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We featured this game in our magazine! https://houdinimagazine.com/articles/2026-01-16-fools-journey-indie-game-review

thanks! myself and some (now old) friends drew em

We featured a review your game in our magazine today!  https://erikhoudini.com/#post?id=272626&title=game-review-patchwork-county-archi...

Im silly, i commented it was fixed but never hit save on the itch page haha, it's deff up now!!

Fixed

i printed these and gave a few out at our 4th of july event, they are also featured in our zine rack (which is being overhauled rn), appreciate these theory as zine type zines

WHO IS THIS HOUDINI GUY AND WHY DO THEY LIKE FROM UTOPIA SO MUCH? MUST BE BRAIN WORMS

COLOR PALETTE GOES CRAZY

sick

love these handmade sort of zines, super cute with a scrapbook feel

OMG SO COOL WOW THIS IS REALLY GREAT!!

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA

I think your game has a lot of potential! The graphics, you know, the TIC-80 limitations are definitely considered, but the gameplay loop is super solid. I think if you wanted to keep it with the TIC-80, you could, but I also think that you could even use the TIC-80 concept as the prototype and then build it out in a different engine. Either way, I'm definitely following this game and I found the gameplay loop to be really enjoyable and I hope you do keep developing cool stuff!

Would love to see what a sequel to this could be with a solid budget and a few more devs involved.

Wow just wow!

this looks really good, playdate finally starting to get some unique exclusives!

messing around with adding some well placed gifs, good ideas!

great use of public domain assets!

We featured this game in our magazine's Arcade section! The review:

Tetris, like communism, is a spectre that haunts—whether in spinoffs, re-iterations, cash grabs, mobile ports, or high-level competitive play; psychedelic visuals or PTSD treatment, you don’t have to look far to find Tetris somewhere. In the HOUDINI arcade, if we include one iteration, it might as well be the Soviet original. The whirl of the fans makes the ambience really cozy. The lines and the way the ASCII display uses the dots in the background? You stare at that, and you really get why the term "Tetris effect" exists. The keyboard controls might take a bit of getting used to, but this is an excellent piece of playable people’s history.

https://erikhoudini.com/#post?id=151996&title=may-s-giga-groovy-games-update-3-new-games-in-the-arcade

We featured this game in our magazine's Arcade section! The review:

Stardust-style shooter with a slick vector aesthetic—its controversial difficulty and soundtrack alone would draw crowds if this were a physical arcade cabinet. Don't let the basic upgrade system fool you: this is a hardcore score-chase shmup.

The generous particle effects and 2-bit color scheme might overwhelm at first, but lock into the flow state? That high score is yours for the taking.

https://erikhoudini.com/#post?id=151996&title=may-s-giga-groovy-games-update-3-new-games-in-the-arcade

We featured this game in our magazine's Arcade section! The review:

"In the world of arcade games, that balance, that friction? It can be like gravy - either perfecting the steak tips or ruining them. I'm happy to say Miroh's combination of game mechanics is one tasty gravy. It's gonna kick your ass, and it's gonna make the meal that much better.

This is diner-style arcade action at its finest. It's multitasking mayhem. It's Miroh."

https://erikhoudini.com/#post?id=151996&title=may-s-giga-groovy-games-update-3-n...

this is another example of this "coldcrack" art movement this decade, really good texturing and noise

Okay, so I figured you might want some feedback on this game—I gave it a playthrough, and I think there are a few areas for improvement.

• Pause Button: There’s no pause button—adding one would be helpful.
• Movement Speed: The zombies move too fast, or the player moves too slow—it feels sluggish. Maybe adjust the balance.
• Interactivity: The map needs more interactivity. Right now, all you do is move around and occasionally change channels. Maybe breakable crates could spawn? Or exploding barrels via power up?
• Dash Mechanic: Adding a dash button would make movement more dynamic. It could help with grabbing power-ups, which are currently hard to collect. This would do a LOT to help with the gameplay flow.
• Bullet Visibility: The bullets blend into the dirt-textured background. Making them bright red with a glow would improve contrast. Adding an arm to the player character that follows the mouse would also  help keep the player oriented.
• Environment Design: The repeating texture feels bland. A locked room or basement setting with a "videodrome" aesthetic might work better. Perhaps it's a red room, and as your health falls, the game tint gets more and more dark red? Maybe adding blood splatters or corpses from the zombies could be good.

• Nemesis Appearance: Add tension when the nemesis appears—darken the screen, add fog sprites, or change the soundtrack. Give us more lore, more understanding as to why this enemy is so powerful.

• Upgrade Costs: The first few upgrades should be cheaper. Earning coins is tough without a dash mechanic. It's a struggle to get to the coins without taking a hit before they disappear.
• Fire Rate: The default fire rate feels too slow—the first upgrade’s fire rate should be the baseline.
• Restart Option: There’s no way to restart the game without refreshing the page—this needs to be fixed.
• Juice Bar (Channel Change Meter): It takes too long to fill. Most players won’t experience channel switching, which defeats the purpose. I played this for a solid hour and never once changed channels.

• Suggestion: Make channel change meter fill up much faster, acting like a bomb in a shmup, with a static pulse effect that:
  • Warps the player’s location ala teleport in Asteroids. 
  • Changes the background.
  • Clears some enemies.

• Channel Variety: Each channel could have unique music or aesthetics to enhance immersion. Even just having the floor texture change could do a lot to keep the player immersed.
• Intro Sequence: Even a short VHS-style clip would help set the tone—like we’re watching found footage.

Right now, gameplay feels repetitive—just circling, shooting zombies, and grabbing health. But there’s a solid foundation here! With some tweaks, this could be really cool. I hope development continues—I gave it a fair shot and enjoyed aspects of it.

Thanks for sharing the game!

wildmutt

this looks so comfy! will be following the development of this

houdinicore fr

keep making cool stuff!!

putting the gutter back in gutter punk

really like this! super simple and charming, a great example of how simple a zine can be, i hope you had fun making this!!

keep making cool stuff!

this game is low key CRACK, we had to put it on our site https://erikhoudini.com/the_crypt/arcade/

HEY! This game is pretty good! We featured it on our site! https://erikhoudini.com/the_crypt/arcade/

We featured it on our site!! https://erikhoudini.com/the_crypt/arcade/

lost entirely too much time to this one, featured it on the site https://erikhoudini.com/the_crypt/arcade/

needs just a bit more but I feel like this is almost 200 point dsiware good!

THIS IS SO CUTE!

1999!!

>participation and fun are key.
I'm in!

spun

omg i love