FANTASTIC ARCADE

Fantastic Arcade 2018 Submissions are live!

2018-05-06T14:00:49+00:00

Game submissions for Fantastic Arcade, the independent video game showcase hosted by Alamo Drafthouse and curated by Juegos Rancheros, are now open! Full instructions are available at http://fantasticarcade.com/submit. Submissions to Fantastic Arcade will remain open until the August 13th deadline. A panel of Fantastic Arcade curators will select this year’s Showcase and Spotlight games from among those submissions, in addition to the original titles which will premiere in custom-built arcade cabinets.

Taking place October 25-28, Fantastic Arcade will feature more games, tournaments, special screenings, talks, parties, food and prizes than ever before. We’re excited to return to Alamo Mueller, with its superior AV equipment, over-sized reclining theater seats, individual tables, private, gender-neutral bathrooms, 2nd floor patio, and kookoo carnival-themed event space/restaraunt/bar.

Strawberry Milk Arcade @ Fusebox Festival 2018

2018-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

I’m excited to announce Strawberry🍓Milk Arcade, ft. one-of-a-kind indie arcade machines and other sweet treats. Presented by MoHA and @JUEGOSRANCHEROS for @FuseboxFestival in Austin on 4/20! pic.twitter.com/JZhFXV7bU2
— A rae.prototype.pop() (@partytimeHXLNT) February 11, 2018

when: April 20 @ 10-2am where: Fusebox Festival Hub > 1500 E 4TH ST Presented in partnership with The Museum of Human Achievement This is a free event. Reservations not required.

All night Juegos Rancheros Presents: Strawberry Milk Arcade

Enjoy a selection of one-of-a-kind custom-built arcade cabinets created by experimental artists and game developers from around the world.

JUEGOS RANCHEROS is an Austin-based nonprofit arts organization that nurtures the development of local, independent, and non-commercial video games.

juegosrancheros.com

Rachel Simone Weil is an experimental designer authoring the history of forgotten and imagined video games for girls.

Link

BRING FANTASTIC ARCADE 2017 HOME WITH OUR SIX-GAME BUNDLE!

2017-11-21T00:00:00+00:00

Bring Fantastic Arcade home to you with six amazing and exclusive games, presented by Austin’s independent game collective JUEGOS RANCHEROS! […]

Link

Party!

2017-11-16T14:00:49+00:00

Tomorrow is the first day of Fantastic Arcade 2017 and tonight it’s a party!

We’ll be out at Scratchouse to greet all our visiting developers and guests, and to hear Austin expatriate musician and gamedev Stefanie Franciotti play some Sleep Over tunes. Local DJ’s & Juegos Rancheros regulars Bobby “Kidko” Arlauskas and Geoff “Fitnez” Belcher will spin, and we’re filling the bar with party videogames curated by Louie Roots of Bar SK in Australia!

Doors at 8pm, Cover is free, but we’ll have a donation table if you’d like to help Juegos Rancheros make more events like this happen in Austin and abroad!

Second wave games and gamejam announced!

2017-10-27T16:00:49+00:00

Following our announcement of brand new games from the artists behind Panoramical, Beglitched, Fjords and Strawberry Cubes making their debut at Fantastic Arcade, we have just announced more than 20 additional games rounding out this year’s showcase lineup.

The games join the 10 previously-announced Spotlight games coming to Austin, TX’s Alamo Drafthouse Mueller this November 17-19th, and were chosen by JUEGOS RANCHEROS from the hundreds of games submitted from developers around the world.

This year’s showcase games will include long-anticipated breakouts like Capy’s dungeon crawler Below (above), the Junji Ito-inspired point and click adventure World of Horror (pictured at top) and Wilmot’s Warehouse, the latest game from the creators of Hohokum and last year’s Audience Choice award winner, Loot Rascals. All of the 20+ showcase games coming to this year’s festival are listed in full below the fold.

In addition to the new games, we are also announcing the theme for this year’s Fantastic Arcade Gamemaking Frenzy. Games submitted during the two-week game jam will be exhibited at Fantastic Arcade’s game-show-like live finale, Starcade.

This year’s theme is Phony Island, in homage to Fantastic Arcade’s new home — Alamo Drafthouse’s boardwalk carnival-esque bar, the Barrel O Fun. The jam will be open to developers from around the world to submit their best 2-player microgame in the style of an almost-but-just-this-side-of-not-copyright-infringing carnival games (above photo credit).

The two-week game jam will kick off Monday, October 30th at itch.io’s #phonyisland jam site, with a submission deadline of Sunday, November 12th, at 11:59pm CST.

In the coming weeks, Fantastic Arcade will also be announcing its full lineup of its special nightly tournaments — an annual fan-favorite tradition — exposition plays, panel discussions, developer talks, and much more.

Tickets for Fantastic Arcade are available now at its website. Now a fully independent festival, Juegos Rancheros would like to remind all attendees, developers and staff that the event is covered by our Safe Spaces Policy, which can be reviewed in its entirety at the Fantastic Arcade website.

This year’s Showcase games will be created by:

10 Mississippi (Karina Popp)

10 Mississippi is stop motion game about a day’s routine, played over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

A Mortician’s Tale (Gabby DaRienzo)

A Mortician’s Tale is a narrative-driven death positive video game where you play as a mortician tasked with running a funeral home. Take on the role of recent funeral direction graduate Charlie as she learns the ropes of the business and industry. Prepare the cadavers of the deceased (via embalming or cremation), attend their funerals and console their loved ones, and interact with Charlie’s coworkers, clients, and bosses. A Mortician’s Tale is an informative, honest, and sometimes humorous look at the current state of and the future of the western death industry.

Alien Caseno (Grace Bruxner)

ALIEN CASENO was born from the question “what if aliens built a casino from memory?” and grew into a museum-like 3D exploration space. The player learns about each scene through the descriptions on the walls, and can find secrets hidden throughout the game.

Below (Capy)

You’re a tiny warrior, exploring the depths of a remote island. The first goal is to explore, but really the key part of exploration is surviving.

Blind Drive (Lo-Fi People)

Blind Drive is an audio-based, arcade-style driving game with a dark and humorous narrative. You’re blindfolded and driving against traffic as a mysterious voice gives you suicidal commands on the phone. Swerve away from on-rushing vehicles with only your hearing to guide you.

Chuchel (Amanita Design)

Chuchel is a comedy adventure game from the creators of Machinarium, Botanicula and Samorost. Help Chuchel to chase down the mysterious villain and retrieve his cherished cherry!

Cosmic Express (Alan Hazleden)

Cosmic Express is a puzzle game about planning the train route for the world’s most awkward space colony. It’s cute, harder than it looks, and guaranteed to give you hours of frustrating fun across hundreds of levels.

You draw a route for the train to take, picking up aliens and dropping them off at their destinations. Unfortunately the train is never big enough, the track can’t cross itself, and the aliens are too damn lazy to just walk from A to B…

Dig Dog (Rusty Moyher, Matthew Grimm)

Dig Dog is an action roguelike platformer. Dig to discover treasure, adventure and bones! Jump, dash, stomp and dig your way through a strange world inhabited by stranger creatures.

Everything is Going to be OK (Nathalie Lawhead)

“Everything is going to be OK” is a playable zine. It is a collection of life experiences. Each icon represents a “page” (an abstract “page” out of my life). It offers alternative views of power from a survivor’s standpoint, and is a commentary on struggle.

Freeways (Captain Games)

You are a traffic engineer.

Draw freeway interchanges.

Optimize for efficiency and avoid traffic jams.

Fugl (Team Fugl)

Take flight and embark on a never ending voyage as a shapeshifting bird. Experience the thrill of flying as you explore the natural beauty of the vast voxel world. Discover hundreds of unique animals whose characteristics you can absorb. Feel free as a bird as you make your own adventure.

Genesis Noir (Feral Cat Den)

Genesis Noir is a poetic adventure game about stopping The Big Bang to save your love. A cosmic gunshot expands towards the heart of a god and the player must explore the universe, seeking clues on how creation might be undone. With an emphasis on exploration, simple interactions, and generative art, Genesis Noir seeks to create memorable moments and tactile gameplay.

Hypnospace Outlaw (Tendershoot)

Hypnospace Outlaw is an alternate reality operating system sim in which players assume the role of an Enforcer, a volunteer moderator of the internet of the future. Find violations on the vast frontier of the fake internet, accrue HypnoCoin, and spend it on all manner of (possibly virus-ridden) virtual doodads, including pets, themes, screensavers, games, and more.

Jettomero- Hero of the Universe (Ghost Time Games/Gabriel Koenig)

Play as Jettomero, a giant, indestructible, and incredibly clumsy robot determined to save the human race. Explore a procedurally generated universe by flying through space and landing on planets while trying not to destroy everything in your path. Relax as you blast through the cosmos on a hero’s uncertain quest. Will you ever save the humans?

Liquorice (boris)

hyperreal realtime 70bpm.

Connect programmable Node-Terminal machines and create a sonic singularity.

Love Is Moving (Jared Johnson)

Love Is Moving is an artistic game that is inclusive to gamers and non gamers alike. With simple controls you play as a flying heart that is always moving forward. Love Is Moving is inspired by personal life experiences and the feeling that love cannot be stopped.

MOLOCH (Zero) (Seemingly Pointless)

MOLOCH (Zero) is a narrative game that puts the player through a shift manager job interview. The player must control the flow and speed of workers as they progress down hallways. MOLOCH (Zero) has the player question and balance their own personal in-game ambitions against the health and safety of their workers. Fast is efficient, yet it risks the lives of the workers. How badly do you want this job?

Overpass (Studio Bean)

Overpass is a rhythm adventure game celebrating form and space in motion. The player must move with the beat on a journey through 3D scapes in order to uncover the truth of the future.

Palmystery (Paloma Dawkins)

Welcome to the castle of Palmystery where the spirit of a princess guards the entrance into the the realm of hands and loud techno. Palmystery is a surreal cartoon 2.5D game through a hellish imaginary world inhabited by gesturing hands.

Small Talk (Pale Room)

You are invited to a party of colorful characters, strange thoughts, and surreal mindscapes.

Trackless (Aubrey Serr)

Trackless is an atmospheric first-person exploration and puzzle game set in the distant future.

Wandersong (Dumb and Fat Games)

A musical adventure game where you use singing to try to save the world! Play as a silly bard who embarks on a globe-trotting journey to learn about the mysterious Earthsong, said to be able to prevent the universe’s imminent end. Along the way there’s a huge cast of characters to meet, puzzles to solve and songs to sing!

Wilmot’s Warehouse (Hollow Ponds & Richard Hogg)

Wilmot’s Warehouse is a videogame about working in a warehouse. Managing deliveries and dealing with customer orders, that kind of thing. At its heart the game is about ordering and arranging a load of stuff. The warehouse is big and there are many hundreds of different stock items. How you arrange and organize the goods within the warehouse is entirely up to you. You have to find your own system and learn your way around a unique, ever changing, ever growing topography of stuff.

World of Horror (Paweł “panstasz” Koźmiński)

The year is 198X. Disgusting creatures terrorize a small seaside town in Japan as reality starts to crumble, and the Old Gods reawaken to sate their primal hunger. It’s a losing battle, but maybe you’ve got what it takes to postpone the inevitable. The end of the world is at hand.

First wave games announced!

2017-10-06T13:00:49+00:00

The time has finally come! We’ve just started to announced our plans for this year’s Fantastic Arcade – our first year independently curating, organizing and operating the festival as JUEGOS RANCHEROS, hosted by the Alamo Drafthouse at their newest Mueller theater this November 17-19th (full, three-day passes are available now).

Most excitingly, as we did last year, JUEGOS RANCHEROS has commissioned six games from some of our favorite developers to premiere at the festival in custom mini cabinets, all of which will be simultaneously released worldwide via a bundle on itch.io.

This year’s cabinets will include new games from: Jenny Jiao Hsia, the NYC-based artist behind games like Beglitched and Stellar Smooch, as well as Loren Schmidt, creator of Strawberry Cubes, Realistic Kissing Simulator and the IGF-nominated Star Guard.

We’ll also have a new game from Conor Mccann, the Texas-based artist best known for his Mystic Western Game Jam game Black Gold, and Fernando Ramallo, creator of the Fantastic Arcade favorite interactive music/landscape app Panoramical.

Finally, we’ll have games from Kyle Reimergartin, another Fantastic Arcade mainstay dev behind our long-time favorite Fjords, and Brandon Williamson, known best for Forget-Me-Not, a would-have-been 1980s classic arcade hit, had it not been created just a few short years ago.

Below the fold is the first press release for the upcoming 2017 Arcade with more information on our arcade cabinets and the first ten games we’ve chosen as our Spotlight selections, alongside links, images and videos for all the games detailed below. All of us here are looking forward to seeing you all at this year’s Arcade!

FANTASTIC ARCADE MAKES INDEPENDENT RETURN TO ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE WITH NEW GAMES BY THE CREATORS OF QWOP, TOWERFALL, FTL & MORE

NOVEMBER 17 - 19, 2017 AUSTIN, TEXAS

International Games Festival Premiering Six Custom Created Games Alongside Stellar Lineup Of Underground And Independent Games

AUSTIN, TX – October 9th, 2017 – Organizers of Fantastic Arcade have announced the November 17th return of its yearly festival, which showcases the best in cult and independent games. Now in its eighth year, the latest installment of Fantastic Arcade will feature brand new games from the creators of beloved indie hits like Spelunky, QWOP, and FTL, alongside a wide variety of work from fresh and up-and-coming talent.

For the first time since its founding in 2010, this year’s Fantastic Arcade is being curated, organized and operated entirely by Juegos Rancheros, Austin’s independent games collective, and will be located at the Alamo Drafthouse’s Mueller location — the chain’s newest theater — and its built-in boardwalk carnival-esque bar, the Barrel O Fun.

The collective will be bringing a selection of more than 30 independent games from around the world, alongside custom-built, free-to-play arcade cabinets created for six games. These six games were incubated by Juegos Rancheros from some of the festival’s fan-favorite developers. Ten of its Arcade Spotlight titles are detailed below, along with information about the six developers joining this year’s custom cabinet program.

In addition to the selection of free play games on display and open to the general public at the Barrel O Fun and the upper floors of Alamo Drafthouse Mueller, Fantastic Arcade will once again feature a number of special events, panel discussions, developer talks, and game tournaments from November 17th-19th. Full, three-day passes are available now at the Fantastic Arcade website, and include a downloadable bundle of all six original games being created for this year’s festival, and a ticket to this year’s opening night party.

The 2017 lineup of games have been chosen from hundreds of submissions by Juegos Rancheros, Austin’s independent games collective operated by Adam Saltsman, Wiley Wiggins, Katie Kizziar, Rachel Simone Weil, and Brandon Boyer, alongside Fantastic Arcade Technical Director Joshua Fields.

“We’re excited to premiere another batch of original games as Fantastic Arcade becomes its own stand-alone event,” noted Wiley Wiggins, Juegos Rancheros co-founder and Fantastic Arcade Director. “While there will be plenty of new changes, we’re devoted to maintaining those qualities that have brought developers and attendees back each year. Our goal is to continue to be the best underground videogames party in the universe.”

Dozens more additional games will be announced as part of the full Fantastic Arcade lineup in the coming weeks, alongside a schedule of its special nightly tournaments — an annual fan-favorite tradition — exposition plays, panel discussions, and developer talks.

This year’s Premiere games will be created by:

Jenny Jiao Hsia

Fresh off the back of her 2016 Fantastic Arcade appearance showcasing her Consume Me collection of body-image minigames, NYC’s Jenny Jiao Hsia — who also is known for her work on games like Beglitched & Stellar Smooch — will be creating a brand new work for Fantastic Arcade.

Loren Schmidt

The creator of games including Strawberry Cubes, Realistic Kissing Simulator, and Star Guard (which was nominated for an Independent Games Festival design award), Schmidt frequently explores procedural generation and the abstract, with a delightful sense of uncanniness even in more traditional platforming and arcade style games.

Conor Mcann

First coming to the attention of the Juegos Rancheros collective when he submitted the incredibly strong short-story game Black Gold to the group’s Mystic Western Game Jam, fellow Texan Mccann captures fantastic surreality, even in short, simple geometric loops. We expect his first arcade game will be a true wonder.

Fernando Ramallo

Ramallo made his Fantastic Arcade debut in 2013 with the interactive landscape/musical tool Panoramical, a game he’d brought along with him as a festival attendee the year prior. Currently working with Google on its Tilt Brush VR art package and now a true Arcade mainstay, Ramallo will be creating brand new work for his arcade cabinet some five years later.

Kyle Reimergartin

Reimergartin’s game Fjords — as well as his idiosyncratic live musical performances at multiple iterations of Fantastic Arcade — quickly made him a festival favorite. Reimergartin is currently at work on finishing what is destined to be his new arcade classic, Banana Chalice, which itself earned the Most Fantastic Award at Fantastic Arcade 2014.

Brandon Williamson

Brandon ‘Nyarlu’ Williamson is best known for Forget-Me-Not, a 2011 PC and mobile game that feels every bit like a lost arcade game from the golden years of the early 1980s. This will mark his first appearance at Fantastic Arcade, after going under-represented for far too long.

Game titles, screenshots and other details from these teams’ ongoing work will be revealed closer to their festival debut, when they will be made available as a downloadable bundle on itch.io for purchase worldwide.

In addition, the following ten Arcade Spotlight titles will be highlighted during Fantastic Fest, chosen from the hundreds submitted to this year’s festival.

Disco Bear (Brian Handy & Katie Pustolski)

Disco Bear is the heartfelt story of a bear being asked to dance once more.

Untitled Goose Game (House House)

Untitled Goose Game is a stealth & slapstick simulator from House House, creators of Push Me Pull You.

It’s a bit like a nice day out in the park, except you’re a goose, and you’re here to ruin everyone’s nice day out in the park.

Into The Breach (Subset Games)

The remnants of human civilization are threatened by gigantic creatures breeding beneath the earth. You must control powerful mechs from the future to hold off this alien threat. Each attempt to save the world presents a new randomly generated challenge in this turn-based strategy game from the developers of FTL.

Minit (Kitty Calis, Jan Willem Nijman, Jukio Kallio, Dominik Johann)

Minit is a peculiar little adventure played sixty seconds at a time. Journey outside the comfort of your home to help unusual folk, uncover countless secrets, and overcome dangerous foes, all in hopes of lifting a rather unfortunate curse that ends each day after just one minute.

Nidhogg 2 (Messhof)

The wurm has returned and it must feed! Shed your garments and paint the walls with the flesh of your enemies, for only one can be worthy of sacrifice.

The rules are simple. Reach the other side and kill anyone that stands in your way. Deftly parry and rend their throats, riddle their bowels with arrows, or squish their brains between your toes. The wurm cares not for chivalry.

Getting Over It (Bennett Foddy)

Why did I make this? This horrible hike up an impossible mountain. I could have made something you would have liked. A game that was empowering, that would save your progress and inch you steadily forward. Since success is delicious, that would have been wise. Instead, I must confess: This isn’t nice. It tastes of bitterness. It’s capricious, it sets setbacks for the ambitious. It lacks lenience; It’s bracing, and inhumane, but not everyone’s the same. I created this game for a certain kind of person. To hurt them.

Heat Signature (Tom Francis)

Fly your tiny defenceless pod up to larger ships, dock with their airlock, and sneak inside. Once you’re in, you creep through their corridors, ambushing guards, hiding bodies, stealing new weapons, blowing them up from the inside, or hijacking their turrets and even the whole ship.

Celeste (Matt Thorson, Noel Berry, Amora Bettany, Pedro Medeiros, Lena Raine, Power-Up Audio)

Celeste is a platformer about climbing a mountain, from the creators of TowerFall. Uncover the mystery of the mountain’s power and outrun your reflection on your journey to reach the top.

10 Beautiful Postcards (thecatamites)

A “dream computer tripadvisor”, from the creator of Fantastic Arcade favorite, Murder Dog IV: Trial of the Murder Dog.

Tom van den Boogaart’s beloved first-person exploration game from 2014 returns in 2017 in a brand new, remastered form.

FANTASTIC ARCADE 2017 SUBMISSION DEADLINE DRAWS NEAR

2017-08-01T23:00:49+00:00

Hey developers! This is your annual warning that submissions for Fantastic Arcade 2017 will be closing in just under two short weeks. If you would like your game to be considered for the festival, please click here to submit it before August 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!

[ CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR GAME! ]

The 2017 edition of Fantastic Arcade will be taking place at Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse Mueller, the newest and swankiest of the theaters, from November 17th through the 19th. 3-day passes for the festival itself are available now, which includes a downloadable bundle of games premiering at the show!

You can read about all the changes to this year’s festival right over here.

After the August 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 November for this year’s Arcade!

Fantastic Arcade 2017 Submissions & Passes are live!

2017-03-19T23:00:49+00:00

Fantastic Arcade, the independent video game showcase hosted by Alamo Drafthouse and curated by Juegos Rancheros, is thrilled to announced that 2017 will mark its first year as a standalone games festival, making the new Alamo Drafthouse Mueller location its home. Taking place during the weekend of November 17th-19th, Fantastic Arcade will feature more games, tournaments, special screenings, talks, parties and prizes than ever before. We’re already in love with Alamo Mueller, with its superior AV equipment, over-sized reclining theater seats, individual tables, private, gender-neutral bathrooms, 2nd floor patio, and kookoo carnival-themed event space/restaraunt/bar. It’s right next door to Austin’s amazing children’s science museum The Thinkery, and there’s a Marriott hotel within walking distance.

Alamo Mueller’s Barrel O’ Fun event center will host the festival’s arcade space, which will be free and open to the public during all three days of this year’s Fantastic Arcade. The space will allow all guests of the Alamo Drafthouse to play dozens of brand-new and otherwise groundbreaking independent games, selected by Fantastic Arcade curators from submissions by developers from across the globe.

In addition, Fantastic Arcade’s trademark tournaments, talks and special events will be held in one of Alamo Mueller’s adjacent and luxurious theaters, and will again be streamed live for those unable to attend. Seating for these events is guaranteed for all guests who pre-purchase a three-day pass, or arrive at the theater to purchase a single-day pass. Three-day passes are available now for $50, which also includes a downloadable bundle of Windows, Mac and Linux-compatible games, created especially to premiere at this year’s Fantastic Arcade. Passes are in limited supply. The game bundle will be available for download November 17th, and will be available to purchase separately. Visit http://fantasticarcade.com/attend/ for more information.

Reserve Pass Now

Fantastic Arcade has also now opened submissions for developers to enter their games for consideration in this year’s event. Full instructions are available at http://fantasticarcade.com/submit. Submissions to Fantastic Arcade will remain open until the August 13th deadline. A panel of Fantastic Arcade curators will select this year’s Showcase and Spotlight games from among those submissions, in addition to the original titles which will premiere in custom-built arcade cabinets.