Recent reviews by microplastics

I'm a small indie artist and still relatively new to Houdini, but I've found that tasks which would typically take ages to make (and remake) in other programs can be done here in a way that makes iteration much, much easier. It's almost a different way of thinking when creating assets/tools, but 100% worth investing the time to learn.

As others have already said, the Games Tools are a killer part of the package. They are updated almost daily with new stuff that is actually cool and useful, all for free and easy to use. Personally I love what is going on with the VFX tools, making it so you don't have to spend years learning about creating simulations to get good looking fire, destruction, etc. In the future, it would be cool to see a node where you could craft smoke simulations (kind of like the RBD director stuff) or maybe another where you would have different fluid presets for objects and can direct flip fluid sims.

Highly recommend this Steam version, hopping between machines is effortless and it is functionally exactly the same as standalone Houdini Indie.