendoelfrendo

4/6/2026 at 7:16:50 PM

Not at all. That would be a game called 0ad.

by garretraziel

4/6/2026 at 7:15:17 PM

More like Fire Emblem

by phamilton

4/6/2026 at 7:21:52 PM

think more hexbased, turnbased, terrain and dice roll mechanics with unit upgrades being extremely important.

by Quarrelsome

4/6/2026 at 7:56:12 PM

More like Final Fantasy Tactics

by butlike

4/6/2026 at 7:21:28 PM

Not really. This game uses a turn-based combat system with a hex grid. It's more like Sid Meier's Civilization, but with a drastically simplified economy and a strong focus on battles. It also has a Tolkein-esque fantasy theme instead of a real-life history theme.

If that sounds at all interesting, I suggest giving it a shot.

by CivBase

4/6/2026 at 7:22:00 PM

Open Source Games are really underrated Gems

by steveharing1

4/6/2026 at 8:49:52 PM

What is pretty cool is how long-living the project has been. I have seen many open source games die over the last 2 decades; some were quite cool. So wesnoth staying alive is pretty epic in itself.

by shevy-java

4/7/2026 at 8:18:23 AM

Great game. I only wish there were more "one off" or even random scenarios - I like playing against the computer but I find campaigns become a bit of a grind with the whole "OK we need to level these units for the scenario coming up..."

by LAC-Tech

4/6/2026 at 6:45:19 PM

Never heard of this game. Is it similar to Warcraft III?

by jcmontx

4/6/2026 at 6:59:02 PM

It's turn based, the most similar game I've played is probably Fantasy General. Closer to Advance Wars or Fire Emblem than Warcraft.

by markatto

4/6/2026 at 6:50:10 PM

No. Warcraft 3 ist real time strategy, Wesnoth is turn based strategy.

by orangesilk

4/6/2026 at 6:56:27 PM

No. This is turn based, it doesn't play like any RTS game.

by the_af

4/6/2026 at 6:50:14 PM

Not really. It's turn-based and hex-based.

by aetherson

4/6/2026 at 9:01:25 PM

Similar to panzer general then?

by shellwizard

4/7/2026 at 2:30:58 AM

Yeah, except that troops in Wesnoth don't require fuel or ammo. And you have to explicitly recall veterans. And leveling up makes units grow into different, stronger units.

by MarsIronPI

4/6/2026 at 6:29:25 PM

only missing point about this game is some of the real word parameters like moral,flanking etc. Maybe a real history mod would be amazing like ancient era or medieval ages.

by anilkuscu

4/7/2026 at 2:29:06 AM

> flanking

The Zone of Control mechanic kind of simulates this. If you're not careful about unit placement, you may find your units ganged up on by more enemies then they can handle. On the other hand, if you keep a good formation, you can pretty much hold a solid line with a fairly modest number of troops. Unless of course the enemy soldiers have "skirmisher", in which case they'll waltz right past your ZoC.

Actually, Wesnoth's ZoC is the reason I never could get into Fire Emblem. I couldn't get used to not being able to protect my injured units without completely surrounding them.

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4/7/2026 at 7:26:41 AM

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