Our celebration of multiplayer continues, and all are welcome! Come join us Thursday, February 1st, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door, as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents a fresh selection of upcoming and underground local multiplayer games, including Space Mace’s Joggernauts & more!

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

From Minneapolis indie team Space Mace, and designed by Zachary Johnson — who you’ll recognize as the co-creator of Fantastic Arcade favorite haunted retro console NESpectre — Joggernauts is a co-op party game where players overcome fast-paced obstacles by switching on the fly who is currently taking the lead. Due out for PC and consoles in the coming year, we’re giving JUEGOS RANCHEROS goers an early look at this festival favorite.

We’ll also be showing a number of other multiplayer favorites, including Tuned Out — a “punk TV broadcast of noisy arcade games”, where every game is a TV channel, and players can switch channels as they choose — created by a team of recent graduates from NYU Game Center.

We’ll be showcasing these games and more — on top of the usual ‘indie alley’ games brought in by Austin’s local game community! — Thursday, February 1st, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702, with a short introduction at 8:00PM. The show is free, all ages, and open to all the public, so come join us as we drink, play and meet the people changing the way we think about games!

You’re invited to join us Friday, January 19th at 7:00 PM at the Museum of Human Achievement for the opening exhibition of Ontology of PIMG, created by our Winter 2017/2018 resident artists, Stephanie Mendoza & Matt Henderson.

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

Henderson and Mendoza are multimedia artists from Portland, specializing in 3D/VR toolsets & creative workflows. The pair are essential members of Portland Immersive Media Group (PIMG) — a group of tech-savvy artists exploring the creative potentials of 3D/VR/AR while also engaging in critical dialogue around the implications of the increasing abundance of tech in our lives.

Together, the pair will exhibit the work created by PIMG, which arose through informal collaborative processes and evolved into interlinking worlds threaded together by spacialized interface that is part memory temple, part goodwill.

The arcade of anything event will kick off at 7:00 PM at the Museum of Human Achievement in Austin, TX. Also opening that evening will be a number of other MOHA exhibits, including Browser History, Homepage IRL presents Sean Morgan & Hiba Ali, xoxo by Material Girls, and more. 

Admission is free, but donations — which help fund this and other JUEGOS RANCHEROS programming — are warmly accepted.
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It’s the first JUEGOS RANCHEROS meetup of 2018, and we’re back with more multiplayer madness! Come join us Thursday, January 4th, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door, as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents Zodiac Mall Ball, a brand new local multiplayer game from a superstar team of developers behind games like Hyper Light Drifter, Beglitched & more!

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

Created for a 48-hour livestreamed game jam (you can find all five of the games created here), Zodiac Mall Ball is a rollerblading brawler where 2-4 players fight to gather coins and collectible pins to feed to each mall’s god, hoping to appease and curry favor with them.

The team behind the game includes Teddy Dief and Akash Thakkar, known best for their design and sound work on Hyper Light Drifter, respectively; Ethan Redd, currently working on his upcoming first-person bullet-hell mech game Blazing Legion: Ignition; and Jenny Jiao Hsia, the artist behind games like Beglitched and our Fantastic Arcade original, Pipsqueak.

In addition to Zodiac, we’ll also be showcasing more multi- and single-player games by the game’s developers, on top of the usual ‘indie alley’ games brought in by Austin’s local game community!

You can play Zodiac Mall Ball and more Thursday, January 4th, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702, with a short introduction at 8:00PM. The show is free, all ages, and open to all the public, so come join us as we drink, play and meet the people changing the way we think about games!

It’s the final JUEGOS RANCHEROS meetup of 2017, but we’re finishing strong! Be sure to join us Thursday, December 7th, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door, as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents new games from the creators of Towerfall and Starseed Pilgrim!

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

Due for release in January on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, XBox One, and Steam, Celeste is the latest game from Towerfall creator Matt Thorson, alongside Noel Berry, Amora Bettany, Pedro Medeiros, Lena Raine, and Power-Up Audio!

The team describe the game as a “hardcore mountain-climbing platformer”, which originally was developed over just 4 days for the low-bit “fantasy console”, Pico-8. You can try that version in your browser here, and you won’t believe how far it’s come since then!

In addition to that, we’ll also have the local debut of Inconsiderate Climbers, a 4-player cooperative/competitive game from Droqen, 1/4th of the indie-dev supergroup Gloam Collective, and creator of the hugely beloved puzzle platformer Starseed Pilgrim.

Created for the recent No Quarter exhibition at NYU’s Game Center, Inconsiderate Climbers starts from a traditional arcade/action foundation, but with one twist — when one player dies, they must pass their controller to a new player. Come see why it was a No Quarter favorite!

You can play both of these games and more Thursday, December 7th, at 7:00PM North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702, with a short introduction at 8:00PM. The show is free, all ages, and open to all the public, so come join us as we drink, play and meet the people changing the way we think about games!

Bring Fantastic Arcade home to you with six amazing and exclusive games, presented by Austin’s independent game collective JUEGOS RANCHEROS!

We brought together six of the most talented indie developers from around the world to create new games, all of which made their debut at our eighth-annual indie game festival, Fantastic Arcade, taking place in Austin, TX, November 17th through 19th, 2017.

[ CLICK HERE OR USE THE WIDGET BELOW TO BUY THE 2017 FANTASTIC ARCADE BUNDLE AND SUPPORT JUEGOS RANCHEROS! ]

Thanks to our distribution partner itch.io, all proceeds from the sale of this bundle benefit our non-profit organization. Help us showcase more amazing games both here in Austin and a city near you, and commission more fantastic developers to create new games like these!

Included in this bundle are all six games you see here! Here is what you’ll get:

PIPSQUEAK, by Jenny Jiao Hsia

Pipsqueak has only one purpose in life: to eat all the eggs he can find. Help Pipsqueak traverse through unseasoned terrain and vanquish any and all who get in his way.  (Windows, Mac)

Jenny Jiao Hsia is the artist behind games like Beglitched and Stellar Smooch, and is currently creating Consume Me. You can play more of her work here on itch.io.

PANIC VARIANTS, by Loren Schmidt

A collection of three projects, including one solo piece and two collaborations.

Panic Variants, by Loren Schmidt, begins as a short, branching arcade game, but opens up into something else as it is replayed and explored.

Pluinola, created with Tammy Duplantis, is an audiovisual instrument which uses cellular automata to drive sound generation.

Fossil Plant Slideshow, by KR Pipkin and Loren Schmidt (collectively, Withering Systems) is a diorama piece involving an interior design boutique. (Windows, Mac, Linux)

Loren Schmidt is the creator of Strawberry Cubes, Realistic Kissing Simulator and the IGF-nominated Star Guard. You can find more of their work here on itch.io.

ROTOR, by Connor Mccann

The base is breached! Navigate malfunctioning drones through the defense grid to discover the secrets of an invading anomaly. ROTOR is an abstract arcade game featuring an original soundtrack by Asthmatic Kitty recording artist Chris Schlarb. (Windows, Mac)

Conor Mccann is a Texas-based artist best known for his Mystic Western Game Jam game Black Gold, and many more games and experiments found right here on itch.io.

In addition to his extensive discography, Chris Schlarb’s work has also featured in videogames including Dropsy and NightSky, available on PC and Nintendo 3DS.

THE STAKES ARE TOO HIGH, by Fernando Ramallo

An endless stream of experiments from the GAME THAT NEVER WAS! Witness a shocking peek into the Artist’s mind as they delve deep into the AMERICAN HEALTHCARE SYSTEM! (Windows, Mac)

Fernando Ramallo is the creator of the incredible interactive music/landscape app Panoramical.

BANANA CHALICE, by Kyle Reimergarten

CAT DREAM WORLD OF BANANAS
FJORDS 2  (Windows)

Kyle Reimergartin is the developer behind our long-time favorite game Fjords, as well as a number of other tiny games and experiments available here on itch.io.

[NOTE: Though we refer to it simply as Banana Chalice, this bundle-exclusive version’s actual title is: Near My Sins // Awaken Thy Blood [newline] or, Never Feel Pain X274 Captured Beast Banana Chalice (_FROGDIRECTION360 rancheros dream SHAREWARE VISION) Everlastic Legacy of Jazz. -ed.]

FORGET-ME-NOT, by Brandon Williamson

Mazes and monsters and mushrooms and flowers and witches and potions and eyeballs and tombstones and turners and dashers and grinders and slimers, and bombs, and bombs, and bombs. Plagued with the curse of autofire, you roam the corridors of Forget-Me-Not forever, in search of a cure for your beloved… (Windows, Linux) (Mac version is forthcoming & will be available to all who purchased the bundle when it is available!)

Brandon Williamson is known best for the original Forget-Me-Not, and has a number of other game and music projects available for download at nyarlu.net.

Want to get the first look at the amazing games coming to this year’s Fantastic Arcade? Then be sure to join us Thursday, November 2nd, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door, as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents an international handful of Spotlight and Showcase festival favorites!

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

We’ve just announced all 30+ games coming to this year’s Fantastic Arcade — both our 10 Spotlight games and more than 20 Showcase selections — and want to give you an early peek at some you still can’t play anywhere else!

Games appearing on Thursday will include:

10 Beautiful Postcards (thecatamites)

A “dream computer tripadvisor”, from the creator of Fantastic Arcade favorite, Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murder Dog.

Freeways (Captain Games)

You are a traffic engineer.

Draw freeway interchanges.

Optimize for efficiency and avoid traffic jams.

Overpass (Studio Bean)

Overpass is a rhythm adventure game celebrating form and space in motion. The player must move with the beat on a journey through 3D scapes in order to uncover the truth of the future.

You can play all of these games and more Thursday, November 2nd, at 7:00PM North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702, with a short introduction at 8:00PM. The show is free, all ages, and open to all the public, so come join us as we drink, play and meet the people changing the way we think about games!