Frankie, a puppet projectionist in a maroon pillbox cap and claret waistcoat, sprints along a ribbon of film after a runaway golden reel. The frames of the film run from black and white into full colour.

Reel Trouble

Every room is a movie set.

A comedy platformer through film history, 1896–1939.

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Tonight at the Palace

The night before the big premiere…

…the projector at the Palace Picture House jams, the reel bursts, and film history spills into the building.

You're Frankie, the night-shift projectionist, and you have until the audience arrives to collect the scattered frames and splice the film back together.

The Palace Picture House: a red velvet curtain in a gold frame, rows of seats with a few early guests, and the projection booth with its projector throwing a beam across the auditorium.
  • Admit one6 rooms1896 to 1939, one screen at a time, every screen a gag
  • Admit one1 secret roomfor those who look closely
  • Admit oneThe Premierewhat's showing? We're not telling

Six rooms. Forty-three years of film history.

Picture start: 1896

Arrival of the Pain, in grainy black and white: a steam locomotive with its headlamp lit charges out of a seaside station at La Ciotat while Frankie runs along the platform and silhouetted spectators watch from the front row.

Reel 1

Arrival of the Pain

1896

In which a train arrives, and so, eventually, does Frankie.

A seaside station in grainy black and white. Every six seconds a steam train charges straight at you, and the painted audience flees. Stay off the lowest platform when the headlamp appears.

The real film The Lumières' train arriving at La Ciotat: fifty seconds, first shown in January 1896. Legend says the audience fled. Historians have found no report of a panic at the time.

Nothing happens, then a train. Riveting.

Mortimer Pan

Reel 2

A Trip to the Moan

1902

A voyage of wonder! (The Moon was not consulted.)

A stage of painted cardboard, stars with faces, and platforms that vanish in a puff of smoke on the beat. Grab the rocket and it lands in the Moon's eye. He scowls at you for the rest of the room.

The real film Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon (1902). Méliès said he found his most famous trick by accident: his camera jammed while filming a Paris street, and when he projected the film, a bus turned into a hearse.

Charming. Undermined by the moon's attitude.

Mortimer Pan
Safety Second, in crisp black and white: Frankie dangles from a rope on the minute hand of a giant clock on a department-store front, above a policeman, banana peels and a pie shop.

Reel 3

Safety Second

1923

Our hero discovers the building has more floors than he has nerve.

A department-store front in crisp sunlight, with cops, custard pies and banana peels. The giant clock's minute hand is your ladder: a rope at 12 and 6, a ledge at 3 and 9.

The real film Safety Last! (1923): Harold Lloyd hanging from a clock above Los Angeles traffic. He did most of his own stunts, four years after a prop bomb took the thumb and index finger of his right hand. A glove hid it on screen.

I laughed. I hate that I laughed.

Mortimer Pan

Still in their cans

Three more reels are in the building.

And one that isn't on the programme.

Somewhere in there, the pictures learn to talk. Then they discover colour.

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It's not a death.
It's a retake.

Fall, get flattened by a train or walk into a custard pie, and the clapper snaps, the room starts over and the take counter goes up. No lives, no game over. Just one more take.

The game keeps count. Collect every frame of a room in a single take and there's a star in it for you.

In the projection booth

From code to set

Made by HertzyPertzy with Claude Opus 5.5 and a team of AI agents, in Godot and Blender. No image, voice or music generators: every set, song and sound is built from code.

The Moon set of A Trip to the Moan in Blender, lit by its stage lights. Watch “From code to set” 36 seconds · plays from YouTube

  1. The sets are written in code

    Every room starts as a Python script. It builds the set in Blender, lights it, bakes the light into textures, and places the art from the same map as the collision, so the two never drift.

  2. The music is code too

    Original tunes, plus public-domain Offenbach and Bach arranged for the game, written as code and played by a soundfont. The sound effects are made the same way.

  3. Tests play every room

    Automated test labs play the game with the real jump physics. One fails if any film frame, prop or exit can't be reached, or if any spot you can land on is a dead end. Another checks that no hazard waits where you enter a room.

The rule we worked by: I decide, the agents build. HertzyPertzy

In the balcony

The critic

Mortimer Pan has snuck in early. He reviews every room as you walk in, and changes his mind as your stars go up. Each room has three to earn: collect every frame, beat the clock, do it in one take.

  • The moon has more range than the cast.

    On A Trip to the Moan

  • I flinched. I deny it.

    On Arrival of the Pain

For press and creators

Press kit

The logo, the key art, three screenshots (1920×1080) and a one-page fact sheet, in one zip. Use them freely in articles, videos and streams about Reel Trouble.

Download the press kit zip, 5 MB

Questions and interviews: @HertzyPertzy on X

  • Screenshot: Arrival of the Pain, a steam train at a seaside station in black and white.
  • Screenshot: A Trip to the Moan, a painted stage with a sleepy Moon and stars with faces.
  • Screenshot: Safety Second, a giant clock on a department-store front.
  • The key art: Frankie chasing a runaway reel along a strip of film, under the Reel Trouble logo.

The finale

The Premiere

Finish the reel and there's a premiere.

We won't tell you what's showing.

The audience is on its way

Your turn, projectionist

The reel is in pieces and the booth is yours. The free demo has six rooms, a secret room and a premiere.

Play the free demo on itch.io (opens in a new tab) Send the demo to my desktop

Free demo 0.9.1 · Desktop: browser (Chrome, Edge or Firefox), Windows, Mac, Linux · Keyboard, or a gamepad for basic play

The full game is in production: more wings of film history, more secrets, and your demo save comes with you. A Steam page is on its way.