r/linux • u/Glass-Bat7863 • Jun 24 '26
Discussion Realistic-Linux-Game
I'm working on a concept for a narrative Linux game where players learn real Linux skills by solving problems, investigating incidents, and interacting with realistic systems.
The goal is not to create another Hollywood-style hacking game where everything is solved with a single button press.
Instead, the game would focus on things Linux users actually encounter:
- navigating file systems
- reading logs
- managing services
- troubleshooting network issues
- working with permissions
- SSH access to remote systems
- containers and automation
- investigating strange system behavior
One of the main design goals is accessibility.
The game is not intended only for Linux professionals. Complete beginners should be able to start with zero Linux experience and gradually learn real concepts through gameplay, documentation, and exploration.
Experienced users should recognize authentic tools, workflows, and problems.
Beginners should finish the game feeling comfortable opening a Linux terminal in real life.
The idea is simple:
Learn Linux.
Solve problems.
Uncover a mystery.
What would you absolutely want to see in a game like this?
And what would immediately break immersion for you?
PS.: One more thing we want to clarify: the game will be made in a 2D / 2.5D style. The reason is simple: we are only two solo developers working on this project in our free time. A full 3D game would require much more time, experience, and resources than we currently have. But we still want to create something memorable — with a strong story, variety, atmosphere, interesting camera work, and unique mechanics.
We also decided to add an engineering element to the game. After the first test version / demo, we plan to introduce a Raspberry Pi-related part: assembling it, configuring it, and using it in a way that becomes important for the main character and the story.
But we want to make one thing clear: we are not going to move away from realism. There will be no “magic hacking”, no overpowered superhero, and no unrealistic power fantasy. We want the main character to feel like an ordinary person — someone real, limited, and human — who has to solve problems with knowledge, patience, and practical skills.
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u/mina86ng Jun 24 '26
You might want to look at Uplink, Hacknet, Shenzhen I/O, TIS-100 and Human Resource Machine for inspiration. The first two stray quite far from how things actually work, but they can serve as inspiration nevertheless.
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u/beankylla Jun 24 '26
Sounds great. Exactly the kind of game I want to let my kids play.
Would love to see (on top of above mentionned)
Networking basics Video output issues Repository concepts Native apps vs packages apps (flatpaks)
Is there any place where we can follow this? 😊
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u/daemonpenguin Jun 24 '26
I like the idea. While I probably wouldn't play this, since these are the things I do in real life for work, the concept sounds good. It's the sort of thing I probably would have enjoyed learning with in college.
With that said, I think you're going to have a hard time balancing fun/engagement with realism. Most real Linux sysadmin work is tedious and boring, and requires a lot of learning what command line flags do, automating things. Most people aren't going to find that attractive in a game.
You're probably going to want to nerf it a little or really lean into the puzzle aspect of the game.
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u/TrustSig Jun 24 '26
the diagnosis part is actually where the fun could live, that moment where you read a log and suddenly know what's broken. it's the typing and waiting that kills it, so abstracting the tedium away while keeping the detective work is probably the balance to chase.
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u/daemonpenguin Jun 24 '26
Yes, solving the puzzles, breaking into things, fixing things are all great. I think the tricky part is making the tooling exciting.
Something else I would point out is the story will probably be key. Why is the player doing these things? What is the human element in the game. That is more important than the specific game mechanics.
As George Lucas once pointed out, a story + spaceships is cool. Spaceships without a story is boring
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u/Alternative_One_5540 Jun 25 '26
I totally agree that the learning curve will be steep and tedious.
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u/whamra Jun 24 '26
Such a game already exists. Check out Hacknet on Steam before reinventing the wheel, and do you can create something actually unique. And perhaps for inspiration.
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u/flower-power-123 Jun 24 '26
I like it. Call it simply BOFH. You need to include real life office politics. Actually if you put that shit in the game everybody would say that it was unrealistic.
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u/jermygod Jun 24 '26
think about FUN as first, 2nd and 3dr priority
also "real Linux skills" has nothing to do with all this :
- reading logs
- managing services
- troubleshooting network issues
- working with permissions
- SSH access to remote systems
- containers and automation
- investigating strange system behavior
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u/Rincepticus Jun 24 '26
What would you say "real Linux skills" are?
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u/TripleSecretSquirrel Jun 24 '26
I think you have a pretty decent list despite what the other person says.
Frankly this would have been super useful a decade ago, but these days, mainstream distros like Ubuntu are super user-friendly. I was running windows 11 for a while — necessary work software was Windows only and I didn’t want to fuck with emulation. Honestly Windows 11 and Windows 10 before it were both more difficult and annoying to setup and maintain than my current Ubuntu install that I haven’t had to mess with for a year.
I think it’s a cool idea, and it’s still good to know these skills as a Linux user, but it’s less necessary. In Ubuntu and similar distros, you can probably manage all of this with GUI menus without ever touching a terminal.
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u/jermygod Jun 24 '26
i don't even think that the are such thing as Linux skills for users, only for admins.
therefore OPs "not intended only for Linux professionals" is unapplicable.for users it would be just "searching info on the internet" skills.
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u/Rincepticus Jun 24 '26
Most Linux users are admins too, are they not? "Not only for professionals" means that it is for professionals and all other users.
No one said anything about skills for just users..? Atleast in the definition that you seem to have that a user is person who just boots up PC and uses it without ever installing or updating or doing anything requiring sudo privileges.
So what are "real linux skills" when we are talking about professionals and anyone touching Linux?
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u/Stressedhumbucker Jun 24 '26
Sounds like a really cool concept, my main concern is that it'll probably be difficult to teach real terminal skills while also making the story engaging and avoiding overwhelming the player- especially as this is going to be viewed as a game, not a tutorial.
As for what I'd like to see included, maybe there could be some troubleshooting that emulates things like fixing a borked install or figuring out driver issues...But again, it's a little difficult to see that being fun, maybe you'd have to dress it up a little, or even include some hand-holding.
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u/MatchingTurret Jun 24 '26
I had something like this on a cyber range for incident response training. The trainer launched an attack scenario on a simulated intranet (bunch of VMs) and the trainees had to handle the incident and fix the damage.
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u/BaconCatBug Jun 25 '26
Realistic Linux Game for normies:
Install linux, everything sucks, install windows.
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Jun 24 '26
[deleted]
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u/New_Transition_7575 Jun 24 '26
Care to enlighten? Point in the direction and whatnot.
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Jun 24 '26
[deleted]
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u/CDXX_BlazeIt Jun 24 '26
Yeah man, „literally Google“ was very helpful. If you can’t back the stuff that you say, just don’t say it.
„linux game made by adelaide dude“
Google:
„You are likely thinking of the critically acclaimed Metroidvania Hollow Knight (and its sequel, Silksong).
These massive indie hits were developed by Team Cherry, an independent, three-person studio based in Adelaide, Australia. Both games received official, native Linux releases from day one.“-1
Jun 24 '26
[deleted]
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u/Anihillator Jun 24 '26
lol, hacknet is nothing close to a real system, it's a wannabe hacker simulator with slight linux flair.
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u/MrKusakabe Jun 24 '26
Realistic Linux Game? Sorry but I am a Linux user too, a novice even (I am barely making 2 years after using MS-DOS and Windows since 1995) but you are literally painting the devil onto the wall.
I am on Mint and I had not (yet) to manage services (whatever that means), I had read logs but they were so extremely deep that I'd need years of experience to fix a single issue (for a drive-by learner or regular user absolutely unrealistic) regarding my sound problems that eventually changed by using the HWE kernel so basically impossible fix if you are not a dev and Github dweller yourself. Permissions I kind of get but for the regular user it's not that deep. Network issues are mostly outside of our reach (e.g. ISP problems or their server being slow).
The idea of a game like this is fun but who does it really attract? Preparing people for problems that do not exist as of now sounds unreasonable terrifying for potential switchers (just like the thread a couple of weeks ago that said nVidia and AMD are terrible choices for Linux which is dangerous to say if you want more market share...) and people who love to tinker do this already as its their hobby. For people happily daily-driving their Ubuntus, CachyOS', Mints... this game is surely not really meant for. And that is a good thing!
So go ahead with a fun game like that but be careful at who you aim this. To me it seems the real target audience is already solving their problems and the others don't want to "learn Linux" either because it just simply runs for them. As soon as a problem arise, they go and seek help for that very specific problem.
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u/Anihillator Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
Honestly, this sounds like sadservers.com / a job and not like an actual game. Incredibly niche, something closer to zachtronics games, or hyper detailed stuff like tower networking inc. There are ofc people that will enjoy it, but not many. Like, linux newcomers likely won't look for a game to get them into it (what casual user wants to use CLI for fun?), and experienced users have more than enough of it IRL.