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 curious onlookers from outside the indie community itself — a look at what they may have missed. The featured games are both local and global, and both indie and, on occasion, a bit-bigger-budget — what binds them together is simply that they’re all amazing.

In keeping with the tongue-in-tobacco-packed-cheek tone, we call these run-downs A Fistful of Indies, which are presented here on Venus Patrol for your reference, each fully-annotated, -linked, and off-the-cuff blurbed, in addition to their home on the JUEGOS RANCHEROS site.

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Finally it can be told: I’m super pleased to announce that one of the many new additions to the site I’ve been ultra-quietly toiling on over the past month is this: Venus Patrol is now the new home of GameToilet, the ultra-brilliant games comic series from artist & game dev Jerry ‘King Baggot‘ Carpenter.

For the past couple years, Carpenter has been concocting and scribbling down in his inimitable style as much as a new videogame idea every single day, with a total count now well past 500. They’re occasionally topical, sometimes profane, but always incredibly funny and too-clever by half, and each ache to be actually brought to life as a real, playable game.

What I love about them most, though, is that they’re all very happily hyper-aware of wider culture: Carpenter’s the only person I know who’d devote an entire week to creating Yo La Tengo-related games, or casually tossing out Tarkovsky & Gaspar Noe platformers or Michael Haneke hidden-object games or David Lynch-themed brawlers.

While the bulk of GameToilet’s move-in to its new digs is already complete, there’s still a bit of sweeping up to do. There are actual playable games like the above Inch High C.S.I. — which I had the distinct, uh… honor? of being the title-corpse for — that need to be re-embedded, and a few formatting issues that need to be sorted, as we start to roll out new semi-mostly-regular comics in the coming weeks & months.

But until then, you can flush away a few hours by wending your way back through the archives via its new permanent home at gametoilet.venuspatrol.com, or by theme, like his Film Games section or the aptly-titled best-of-the-best section, ‘Floaters‘. I hope you love them as much as I do!

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

Want to get the first look at some of the best independent games of 2013? Then join us Thursday, February 7th, at 7:00PM at the North Door as JUEGOS RANCHEROS brings five games nominated for top awards at this year’s Independent Games Festival.

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

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[Every Friday on Venus Patrol, designer Dominique ‘Dom2D‘ Ferland presents TIGSource DevLog Magazine, a visual guide to the newest & most interesting in-development games making the rounds on the invaluable TIGSource forums. Looking for inspiration, or just the very first look at the amazing games we’ll be talking about in the future? Click any image to learn more, and come back each Friday for the latest picks!]

During the holiday break, the TIGSource Devlog Zine got a little make-over, and with it I’ve decided to change its schedule – the zine will now be published every two weeks!

Now that we’re back, you should catch up on the incredibles games in development – new screenshots have been added to Two Brothers, Saturated Dreamers, Jack the Reaper, SpaceHero Command and lots of other cool new games. I’d also recommend you visit Tower of Gorillion‘s forum thread for more screens and info about this new action platformer.

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 curious onlookers from outside the indie community itself — a look at what they may have missed. The featured games are both local and global, and both indie and, on occasion, a bit-bigger-budget — what binds them together is simply that they’re all amazing.

In keeping with the tongue-in-tobacco-packed-cheek tone, we call these run-downs A Fistful of Indies, which are presented here on Venus Patrol for your reference, each fully-annotated, -linked, and off-the-cuff blurbed, in addition to their home on the JUEGOS RANCHEROS site.

(more…)

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

Want to meet the creators of 2012’s breakaway hit Dishonored, learn more about Sony’s first-person paint-em-up The Unfinished Swan and take the role of a Cosmic DJ in a late-night dance party? Then join us Thursday, January 3rd, at 7:00PM as JUEGOS RANCHEROS returns at its new night and ND Austin venue, where we’ll be featuring an unbelievably awesome triple-header bill.

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

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Easily the best game teaser you’ll see all month, Canabalt creators Semi Secret & Gasketball/Solipskier designer Greg Wohlwend have just released the first teaser for their upcoming iPhone & iPad puzzler Hundreds — a “Powers of Ten“-esque macro/micro view, scored by the game’s audio designer, local-favorite ambient musician Loscil.

If this is the first you’ve heard of it, dial back a few posts to October with this longer preview of what you can expect from the game, and dig way deeper with this 30-minute “making-of” talk from Wohlwend & Adam Saltsman from the last meetup of JUEGOS RANCHEROS.

As you’ll see in the teaser above, there are only a few weeks remaining until the game’s official January 3rd launch date, when it’ll be just about the most perfect way you’ll ring in your new year. Visit the game’s website here for more information.

Back in September, Venus Patrol ran a gallery of bonus cards that were to be included with Guts of Glory, the post-apocalyptic food-eating-contest board-game being Kickstarted by Spelltower creator Zach Gage, illustrator Jess Worby and designer Jesse Fuchs.

Though, unfortunately, the Kickstarter campaign (about which you can see more in the video below) unfortunately scraped just shy of its stretch goal to include bonus cards from some of indie comics & illustration’s best known artists, the team have just announced that they’ve gone the extra mile and are now offering the deck as a bonus set.

That comes alongside news that the Guts of Glory web-shop has officially gone live — giving everyone who missed out on or wasn’t otherwise able to back the Kickstarter campaign a chance to pre-order the full, physical board game set, get an instant download of the print and play version of the game, and pick up the artist cards on the side.

Below the fold, you’ll find a gallery preview of all of the bonus cards, which come from some of Venus Patrol’s favorite artists — Sam Bosma, Lisa Hanawalt, Dustin Harbin, Nathan Bulmer, and Domitille Collardey — along with an introduction by Guts illustrator Worby on why and how the team wanted to include the work of indie illustrator guests.

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One more from Manuel Kilger to round things out, this time the discovery of a fog-shrouded Master Sword, lifted from his ‘schattenkino’ portfolio site.

You can also see more of his latest game-inspired work (including this Halloween-inspired ‘Were-Mario’) at his tumblr.

This Saturday-stroll Samus is Manuel ‘schattenkino‘ Kilger’s submission to Girls: Fact and Fiction, an exhibition put together by Minneapolis gallery Light Grey Art Lab, featuring “100+ illustrators and designers who have portrayed their favorite women, heroines, and inspirations.”

Kilger’s Samus is available as a print here, or as part of an exhibition catalog of all the submissions here, where you can also find prints of the rest of the show. Find more of Kilger’s work at his portfolio site.