Pixcodream Playroom

Or: How I Built a Free Arcade with Just HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a Little AI Magic

The Spark

Do you remember the first time you played Tetris? I do.

It wasn't on a fancy console or a powerful PC. It was on a tiny, pixelated screen of a Nokia phone during a long bus ride. No story, no tutorial, no achievements to unlock. Just falling blocks and the pure, addictive joy of fitting them together perfectly. That simplicity — that raw, unfiltered fun — stayed with me for decades.

When I started Pixcodream in September 2024, fresh out of a 17-year IT career, I had grand visions. I wanted to make narrative-driven games like A Tiny Space Adventure, complex 3D experiences like Brick Cracker 3D. And I did. But somewhere along the way, I missed something fundamental: Games don't always need to be big to be meaningful.

That's when the idea of Pixcodream Playroom was born.

The "Why" Behind the Playroom

Let's be real: my website was full of technical specs, game descriptions, and download links. Important stuff, sure. But also… kind of boring?

I imagined someone landing on pixcodream.com for the first time. They'd read about game engines, development roadmaps, release dates. And then they'd leave. Because reading about games isn't nearly as fun as playing them.

So I had a thought: What if people could actually play something while they're here?

Not as a demo. Not as a teaser for a paid product. Just… games. Free games. Fun games. Right there in the browser.

The Playroom became my answer to that question. A place where visitors could take a break from reading and just play. No downloads, no accounts, no paywalls. And honestly? That's very much aligned with my philosophy anyway.

I've always believed that. Growing up in the '90s, I spent countless afternoons in small-town arcades. You'd drop a coin, grab the joystick, and play. Simple. Pure. No microtransactions, no battle passes, no "unlock this with premium currency."

The Playroom is my small attempt to bring back that feeling. Not as some grand crusade against modern gaming, but as a quiet reminder: games can still be simple, accessible, and free.

The "One Coin" Philosophy

Here's something interesting about those old arcade games: you had one life. One chance.

No save points. No checkpoints. No "continue from level 5." You died, you started over. And somehow, that made it more exciting. Every decision mattered. Every second counted. Your palms would sweat as you approached your high score, knowing one mistake would send you back to zero.

That adrenaline rush? That's what I wanted to recapture.

In fact, the first version of Pixcodream Playroom actually had a coin system. You'd get virtual coins, spend them to play, earn more by watching ads. Very modern. Very gamified.

And it felt… wrong.

So I ripped it out. All of it. Now there are no coins. No lives system. No artificial limits. You can play forever.

Die in Tetris at level 15? Start from level 1. Crash in Double Road at 500 points? Back to zero.

And you know what? People love it. That tension. That "just one more try" feeling. It's the same dopamine hit I got from arcade machines 25 years ago.

The Technical Journey

(Or: Back to Basics with Modern Tools)

Here's where it gets interesting. I could have used a game engine — Godot, Unity, GameMaker. I have all of them installed. But I didn't.

Why? Because I wanted to prove something to myself: You don't need fancy tools to make fun games.

The Tech Stack

• HTML5 Canvas — The raw drawing surface
• Vanilla JavaScript — No frameworks, no libraries, just pure JS
• CSS3 — For the arcade cabinet aesthetic
• LocalStorage — For saving high scores (locally, of course)
• VS Code + Claude Code — My AI coding assistant

Yes, you read that right. I used AI to help build this. And I'm not hiding it.

Claude Code was my pair programmer. I'd describe what I wanted — "make the Tetris pieces rotate smoothly" or "add a subtle screen shake when you crash in Double Road" — and Claude would suggest code. Sometimes it was perfect. Sometimes it was hilariously wrong. But it was fast.

Could I have written every line myself? Sure. But why spend three hours debugging a collision detection algorithm when Claude can draft it in three minutes and I can spend the saved time tuning the game feel?

This is 2026. We have tools that make us faster. I use them. No shame.

The Process

Step 1: Choosing the Games

I picked four classics:

• Tetris Classic — The grandfather of puzzle games
• Flappy Ball — One-button chaos
• Double Road — Split-attention madness
• Rush Hour — Coming soon (traffic dodging)

Simple games. Everyone knows them. They run great on mobile. Perfect.

Step 2: Canvas Fundamentals

Every game starts the same way:

const canvas = document.getElementById('gameCanvas');
const ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');

Then you draw. Rectangles for Tetris blocks. Circles for Flappy Ball. Lines for roads. It's primitive. It's beautiful. It's fast.

Step 3: Game Loop Magic

The heart of every game:

function gameLoop() {
    update();  // Game logic
    draw();    // Render graphics
    requestAnimationFrame(gameLoop);
}

60 frames per second. Smooth as butter.

Step 4: Mobile First

Over 60% of casual gamers play on mobile. So I designed for touch first, keyboard second.

Tetris? Tap left/right to move, swipe down to drop. Flappy Ball? Tap anywhere. No virtual joysticks. Just gestures.

Step 5: The Arcade Aesthetic

Neon colors. Scanline effects. "INSERT COIN" messages. All done with pure CSS. No images. Just gradients and animations.

The Challenges

Challenge 1: The "One More Game" Loop
Making a game feel good is 80% of the work. Tetris pieces need to rotate smoothly. Flappy Ball needs that satisfying "boing" sound. I probably played each game 500 times to get it right.

Challenge 2: Safari Audio Hell
Safari on iOS blocks audio autoplay. I spent an entire weekend wrestling with WebAudio API just to make sound effects work on iPhones.

Challenge 3: Balancing Difficulty
Too easy = boring. Too hard = frustrating. I adjusted Tetris drop speed about 20 times before it felt right.

Challenge 4: The Coin System That Almost Was
I built a whole coin economy. Virtual currency. Ads for more coins. It worked! But it felt soulless. So I deleted 2 days of work and went back to pure, unlimited play.

What I Learned

• Simplicity is Hard. Building Tetris in JavaScript is easy. Making it feel like the 1989 original? That takes work.
• AI is a Tool, Not a Replacement. Claude Code helped me code faster, but I still had to understand what the code does, tweak it, test it, polish it.
• Nostalgia is Powerful. The "one session high score" rule isn't just game design. It's emotional design. It makes people care.
• Free Doesn't Mean Cheap. The Playroom is free because I want it to be, not because it's unfinished or low-quality. That's an important distinction.

A Final Thought

Pixcodream Playroom isn't trying to change the world. It's just a handful of retro games on a website.

But if you visit games.pixcodream.com and spend five minutes chasing your Tetris high score, sweating as you approach your record, feeling that arcade tension of "don't mess up NOW" — then I've done my job.

Because that feeling? That pure, uncut gaming joy? That's timeless.

And it doesn't cost a thing.

— Erhan @Pixcodream
January 2026

P.S. The games are 100% free. Always will be. When you're playing, nothing interrupts you. That's a promise.

P.P.S. If you'd like to support me, please click on the insert coin section on my free games page. Thank you in advance for your support.