Hey, guys! Apologies for the lack of updates. Aside from bein’ busy game-makin’, I’ve been moving around a bit. This week I’m in Austin, attending Fantastic Arcade, a video game spin-off of Fantastic Fest, the horror/fantasy/sci-fi/cult movie festival that takes place here every year. True to its name, Fantastic Arcade does feature an awesome indie game arcade with custom-built cabinets for games like Enviro-Bear 2000, Norrland, NIDHOGG, Every Day the Same Dream, and Monaco. The cabs have some great details – the Enviro-Bear machine pictured at right rocks a pretty funny fur-lined control panel installed with a trackball.
There’re also some great events going on, like panels and tournaments (Canabalt, NIDHOGG). Yesterday, for example, I had the fortune of (nervously!) moderating an interesting discussion between Jonathan Blow and filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo, who seems to have a surprisingly good understanding of video games. Despite the fact that the attendance of some of the panels has been modest, I think Fantastic Arcade shows a lot of potential for cross-over between fans of indie games and genre films. In any case, it’s a pretty sweet production all the way around.
Anyway! There are still two days left of Fantastic Arcade, but I was having trouble sleeping and wanted to express some of my excitement for the festival as well as commiserate with you all about the sparse updates on the front page. We do have some cool things we’re working on for TIGSource and I’m also looking forward to posting some more games.