Every month, as part of the regular monthly meetings of JUEGOS RANCHEROS, we do a very casual & chatty rundown of the ten or so games from the previous month for the audience, to give people — especially those curious onlookers from outside the indie community itself — a look at what they may have missed. The featured games are both local and global, and both indie and, on occasion, a bit-bigger-budget — what binds them together is simply that they’re all amazing.
In keeping with the tongue-in-tobacco-packed-cheek tone, we call these run-downs A Fistful of Indies, which are presented here for your reference, each fully annotated & linked up for your pleasure.
It’s been challenging, sure, but it’s also been our complete pleasure to help bring the most amazing and inspiring new independent games to the public every month for absolutely free. And it almost goes without saying that we couldn’t do it without our volunteers or our awesome venue partners, like the Alamo Drafthouse, the North Door, and SXSW Gaming.
Over the course of the last couple years though, some rough patterns have emerged. The main thing we’ve noticed is that our preparation process and display equipment leave a lot to be desired. We are really happy with how our events have all come together, but that’s only been possible through a lot of last-minute panic and mountains of emails every month as we collect whatever laptops and desktops and monitors we can get our hands on the week before. It’s gotten to the point where having some dedicated equipment, especially some laptops and game controllers, would actually make a huge difference, in the quality of our monthly events especially.
However, buying a handful of laptops out of pocket is a bit rough. Becoming a full nonprofit organization would allow us to accept donations more easily, but there’s a ton of overhead involved. This is why we are so happy to announce that JUEGOS RANCHEROS is now an Austin Creative Alliance sponsored organization. In a nutshell, this means that we can now accept both cash and in-kind donations, via ACA, with negligible extra overhead for us as a group.
By accepting donations of equipment we can streamline the preparation and execution of our monthly events, which in turn gives us the flexibility to put on even more and better free events throughout the year. Even cash donations can be a huge help: we can purchase new equipment ourselves, or put the funds toward covering venue rental fees for our longer workshops. Our ACA sponsorship will make it easier to work with local school and art venues without losing or overcomplicating that special JUEGOS RANCHEROS sauce.
So, with this news, what does JR look like going forward? Basically the same, only better, and more of it, with a bit less stress for us organizers. More workshops, more fostering of Austin’s independent and artful games culture, more TEXATRONs, and more FREE monthly events. With your help, and the support of the Austin Creative Alliance, JR’s third year is looking like the best ever.
You know him best as the designer behind games like Canabalt, Hundreds and his Keita Takahashi collaboration A͈L͈P͈H͈A͈B͈E͈T͈, but next Thursday, December 5th, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door, JUEGOS RANCHEROS will present Breakdancing Superspy — a brand-new physical game being created by Austin’s own Adam Saltsman.
In the grand tradition of body-bending games previously featured at JUEGOS RANCHEROS & Fantastic Arcade like MEGA-GIRP & MEGA-A͈L͈P͈H͈A͈B͈E͈T͈, Saltsman describes the game as “a race to be the fastest to complete an awkward obstacle course that resembles single-player Twister, drunken hopscotch, and/or a clumsy Entrapment-era Catherine Zeta-Jones.” (see: below)
“Players will live out their wildest spy fantasies and,” he adds, “tip over sometimes”, in this “large-scale physical game powered by a tarp and a pair of projectors.”
For those less limber or sure on their feet (particularly a few beers in) than Saltsman himself — seen above lithely prototyping the game in his backyard — we’ll also be toting along a few more traditional games to fill out your evening, or feel free to just gawk at the tangled bodies making their first foray across Superspy‘s playfield.
Also new this month: our JUEGOS RANCHEROS meetup will be immediately followed by the new, regular North Door appearance of Texas-area chiptune showcase TX Chip! Visit their own Facebook invite for this month’s full lineup of 8-bit wunderkind!
Doors will be open Thursday, December 5th, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702! The show is free and open to all the public — come drink, play, and meet the people changing the way you think about videogames!
Every month, as part of the regular monthly meetings of JUEGOS RANCHEROS, we do a very casual & chatty rundown of the ten or so games from the previous month for the audience, to give people — especially those curious onlookers from outside the indie community itself — a look at what they may have missed. The featured games are both local and global, and both indie and, on occasion, a bit-bigger-budget — what binds them together is simply that they’re all amazing.
In keeping with the tongue-in-tobacco-packed-cheek tone, we call these run-downs A Fistful of Indies, which are presented here for your reference, each fully annotated & linked up for your pleasure.
Hey folks! If you don’t already have your Thursday evening cleared off, make sure it’s cleared off now and come join us for Austin Chronicle’s GAME ON showcase — a free three-hour party that will highlight some of the best games coming out of Austin’s indie game scene.
The event is open to everyone and will include nearly 20 games from Austin developers, including The Stanley Parable, SoundSelf, Cosmic DJ, Fantastic Arcade game jam winner Starphonix (below), and the special dance-mat-enhanced version of A͈L͈P͈H͈A͈B͈E͈T͈ (pictured at top), from Canabalt creator Adam Saltsman and Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi. (… as well as other Keita-related surprises???)
Never got your chance to be inducted into The Jejune Institute, the amazing real-world game that transformed the city of San Francisco into a magical & mysterious playground? Then it is crucial that you join us at Austin’s North Doornext Thursday, November 7th, at 7:00PM, as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents a free screening of The Institute, the newly released documentary that takes “invites viewers down the rabbit hole into a secret underground world teeming just beneath the surface of everyday life.”
Any attempt to describe The Jejune Institute will always fall short of just how fantastic the experience was — from being first led into an intimidating Financial District skyscraper, to being given your first mission & re-emerging into the San Francisco streets to find that the clues had been around you all along, to hiking through the park with a transistor radio to pick up pirate radio broadcasts that you never knew existed & realizing that the plot was thickening by the minute.
But watching The Institute does an amazing job of carrying you along for the ride you might have missed, and introducing you to the game’s creators, participants & key figures, only to discover that behind the curtain — there are only more curtains.
Following its recent screening at the Austin Film Society, JUEGOS RANCHEROS is very excited to be able to present The Institute free of charge and open to the public, so even more of you can fall down its peculiar & enlightening rabbit-hole, in our first ever movie-night.
The presentation will begin promptly at 7:30PM, so please arrive early & in plenty of time to grab a good seat & not interrupt the film!
Doors will be open Thursday, November 7th, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702! The show is free and open to all the public — come drink, play, and meet the people changing the way you think about videogames!
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