explaingit

leereilly/games

★ 24,759Audience · generalComplexity · 1/5QuietSetup · easy

TLDR

Archived curated list of thousands of open-source games on GitHub, organized by category and genre. A discovery tool for playing, studying, or contributing to game projects.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Curated game list
      Organized by genre
      Links to source code
    Game categories
      Browser games
      Desktop games
      Mobile games
      Game engines
    Use cases
      Find games to play
      Study game code
      Get inspiration
    Audience
      Game developers
      Learners
      Open-source fans

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Browse and play hundreds of open-source games across browser, desktop, and mobile platforms.

USE CASE 2

Study how existing games are built by exploring their source code repositories.

USE CASE 3

Find game engines and frameworks to use as a foundation for your own game projects.

USE CASE 4

Discover game development inspiration by exploring diverse genres and implementations.

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
License could not be detected automatically. Check the repository's LICENSE file before use.

In plain English

This repository is an archived curated list of open-source games hosted on GitHub. It started in 2012 as a collection from a Hacker News discussion and grew into one of the most-starred game directories on the platform, with contributions from over 100 developers covering thousands of projects. The list organizes games by category: browser-based games (boardgames, arcade, FPS, RPG, strategy, racing, puzzle, and more), native desktop games, mobile games for Android and iOS, chat bots, and game frameworks and engines. Each entry links to the source code repository and often to a playable demo. The genres span everything from classic Tetris and Asteroids clones to complete chess platforms and MMORPGs. The repository is now officially archived and no longer accepts new contributions. The author noted that a Markdown file was never the ideal format for organizing hundreds of games. Anyone looking for open-source games to play, study, or contribute to would browse this list as a discovery tool. It has no primary programming language since it is purely a list of links. It is useful for game developers looking for inspiration, for learners studying how existing games are built, or for anyone curious about the breadth of open-source game development.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Show me open-source games I can play in my browser from this list, and link me to their source code.
Prompt 2
I want to learn game development by studying existing code. What games in this repository would be good learning examples?
Prompt 3
Find me open-source game engines or frameworks from this list that I could use to build my own game.
Prompt 4
What mobile games are available as open-source projects in this repository for Android and iOS?
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