FANTASTIC FEST ANNOUNCES FANTASTIC ARCADE 2011
Hey everybody — finally it can be told! Our friends over at Alamo Drafthouse have just announced the full lineup for this year’s Fantastic Arcade — the sister games festival presented as part of their yearly week-long genre film blowout Fantastic Fest. And it’s in just two weeks! And it’s free and open to the general public, every day!
Not only are there going to be a ton of good games on display at the Highball — there are going to be a ton of good indies in town hanging out, showing stuff off and in general carousing pretty heavily from Thursday, September 22nd through Sunday, September 25th!
Block those days off on your calendar now, and come spend the whole weekend at the Highball — events open a bit after noon and continue on until well past midnight!
Below the fold is the full press Fantastic Fest press release, and I’ve added videos of each of the games that’ll be shown throughout the fest!
Video game industry luminaries Brandon Boyer, Mike Plante and Eddo Stern curated the 2011 Fantastic Arcade. Panel discussions, developer talks and game tournaments will be held each day of the festival. All games and game related events in Fantastic Arcade will be free and open to the general public at Austin, TX’s Highball Lounge on South Lamar Blvd. Each day will have a happy hour at the Highball and a tournament on a different independent game, including Bit Pilot, Faraway, Super Crate Box and Vikings on Trampolines.
“Fantastic Arcade is a direct bridge between the worlds of independent gaming and genre filmmaking,” said Mike Plante, Arcade Artistic Director. “Gaming and film both use genre and artistic style to tell stories and create memorable experiences that excite audiences around the world. These two mediums embody what the Fantastic Fest and Arcade are all about.”
Special events include:
- Developer Commentary: Hear direct from the creators as they play their games live on the screen at the Highball. Games include Bit Pilot, Dyad, Faraway, Fez, Jesus Vs. Dinosaurs, Lost Mars, Octodad, Owlboy, Skulls of the Shogun, They Bleed Pixels and Vikings on Trampolines.
- PlayStation® Network Opening Day Happy Hour – Join us from 5-7pm on Thursday, September 22nd for a Happy Hour presented by PlayStation Network. Upcoming 2012 release Starhawk will be playable in a tournament, with prizes provided by Sony.
- PlayStation® Network Developer Panel – Game creators speak about working in and out of the gaming industry. Panelists include Queasy Games (Sound Shapes), thatgamecompany (Journey, Flower, flOw, Cloud), and Q-Games (Pixel Junk).
- Storytelling and Development in Videogames & Film – Feature film writers and writers of the game Starhawk will discuss storytelling and development in videogames and crossing over with film.
- Yearbook Nerd Photo Contest – Local contestants share their old high school awkward photos – nerds are winners in our eyes.
The following eight games will be showcased during Fantastic Arcade as part of the Arcade’s main competition:
- Capsized (Alientrap)
As an intrepid space traveler, your ship has crash-landed on a mysterious alien planet. You must navigate through the perilous environment and fight off blood-thirsty creatures to save your crewmates and escape with your lives!
- Faraway (Little–Eyes)
One button travels and constellation creations in infinite procedural outer space.
- Fez (Polytron)
Gomez is a 2D man on a voyage of discovery into the mysterious 3rd dimension. Change your perspective and look at the world in a different way.
- FRACT (Phosfiend Systems)
An atmospheric adventure game set in an abstract forgotten world of analog sounds, samples and glitches.
- Jesus VS. Dinosaurs (Martin Jonasson, Petri Purho)
God travels back in time to kill all dinosaurs, they’re not in the bible and people keep digging them up to make him look bad. Darwin gets wind of this and travels back in time to stop God. They both build cars a have the ultimate chicken race in prehistory.
- Octodad (Team Octodad)
Loving husband. Caring father. Secret octopus.
- Radical Fishing (Vlambeer)
An accurate simulation of traditional fishing as gramps always described it.
- Skulls of the Shogun (Haunted Temple Studios)
Washing up on the shores of the afterlife, players meet and join forces with vibrant ghost-samurai warriors, magical animal-monks, and mustachioed samurai generals in an invigorating cocktail of 1960′s flavored sorcery and strategy.
In addition to the aforementioned games, Fantastic Arcade will also feature the following games throughout the four days of the festival:
- Banker’s Dozen (David Mershon)
Based on the forgotten occult writings of a Nobel prize winning economist, Banker’s Dozen is a game about time traveling financiers.
- Bit Pilot (Zach Gage)
A fast paced asteroid dodging game with an innovative control scheme.
- Deep Sea (Robin Arnott)
A creepy audio-only game where players don a sense-depriving gas mask to face off against hidden sea monsters.
- Dyad (][ Games)
Rather than having the traditional mechanics of break and accelerate, you must navigate an infinite tube by interacting with enemies for speed.
- Hohokum (Honeyslug, Richard Hogg)
Nokia Snake meets Schindler’s List.
- Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (Shadow Planet Productions)
Rescue your sun and homeworld from the malevolent shadow virus in this eye-popping animated side-scroller adventure.
- Lost Mars (Tiger Style)
An action-gardening adventure where you cultivate an alien ecosystem and
research mysterious lifeforms.
- Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murder Dog (thecatamites)
Help a horrendous dog evade proper retribution for his deeds.
- Owlboy (D-Pad Studio)
You play Otus, a young owl who sets out on an adventure when his village is attacked by sky pirates.
- Salome (increpare)
Get to the exit to finish a level.
- Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (Superbrothers Inc. + Jim Guthrie + Capy)
Traverse a mythic little realm, use a sword to do battle, evoke sorcery to solve mystical musical mysteries and help a wandering warrior monk complete her woeful errand.
- They Bleed Pixels (Spooky Squid Games Inc.)
A fast-paced, gothic lo-fi, platforming beat’em up that drips, gushes and flows.
- Ute (Lea Schönfelder, Stefan Lind)
Ute has to have sex as much as she can before getting married.
Check out Facebook and Twitter for all of the latest Fantastic Arcade news and happenings.
For the latest developments visit the Fantastic Fest Facebook & Twitter.
For press inquiries and free media registration please email Andrea Schneider at DefinitionPR@gmail.com.
For more details regarding Fantastic Fest, contact festival publicist Brandy Fons, at brandy@fonspr.com. For more information, visit www.fantasticfest.com.
About Fantastic Arcade
Fantastic Arcade fuses the world of independent film and independent gaming. We bring together artists and professionals who are telling stories and creating experiences in film, games and online entertainment simultaneously. At Fantastic Arcade, we showcase a curated selection of brand new independent games as well as a larger sampling of important groundbreaking independent games from the last couple of years.
Attendees are invited to play the games as well as interact with the game developers via panels and nightly parties and happy hours. We also feature both panels with independent filmmakers side by side with game developers and intimate demo sessions by independent game developers. Lastly, we feel that video games rightfully belong side by side with shorts and feature films at Fantastic Fest. The artistic merit of these games will be honored with both audience awards and a juried competition.
About Fantastic Fest
Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world. In years past the festival has been home to world premieres of THERE WILL BE BLOOD, APOCALYPTO, ZOMBIELAND and RED while the guest roster has included such talent as Mel Gibson, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Ryan Reynolds, Karl Urban, Josh Hartnett, The RZA, Dolph Lundgren, Jemaine Clement, Paul Rudd, Bill Pullman, Paul Thomas Anderson, Kevin Smith, Jon Favreau, George Romero, Darren Aronofsky and Mike Judge. Fantastic Fest also features world, national and regional premieres of new, up-and-coming genre films. The festival has launched and propelled the buzz for international genre hits like THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE, MONSTERS, TIMECRIMES and TROLLHUNTER. Fantastic Fest is held each year at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on South Lamar in Austin, Texas. The Alamo Drafthouse was named the best cinema in America by Entertainment Weekly and features food and drink served to your seat without any disruption of the movie experience.
During his Keynote Address at the International film Festival Summit in Las Vegas, Variety president and publisher Charlie Koones listed Fantastic Fest in a list of “10 Film Festivals We Love,” a list which included industry heavy-hitters such as Cannes, Toronto and Telluride. We’ve also been named as one of the “25 coolest film festivals” and the “25 film festivals worth the entry fee” by Moviemaker Magazine.
Our Partners
Fantastic Arcade sponsors include Presenting Sponsor PlayStation® Network, Austin game developers Lightbox Interactive (Title Sponsor) and Devolver Digital (Premier Sponsor), as well as Midas Green Tech (Supporting Sponsor).
Returning Presenting Sponsors for Fantastic Fest and Arcade include Austin-based Ambhar Tequila, as well as AMD, Alienware, and FEARnet.
New Presenting Sponsors include Texas’ own Shiner Beer, whose family of products will be featured throughout the festival. Joining them are Plano-based Well Go USA Entertainment, PlayStation® Network, and Fandango. Fandango is the exclusive video sponsor as well as ticketing partner of Fantastic Fest 2011. Daily tickets can be purchased at www.fantasticfest.com or www.fandango.com. A full list of this year’s sponsors can be found at www.fantasticfest.com/sponsors
