FreedroidRPG is a free and open source sci-fi action RPG in which you play as Tux, the Linux mascot, fighting through a world destroyed by a war between robots and their human masters. Hordes of rebel bots have turned on humanity, and it falls to you to stop them — with melee weapons, ranged weapons and a few tricks of your own.

Since the game was originally released in 2002, FreedroidRPG has grown from a Paradroid-style robot game into a full Diablo-like action RPG. A complete, fully playable campaign of roughly 12 hours is included, with real-time isometric combat, more than 50 different items to find and an advanced dialog system that carries the story and gives you real freedom of choice in how you get to the end. Progress is tracked through the usual action RPG machinery — levels, skills and equipment — and the game ships with an isometric level editor so that new areas can be built without touching the engine.

What sets FreedroidRPG apart from other Diablo clones is its programs system: instead of only shooting the bots in front of you, you can run programs that take control of enemy robots, alter their behaviour, or give your own character new abilities. FreedroidRPG 1.0, released in 2026, is the largest release in the project’s history, and development has since moved over to Codeberg where it continues with community contributions.

Key Features

• Diablo-style real-time combat — isometric, real-time fighting with melee and ranged weapons, plus the loot, stats and levelling you expect from the genre.
• The programs system — run programs to hack enemy bots, take control of them, alter their behaviour or improve your own characteristics.
• Roughly 12 hours of campaign — a complete, fully playable story with an advanced dialog system and genuinely different paths through it.
• Freedom of choice — non-linear quests and decisions mean you choose which path to follow rather than being funnelled down one route.
• 50+ items — weapons, armour and equipment to collect and use across a large, hand-built world of towns, bunkers, wilderness and underground levels.
• Built-in isometric level editor — the same tools the developers use, so building your own maps and campaigns is a first-class activity.
• Long-running libre project — developed openly by the Freedroid Team since 2002; the 1.0 release is the biggest in its history.
• No cost, no account, no telemetry — free to download and play from the official site, your distribution’s repositories or Steam.

Why Use FreedroidRPG?

FreedroidRPG is the closest thing the free software world has to a full-length, scripted action RPG: a real story with real dialogue, an engine old enough to run on almost anything, and a design that keeps the player thinking rather than just clicking. It is a finished game rather than a tech demo — you can play it from start to finish today — yet it is still actively developed, so the world keeps growing. If you want to study how a large C game engine, a scripted quest system and a level editor fit together, the source is right there too.

Use Cases

• Play through a complete, story-driven action RPG on a low-spec Linux machine — the engine needs no GPU grunt.
• Scratch a Diablo itch without a launcher, a store account or a price tag.
• Build your own levels and campaigns with the bundled isometric level editor.
• Use the game as a study project for C and SDL game development, quest scripting and asset pipelines.
• Contribute content — maps, art, dialogue and code — through the project’s Codeberg repositories.

Platforms

Linux · Windows · macOS · BSD · source code. Packaged as freedroidrpg in Debian and derivatives; official downloads on freedroid.org and a free build on Steam.

Licence

Free software: FreedroidRPG is released under the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later. Both the game source code and the Blender graphics sources are distributed under the GPL.

Website

freedroid.org · source code (Codeberg)

Similar in the directory

• Flare — another free 2D isometric action RPG with Diablo-style loot-driven combat.
• Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead — open source post-apocalyptic survival RPG, if you want the genre without the real-time combat.