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If you have any questions about any of our opportunities, don’t hesitate to get in touch by email at juegosrancheros@gmail.com and we’ll be in touch to talk more!
As you may have seen by now, we have just announced our plans for this year’s Fantastic Arcade — the yearly games festival we curate and organize at the Alamo Drafthouse alongside the theater’s renowned genre film fest, Fantastic Fest.
Most excitingly, as we did last year, JUEGOS RANCHEROS has commissioned brand new games which will premiere at the festival, from some of our favorite devs, many of whom will be familiar to attendees of our recent meetups (this was our secret orientation plan!).
We’ll also have a new game from Netherlands collective Sokpop, made up of the devs behind games like the incredible low-fi sci-fi exploration game Bernband (above left), as well as Klondike, the French indie supergroup whose members include the devs of games like Mu Cartographer and the KO_OP-published Orchids to Dusk (above right).
In addition to that, we’ll also be constructing a brand new cabinet for ALPHABET (above), the game co-created by Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy designer Keita Takahashi and JUEGOS RANCHEROS co-founder Adam Saltsman. The game was previously only available to Kickstarter backers, and is now being given a wider exhibition for all Fantastic Fest and Fantastic Arcade attendees.
Below the fold is the first press release for the upcoming 2016 Arcade with more information on our arcade cabinets and the first ten games we’ve chosen as our Spotlight selections.
I’ve taken the liberty of adding a number of links, images and videos to all the games detailed below for better context — scroll to the bottom to take a longer look! All of us here are looking forward to seeing you all at this year’s Arcade!
Want to get the first, best look at what’s happening in indie games around Japan? Then be sure to join us Thursday, August 4th, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door, as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents a free, all-ages screening of Branching Paths, the just-released documentary about the burgeoning games community rising up in Tokyo and Kyoto.
The documentary was directed by Anne Ferrero, a Paris transplant who is also behind Toco Toco TV, a YouTube/broadcast show that serves as a fascinating deep dive into the broader Tokyo creative community (games fans will want to be sure to watch her recent episode with Deadly Premonition & D4 creator Swery 65, one of Japan’s top cult/auteur game directors).
For Branching Paths, she’s taken all of that curiosity and eye for beautiful filmwork and cast her lens on the two-year rise of indie game dev in Japan from 2013-2015.
Featured developers include a number of familiar faces, most notably Ojiro ‘Moppin‘ Fumoto (as well as occasional creative partner & incredible artist Momo ‘nemk‘ Murakami), whose work on Downwell is perfectly encapsulated in that timeline from his first prototypes to the release of the game and its nomination in the Independent Games Festival.
You’ll also see: PixelJunk Eden creator Baiyon (another familiar face to long-time Fantastic Arcade-goers), Castlevania: Symphony of the Night creator gone-indie IGA, and Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune, as well as a number of Western developers who have settled in Japan, like 17-Bit‘s Jake Kazdal, Oquonie developers Devine Lu Linvega & Rekka Bellum, Pico-8 creator Joseph White, and Papers, Please creator Lucas Pope.
Of special interest to JUEGOS RANCHEROS regulars is the documentary’s focus on founding and flourishing of local communities of game developers that provide the lifeline and constant source of inspiration for fellow developers still not entirely convinced it’s possible to make it as an indie.
We’ll start the film at 7:45pm after a short introduction, so be sure to arrive on time, August 4th, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702 to get a prime seat. The show is free, all ages, and open to all the public, so come join us as we drink and get a fascinating look at the folks abroad changing the way we think about games!
Greetings from the West Texas high desert town of Marfa, where for the third year JUEGOS RANCHEROS has presented a selection of games at the Marfa Film Festival!
As you’ve probably seen by now, we brought out a number of games from our recent Mystic Western Game Jam (which saw nearly 50 games entered from developers all around the world), which we’ve installed here in the old Chamber of Commerce office suite at the historic Paisano Hotel.
We’ll be set up here through the end of the festival on Sunday, but if you weren’t able to make it out, we’ve got good news: we’ll be bringing our selections back home to Austin for a special exhibition in our indie arcade space, the Museum of Human Amusement, next Friday, July 22nd.
We’ll have all the game stations we brought out west available, alongside drinks and other music performances and projections starting at 8PM and going until everyone’s had their fill.
[Special thanks also to our new friends at Big Bend Brewing — our actual favorite West Texas beer — for providing the drinks for our Austin show!]
Below the fold, we’ve included the mini-poster we’ve papered Marfa with, which we’ll also have for sale at the event (special thanks to G.P. Lackey for his amazing poster art & animation at top), as well as a list of some of the Mystic Western Game Jam games we’re rotating through our multi-selector.
The Mystic Western exhibition will be held next Friday, July 22 at 8:00 PM, at Museum of Human Achievement, Austin, TX. The event is open to all ages, with donations warmly accepted.
Over the past 14 days, some of our favorite developers and friends alike have risen to the challenge, and now the results are available: there are now 50 some odd games created for our Mystic Western Game Jam, ready for you to play.
There are plenty of familiar faces, old Fantastic Arcade featured developers, as well as more than a few amazing newcomers that have contributed, so clear away your weekend plans now and visit the Mystic Western page on itch.io to start perusing and downloading.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be collecting our favorite games together & preparing to bring them out to the real-actual mystical West Texas desert for the Marfa Film Festival. There, they’ll be exhibited at the historic Hotel Paisano, located at 207 N Highland Street, right there in that last set of three windows on the far right of the circa-1930s postcard below.
Our biggest thanks to all of the developers who took part in the jam — we hope you had as much fun creating the games as we’ll have showing them to the wider world!
Hey developers! This is your annual warning that submissions for Fantastic Arcade 2016 will be closing in just two short weeks. If you would like your game to be considered for the festival, please click here to submit it before July 13th, at 11:59 PM Central Time.
We’ve added a countdown timer on our main page so you can keep track of when that is for you, but please don’t wait until the last minute and risk missing the deadline!
This year’s Fantastic Arcade will take 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.
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.
We look forward to playing all of your submissions, and especially to seeing you all in September for this year’s Arcade!
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