I think it's because the game cannot find enough non-empty directories under your home directory.
You can try to create some more directories or use the -safemode command switch from console (it will use the /tmp dir instead of your home) -- game crashes after selecting difficulty level https://launchpad.net/bugs/58383 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
