Puzzle Book: HOUDINI Magazine's Selected Indie Puzzlers
Tetris
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.
Net.haxe
I've never played Cyberpunk 2077, but this takes one of its minigames and turns it into a full-fledged TIC-80 experience. It's a clever concept that works surprisingly well, making great use of the platform's computing limits.
Path of Aratron
A demonic little puzzler where you play as a sleep demon manipulating sigils to solve tricky puzzles. Sound out there? It is—and it's exactly the kind of experimental design that makes Pico-8 such a fun platform for wild ideas.
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Streamline
Lovely puzzle game with a clean design and a nice, simple yet effective style. Has an Infinite mode, which is always a plus.
Butler! Summon the Imps!
Spooky Bust-A-Move, simple concept with a clean dreamcast esque art style.
From Below
Tetris with a tentacle themed twist. Out block and battle the mighty kraken in this spin on the classic puzzler. Well made with a great art and sound direction.
RoboFlip
Heartgold and Soulsilver replaced the game corner slots with something less casino, and more minesweeper. This game recreates Voltorb Flip in all its explosive glory.
Wood Worm
A unique puzzle game that sort of reminds me of Pushmo meets Picross. 17 levels means the game is approachable, beatable in an afternoon or over a week or two. Hoping we get more like this one!
DIESORT
A fast paced pick up and play dice sorting game. 3 game modes -- a simple premise puzzler with a brain busting pace. The good kind of math game.
Infinimoes
A quirky tangram puzzle game with stylish graphics. The demo is very content filled, and the game itself is a great price. We give it a recommendation.