Want to take a first-person trip through the breathing, blossoming landscape of a colorful cloud village? Then join us Thursday, May 7th, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents the work of Montreal’s Paloma Dawkins, including Gardenarium, her just-launched debut psychedelic exploration game.

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

The most recent addition to Montreal’s KO-OP Mode game collective, Dawkins first landed on our collective radar with her appearance at last year’s Fantastic Arcade, and pretty much instantly became a local favorite. The recent release of Gardenarium — which she describes simply as “a chill adventure taking place on a cloud in the sky” — has only strengthened that love.

We’ll be giving Austin a chance to play Gardenarium as it’s meant to be played: filling our entire field of vision on the ND’s massive two-story screen, along with some of Dawkins’ older but no-less-characteristically psychedelic games.

We’ll also be screening some of her earlier assorted shorts & videos, which perfectly demonstrate her sensibilities and illustrate why we’re so excited to see what she cooks up next.

As part of the event, we’ll be bringing Dawkins in via Skype to talk more about her games, animations, illustrations and comics, answer any questions you might have, and maybe, possibly get a first look at new projects on the horizon.

Gardenarium will be playable Thursday, May 7th, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702! The show is free 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!

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 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.

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[NOTE: because of scheduling conflicts, this JUEGOS RANCHEROS show will take place Wednesday, April 1st instead of our usual Thursday night! We’ll be back to the regular Thursday shows in May! We promise this is not an April Fools joke!]

Love the likes of X-COM, Oregon Trail and roadtrips across a ruined American landscape? Then join us Wednesday, April 1st, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents the local debut of Overland, the forthcoming tactical survival game from Austin’s own Finji.

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

Just back from a critically acclaimed first showing at San Francisco’s Game Developers Conference, Finji will be giving Austin an early opportunity to play the game, in which “players scavenge fuel and other supplies as they head directly into the heart of a cataclysm” which has produced “a hardly-recognizable America.”

As part of the event, members of the development team — which include Austin locals Adam Saltsman, Shay Pierce & Jocelyn Reyes, in addition to LA’s Heather Penn — will give a short presentation on both the influences & design goals of the game, in advance of its desktop/tablet release later this year.

Overland will be playable Wednesday, April 1st, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702! The show is free 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 some of the best independent games of 2015? Then join us Thursday, February 5th, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents a selection of games recently nominated for top awards at this year’s Independent Games Festival.

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

With the festival headed to the expo floor of the Game Developers Conference in March, JUEGOS RANCHEROS will be showcasing a number of this year’s finalists — jury selected from a pool of over 1000 entries — from the Main competition as well as the Student Showcase, ahead of the IGF’s official ceremony on Wednesday, March 4th, 2015.

All the games — including some not yet available to the public! — will be playable beginning this Thursday, February 5th, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702! The show is free 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!

In some horrible twist of Gregorian fate, the first Thursday of the new year lands directly on the first actual day of the new year, so come nurse your holiday hangover in a dark room this Thursday, January 1st, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door, where we’ll be screening two episodes of our local favorite TV show: GameCenter CX.

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

If you’re unfamiliar with the legacy of GameCenter CX (now in its 18th season in Japan, and sometimes known stateside as Retro Game Master), the premise is simple: comedian Shinya Arino is confined to a room and made to marathon-complete retro games from the NES forward in a single sitting.

This can, on rare occasion, simply take until sundown — more often, the brutal difficulty can push game sessions well past midnight, where Arino’s exhaustion ratchets up the challenge.

While the prospect of watching a middle-aged man play an 8-bit game to completion may not sound like the most thrilling way to ring in the new year, we can promise that skilled editing — and the universal sense of triumph that comes from seeing someone overcome adversity that many of us painfully recall from our own youth — makes this honestly one of the best TV shows about videogames ever created.

We’ll be screening two episodes: the first starting quite promptly after 7pm, followed by a short intermission, and the second up until the venue’s next act. It’s OK if you show up feeling as bad as you look — probably all of us will be.

Come spend the evening with us this Thursday, January 1st, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702! The screening is free and open to the public. We’ll be back to our usual, brighter-eyed and bushier-tailed programming in February!

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 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.

(more…)