Every month, as part of the regular monthly meetings of the Austin, TX independent game community 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 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 on Venus Patrol for your reference, in addition to their home on the JUEGOS RANCHEROS site.

Splatoon

Developer: Nintendo | Platform: Wii U | Get it: Here

“…a game I’ve done a complete about-face on from the time it was announced to it’s actual release — it’s completely won me over. For a game that’s ostensibly an online shooter, it’s the most positive and inclusive and friendly games I’ve ever played with strangers.

It’s one of those forward-thinking first-party Nintendo games we get once every year or two now, where it feels so much less drenched in its own conservative past & feels surprisingly ‘cool’ as hell, even actually fashionable.”

Affordable Space Adventures

Developer: KnapNok Games & Nifflas | Platform: Wii U | Get it: eShop

“…designed in part by Nifflas — who you might know for games like Night Sky and Knytt & will recognize as a master of quiet atmosphere — that’s basically what this is, as well: a journey through a ruined, abandoned planet…

The twist is that you’re piloting this ship here — and by piloting, I mean you’ve literally got a touchscreen panel that controls your engines, your scanners, your landing gear — all of which you’ve either got to multitask yourself, to maneuver past the planet’s defense systems, or which you can task out to a bunch of your friends and all work together, sort of like a less metaphorical version of Spaceteam…”

Dolly

Developer: Blake Wood | Platform: Windows | Get it: itch.io

“…for a first game it’s super clear that its developer has already got some super strong sensibilities… the game pulls a bit from Super Meat Boy mixed with touches of Shadow of the Colossus and graphic designers like Olly Moss…

This’ll take you about 10 minutes to play through, but it’s very well worth it…”

Strawberry Cubes

Developer: Loren Schmidt | Platform: Windows | Get it: itch.io

“…a beautifully glitched-out half-remembered dream of a platformer, there’s an incredible amount of good things happening here which reveal themselves to you the further you press yourself into them…”

Her Story

Developer: Sam Barlow | Platform: Windows/Mac/iOS | Get it: Steam / App Store

“…at its core it’s a murder-mystery desktop simulator game, where you piece together a story 20-30 seconds at a time, by keyword-searching through about an hour of interrogation footage.

The clips in turn give you ideas for new search terms and keywords, and you essentially fall face-first down a non-linear rabbithole of a story that you’re keeping together entirely in your own head, with a number of twists and turns along the way that are enormously rewarding to stumble into.

This is absolutely the most interesting game I’ve played so far in 2015, and one of my highest recommendations for absolutely anyone. …”

Aisle

Developer: Sam Barlow | Platform: Web | Play it: Here

“…and actually, as a bonus game — while the creator of Her Story is best known for his work on Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, if you loved Her Story, go seek out this interactive fiction game he did all the way back in 1999, which features as unique an approach to storytelling.

The basic premise is that you’re in a grocery store, about to pick up a package of pasta, when you notice a woman down the aisle who for some reason feels familiar. From there you’ve got one move you can make to tease more out of the story, whether that’s talking to the woman, or looking at your inventory, or picking up the pasta, or turning around and walking away.

At that point the game is over and starts again, so the only way to piece this scenario together is to play that one move out over and over — it’s a great, small piece of experimental fiction…”

The post JUEGOS RANCHEROS’ Fistful of Indies: July 2015 appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

Missed our GDC party and have been kicking yourself ever since? If you’re in the NYC area, you’re in luck: Venus Patrol is partnering with local DIY videogame space Babycastles to bring you an all-day, all-ages event on May 9th, featuring Qrion — the Sapporo-based producer who became an actual honest viral sensation on Vine based on her Venus Patrol/Wild Rumpus party appearance in March.

To celebrate that success, we’re bringing her back for another show — which has since expanded into her first ever full U.S. tour — where she’ll be supported by Anamanaguchi’s Peter Berkman (who also gave an incredible performance at our party), and, super excitingly, NYC’s Doss, another local favorite who you can preview below.

In addition to the night of music, Babycastles will be open all afternoon for a separate all-ages & family friendly exhibition of games, including three perennial favorites:

Ben Esposito’s magical, mystical physics adventure game Donut County…

Musclecat Showdown, the ultimate two-player game of competitive feline poise & grace, from Major Bueno and Bee & Puppycat creator Natasha Allegri…

And, of course, Tenya Wanya Teens, the coming-of-age tale about love, hygiene, monsters and finding discarded erotic magazines in the woods co-produced by Wild Rumpus, Venus Patrol and Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi.

To help cover the costs of the overseas travel, Qrion has just launched an IndieGoGo campaign for her full tour, which will also include dates in San Francisco, Los Angeles & Seattle playing with amazing folks like Grimecraft, Spazzkid, Maxo & Four Tet (!).

Donating to the campaign even just with a measly dollar, gets you a downloadable copy of her Venus Patrol/Wild Rumpus party set (which you can stream here). Higher donations will net you even more unreleased music downloads, as well as (at the highest level) a specially-curated assortment of snacks from Japan, which I can personally vouch for, having been on the receiving end of said snack-delivery in March.

The Venus Patrol x Babycastles show will be held May 9th, 2015, at 137 West 14th St, New York. We’ll have more information about the show in the coming weeks, including more games and special guests that will be included in the lineup of day-time events, as well as ticketing options (which will be available at the door the day of the event) — I hope you can make it out and look forward to seeing you there!

The post Hey NYC: Come See Venus Patrol at Babycastles with Qrion on May 9th appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

Every month, as part of the regular monthly meetings of the Austin, TX independent game community 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 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 on Venus Patrol for your reference, in addition to their home on the JUEGOS RANCHEROS site.

Veryman

Developer: ??? | Platform: Web | Play it: Here

“…extremely stupid in a surprisingly compelling way, this is a web toy in which you simply toggle & slide around variables to change the appearance of your Veryman, to the point where it’s entirely corrupted and unrecognizable.

The primary reason I’m sort of obsessed with it is that I still haven’t figured out who’s behind it — it’s ostensibly from Japan, based solely on some of the variable names, but all that anyone seems to know for sure is it was commissioned by Adult Swim. If anyone’s got any leads on whose mind this came from, let me know…”

Ice Vine

Developer: Powerhoof | Platform: Web | Play it: Here

“…from Powerhoof, the team behind Crawl, it’s an incredibly tiny little game inspired by an actual Vine of the team getting actual Ice from an actual Ice Machine in their hotel during the Game Developers Conference.

The objective here, as with actual real Vines, is to grab the most entertaining six seconds of video as you can, and rack up as many loops as possible after uploading it.

I dunno if y’all know, but I’m super into Vine… And I had no idea I wanted a game about making Vines as much as I did until I played this, and now I want a million more…”

Höme Improvisåtion

Developer: The Stork Burnt Down | Platform: Web/Windows/Mac/Linux | Get it: Here

“…you — and up to three more of your friends — have to assemble increasingly complex boxes of Ikea furniture, all of which came home missing the instruction manual.

In the case of this Lack above, it’s obviously pretty straight-forward, but everything goes a bit more nuts from there on out. This actually does work best as a multiplayer game, with everyone sort of chaotically simultaneously slapping pieces together…”

Naut

Developer: Klondike | Platform: Windows/Mac/Linux | Get it: Here

“…from Klondike — a new-ish indie collective out of Paris that’s one of my new favorite groups to keep an eye on — this is a pretty restrained little experiment, made up primarily of tooling around the surface of Mars in a bitchin’ convertible as violent thunderstorms light up the sky.

For as small as it is, it’s got a ton of confident style and highlights why I think Klondike are super exciting as a group…”

A Way To Go

Developer: AATOAA | Platform: Web | Play it: Here

“…utilizing 360 degree Street View-esque technology, the game — for something that for the most part only allows you to move forward along a pre-determined line — manages to eke out a fantastic amount of good emotional beats & surprises along its way…”

Apocalypse Gardening

Developer: moppin/nemk | Platform: Windows | Get it: Here

“…a twin-stick shooter in a sense, only here you’re armed with both a gun and a watering can, one of which holds back the enemies constantly swarming toward you, and the other one which maintains flower patches which restore some of your life bar.

It’s super simple but super effective with a lot of the same sensibilities that makes your average Vlambeer game feel great, made by two of my favorite new devs out of Japan…”

Captain Forever Remix

Developer: Pixelsaurus | Platform: Windows/Mac/Linux | Get it: Here

“…a new, remixed version of a game that was already one of my favorite games from 2009, the team have taken the extremely simple vector aesthetic of the original and has turned it into a Saturday Morning Cartoon, with actual characters and real dialogue, making it about 100 times more approachable and less opaque.

The objective here is to pilot this craft in the middle, which is made up of replaceable engine, gun & shield parts which snap together and apart like Lego, and fight off these other ships you can see closing in, collecting and scavenging their parts when they’re defeated.

The idea of remixing an earlier game this completely is actually pretty novel and intriguing, especially as this new version isn’t at all meant to replace, but instead sits super nicely alongside the original…”

The Writer Will Do Something

Developer: Matthew S. Burns | Platform: Web | Play it: Here

“…from a writer who for the past many years has been one of the games industry’s sharpest commentators, it’s a game made up of that same biting wit & insight. In it, you’re put directly in the middle of an emergency meeting of triple-A devs, who — having just received disastrous feedback following their first playtest — have to quickly decide how best to salvage a multi-million dollar sequel that’s headed directly for disaster.

It’s equal parts funny & gut-wrenching, as you’re constantly very keenly aware that the absurd situations & conversations portrayed here are very definitely not as fictitious as hope they would be…”

Little Party

Developer: Turnfollow | Platform: Windows/Mac/Linux | Get it: Here

“…a self-described short story of a game, where you play as the mother of a teenager who’s having some friends over to record her first EP.

What’s interesting here — apart from this really beautiful & strange cartoonish art direction — is in what little interaction you have on the world. Like any good and supportive mother, your impact on the outcome of this game is, for the most part, limited to making sure the kids have a nice bowl of guacamole and otherwise stay out of the way of their way as they create their teenage passion projects.

Super simply & very nicely observed, and delivered from a vantage point that’s honestly quite rare in games…”

Gardenarium

Developer: KO-OP Mode | Platform: Windows/Mac/Linux | Get it: Here

“…from one of the newest members of the KO-OP Mode collective, Paloma Dawkins, it’s a first person exploration game that takes place in a super fantastic psychedelic garden world which — if you’ve encountered any of her animation or tiny games work before — is very singularly her in the best possible way…”

The post JUEGOS RANCHEROS’ Fistful of Indies: April 2015 appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

[This post is re-blogged from Venus Patrol sister-organization JUEGOS RANCHEROS, our local Austin indie game collective.]

Love the likes of X-COM, Oregon Trail and roadtrips across a ruined American landscape? Then join us Wednesday, April 1st, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door as JUEGOS RANCHEROS presents the local debut of Overland, the forthcoming tactical survival game from Austin’s own Finji.

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

Just back from a critically acclaimed first showing at San Francisco’s Game Developers Conference, Finji will be giving Austin an early opportunity to play the game, in which “players scavenge fuel and other supplies as they head directly into the heart of a cataclysm” which has produced “a hardly-recognizable America.”

As part of the event, members of the development team — which include Austin locals Adam Saltsman, Shay Pierce & Jocelyn Reyes, in addition to LA’s Heather Penn — will give a short presentation on both the influences & design goals of the game, in advance of its desktop/tablet release later this year.

Overland will be playable Wednesday, April 1st, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702! The show is free 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!

The post Hey Austin: Come Play Overland, Finji’s Tactical Survival Roadtrip Game appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

Every month, as part of the regular monthly meetings of the Austin, TX independent game community 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 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 on Venus Patrol for your reference, in addition to their home on the JUEGOS RANCHEROS site.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Developer: Nintendo | Platform: Wii U | Get it: Amazon

“…a really beautiful tiny conceit — it’s a Mario game with no jumping, a puzzle game that all centers around the idea of obscured information. Honestly probably the best first-party Nintendo game of the year…”

Trinket Shrine

Developer: Various | Platform: Windows/Mac/Web | Play them: Here

“… a fantastic collection of tiny games by perennial favorite artists like thecatamites, Sloane Leong, llaura dreamfeeel, and Ben Esposito, who made the Chime Shrine pictured above, which is little more than a little portal to a peaceful space…”

Toca Nature

Developer: Toca Boca | Platform: iPhone/iPad | Get it: App Store

“…a bit like Baby’s First Mountain, it’s a biome-crafter with a ridiculously beautiful low-poly aesthetic that feels fantastic to touch and explore…”

Outer Wilds

Developer: Team Outer Wilds | Platform: Windows/Mac/Linux | Get it: Here

“…still deep in production for quite some time now, but recently making new waves, it’s a freely downloadable alpha of a space exploration game, with a Majora’s Mask-esque looping-destruction conceit, and a fantastic sense of scale and exploration…”

Social Interaction Trainer

Developer: Ryan Lambourn | Platform: Web | Play it: Here

“…a shortform game about how difficult it is to not upset others by just being yourself in public…”

Secret Habitat

Developer: strangethink | Platform: Windows/Mac/Linux | Get it: itch.io

“…the culmination of a series of smaller experiments in procedural generation, it’s a beautiful & fascinating world filled with uniquely generated-art galleries displaying generated-paintings with generated-names, which you view while listening to generated-music…”

Lumino City

Developer: State of Play | Platform: Windows/Mac | Get it: Steam

“…the sequel to the similarly gorgeous Lume, this is an adventure game which takes place in an unbelievably meticulously created & filmed papercraft village, with stop-motion-esque transitions between its locations — a super delightful aesthetic experience…”

Sunburn

Developer: Secret Crush | Platform: iPhone/iPad | Get it: App Store

“…almost certainly the most adorable game about mass-suicide ever created, it’s a low-gravity/thrust-based puzzle game about exiting existence together with friends in a literal blaze of glory — a super promising debut from an upstart team worth keeping your eyes on…”

The post JUEGOS RANCHEROS’ Fistful of Indies: December 2014 appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

Back in June of 2013, Venus Patrol announced at our HORIZON press conference that Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi had joined upstart studio Funomena to create their first major game, and now that game has just been revealed.

While they’re still remaining tight-lipped on the actual gameplay, Funomena says Wattam — a combination of the Tamil and Japanese words for “making a loop” — provides a hint to what the game will be about, “making connections between different types of things.”

Above is the first trailer for the game just revealed at the PlayStation Experience event, which introduces Wattam‘s main-character mayor, with more details expected to trickle out throughout 2015, all of which you’ll obviously probably be seeing here.

The post Wattam is Keita Takahashi’s new game at Funomena appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

Every month, as part of the regular monthly meetings of the Austin, TX independent game community 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 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 on Venus Patrol for your reference, in addition to their home on the JUEGOS RANCHEROS site.

Electronic Sweet-N-Fun Fortune Teller

Developer: Party Time! Hexcellent | Platform: NES | Get it: itch.io

“…an ‘original love horoscope game’ programmed for the NES by our own Rachel Party Time! Hexcellent Weil, the download includes the original NES rom along with a four-page booklet about hacking, programming, and sleepovers…”

Cosmic DJ

Developer: GL33K | Platform: iPhone/iPad/Windows/Mac | Get it: App Store / Steam

“…originally and best described as ‘a drum machine that loves you’, the game serves both as a bizarre, comedic adventure and an easy-to-learn sequencer which lets you save your compositions, create album art and upload the works to Soundcloud.

Grab the iOS version over all, as its the platform where the game truly shines…”

The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo

Developer: Michael Lutz | Platform: Web | Play it: Here

“…a meditation on as well as a prime example of internet-born videogame/www horror known as ‘creepypasta’, the game’s a play on that playground trope of the privileged kid whose dubious family connections gave him an advantage over others. Be sure to explore the multiple endings, as unlocking each also unlocks documentation on the creation of the game from its author…”

Hadean Lands

Developer: Andrew Plotkin | Platform: iPhone/iPad/PC | Get it: App Store / itch.io

“…originally Kickstarted in 2010 and in production for the four years since, the game’s one of the most ambitious and intriguing pieces of interactive fiction in recent memory, not least for its crossover of sci-fi and alchemical fantasy.

Grab especially the iOS version for its tabbed interface with graphical map & additional notes…”

Return of the Obra Dinn

Developer: Lucas Pope | Platform: Windows/Mac | Get it: itch.io

“…a still-small proof of concept that’s worth giving a shot now & following along with as he continues to develop it. It’s going in some really interesting mechanical directions, on top of the fantastic 1-bit 3D HyperCard-ish aesthetic work…”

TENNNES

Developer: JW Nijman | Platform: Windows | Get it: itch.io

“…Pong for the 21st century, a fantastic feeling 2P tennis game from Vlambeer designer JW. Interestingly, he’s selling the game for $20, with the caveat that you’re free to give a copy to your friends after purchase…”

Helix

Developer: Michael Brough | Platform: iPhone/iPad | Get it: App Store

“…a fantastic iOS arcade game from your favorite game designer’s favorite game designer, all about tracing loops around a constant onslaught of enemies, and packed with secrets — it’s hard to precisely describe how satisfying it feels…”

The Sailor’s Dream

Developer: Simogo | Platform: iPhone/iPad | Get it: App Store

“…the latest from DEVICE6 creator Simogo shares a lot of navigational DNA with their game Year Walk, but put to more poetic ends, as you lazily explore various nautical spaces.

Eventually flirts with the actual passing of time, whether hours of the day or days of the week, and — interestingly, for a mobile game — requires an actual printer to fully dig into its depths…”

Bernband

Developer: Tom van den Boogaart | Platform: Windows/Mac/Linux | Get it: Here

“…a tiny game where you do basically nothing but walk around & explore an amazing alien city with your stupid hands in front of your face.

Because you can’t communicate with anyone, you don’t really have an impact on the world, it conjures a very real feeling of the isolation and alienation of traveling to a place where you don’t speak the language…”

Here and There Along the Echo

Developer: Cardboard Computer | Platform: PC/Mac/Linux/Your Actual Telephone | Get it: Here / Dial: (270) 301-5797

“…the latest free interlude in between Kentucky Route Zero is as unbelievably brilliant as you’ve come to expect from Cardboard Computer.

This time it’s the sensation of calling a tourism bureau’s informational help line inside a dream, all narrated by Will Oldham of Bonnie Prince Billy/Palace Bros, and is playable by calling an actual phone number, or simulating the physical experience with the download…”

The post JUEGOS RANCHEROS’ Fistful of Indies: November 2014 appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

[This post is re-blogged from Venus Patrol sister-organization JUEGOS RANCHEROS, our local Austin indie game collective.]

Want to spend your Thursday night wrestling a pitbull to the ground & high-fiving a pizza as you lose yourself in a ‘giddy apocalypse’? Then come join us this Thursday, October 2nd, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door as we present the local double-feature premiere of Kevin Cancienne’s local multiplayer dog-em-up Dog Park & Jane Friedhoff’s Slam City Oracles.

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

Developer Cancienne — also known for his design work on area/code’s early classic iPhone puzzle game Drop7 — has described Dog Park as “a fighting game without the fighting”, a four-‘person’ brawler where players choose their dog & score points for chasing, wrestling, cavorting & gamboling in perfectly-pitched canine fashion.

Various JUEGOS RANCHEROS organizers have also described it as “omg the best game ever”.

In addition to Dog Park, we’ll also be showing Slam City Oracles, a two-player body-slammer by Jane Friedhoff, with art by Jenny Jiao Hsia & music by Prophets & Kings.

Already drawing a number of favorable comparisons to Katamari Damacy from sites like Kotaku for its cheerfully chaotic cartoony slapstick physicality, Oracles is a vertically-oriented game where two girls have four minutes to joyfully & wantonly break the entire world around them.

Both games were commissioned for the NYU Game Center’s No Quarter exhibition — the yearly local-multiplayer focused show which has spawned games like Nidhogg, Bara Bari Ball & Bennett Foddy’s Speed Chess — and were first debuted there September 19th, alongside Naomi Clark‘s consensual card game Consentacle and Corporate Vandals, a physical game from Shawn Allen, creator of Treachery in Beatdown City.

Both games will be making their local debut Thursday, October 2nd, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702! The show is free 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!

The post Hey Austin: This Thursday, Play The Local Premiere of Dog Park & Slam City Oracles appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

[This post is re-blogged from Venus Patrol sister-organization JUEGOS RANCHEROS, our local Austin indie game collective.]

Can’t make it to this year’s Fantastic Arcade or want to get a leg up on the competition? Come join us next Thursday, September 4th, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door as we present a special preview of some of this year’s best tournament games, including Gang Beasts, Push Me Pull You and Astro Duel.

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

Headlining the event will be Boneloaf’s upcoming slapstick party-game Gang Beasts, already a verified indie cult hit, where players “grab, push, pull, punch, and throw their friends from wrestling rings, speeding trucks, and suspended platforms” with “doughy ragdoll physics and horrific environmental hazards.” We’ve previewed this one a bit before, and it became an instant favorite.

We’ll also be running Push Me Pull You, House House’s “2v2 sports game about friendship and wrestling” where connected snake-y worm-y contestants “love each other, work together, communicate and coordinate” as they use their shared body to “wrap, writhe, and wrestle the ball into your half of the court.”

And finally, we’ll be showing Astro Duel, the competitive multiplayer tabletop game from Austin’s own Rusty Moyher, where 2 to 4 players “blast each other using asteroid-style ships”, in fast-paced rounds “inspired by endless nights of Super Bomberman.

All three games will be run in tournament play during this year’s Fantastic Arcade, so come join us as we drink, play and get ready to better face your competition, Thursday, September 4th, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702! The show is free and open to all the public!

The post Hey Austin: Next Thursday, Preview Fantastic Arcade with Gang Beasts & More appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

If you thought the Adventure Time Game Jam was going to be hard to top, we might just have done it: organizers of Fantastic Arcade have just announced the Barfcade Game Jam, a two-week jam open to developers world wide to create a ton of two-player head-to-head games based on food, cooking, eating and (obviously) barfing.

Why barf and why now? Fantastic Arcade’s special guest this year will be Thu Tran, frequent Babycastles collaborator and creator of the super amazing cooking/puppet show Food Party (above) and its MTV2 followup Late Night Munchies.

Thu will be providing the special secret ingredient required in all the jam games, which will be announced just before the jam begins on Saturday, August 30th, and will be co-hosting the Barfcade proper, a live game-show event held on September 21st that will be streamed for the rest of the world to see on Venus Patrol’s Twitch channel.

Games for the jam are meant to be fast, competitive, and no longer than 30 seconds each — the best of these will be strung together for the Barfcade event, giving the live competition a sort of head-to-head WarioWare vibe. Canabalt creator Adam Saltsman has created a brand new example game (pictured above), which you can play at the Barfcade website to get a sense of where to head!

The jam will run Saturday, August 30th through Sunday, September 14th — more details are available at the Barfcade site, which will be where you can also find the secret ingredient at launch. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

The post Fantastic Arcade Announces the Barfcade Micro-Game Game Jam appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

Every month, as part of the regular monthly meetings of the Austin, TX independent game community 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 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 on Venus Patrol for your reference, in addition to their home on the JUEGOS RANCHEROS site.

Mountain

Developer: David OReilly | Platform: Windows/Mac/Linux/iPhone/iPad | Get it: App Store / PC

“…you are born at the beginning, spend quite a long time in the middle alone and mostly just idling, listening to music and occasionally having brief moments of clarity where you delight in the profound beauty of simply existing, and then at the end you die. Maybe I’m totally projecting here, but it’s difficult to think of a simpler and truer statement than that.

Get this for your PC or Mac especially, and just let it sit with you on your desktop as you go about your day…”

80 Days

Developer: Inkle Studios | Platform: iPhone/iPad | Get it: Here

“…based on Jules Verne’s novel, it’s a super charming piece of interactive fiction wrapped in very pretty point & click adventure clothes, with some light economy and trading mechanics, and really pleasant written bits of color at every stop that flesh out the world…”

Lovely Planet

Developer: Quick Tequila | Platform: Windows/Mac/Linux | Get it: Here

“…a first person platforming shooter that hacks off all the macho nonsense those words might conjure at the knees, it’s into a speedrunner’s dream game about moving through levels of this low-poly Katamari-ish rainbow world, with a fantastic soundtrack by the guy behind the electro-pop band Bo-en, who’s worked with some of the Arcane Kids folks. This one’s super nice and joyful…”

Ghost Wheel? Bundle

Developer: Various | Platform: Windows/Mac/Linux | Get it: Here

“…a free bundle of games put together by a lot of the same friendly folks who submitted a bunch of our Space Cowboy games. They’re all ghost stories, in a sense, but taken to really odd & interesting ends…”

Super Game Jam

Developer: Bram Ruiter & Daniel Oliveira Carneiro | Platform: Windows/Mac/Linux | Get it: Here

“…a fantastic ongoing documentary series featuring a ton of our friends and regulars from Fantastic Arcade, each episode documents the creation of a short game by a two-person team of developers and artists, and you also get the eventual game along with the episode…”
”

Harmony Summer Hardpack Tape 11-in-1

Developer: thecatamites | Platform: Web | Get it: Here

“…a mixtape of games from the creator of games like Murder Dog each based on a single song, my favorite of the bunch is the one I’ve pictured here, Tarantella Sicilienne, which is a super short and super perfect little short story of an Eastern European farming family. If nothing else, try that one — they’re all free and playable on the web.”

Metrico

Developer: Digital Dreams | Platform: PlayStation Vita | Play it: Here

“…loosely themed around the idea of infographics, at its core it’s a series of very mechanical platforming puzzles, all wrapped in this really beautiful low-poly aesthetic and with a crazy good soundtrack by a Dutch synth musician called Palmbomen…”

You Are The Wormhole

Developer: Aleks Sennwald | Platform: Web | Play it: Here

“…the gist is that you play as this wormhole here who mostly exists in a quiet lonely corner of the universe, but once every few million years is visited by a star ship that just sort of happens to pass by.

All you can really do is try to keep the chat nice and light & not offend anybody, and then as soon as they came, they’re off again, leaving you alone for several million years more. It has so much personality for such a tiny game, and Aleks is one of the best illustrators I know — everything here is done up in this beautiful hand-drawn style…”

Horse Master

Developer: Tom McHenry | Platform: Web | Play it: Here

“…it’s really hard to do this game justice without lessening the impact on you, so I’ll basically say that it’s a game about a guy who buys a horse larva, specially grown in a chemical vat exactly to his specifications, who brings it home and raises it in his bathtub over the next few weeks… it’s the perfect mix of nightmarish and funny….”

Hohokum

Developer: Honeyslug & Richard Hogg | Platform: PS4/PS3/PlayStation Vita | Get it: Here

“…a game purely about movement, color and sound, it’s absolutely one of the best games of the year. Every bit of this is as joyful and beautiful as anything I’ve ever played — I can’t recommend this enough…”

The post JUEGOS RANCHEROS’ Fistful of Indies: August 2014 appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

Originally pitched as a physics-based toy that let you “play with the creatures and artifacts of North American mythology”, Ben Esposito’s Kachina quickly became one of my most anticipated games back in 2012, with its vaguely Katamari-in-reverse mechanics that allowed you to swallow up successively larger objects with a player-controlled hole that grew wider every time something fell in.

After its showing at various festivals throughout 2013, including last year’s HORIZON conference, news about the game went somewhat dark, as Esposito simultaneously continued development on Perfect Stride — the first-person skateboarder he’s creating with LA game collective Arcane Kids — as well as that collective’s numerous side projects like the cult hit Bubsy 3D.

But now, Esposito has just revealed that he is re-imagining Kachina as something new: Donut County, which is set to make its debut at this year’s Fantastic Arcade in Austin, Texas on September 18th.

Still primarily a game that “explores negative space” by making the act of removing objects in the world the player’s primary objective, Donut County will now follow the story of a teenage girl working at a Los Angeles-inspired coffee-mug-shaped donut shop who, according to Esposito, takes delivery of a box of donuts from mysterious raccoons, which then begins to open holes all around the county as she eats them.

For all the Southwest native visual underpinnings of the original Kachina, Esposito told me back in 2012 that, more unexpectedly, one of the game’s biggest influences was Bruce Springsteen. “Bruce Springsteen is the boss,” he wrote. “His songs are about specific places like the New Jersey Turnpike or Asbury Park, places that are super rich in meaning to him. Maybe that meant more when live music was popular. His themes are universal, though. I want to bring some of that to the games I make.”

That seems to be an idea even more apparent and central to Donut County, so I asked Esposito to explain what Los Angeles meant to the game, and what the game would be exploring about the city, which he tied together succinctly like so: “Los Angeles is full of holes.”

“There are some literal ones caused by earthquakes,” he explains, “but the hole is any process of erasure — it swallows up places and things. Like, there used to be a restaurant on La Cienega that you had to walk through a whale’s mouth to get into, but restaurants come and go.”

“What about people? Cultures? What are some of the forces that cause groups of people to disappear?” he continues. “Los Angeles has a history of rapid expansion which causes a lot of people to be displaced and you can bet it’s the people with the least amount of power. People who are systematically oppressed… Yikes, wait, let me backpedal for a minute. I love donuts!”

“When I moved to L.A. a few years ago, what struck me the most was that there is a different donut shop on every corner, and they’re all independently owned,” says Esposito. “That was really weird to me coming from New York, where there’s a Dunkin Donuts on every corner. New York City has been going through the process of gentrification for a while now, but I didn’t really connect that back to donuts, until I learned that Dunkin Donuts is now about to move into Los Angeles.”

Still deep in development, Donut County will serve all these ideas together via the main character’s donut-induced daydreams — including a deeper dive into where the holes are coming from, and where everything swallowed whole eventually goes. Interested players can get their first introduction to that at Fantastic Arcade in September, or follow development at the game’s new website to learn more about where and when it will be coming to you.

The post A Hole New World: Ben Esposito’s Kachina Becomes Donut County appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

After another couple long weekends spent with a few hundred excellent games, the first eight selections of this year’s Fantastic Arcade have just been announced, each of which will be given the full arcade-cabinet overhaul (as above, from last year) and put on public display for all Fantastic Fest & Arcade-goers in Austin, TX from September 18th to 21st.

Once again, the games have been selected by the operators of Austin indie collective JUEGOS RANCHEROS (aka Adam Saltsman, Jo Lammert, Rachel Weil, Wiley Wiggins & yours truly), with some of those games also serving as public tournaments throughout the festival’s five days — full information on each follows below.

Banana Chalice

Developer: Kyle Reimergarten

The next major game from Kyle Reimergarten — creator of Fantastic Arcade 2013 selection (and one of my overall top 2013 games), Fjords — Banana Chalice is a tunnel shooter about cats, bananas and monsters, with all of the off-kilter and lo-fi home-spun charm that by now has become his signature. Reimergarten promises as much mystery and magic out of Chalice as he brought to Fjords, which is to say, a lot.

Donut County

Developer: Ben Esposito

Originally shown at the 2013 installment of HORIZON as Kachina, Ben Esposito has since re-imagined his game about holes (and the things that fall in them) as Donut County. At heart it’s still the same sort of Katamari-in-reverse puzzle-play (where each successive object that goes in the hole grows the hole’s diameter slightly), but here is re-casting through the lens of a magical Los Angeles-based donut shop.

You can read more about the re-imagining of Kachina as Donut County in this just-published Venus Patrol feature.

Fotonica

Developer: Santa Ragione

One of the first games from Italy’s Santa Ragione — since then best known for their 2013 Fantastic Arcade selection MirrorMoon EP — Fotonica is a first-person vector race-em-up that will be in a cabinet as a full four-player marathon, along with (I’ve had whispered to me) possibly at least one exciting musical collaborations…

Gang Beasts

Developer: Boneloaf

Sure to be one of this year’s festival favorites, Gang Beasts is a fully-physical soft-body brawler that’s already gaining well deserved acclaim, and will also serve as one of this year’s tournaments. The uninitiated are almost certainly going to flip for this, even just in spectator mode.

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

Developer: Asteroid Base

Even if you think you’ve seen Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime already, be prepared to be re-amazed with it in its current form, which is much more objective-driven than its purely-arcadey past, though with no less perfect panic as both players run frantic around their ship defending it from oncoming attack. And, if you can imagine, it’s even more beautiful than ever. Case in point: just look at that screenshot.

Mountain

Developer: David OReilly

David OReilly’s existential “relax em up” Mountain in an arcade cabinet? How’s that going to work? We’re about to find out.

Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon

Developer: Tiger Style

It’s been a while since we’ve had a longer look at Austin local studio Tiger Style’s upcoming Spider sequel, so I’m as excited as anyone to see the game shown off in full arcade form.

Push Me Pull You

Developer: House House

Following its stateside debut at the Venus Patrol/Wild Rumpus GDC party this year, Australia’s House House will be bringing their Noby Noby-inspired and honestly slightly cutely disgusting sports game Push Me Pull You to Fantastic Arcade for both arcade play, as well as another public tournament.

There are still many more Fantastic Arcade game selections yet to announce in the coming weeks, as well as this year’s Gamemaking Frenzy game jam theme and other fun bonus surprises. For more information about attending the festival or its selection, visit the official Fantastic Arcade website.

The post Gang Beasts, Mountain, Donut County Arcade Cabinets Coming To Fantastic Arcade appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

[This post is re-blogged from Venus Patrol sister-organization JUEGOS RANCHEROS, our local Austin indie game collective.]

It’s been on our most-wanted lists for ages, and the time is finally here: come join us next Thursday, August 7th, at 7:00PM at Austin’s North Door as we host the local premiere of the super gorgeous exploration game Hohokum.

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

Created by Honeyslug & Richard Hogg and due for simultaneous release on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 & Vita on August 12th (also available for pre-order right now!), we’ll be taking the game’s kite-like “long mover” protagonist for a spin on the North Door’s massive screen, and introducing attendees to the game’s fantastic soundtrack, produced in conjunction with indie electronic record label Ghostly International.

Honeyslug themselves best describe the game as “a place to wander about and get lost in”, so come join us as we drink, play and explore the world of Hohokum, Thursday, August 7th, at 7:00PM at North Door, 501 Brushy Street, Austin, TX 78702! The show is free and open to all the public!

The post Hey Austin: Next Thursday, Come Celebrate The Premiere of Honeyslug & Richard Hogg’s Hohokum appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

Organizers of Fantastic Arcade — the indie game offshoot of Alamo Drafthouse’s Fantastic Fest — are sending out a reminder that there is just under two weeks left to submit your game for this year’s festival, which will take place here in Austin, TX on September 18th-21st.

Once again, the festival will be curated by Austin’s game collective JUEGOS RANCHEROS, and will give the developers the opportunity not just to showcase their game (including some in custom-built arcade cabinets), but give talks in whatever manner they choose: music performances, one-on-one developer chats like this one between Gone Home‘s Steve Gaynor & Tiger Style’s Randy Smith, or more traditional presentations by Sword & Sworcery co-creator Craig Adams.

You can see full video of many of the past years’ talks and performances here on Venus Patrol.

Click here to submit your game to this year’s festival, or check Fantastic Arcade’s website for more information about festivals past.

The post Fantastic Reminder: Submissions for Fantastic Arcade Close July 13th appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

Missed the livestream of our recent E3-alternative press conference? Look no further than the video above, which will let you watch the 2014 edition of HORIZON in its entirety. Held just a few weeks back at LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art, the latest edition of HORIZON featured debuts and new looks at games by the creators of Windosill, Thirty Flights of Loving, Dear Esther and more.

The breakout hit of the show, certainly, was Mountain, the first true videogame project by animator David OReilly (perhaps best known as the creator of the virtual reality game in Spike Jonze’s latest film, Her, who also recently debuted his Oculus Rift demo here on Venus Patrol).

Just released for iPhone/iPad as well as Windows, Mac & Linux today, you can see OReilly himself introduce the project in the HORIZON highlight video above, before getting the game yourself.

Below the fold I’ll also include the other notable highlight: Brendon Chung of Blendo Games revealing, for the first time, single-player time-manipulating co-op mechanics of his upcoming 20th-century-cyberpunk game Quadrilateral Cowboy.

Visit the official HORIZON site for screenshots, video and more information on all of the games included in this year’s conference!

The post Venus Patrol Presents: Full Video of HORIZON, the E3-Alternative Press Conference appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

[This post is re-blogged from Venus Patrol sister-organization JUEGOS RANCHEROS, our local Austin indie game collective.]

Spaceteam isn’t just one of our favorite mobile games, it’s one of the most enduringly engrossing, and next Thursday, June 5th, at 7:00PM, Austin’s North Door will be host to the first of a set of worldwide tournaments as we present the Spaceteam Admiral’s Challenge.

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

First released in late 2012 and best described by its creators as a “cooperative shouting game”, Spaceteam has been a local party and any-other-downtime mainstay since. And so when word came that creator Henry Smith would be relaunching his campaign to fund new games through the Spaceteam Admiral’s Club (after coming just shy of his original Kickstarter goal), we knew we wanted to officially take part.

And so, next Thursday we’ll be hosting the first of a series of Spaceteam tournaments that will be happening from June 4th to July 5th, across dozens of worldwide locations that’ll also include New York, San Francisco, London, Berlin, Melbourne, and Montreal.

App Store-approval willing, participants will be able to download an updated tournament-ready version of Spaceteam that’ll include new special achievements & in-game rewards for competitors, and physical prizes for the best Spaceteam captains of the night.

We’ll have more information on how this is all going to work the night of, so come as a team or be prepared to form a crew the night of, but either way we hope to see you out on Thursday, June 5th, promptly 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!

The post Hey Austin: Next Thursday, Come Take the Spaceteam Admiral’s Challenge appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

Ready to give the world of Ed Key & David Kanaga’s Proteus a second visit in an entirely new way?

Venus Patrol is proud to present Purgateus, a Proteus remix by Devine Lu Linvega (aka Aliceffekt) — a strange dream-within-a-dream-world that plays just like Proteus but “feels” entirely new.

Inspired by a tweet by The Floor is Jelly creator Ian Snyder, Devine (best known most recently for Oquonie, the abstract iOS adventure game created in collaboration with illustrator Rekka Bellum) has given Proteus a total aesthetic overhaul with new graphics, sound and an entirely new soundtrack (available for streaming below the fold and for purchase on bandcamp).

As far as I can tell, the chain of events that set off this development were: Proteus creator Ed Key shows a debug screenshot for an OSX patch, which I coined ‘Dark Proteus’ and then doggedly wouldn’t let go of the joke.

Snyder decided to then actually make the joke a reality, which in turn inspired Devine to do some hacking of his own and — his productivity almost unparalleled — days later Purgateus was born.

In fact, Synder & Devine have kicked off what hopefully might be a wave of new Proteus total-overhauls — you can follow along with other attempts via this thread at makega.me, a recently revived & steadfastly inclusive new forum for aspiring & veteran developers.

To enter the world of Purgateus yourself, visit the new dedicated site for the game here on Venus Patrol and enter your name and email to receive the mod. You’ll need to already own a copy of Proteus (which you can purchase on the Purgateus site), but once you do, installation of the mod is as easy as replacing a folder inside the Proteus directory with Devine’s new files.

We hope you enjoy the world of Purgateus! Find Devine Lu Linvega, Proteus creator Ed Key & Venus Patrol on Twitter and let us know what you think!

The post Venus Patrol Presents: Purgateus, a Proteus remix by Devine Lu Linvega appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

[It’s no secret that I count Kentucky Route Zero as one of my favorite videogames of all time, and one of my highest recommendations particularly for people who haven’t dipped their toes in the videogame waters in a while, and so seeing artist Tamas Kemenczy was a top priority at this year’s Game Developers Conference.

His talk (linked below) was a fantastic account of how theater and film staging influenced the game’s visuals & transitions, made doubly valuable by loops of those pieces playing independently as Kemenczy talked. I was particularly entranced by Burton’s face in Equus, as below, which I didn’t recognize, and snapped a quick photo to have him identify it later.

Having then subsequently watched & been blown away by Equus, I asked Kemenczy to ID all the films in his repertoire of influences, which he’s written up in full after the jump, and to which I’ve added streaming/DVD/Blu-ray links, where available. I hope you find it as valuable a resource as I already have!]

I gave a talk this year at GDC about the scenography of Kentucky Route Zero, the theatrical and cinematic influences on the game, and how we go about designing for performance. Some folks asked about the films shown during the talk, so here’s a list of them, but I thought I’d include some that were on the shortlist but didn’t make it onto slides, and some of these were shown in the KRZ talk the year before as well.

(Not included in this list is David Lynch, who we admire and most people are already familiar with.)

Equus (1977)

I really like the long take of Dysart’s (Richard Burton’s) face, totally stressed out about the chaotic moment that brought about Alan’s personal horse-god. There is a literary connection in KRZ to this play, but also the film by Sidney Lumet has dramatic flourishes that we took to heart.

[Available on DVD & Blu-ray.]

Death of a Salesman (1985)

This is a film version of the classic American tragedy, and it has a set design that we looked at closely. Loman’s home is sliced and fragmented and you can see urban sprawl through the cracks, and it very much reminded us of Beowulf Boritt’s work that blends interiors and exteriors. There are other moments where Loman turns maudlin, and we visit his memories with theatrical light changes, blocking and framing that left an impression on us. It’s a heartbreaking story.

[Available on DVD.]

Songs from the Second Floor (2000) /
You, The Living (2007) /
TBD (20XX)

This is an incomplete trilogy that develops a psychological sense of place through simultaneous vignettes instead of a linear narrative. Vignettes as storytelling is important to us in KRZ. It’s a form that isn’t interested in raising one point-of-view over others, instead it’s much more diffuse, echoing themes or a frame of mind, and shows connections between people and places.

There is a tragicomic tone we love in these films- a defendant’s death sentencing is delayed because the judicial committee is being served beer; airport kiosk attendants idly watch an impending tsunami of luggage; an insurance assessment of a destroyed business takes place while people in a street procession whip themselves in the background. It’s also a reference point for a kind of magic realism where the dead coexist with the living, and mundane day-to-day life coexists with poetic rituals.

There is also something really well-tuned about the scenes in these films. The camera is almost always fixed, as if you’re looking at a theatrical set that has a lot of physical depth, with simple, off-kilter framing, and a slow pace that lets your eye wander around.

[Songs from the Second Floor available on DVD. You, The Living available on DVD.]

Wavelength (1967)

This is one of the slowest films. It’s about a closed-circuit camera being hypnotized by a troublesome photograph taped to a wall.

[Available on YouTube.]

Stalker (1979) /
Nostalghia (1983) /
The Sacrifice (1986)

Stalker is sort of a slow, hypnagogic crawl through an uncertain landscape. Three hikers bicker and lob philosophical accusations at each other while half asleep on rocks and moss and water. We witness this, and we are hypnotized into mind-wandering exercises of our own.

Nostalghia and The Sacrifice are also worth watching to get a more complete picture of his style and motifs. His films can be solemn, and drowsy at times, and honestly his preoccupations with asceticism and sacrifice don’t do it for me, but he also cared a lot about human fragility and that’s worthwhile.

KRZ owes a lot to the pacing, visual form and choreography of Tarkovsky’s films. He talked about filmmaking in terms of rhythm, and as a process of ‘sculpting in time,’ and he cared about the visual impression on the viewer more than editing a story (he likened using plot devices as having the audience solve a dreary algebra theorem.) I also see a lot of theatre in his films, but he would’ve whole-heartedly disagreed about that.

[Stalker available on DVD. Nostalghia available on DVD, Blu-ray, Netflix Instant & iTunes. The Sacrifice available on DVD & Blu-ray.]

The Way Things Go (1988)

A couple of artists decided to make a film of a Rube Goldberg machine. I used it in the talk as a joke of what obsessive attention to plot might look like to a filmmaker like Tarkovsky. But really, it’s a mesmerizing film, you should watch it!

[Available on Vimeo and DVD.]

Russian Ark (2002)

Sokurov is kind of a student of Tarkovsky and I think that is readily seen in Russian Ark. I’ve only read a handful of Russian novels and so the cultural and historical references leave me estranged, but that’s a feeling that totally works for me here.

You follow Marquis de Custine through an anachronistic afterlife housed in the Winter Palace while he makes snide remarks about Russian culture.

At times he’s right next to you and other times he wanders off and leaves you stranded. Formally, the film is done as one incredible long take, which speaks to the pacing and continuity of real-time experience which I think is important in KRZ as a piece of theatre. I think it’s something that could be looked at more closely in first-person games, too.

[Available on Netflix Instant, DVD and Blu-ray.]

Scan Processor Studies (1973)

These are experiments with deflecting cathode rays to make strange landscapes. They share a family resemblance to the Zero, and they are partly responsible for the tone of it and other map modes in KRZ.

[Available on YouTube.]

Violin Power (1978) /
Flux (1977) /
Floor to Walls to Ceiling (197X)

Here’s a short video tour around some of Steina Vasulka’s (early) video work. I also like the way she talks about ‘machine vision’ and the way she distances the camera lens from the human body and experiments with other points-of-view. The Scan Processor Studies are pretty cool, but I love the way she literally fiddles with the video image through her violin.

[Available on Vimeo.]

Fata Morgana (1971) /
Lessons of Darkness (1992) /
The Wild Blue Yonder (2005)

I think this trilogy is an overlooked but important contribution to the sci-fi opera genre. They’re also films where the space between fiction and documentary becomes an aspect of filmmaking. Maybe they’re also experiments in cinematic defamiliarization.

What I really like about these films is they (like Tarkovksy’s) give us mostly unguided or loosely narrated images that, instead of appealing to our practical desire for plot, provoke our more poetic side.

The Wild Blue Yonder in particular was on our mind while working on KRZ. The connection is maybe indirect, and the tone of the film is very different than our game, but I think it’s worthwhile pointing out how there is a multi-dimensional narrative at play. Personally, alongside an unreliable ‘alien’ narrator, I saw a tragic revelation about microgravity and the human body, and maybe an elusive mythology about transmigration. Hard to say for sure, though. More concretely, it features one of NASA’s leading poets, who dwells on chaos and migration.

[Fata Morgana available on DVD. Lessons of Darkness available on DVD. The Wild Blue Yonder available on DVD.]

Le Quattro Volte (2010)

If you want to watch a slow and quiet film about Pythagorean metempsychosis, portrayed as the death of a shepherd, the birth of a goat, the hoisting of a tree, and the burning of that tree, I think this is that film.

[Available on DVD and Blu-ray.]

The post Venus Patrol Presents: The Kentucky Route Zero Guide To Film appeared first on VENUS PATROL.

Doing anything particularly romantic between May 24th and June 8th? No? Good, because I’m super happy to announce that Venus Patrol is organizing the first in what I hope becomes a regular series of game jams, this time dedicated to the lonesome future west-world theme: the space cowboy.

The game jam, hosted with the help of itch.io, is open to developers worldwide, and will run for two weeks, after which it will be judged by players for the week following on a variety of to be determined criteria like romance and psychedelia.

The idea for the jam came, as you probably have already guessed, after I finally got it together to watch all of Cowboy Bebop in one crazy week-long marathon (which I suggest you do or re-do in advance) and realized no game had quite struck that tone the series did — an ineffable feeling I also get from Cory Mcabee’s film The American Astronaut and Lisa Hanawalt’s web-comic Coyote Doggirl.

And hopefully you’ll find that feeling just as evocative and inspiring, because just as exciting as the jam itself is news that our Austin indie collective JUEGOS RANCHEROS will be showcasing the best of the games from July 2nd through the 6th in the real-life mystical West Texas high desert town of Marfa, as part of the Marfa Film Festival.

A few of us just got back from Marfa late last night, where we met with Film Festival organizers & location-scouted the area we’ll be carving out and dedicating to your Space Cowboy games, and there’s a whole lot of expectation from all parties involved that This Is Going To Be Really Cool for the thousands of people that attend the Fest.

We’ll be putting out more detailed information at the official Space Cowboy Game Jam site and open up for your submissions on the 24th of this month, but in the meantime start clearing off your calendar, dreaming up big ideas under an endless starry sky & discussing collaborations on twitter via the hashtag #spacecowboygamejam — we’re all crazy excited to see what you come up with!

The post Venus Patrol & JUEGOS RANCHEROS Present: The Space Cowboy Game Jam appeared first on VENUS PATROL.