Typically means no opengl support, so launching the game failed.

You can try sharing your ~/.hedgewars/Logs/game0.log to doublecheck.

Simple things to try under linux:

$ DISPLAY=:0 __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK=0 vblank_mode=0 glxgears
101637 frames in 5.0 seconds = 20327.229 FPS

It should run, and run quickly.
$ DISPLAY=:0 glxinfo | grep "direct render"
direct rendering: Yes

Should say Yes.

You might also need to do this:
http://www.noobslab.com/2014/01/linux-mint-driver-manager-and-device.html

I'llwork on those. Here is the log.
0: [PhysFS] init: 1
0: [PhysFS] mount /usr/share/games/hedgewars/Data: 1
0: [PhysFS] mount /home/dave/.hedgewars/Data: 1
0: [Con] Hedgewars engine 0.9.19-r9144 (d8a0a7e42b73) with protocol #45
0: Prefix: "/usr/share/games/hedgewars/Data"
0: UserPrefix: "/home/dave/.hedgewars"
0: 0: /usr/lib/hedgewars/bin/hwengine
0: 1: --internal
0: 2: --port
0: 3: 60926
0: 4: --prefix
0: 5: /usr/share/games/hedgewars/Data
0: 6: --user-prefix
0: 7: /home/dave/.hedgewars
0: 8: --locale
0: 9: en.txt
0: 10: --frame-interval
0: 11: 8
0: 12: --volume
0: 13: 128
0: 14: --fullscreen-width
0: 15: 1280
0: 16: --fullscreen-height
0: 17: 720
0: 18: --width
0: 19: 1066
0: 20: --height
0: 21: 666
0: 22: --raw-quality
0: 23: 0
0: 24: --stereo
0: 25: 0
0: 26: --nick
0: 27: UmljaGFyZCpDcmFuaXVt
0: [Con] Init SDL...
0: [Con] ok
0: [Con] Init SDL_ttf...
0: [Con] ok
0: [Cmd] fullscr 0
0: Preparing to change video parameters...
0: [Con] Init SDL_image...
0: [Con] ok
0: [Con] Loading /Graphics/hwengine.png [flags: 8]
0: [Con] ok (32x32)
0: Setting up OpenGL (using driver: x11)
0: OpenGL-- Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on ATI RS480
0: |----- Vendor: X.Org R300 Project
0: |----- Version: 2.1 Mesa 9.2.1
0: |----- Texture Size: 2048
0: |----- Number of auxiliary buffers: 0
0: \----- Extensions:
0: GL_ARB_multisample GL_EXT_abgr GL_EXT_bgra
0: GL_EXT_blend_color GL_EXT_blend_minmax GL_EXT_blend_subtract
0: GL_EXT_copy_texture GL_EXT_polygon_offset GL_EXT_subtexture
0: GL_EXT_texture_object GL_EXT_vertex_array GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array
0: GL_EXT_texture GL_EXT_texture3D GL_IBM_rasterpos_clip
0: GL_ARB_point_parameters GL_EXT_draw_range_elements GL_EXT_packed_pixels
0: GL_EXT_point_parameters GL_EXT_rescale_normal GL_EXT_separate_specular_color
0: GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp
0: GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp GL_SGIS_texture_lod GL_ARB_multitexture
0: GL_IBM_multimode_draw_arrays GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat GL_ARB_texture_cube_map
0: GL_ARB_texture_env_add GL_ARB_transpose_matrix GL_EXT_blend_func_separate
0: GL_EXT_fog_coord GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays GL_EXT_secondary_color
0: GL_EXT_texture_env_add GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias
0: GL_INGR_blend_func_separate GL_NV_blend_square GL_NV_light_max_exponent
0: GL_NV_texgen_reflection GL_NV_texture_env_combine4 GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays
0: GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp GL_ARB_texture_compression GL_EXT_framebuffer_object
0: GL_EXT_texture_env_combine GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3 GL_MESA_window_pos
0: GL_NV_packed_depth_stencil GL_NV_texture_rectangle GL_ARB_depth_texture
0: GL_ARB_occlusion_query GL_ARB_shadow GL_ARB_texture_env_combine
0: GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3 GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat
0: GL_ARB_window_pos GL_EXT_stencil_two_side GL_EXT_texture_cube_map
0: GL_NV_fog_distance GL_APPLE_packed_pixels GL_APPLE_vertex_array_object
0: GL_ARB_draw_buffers GL_ARB_fragment_program GL_ARB_fragment_shader
0: GL_ARB_shader_objects GL_ARB_vertex_program GL_ARB_vertex_shader
0: GL_ATI_draw_buffers GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3 GL_ATI_texture_float
0: GL_EXT_shadow_funcs GL_EXT_stencil_wrap GL_MESA_pack_invert
0: GL_MESA_ycbcr_texture GL_NV_primitive_restart GL_ARB_fragment_program_shadow
0: GL_ARB_half_float_pixel GL_ARB_occlusion_query2 GL_ARB_point_sprite
0: GL_ARB_shading_language_100 GL_ARB_sync GL_ARB_texture_non_power_of_two
0: GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object GL_ATI_blend_equation_separate GL_EXT_blend_equation_separate
0: GL_OES_read_format GL_ARB_pixel_buffer_object GL_ARB_texture_float
0: GL_ARB_texture_rectangle GL_EXT_pixel_buffer_object GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp
0: GL_EXT_texture_rectangle GL_EXT_texture_sRGB GL_ARB_framebuffer_object
0: GL_EXT_framebuffer_blit GL_EXT_packed_depth_stencil GL_ARB_vertex_array_object
0: GL_ATI_separate_stencil GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once GL_EXT_gpu_program_parameters
0: GL_EXT_texture_sRGB_decode GL_OES_EGL_image GL_ARB_copy_buffer
0: GL_ARB_half_float_vertex GL_ARB_instanced_arrays GL_ARB_map_buffer_range
0: GL_ARB_texture_rg GL_ARB_texture_swizzle GL_ARB_vertex_array_bgra
0: GL_EXT_texture_swizzle GL_EXT_vertex_array_bgra GL_NV_conditional_render
0: GL_ARB_ES2_compatibility GL_ARB_debug_output GL_ARB_draw_elements_base_vertex
0: GL_ARB_explicit_attrib_location GL_ARB_fragment_coord_conventions GL_ARB_provoking_vertex
0: GL_ARB_sampler_objects GL_ARB_vertex_type_2_10_10_10_rev GL_EXT_provoking_vertex
0: GL_EXT_texture_snorm GL_MESA_texture_signed_rgba GL_NV_texture_barrier
0: GL_ARB_get_program_binary GL_ARB_robustness GL_ARB_internalformat_query
0: GL_ARB_map_buffer_alignment GL_ARB_texture_storage GL_ARB_invalidate_subdata
0:
0: [Con] Number of game controllers: 0
0: [Con] Not using any game controller
0: [Con] Loading progress sprite:
0: [Con] Loading /Graphics/Progress.png [flags: 6]
0: [Con] ok (324x972)

gears turn fine, yes to direct render and the driver manager is part of the new Mint. I needed to use it to figger out my Broadcom 4318 issue.

Thanks for the continued help.
I'm old hat at the MS world but I'm really starting to like the minty fresh OS.

New observation
When I start a game a terminal window opens, nothing is on it, then it goes away after a second or two. I tried to capture it but it doesn't respond to clicking.

Memory is solid at about 50% usage and CPU is about the same, a few dips and rises but never above 70% CPU.

Strange. I *think* the log is halting at loading locale... that's odd.

So, while I'm pondering this... the other reason we used to have trouble was badly configured sound. That's been rare lately.

You could try unchecking both game music/sound and frontend music/sound in frontend config. Then restart.

But, I don't think that's the issue ...

As for the terminal window, that's probably the game window. It seems the gl context gets created.

We could probably figure this out really quickly if you did a debug build and sent us a stack trace.

https://code.google.com/p/hedgewars/wiki/BuildingOnLinux

Feel free to stop by chat if you like.

I have the same problem, but I think the randomizer's broken. I have the same result if I choose another map, other than the one that it first gives me. Also, I'm not on Linux, so I can't do, whatever advice you gave him.

Not too sure what you mean by a "broken randomiser" but opengl is even more often a problem under Windows.
Would need more details about your setup though.