Does Minecraft (specifically the Java edition) count as a Linux native game? It's written in Java, so thus it's not really "native" to one specific platform.

It's always worked perfectly for me on Linux, and have a lot of strong memories with the game. Pair it with something like Prism Launcher for easily installing mods / modpacks / resource packs / etc (which is available on Flathub) and you've got a pretty good setup! Though the "official" launcher is available through most package repositories these days as well.

Valheim

• Genre: survival sandbox
• Why I love it:
  • it's got a bit of progression to it
  • great terraforming and building
  • it's gameplay loop of "buildup, explore, smelt" repeat is on point

Rimworld - colony sim, survival, strategy, crisis management game.

Watch the trailer

One of the few games where losing is actually fun. There's a lot of mods available and it can (reasonably) run on a potato.

factorio, the factory must grow.

• Neverwinter Nights

  • It was the first native Linux game I've ever played and I enjoyed every minute of it.

• Unreal Tournament 99/2004

  • It was fun when my reflexes were better. I can't stand no chance anymore since I got old 🤣

• RTCW, Wolf:ET

  • Not as fast-paced as UT99 but still enjoyable.

• Metro Last Light/Redux/Exodus

  • I've played Metro 2033 on Win7 and was really surprised about Metro Last Light being ported to Linux. It was a pretty good port IIRC. Metro Exodus was also really enjoyable but I'm a bit disappointed about the enhanced edition not being ported to Linux.

• BioShock: Infinite

  • Just as I was ready to give up on trying to get B:I running on Wine, 2k dropped the bomb. VirtualProgramming's Linux ports aren't popular, but it wasn't that bad TBH.

• Serious Sam 3: BFE / Fusion 2017

  • SS3 was really showing me the limits of my old AMD GPU but with a more recent one and Fusion 2017's Vulkan power everything went fine.

I am surprised Factorio has not been cited yet. This game is addictive!

Factorio.

The factory must grow!

Mindustry (flathub). A tower defense mixed with RTS gameplay

Super addictive game

You play for 2 months non stop and then give up for 6 months and start again.

It'll take your life

It might be somewhat controversial of a take, but to me an awesome-performing Proton version of a game is far better than a Linux version that may be native, but has severe deficiencies and/or lags behind its Windows version.

To me, my favorite native Linux games would be ones that do things on Linux that are not possible on other platforms. Generally, this would be an "unfair" advantage, as games should strive for feature parity on all platforms within reason, but so often we end up being on the wrong side of that equation that seeing some of the perks of the platform is nice.

To my knowledge, the only major game I can think of that does this to a certain extent is Factorio, which enables non-blocking game saves on Linux and macOS and not Windows. It's not a Linux-exclusive feature, but it's nice that the developers went through the effort to implement the feature on Linux even though it's not possible on Windows.

Starbound. I've played the crap out of it. I still haven't finished it tho...

Mine would be Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (with expansion). My favorite 4X game of all time.

• Terraria: sandbox game
• Project Zomboid: survival/sandbox game
• Almost any renpy VN game runs natively too.

• Europa Universalis IV - by far my favorite grand strategy game; most Paradox games have native Linux support
• Factorio - I bought it when it was in early access or something straight from the developer, and they had Linux support the whole time; at the time, it was pretty much the only factory game, and it was groundbreaking
• Black Mesa - fan made Half Life remake, and it's fantastic; again, played before the official release and it had Linux support out of the gate

Aside from the first, these aren't my favorite games I've played on Linux, just my favorite Linux native games. With Proton/WINE, I've played tons of Windows games on Linux.

From the Depths is AMAZING. I lose a couple months to it every year as it sucks me in again.

StarMade has so much potential. It's been open sourced and the community is starting to take it over, watch this space.

I really love games where you build large vehicles you can walk around inside, and then you go blow them up.

Teeworlds (Flathub) is the cutest game ever, with simple mechanics but insane depth. I love playing it solo or with friends!

Pathfinder Kingmaker: https://www.gog.com/game/pathfinder_kingmaker_explorer_edition

Re-Volt. Modern rewrite of the classic RC car racing game. Two decades of community-created tracks and cars to choose from. Still has an active multiplayer community, too!

A bit generic, but War Thunder and CS:GO, Rocket league would have been my number one but they stopped supporting Linux a couple years ago.

Currently A Dance Of Fire And Ice

Doom 2016, runs better than Windows and looks amazing. Better in every way over Doom Eternal, not sure why anyone liked Eternal tbh.

I don't play a lot of native games but I quite like 0ad. The only issue I've had is I couldn't quite get into it. I like the idea of it, but it feels a bit too overwhelming, and isn't exactly my type of game in practice. I quite enjoyed Sauerbraten, though I don't play shooters that much anymore. The native game I've played the most has to be GNOME Mahjongg funnily enough. I also really like Minetest, but I haven't been able to get into it.

I'm so disappointed, no mention of tux cart?

Beyond all reason (BAR) you can get it for free on the pop shop with popos and likely most other distro app store.

Excellent successor to the OG RTS total annihilation from the late 90s.

https://www.beyondallreason.info/

Unequivocally for me, team fortress 2 (fps)

Lugaru - fighting game, but with animals and unique combat mechanics

Battle for Wesnoth!

Fantasy themed turn based strategy game with simple mechanics. And it's (probably) already in your repo! Ships with some good campaigns, some not so good, but there's more floating around.

I'm mostly an fps-rpg guy but when I get a tactical itch it's hard to do better honestly. I unapologetically save scum my way through it and have a blast.

Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart, it's a FOSS racing game inspired by mario kart but more chaotic.

@Dirk
abuse (side scroller shooter) always pullsme back, it's great.
and
Battle for Wesnoth (RTS) has lots of content, it's highly enjoyable.

Shapez.io: It's like factorio, but it is also really minimal. It is my favorite game because I can be proud of myself when I build a factory that gives me around 13 FPS. Some say it isn't playable at such low FPS, but I still enjoy it, even if it is a slide show.

Gotta go with Dwarf Fortress, boss. Never gets old, and seems to run better on Linux.

@Dirk
Veloren
It's an online rpg with an open world
Still in pre-alpha , so much of the content isn't finished, but it's already visually stunning for a voxel game and the gameplay is already quite enjoyable

X-plane - it's real flight simulator (from version 9,10,11 and still12) and working fine od 10 years old PC (Endeavour OS - Gnome), for children Tux kart and 0Ad. From Steam: war thunder, arma3...

Starsector is an space sim game, probably one of my favourites. Sseth did a review on it if you want an idea of it:

Video

Stellaris and the Total War Warhammer games

• Hyper Rogue: Roguelike set in a non-euclidian world. It redefines what a fantastic world might look like, and has a very unique atmosphere.
• FTL: Deep space exploration ahoy. If you enjoy space operas, FTL is the thing to play.
• Atomic Tanks: Oldschool artillery game. Great fun to play with friends.
• Warsow: The quintessential FPS. Damn good.
• Battle for Wesnoth, SuperTuxKart, Hedgewars are probably known. I love these.

I'm programming our games primarily for Linux OSs. I'm very fond of them.

Although its been a while, ksp linux was the fist to have 64bit support compared to the windows version. If you haven't heard of ksp it's space program/ spaceflight simulator grounden in real world physics/rocket technology with a few caveats. Without mods, the planets are "on rails" and don't change orbits, and you are only affected by one "gravity source" at a time. The system it takes place in is about 1/10th scale

XEvil. Come one people, you can turn people into frogs!

But seriously, what a classic. The mechanics are well balanced and the rules while quite simple offer so many possibilities. For example the robot have a gun but can't use drags. Ninja has low health but can climb walls. Chopter boy can fly but don't have any melee attack. And so on...

As for the rules for example for each item you have use and drop actions. So to kill someone with a bomb you have to use it (arm it) and then drop it. It explodes 3 seconds after being armed. There's also a soul swapper gun available. Shoot someone with it and you swap bodies. So what would I do? Arm the bomb and shoot someone with the soul swapper. They swap into a body with an active bomb and explode after 3 seconds. So fun.

In the end each round is different and the game is super difficult. One thing I never did is play it against other people. So... who wants to try?

Wube Factorio - sunk so many hours into this, fun, explorable and longlasting gameplay

Egosoft X4 Foundations - needs no words I think? Otherwise look it up, it's just too much going on in this game, amazing!

@Dirk Portal 1 y 2.

I think I installed Kohan for Linux on my FreeBSD box? Does that sound possible? I really enjoyed it, and I don't think I had anything but FreeBSD in my home at the time...