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.
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.
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 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.
It’s been challenging, sure, but it’s also been our complete pleasure to help bring the most amazing and inspiring new independent games to the public every month for absolutely free. And it almost goes without saying that we couldn’t do it without our volunteers or our awesome venue partners, like the Alamo Drafthouse, the North Door, and SXSW Gaming.
Over the course of the last couple years though, some rough patterns have emerged. The main thing we’ve noticed is that our preparation process and display equipment leave a lot to be desired. We are really happy with how our events have all come together, but that’s only been possible through a lot of last-minute panic and mountains of emails every month as we collect whatever laptops and desktops and monitors we can get our hands on the week before. It’s gotten to the point where having some dedicated equipment, especially some laptops and game controllers, would actually make a huge difference, in the quality of our monthly events especially.
However, buying a handful of laptops out of pocket is a bit rough. Becoming a full nonprofit organization would allow us to accept donations more easily, but there’s a ton of overhead involved. This is why we are so happy to announce that JUEGOS RANCHEROS is now an Austin Creative Alliance sponsored organization. In a nutshell, this means that we can now accept both cash and in-kind donations, via ACA, with negligible extra overhead for us as a group.
By accepting donations of equipment we can streamline the preparation and execution of our monthly events, which in turn gives us the flexibility to put on even more and better free events throughout the year. Even cash donations can be a huge help: we can purchase new equipment ourselves, or put the funds toward covering venue rental fees for our longer workshops. Our ACA sponsorship will make it easier to work with local school and art venues without losing or overcomplicating that special JUEGOS RANCHEROS sauce.
So, with this news, what does JR look like going forward? Basically the same, only better, and more of it, with a bit less stress for us organizers. More workshops, more fostering of Austin’s independent and artful games culture, more TEXATRONs, and more FREE monthly events. With your help, and the support of the Austin Creative Alliance, JR’s third year is looking like the best ever.
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.
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!
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