Ready for another inspiring night of contemplative & beautiful games? Then be sure to join us next Thursday, June 2nd, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door, as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents the work of Klondike, France’s staggeringly talented independent game collective.

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

You may have caught a few games made by Klondike members at various prior Fantastic Arcades — or even all the way back to our first Marfa Film Festival installation — but we’ve never had an entire night devoted to the group’s collected work, until now.

Collectively hailing from various points around France, the ten-strong group of developers (some of whom gave an overview of the collective’s formation at a 2015 Fantastic Arcade talk you can watch in its entirety here) has established itself as an incredibly prolific powerhouse of understated games with bold & beautiful aesthetics — as evidenced by even a cursory glance at their website.

For our special “Introducing: Klondike” show, we’ll be bringing along a wide selection of games from all the diverse members of the group, including Orchids to Dusk (the video above), from member Pol Clarissou, Titouan Millet’s brilliantly opaque and mysterious Mu Cartographer (the screenshot above), and much, much more.

good place to chill 🌿☀🌷📙 pic.twitter.com/YCbEzfLWDO

— Muffin (◕ฺー≦)ノ (@dzifyr) April 4, 2016

Our selection of Klondike games will be playable Thursday, June 2nd, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702. 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!

Love bizarre, colorful, playful games like Katamari Damacy, Hohokum and Donut County? Then you will definitely want to join us this Thursday, May 5th, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door, as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents the work of Sokpop, one of our new favorite independent game collectives.

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

Collectively hailing from the Netherlands, and made up of members Tom van den Boogart, Aran Koning, Tijmen Tio & Rubna, the new supergroup has quickly established itself one of the most reliably creative forces working in games, alongside groups like KO_OP Mode, Arcane Kids and Klondike.

For our special “Introducing: Sokpop” show, we’ll be bringing along a wide selection of games from all of the members of the group, including Digital Bird Playground, Koning’s On The Hunt, rubna’s Noodle Ramen, and much more.

Here's my #LDJAM entry:https://t.co/BbRudFKTu7 pic.twitter.com/zEGYgvWqsV

— Diamond Tio (@TijmenTio) April 18, 2016

Our selection of Sokpop games will be playable Thursday, May 5th, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702. 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!

Hey developers: ready to join us again this year for another round of Fantastic Arcade? You now have until July 13th to submit your game for consideration as one of this year’s showcase games!

[ CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR GAME FOR FANTASTIC ARCADE 2016! ]

The 2016 edition of Fantastic Arcade will once again be taking place at Austin’s South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse & Highball lounge, from September 26th through the 29th, during the second week of the Fantastic Fest film festival.

Shortly after the July 13th deadline, the JUEGOS RANCHEROS board will begin the selection process to determine which games from among your submissions will be showcased during Fantastic Arcade. All of the games selected will be accessible to both festival attendees and the general public, for free, in a casual atmosphere of camaraderie and love for games.

If you’d like to submit a game, you can do so now by accessing this form before July 13th. We look forward to playing all of your submissions, and especially to seeing you all in September for this year’s Arcade!

Always wanted to become a tennis pro without the hassle of finding a partner to play against? Then join us this Thursday, April 7th, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door, as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents VRUnicorn’s virtual-reality solo-tennis simulator, #SelfieTennis.

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

Freshly announced as the first VR game published by Austin’s own Devolver Digital, #SelfieTennis more or less instantly became one of our favorite things to do with the Vive.

It’s the Wii Sports/Mario Tennis virtual reality needed: a super colorful, super simple & super accessible sports game, where the catch is that you’re always playing against yourself.

Lob a ball across the net & you’re instantly transported to the opposite side of the court, where you can return your own serve and keep the ball in play as long as you can, or simply give in to your own frustration and find your own fun by pinging your ball against the heads of the court’s deliriously cheerful on-lookers.

Devolver will be providing some of the night’s best players with keys for the game (which is currently on sale on Steam!) so you can continue your quest for mastery back home. With some luck, we may even have a quick hello from one of the VRUnicorns themselves, and ample opportunities to tweet out a gif of yourself playing via the newly-added in-game selfie stick.

♥♥♥❤❤❤ #SelfieTennis ❤❤❤♥♥♥ pic.twitter.com/oJuQayOnAF

— Julie Heyde (@JulieHeyde) April 1, 2016

#SelfieTennis will be playable Thursday, April 7th, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702. 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 to kick off 2016 with a night of firsts? Our first JUEGOS RANCHEROS meetup of the new year is also our first very special virtual reality presentation: join us this Thursday, January 7th, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door, as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents KOKOROMI’s first-person puzzler, SUPERHYPERCUBE.

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

Making its debut on Sony’s highly anticipated PlayStation VR platform, KOKOROMI describes SUPERHYPERCUBE as a retro-future game in which you float through virtual world, rotating a cluster of cubes to narrowly fit through an endless stream of form-fitting walls.

Inspired by the user interfaces and analog special effects of classic films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner & Xanadu, SUPERHYPERCUBE is one of our first favorite VR games, which has us as excited for the upcoming wave of new & more immersive games as anything else we’ve seen.

Members of KOKOROMI — the videogames/art collective originally formed in Montreal in 2006 — will be on hand for a short presentation, and to gently guide you through your first dip into the game’s warm and analog world, previously only seen at special events like XOXO and the PlayStation Experience.

SUPERHYPERCUBE will be playable Thursday, January 7th, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702. 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!

Better late than never, we’ve just released video of nearly every session that took place at this year’s Fantastic Arcade for your at-home perusal. Included in the full playlist above are nearly 30 sessions by developers including Double Fine and Arcane Kids, and our usual selection of amazing tournaments like ROCKET LEAGUE and VIDEOBALL.

[NOTE: a few of our live-streamed videos — including our N++ tournament and Wheels of Aurelia developer commentary — have been automatically muted & otherwise blocked by both Twitch & YouTube Content ID systems. We’re working to restore as much of these sessions as we’re able to & host them where we can, as we have with Sam Barlow’s Her Story session below!]

You can find a direct link to the entire playlist here, which will also be mirrored at Fantastic Arcade’s official YouTube account, where you can also find more videos from Fantastic Arcades past.

Once you’ve made your way through them all, you can also find an extensive archive of Fantastic Arcade 2014 videos here, including official Nidhogg, Gang Beasts, Towerfall & Nuclear Throne tournaments, as well as sessions on Grim Fandango, Donut County & more!