Presented below is the latest in our regular series of indie games both local and global worth paying attention to, fully annotated & linked up for your pleasure — now regularly cross-posted to the newly launched Venus Patrol!
Want to meet the creators of 2012’s breakaway hit Dishonored, learn more about Sony’s first-person paint-em-up The Unfinished Swan and take the role of a Cosmic DJ in a late-night dance party? Then join us Thursday, January 3rd, at 7:00PM as JUEGOS RANCHEROS returns at its new night and ND Austin venue, where we’ll be featuring an unbelievably awesome triple-header bill.
[ RSVP FOR THIS EVENT AND INVITE YOUR FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK BY CLICKING HERE! ]
We’ll kick off the night with directors’ commentary from Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith, co-creators of Arkane’s Dishonored, more or less unanimously praised as the 2012 Game of the Year. They’ll be in conversation with Tiger Style’s Randy Smith, and will be on hand to answer all of your questions about the mechanics, the conception and the lore behind the wildly imaginative & viscerally thrilling adventure through Dunwall.
Following that, we’ll be joined by special guest star Ben Esposito, lead level designer on Giant Sparrow’s PlayStation 3 exclusive The Unfinished Swan, who will guide us through its fantastically charming storybook world, as well as give us a taste of the other independent game creations coming from this rising indie star developer.
As if that weren’t enough, we’ll then kick off the night in full dance-party style with a live performance of Cosmic DJ, the upcoming iPad game from Austin’s own GL33K, self-described as “a drum machine that loves you”, which will allow you, the player, to help create the music in real-time, as you can see near the end of GL33K’s preview video above.
And finally, as part of the city’s “Free Week” series of free, live music performances, we’ll also be joined by Austin’s own Total Unicorn, who’ll finish out the night in their own inimitable electro-psychedelic style demonstrated above.
Everything will be kicking off Thursday, January 3rd, at 7:00PM at ND Austin, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702! The show is free and open to all the public — come drink, dance, and meet the people changing the way you think about videogames!
Hello everyone! With the closing of the Highball until sometime in 2013, we’ll have some big changes coming over the next couple months, so here’s the full run down of what’ll be happening through December and into the new year!
First & foremost, as you might have seen at our last meetup, even though the Highball will temporarily be gone, that doesn’t mean our meetings will end! Instead, we’ll be moving to a new day, and a new venue: specifically, starting on January 3rd, we’ll be relocating to the amazing ND Austin, located at E 5th & Brushy, for regular meetups on the first Thursday of every month.
This means that no longer will you have to drag your tired bones out of bed on the middle of a Sunday afternoon: these will be night-time meetups starting around 7:30PM and running for as long as you’re happy to stay there! If you haven’t already visited ND for a Nerd Nite / Dorkbot meetup or a show, you’re in for a treat: the space not only has a stage, but a massive two-story screen that will be fantastic for projecting games. They also have good drinks, and (speaking from experience!) great tamales and queso at their bar around back. We’re super grateful for the ND for taking us in!
What this also means is that our originally scheduled December 5th meetup will be delayed to January 3rd, BUT! We’ll still be getting together this month as a part of Make Watch Love Austin, an all-night expo and preview of the new space that’s being opened by our friends at the Austin Film Society. The event will be taking place Saturday, December 8th, from 5-9PM, and, as JUEGOS, we’ll be bringing back local-favorite JOHANN SEBASTIAN JOUST to spread the love to Austin’s wider creative community.
Tickets and more information are available from the Austin Film Society event page!
Finally, if you’d like a more direct way to stay on top of what’s happening with JUEGOS than our Twitter / Facebook page / this here site, we’re setting up a new email distribution list with Google Groups. For now, it’ll be ‘announcement-only’ so we can directly contact you about upcoming events, but we’re looking into eventually expanding the list to help solidify and grow Austin’s community of videogame creators and lovers.
If you’d like to join the group, just visit this Google Groups page and click the ‘Join group’ button!
We’ll have even more exciting JUEGOS announcements as we roll into the new year, so stay tuned for those, and looking forward to seeing you all at one of our events soon!
Presented below is the latest in our regular series of indie games both local and global worth paying attention to, fully annotated & linked up for your pleasure — now regularly cross-posted to the newly launched Venus Patrol!
Want to play the next hit game by the designers that brought you super stylish successes CANABALT and SOLIPSKIER before anyone else? Then join us this Sunday, November 4th, at 4PM for our sixteenth edition of JUEGOS RANCHEROS at The Highball, where we’ll be presenting the Texas premiere of HUNDREDS, the upcoming iPhone and iPad game from designers Greg Wohlwend (SOLIPSKIER, GASKETBALL), Austin’s own Semi Secret (WURDLE, CANABALT, GRAVITY HOOK) and ambient electronic musician Scott Morgan, aka Loscil.
[ RSVP FOR THIS EVENT AND INVITE YOUR FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK BY CLICKING HERE! ]
Semi Secret describe the game as “an abstract, minimalist, arcade-puzzle game designed specifically for touch screens featuring 100 carefully crafted levels” which “teaches a variety of increasing complex gameplay ideas without tutorials, tells a strange story in an unconventional way, and allows players to play at their own pace, cooperatively or solitaire.”
I describe it as one of the best iPad games I’ve played in ages, which instantly ensnares you into its gorgeously & clinically austere universe — every single person I’ve seen that’s laid just a tentative finger on it has immediately fallen down its rabbit hole and not emerged for hours. Now it’s your chance to find out why!
Everything will be kicking off Sunday, November 4th, promptly at 4PM at The Highball, 1142 S Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78704! Come early to get a head-start on unravelling the mystery of HUNDREDS, enjoy the Highball’s Happy Hour drink specials, and say hello to the people changing the way you think about games!
Presented below is the latest in our regular series of indie games both local and global worth paying attention to, fully annotated & linked up for your pleasure — now regularly cross-posted to the newly launched Venus Patrol!
