Here’s something to help you relax and have some fun while you wait for the New Year. SuperTux 0.7 Beta 1, a free and open-source 2D side-scrolling game featuring Tux, the Linux penguin, as its main character, is here marking the project’s first major release in four years, following version 0.6.3 issued in December 2021.
This beta is actually one of the most extensive overhauls in the game’s history, rivaling the scope of the Milestone 2 era, with large parts of the game rebuilt from the ground up.
The most visible changes are the complete redesigns of World 1 and World 2, including the Rooted Forest. Levels have been rebuilt with new layouts, visual styles, and pacing. Across the game, nearly all core assets have been replaced, including new artwork for Tux, enemies, backgrounds, tilesets, and environmental elements.
Enemy design has also seen major work. Several classic foes, such as Gold Bomb, Igel, Spidermite, and Ghoul, have been fully revamped, while new enemies and NPCs have been added, including Granito variants, Root Saplings, and Corrupted enemies. The update also introduces a new Yeti boss fight and the Ghost Tree enemy, expanding both combat variety and boss encounters.
Gameplay mechanics have been refined with improvements to Tux’s movement and abilities. Sliding, crawling, buttjump behavior, and powerups have been adjusted, and a new item pocket system has been introduced. Progression has been expanded through collectible Tux dolls used to unlock worlds, adding a new structural layer to the campaign.
On top of that, SuperTux 0.7 beta ships with entirely new music composed specifically for the redesigned worlds, alongside new cutscenes that improve narrative flow between levels. Plus, bonus Island 1 has also been fully overhauled.
On the platform support side, Android builds have been revived and improved to target modern ARMv8a devices, while Flatpak packages are now available, though they are currently marked experimental and lack OpenGL and external editing support. On Linux, SDL2 now prefers Wayland by default, and controller handling has been fixed and refined.
Of course, this beta includes a long list of bug fixes and performance improvements, ranging from rendering and shader updates to editor stability, camera behavior, input handling, and world map fixes. According to the developers, the project has now entered feature freeze for the 0.7 series, with the focus shifting to bug fixing, stabilization, and translation work.
For more information, see the changelog. SuperTux 0.7 Beta 1 is now available for testing, as Linux users can install it as a Flatpak.
