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 curious onlookers from 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, each fully annotated & linked up for your pleasure.

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As the holiday season winds down, we want to help ring in the new year with a bang (& a slice), so join us next Thursday, January 2nd, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents a selection of multiplayer games, headlined by Teknopants‘ just-released instant-classic Samurai Gunn.

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

Samurai Gunn made a strong debut right here in Austin during 2012’s Fantastic Arcade, which first propelled it into the public eye. Now fantastically polished, further expanded, and given one of 2013’s best game soundtracks by underground hip-hop legend Doseone, we’ll be presenting this “lightning-fast Bushido brawler” on the big screen for a low-key but high-action multiplayer night.

We’ll have an additional lineup to-be-announced multiplayer games on hand as well — possibly along with a few prizes for the best samurai in town — so be sure to bone up on your sword/gunn-play over the next week & join us in making the new year memorable, straight off the bat.

Everything will be kicking off Thursday, January 2nd, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702! The show is free and open to all the public — come drink, play, and meet the people changing the way you think about videogames!

As you’ve by now probably heard, JUEGOS RANCHEROS is now an Austin Creative Alliance sponsored group, meaning that we can now accept cash & in-kind donations via ACA that are tax-deductible for you.

And while we haven’t yet pulled together anything as formal as the membership drive currently being put together by our friends at Babycastles, all of our internal discussions keep coming back to one thing: all we want for Xmas is one Windows laptop.

As Adam mentioned in his post, every public event we put on results in a mad scramble to beg/borrow/steal hardware from friends & family for you to play games on, and having the freedom to know that we had official, reliable JUEGOS hardware would be an unbelievable first step for us.

We don’t exactly have a dream machine, but something along the lines of this Lenovo laptop is a good start — quad-core, pretty future-proof & able to handle whatever we throw at it.

That’s a big “ask” though, but we also know that local studios frequently upgrade their own desktop/laptop hardware at the end of the year, and would like to remind everyone that you can get an additional tax writeoff by giving JUEGOS your last-year’s models — everything helps!

We’re also always in need of additional hardware like wired Xbox 360 controllers for Windows, 25″+ HDMI widescreen monitors, non-powered 4-8 port USB hubs & USB extension cables, over-the-ear headphones, wired mice, powerstrips & more!

If you or someone you know might be able to help us reach our goal of a single, nice, reliable Windows laptop by the end of the year — or any other donations that can help us better serve Austin’s indie community! — please let us know by emailing juegosrancheros@gmail.com & we can help guide you through the donation process!

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 curious onlookers from 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, each fully annotated & linked up for your pleasure.

(more…)

You know him best as the designer behind games like Canabalt, Hundreds and his Keita Takahashi collaboration A͈L͈P͈H͈A͈B͈E͈T͈, but next Thursday, December 5th, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door, JUEGOS RANCHEROS will present Breakdancing Superspy — a brand-new physical game being created by Austin’s own Adam Saltsman.

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

In the grand tradition of body-bending games previously featured at JUEGOS RANCHEROS & Fantastic Arcade like MEGA-GIRP & MEGA-A͈L͈P͈H͈A͈B͈E͈T͈, Saltsman describes the game as “a race to be the fastest to complete an awkward obstacle course that resembles single-player Twister, drunken hopscotch, and/or a clumsy Entrapment-era Catherine Zeta-Jones.” (see: below)

“Players will live out their wildest spy fantasies and,” he adds, “tip over sometimes”, in this “large-scale physical game powered by a tarp and a pair of projectors.”

For those less limber or sure on their feet (particularly a few beers in) than Saltsman himself — seen above lithely prototyping the game in his backyard — we’ll also be toting along a few more traditional games to fill out your evening, or feel free to just gawk at the tangled bodies making their first foray across Superspy‘s playfield.

Also new this month: our JUEGOS RANCHEROS meetup will be immediately followed by the new, regular North Door appearance of Texas-area chiptune showcase TX Chip! Visit their own Facebook invite for this month’s full lineup of 8-bit wunderkind!

Doors will be open Thursday, December 5th, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702! The show is free and open to all the public — come drink, play, and meet the people changing the way you think about videogames!

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 curious onlookers from 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, each fully annotated & linked up for your pleasure.

(more…)