If the splash screen flickers then the game segfaults, before resorting to desperate measures like sudo, try:
MESA_GLSL=dump ./DungeonDefenders
If it reports something like extension `GL_EXT_bindable_uniform' unsupported in fragment shader, you're seeing https://bugzilla.icculus.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5823 . Try using other graphics hardware.