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!

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Returning once again to our regular Fistful of Indies series — with the latest selection of indie games both local and global worth paying attention to released over the prior month — this time we’ve put together a list with over six hundred games, presented at our fifth event.

Fully annotated for your pleasure, for the convenience of both event-goers and — hopefully — the wider world of indie game enthusiasts, here’s the list for September 2011:

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What do you get when you mix one part METROID, one part 1970’s-era sci-fi film, and one part… gardening?! Find out this Sunday, September 4th, at 4PM, at our fifth edition of JUEGOS RANCHEROS at the Highball, as Austin-local indie studio Tiger Style give us the first in-progress look at their much-anticipated new game, LOST MARS.

[ RSVP FOR THIS EVENT AND INVITE YOUR FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK BY CLICKING HERE! ]

It’s been just over two years since the release of SPIDER: THE SECRET OF BRYCE MANOR, Tiger Style’s multiple award-winning debut iPhone adventure. At the time, they were a fresh-faced upstart with pedigree that included some of gaming’s most revered franchises like THIEF and SPLINTER CELL, and even did time on Steven Spielberg’s ill-fated secret project “LMNO”.

That game provided an experience much richer and more deep than nearly anything available on the App Store at the time, and showed, early on, not only that the iPhone stood a strong chance of being a true contender in the gaming space, but that Tiger Style itself was a studio worth watching closely.

Tiger Style hasn’t let much slip over those years about what they’ve been cooking up, outside of bits and pieces scattered around designer Randy Smith’s regular column for UK games magazine Edge, but the studio promises a full presentation on the new game, which sees the player “trapped in exotic and dangerous caverns, researching, reviving and cultivating ancient life to uncover the lost mysteries of a forgotten planet.”

Following the presentation, attendees will be the first people anywhere to play the game for themselves and delve deeper into its uniquely atmospheric and moody take on sci-fi action-gardening (!). From what little I’ve been able to play, it’s shaping up to be every bit as smart and engaging as SPIDER was, if not more. You’re not going to want to miss this one!

[You can see a whole slew of first screenshots of LOST MARS over at Tiger Style’s new blog!]

Everything will be kicking off Sunday, September 4th, promptly at 4PM at The Highball, 1142 S Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78704! Come hang out, enjoy the Highball’s Happy Hour drink specials, and say hello to the people changing the way you think about games!

[*PS: Hey everyone! As usual, bring your 3DS again! We’re doing awesome with these StreetPasses!]

TEXATRON Initiative: Phase One Mission Log

On Tuesday, Juegos attendees Paul Harrison and Will Marsden picked me up in a decadent white minivan, whereupon we drove up to north Austin to the secret headquarters of Nintendo satellite developer Retro Studios (Metroid Prime, Donkey Kong Country Returns).  Retro employee Matt Manchester met us out back by the loading dock, where we surreptitiously loaded a very-good-condition Pac Man refurb cabinet into the aforementioned van and hauled it back to my garage in south Austin.  The cabinet was tagged with a piece of printer paper, stating “out of order – research repair cost.”

My firm belief is that after researching said repair cost, it was deemed thoroughly not worth it.  And thus, like dumpster diving nerds, Juegos Rancheros collected the first artifact (of many) required to assemble the legendary TEXATRON.

Check out that phosphor burn-in! Don't worry, refurb Pac Man cabinet. We will restore you to a former glory never imagined!

Now, it is my profound pleasure to announce that the TEXATRON Initiative: Phase Two is officially underway!

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After a short break, we’re now back on track with our regular Fistful of Indies series, with the latest selection of indie games both local and global worth paying attention to released over the prior month, presented at our fourth event.

Fully annotated for your pleasure, for the convenience of both event-goers and — hopefully — the wider world of indie game enthusiasts, here’s the list for August 2011:

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Thanks to everyone who came out yesterday afternoon to get a glimpse of what’s to come with our TEXATRON initiative! Alec gave an awesome speech about the philosophy & the friendship behind the Winnitron, we got a ton of positive feedback about bringing it to Austin, and a number of you have already expressed interest in helping us make the TEXATRON amazing!

We’ll be keeping track of everyone who wants to volunteer their time, energy & goodwill to the project and sending out a newsletter as we need people. If you’d like to help, simply send an email to:

and we’ll make sure you’re in the loop!

For everyone else that simply wants to follow our efforts, point your Twitter streams in the direction of:

and we’ll let you know when there’s something to know. We look forward to talking more about it with you all soon!