I’d like to get back into playing video games, but I don’t want to have to sign up for an online service like Steam or Ubisoft Connect.
I love technical sandbox games like Scrap Mechanic, especially if they have a “creative mode” that allows me to just make stuff.
Beyond all reason. Pretty sure it’s open source too. Or partly? I looked it up a while ago and can’t remember the details.
Starsector is amazing, even though buying it on the website made me wonder if the storefront was made in the 90s.
Second this. Amazing game that I’ve been following since it was called Starfarer. Highly recommend.
Dcss is the best game ever and I’m still playing it after 20 years
Well, GOG sells a lot of commercial games and doesn’t require online connectivity for anything marked as “DRM free”. Tend to be older.
There are open-source games.
I personally like Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, which is a very deep open-world roguelike. Steep learning curve, as a warning, but you can do all sorts of stuff. NPCs, build bases and set up electrical power, build ground vehicles, boats, and rotary-wing craft. Bionics, mutations, skills, music and sound packs, graphical tiles. There’s a build on Steam now, but you can also just download the builds from the dev site for free.
Dwarf Fortress also has a steep learning curve, is a colony simulator. Not open source, but free, also deep, many hours you can spend there.
Shattered Pixel Dungeon is an open source roguelike, relatively shallow learning curve. Really aimed at touchscreen devices like smartphones, but has computer builds, has support for keys and stuff.
Minecraft.
You can get partway to Scrap Mechanic with Minecraft and the Create Mod.
Minecraft itself requires an online account, though, yes? Is linked to some sort of central authentication system, needs to be connected to play?
Quite a few, actually. And it’s worth mentioning that many games, while sold via steam, can also be bought directly from the makers. Factorio and Songs of Syx come to mind.
