‘Slime In the Ice Machine’ Is a Catalyst for Houston Video Game Development

in video game form is difficult. Miracle Jones, a former Houstonian and writer of the adventure game Slime in the Ice Machine, found that out the hard way while trying to give feedback to an artist based in Spain. Immersed in a country filled with stunning Catholic cathedrals, the artist kept making the animated megachurch—located in a strip mall next to a sex shop, bar, and crematorium—too pretty.

“I kept telling him to make it uglier,” Jones tells Houstonia. “‘That grass needs to be unnaturally green, but no foliage or flowers around that church, man.’ He kept asking me if I was sure.”

Currently available as a demo on the online game market Steam with a tentative release date of spring 2027, Slime in the Ice Machine is part of a very small list of games that feature Houston. So far, our tally includes Beavis and Butt-Head seeing Gwar at the Astrodome in their 1994 Super Nintendo adventure, and Rollerdrome, which features a dystopian death match in the Galleria in 2022. Other than that, Bayou City rarely shows up in interactive media.

Which is weird when you think about it.

Hardly any new museum exhibit opens in the city these days without some video game component, and the city has been a national hub for voice acting, an imperative component of modern games, for three decades. And just as Austin has been home to major video game studios like BioWare and Bethesda, Houston has never lacked people interested in making games. Still, the developer scene is nearly nonexistent—even with an International Game Developers Association (IGDA) chapter present.

“Houston was, for some reason, this like Shangri-La, mysterious place where no one ever wrote about it or thought about it, and I’ve just always had a chip on my shoulder about that,” says Jones, who grew up in Katy and often visits Houston from Brooklyn. He wanted to change that with Slime in the Ice Machine—first, by telling a very Houston story.

Set in a cat-themed cantina, the game follows main character Margot Crystal as she navigates everything from sleazy bail bond agents to eldritch slime to help her dying father. The title alone pulses with H-Town hustle, inspired by the city’s endless fascination with Marvin Zindler. For his weekly restaurant segments, the late TV news reporter would scream the famous line “slime in the ice machine” if he found any odd substance in the ice machine (there was even an official song). The quote is now a part of Houston canon. Even Margot has a fascination and says in the game that she had a Zindler-themed birthday party as a child. It’s arguably the first time the city has been wholly captured in the video game world.

In search of beta testers to ensure the game felt like Houston, Jones stumbled across Coog Interactive’s Discord and immediately knew he’d found the perfect partners.

The University of Houston doesn’t have a specific game development track, but that didn’t stop students from building their own scene. Video game enthusiasts from multiple disciplines across two campuses began banding together in 2025, welcoming anyone in the city who wanted to help.

Coog Interactive president Ibrahim Faisel, a computer science major at UH’s main campus, saw the club as a chance to reshape the city as a video game powerhouse by uniting the scattered components. Building a club that tackles game dev topics was important, he says, but so was creating a pipeline that would help these students develop industry-level skills. “We can take these novice people who are just getting interested in game development to being able to get a job in actual game dev,” he says.

Garrett Ward, the studio director, has been instrumental in connecting Coog Interactive with interactive media professionals. A UH graduate, he founded Origo42, a company that develops workflow improvement and training software, and has worked with other organizations seeking to include video game elements in training materials. Now, with interactive media more mainstream, Ward sees broader applications of video game development as a way to build interest in the city.

“Houston actually does have a thriving game dev scene, but what we’re lacking is a thriving industrialized game dev scene,” he says. “Houston has a lot of talent here. We also have a lot of technology around us. The problem is brain drain. A lot of developers who work in Austin, or even up in the Northeast or in California, are from Houston. They get started here and then they go other places.”

But Coog Interactive is trying to make living and staying in Houston more palatable for game developers. The group hosts regular gatherings, talks, and events (Jones and co-creator Nadya Lev participated in one that was art-focused). It also operates as a publisher while consulting on student-led projects and playtesting, including Slime in the Ice Machine. Jones says they were instrumental in improving the game. “They were so generous about jumping on and playtesting it and giving us their advice,” he says.

Coog Interactive is still new, but it has big plans. Ward and Faisel have discussed hosting a large indie game festival on campus that would bring in developers from across the region to mingle and collaborate. They hope that as more programmers, writers, and artists produce work in the UH system, the institution will be inspired to create an entire game development track.

In the meantime, the Coog Interactive website proudly hosts half a dozen indie games it has supported over the last year. Slime in the Ice Machineis just one of the many irons the growing collective has in the fire. Game dev is alive and well in Houston, Faisel says. “If you’re seeking it out, then come find us. …Hopefully we can make it loud enough that we cause a change.”

Video Games, Marvin Zindler, TV, Journalism