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!

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!

Following our announcement of brand new games from the artists behind Panoramical, Beglitched, Fjords and Strawberry Cubes making their debut at Fantastic Arcade, we have just announced more than 20 additional games rounding out this year’s showcase lineup.

The games join the 10 previously-announced Spotlight games coming to Austin, TX’s Alamo Drafthouse Mueller this November 17-19th, and were chosen by JUEGOS RANCHEROS from the hundreds of games submitted from developers around the world.

This year’s showcase games will include long-anticipated breakouts like Capy’s dungeon crawler Below (above), the Junji Ito-inspired point and click adventure World of Horror (pictured at top) and Wilmot’s Warehouse, the latest game from the creators of Hohokum and last year’s Audience Choice award winner, Loot Rascals. All of the 20+ showcase games coming to this year’s festival are listed in full below the fold.

In addition to the new games, we are also announcing the theme for this year’s Fantastic Arcade Gamemaking Frenzy. Games submitted during the two-week game jam will be exhibited at Fantastic Arcade’s game-show-like live finale, Starcade.

This year’s theme is Phony Island, in homage to Fantastic Arcade’s new home — Alamo Drafthouse’s boardwalk carnival-esque bar, the Barrel O Fun. The jam will be open to developers from around the world to submit their best 2-player microgame in the style of an almost-but-just-this-side-of-not-copyright-infringing carnival games (above photo credit).

The two-week game jam will kick off Monday, October 30th at itch.io’s #phonyisland jam site, with a submission deadline of Sunday, November 12th, at 11:59pm CST.

In the coming weeks, Fantastic Arcade will also be announcing its full lineup of its special nightly tournaments — an annual fan-favorite tradition — exposition plays, panel discussions, developer talks, and much more.

Tickets for Fantastic Arcade are available now at its website. Now a fully independent festival, Juegos Rancheros would like to remind all attendees, developers and staff that the event is covered by our Safe Spaces Policy, which can be reviewed in its entirety at the Fantastic Arcade website.

This year’s Showcase games will be created by:

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Want to get the first look at an amazing new game from QWOP and GIRP creator Bennett Foddy? Then be sure to join us Thursday, October 5th, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door, as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy.

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

Foddy’s games are renowned for being equal parts both brutally punishing and brutally hilarious, and Getting Over It is no different. A fantastically self-aware homage to Sexy Hiking — an infamous (and similarly infamously difficult) indie game from the early 2000s — the game tests players ability to traverse a mountain using only the swing of a hammer.

Coming to Humble Monthly on Friday, October 6th (and with a full Steam release in early December), we’ll be giving Austin players their first hands on with Getting Over It, as well as a selection of other classics from Bennett’s back catalog.

Foddy promises “great mysteries and a wonderful reward” to “the master hikers who reach the top of the mountain”. Will we witness an entire run over the course of the night? Why is the man in a pot? These answers may well be answered in just a few days’ time.

You can play Getting Over It Thursday, October 5th, 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!

Ready for another look at amazing games from here in Austin and around the world? Then be sure to join us Thursday, September 7th, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door, as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents another mixtape of fantastic independent games.

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

We’ll be bringing another selection of fantastic new and just-released single and multiplayer games, including a special look at Yo! Noid 2, a perfectly-imagined PlayStation/Nintendo 64-era licensed platformer that never actually was.

Created by an indie team for a recent game jam organized by fans of the videogame site Waypoint, Yo! Noid 2 is an unofficial “sequel” to the NES game released by Capcom in 1990, starring Domino’s Pizza’s almost-forgotten original mascot.

Though every bit as tongue in cheek as, say, the unlicensed output of groups like Arcane Kids, Noid 2 is also an honestly great platformer — one that leads you though pizza-box wormholes into the Noid Void and beyond (which you can get a brief taste of below, courtesy Extra Life).

We’ll have that and other fun surprises Thursday, September 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!

Ready for another round of first looks at amazing upcoming games? Then be sure to join us Thursday, August 3rd, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door, as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents a new mixtape of Summer 2017 favorites.

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

We’ll be bringing another selection of fantastic new and just-released single and multiplayer games, including a special sneak peek at a new game from the team that brought you one of 2015’s top action games, Titan Souls.

The Postbirb is dedicated to delivering your letters. pic.twitter.com/TugTgEVDuG

— GLEESON ❄️ (@_andrio) July 20, 2017

First created for this year’s Train Jam — a week-long game jam which takes place every year on an Amtrak en route from Chicago to San Francisco for the Game Developer’s Conference — Postbirb is a tiny and very cute adventure from Titan Souls creators Andrew Gleeson and David Fenn with art & writing from Kate Gray.

We’ll have that and other fun surprises Thursday, August 3rd, 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!