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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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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As the previously-mentioned Fuck This Jam — a weeklong global game jam dedicated to making a new game in a genre you hate — kicks off right around just now, the organizers, Vlambeer‘s Rami Ismail & Panoramical creator Fernando Ramallo, have just released the jam keynote.

The video features Spelltower creator Zach Gage and Cow Clicker developer Ian Bogost, the two most prominent developers to have found surprising success tackling word- and Facebook-games originally mostly somewhat out of spite.

It’s highly worth watching the two wax nicely philosophical about why the process was ultimately intellectually fruitful and the underlying love in even the most biting of satire, even if you’re not about to embark on the journey yourself. If you would like to, though, you can still sign up for the jam — which will run from today to the end of Saturday, November 17th, at its new Beautiful Mess Organizer installation here.

With just two days remaining on their Kickstarter campaign, creator Zach Gage — creator of iPhone essentials Spelltower and Bit Pilot — has given us the drop on the bonus cards that will be included for all backers of Guts of Glory, the post-apocalyptic food-eating-contest boardgame he’s created with designer Jesse Fuchs and illustrator Jess Worby.

Glory‘s not the easiest game to introduce in a few short words, so I’ll let Zach explain it to the uninitiated through the video above, and simply add that it’s one of the smartest new card/boardgame designs I’ve seen in quite some time: an unusually funny and alluring narrative structured in a way that allows for chain-reactions that cause amazing reversals of fortune, and — most importantly — a highly accessible design that welcomes all players.

With these bonus cards — the full versions of which you can see below the fold, with commentary on each by Gage himself — the team have taken the opportunity to delve further into that post-apocalyptic narrative, with Gage adding that each contains “hints to the origins of the savage wasteland Guts takes place in.”

Watch the video above to acclimate yourself to the game, and consider pitching in to the campaign: while the funding has already been successful, the team are well within striking distance to include more bonus cards from an incredible line-up of guest artists, including local favorites Dustin Harbin, Lisa Hanawalt, the previously-featured Sam Bosma and more.

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