The following games will be freely playable during the days of Fantastic Arcade, September 19th through the 22nd, alongside developer commentary and daily tournaments.
Kentucky Route Zero (Cardboard Computer)
A surreal, moody, and often funny experiment in interactive cinema- Kentucky Route Zero is a magical realist adventure game about a secret highway in the caves beneath Kentucky, and the mysterious folks who travel it.
Gone Home (The Fullbright Company)
An Independent Games Festival multi-finalist, Gone Home is a story exploration video game set in 1995. Investigate the Greenbriar family’s house. Discover what’s happened to them. Go home again.
Mirror Moon EP (Santa Ragione)
This trippy, radically expanded return to Santa Ragione’s short-play game MirrorMoon is as beautiful as it is head-scratchingly compelling in the way its intricate puzzles unfold. MirrorMoon EP is a space adventure that begins on a red planet and its unique moon.
Fjords (Kyle Reimergartin)
A minimalist platform game with a twist, Fjords allows the player to hack the game itself in order to progress, but the introduction of glitches into the fabric of the game brings a new set of problems.
Choosatron Deluxe Adventure Matrix (Jerry Belich)
The Choosatron is a mini-arcade kit that plays choose-your-own-adventure style stories. Narrative is printed out like a receipt, pausing for the player to make choices via four buttons. When the player gets to an ending, they can tear off their story to keep, and compare with other players.
Banner Saga: Chapter 1 (Stoic Studio)
The eagerly awaited single-player campaign only hinted at in the previous multiplayer beta, Banner Saga: Chapter One is Role-playing meets turn-based strategy, wrapped into an adventure mini-series about vikings.
The Stanley Parable (Davey Wreden)
The Stanley Parable a story-driven first person game that invites its players to disregard the story and discover something else, perhaps a trope of video game design, perhaps an expectation about how story is supposed to work, perhaps a deeper understanding of themselves.
Perfect Stride (Arcane Kids)
Perfect Stride is a momentum-based movement game which explores a surreal world of 90's computer graphics through graceful mouse motions & time manipulation to create challenging yet expressive play.
End of Line (Retro Game Crunch)
End of Line is a game about learning how to die. You play as an immortal robot who is forever being fixed by autonomous repair bots. On each level players must figure out how to thwart the repair bots, then kill themselves. Rather than having death as a losing condition, death is the goal and the way forward.
Cutthroat EP (mooosh)
An experimental 2-in-1 short story video game package. Cutthroat EP visits the hypnotic world of a man who believes he is a bird before assaulting the player with a punk rock fever dream through hell.
Crypt of the Necrodancer (Ryan Clark, Ted Martens)
Crypt of the NecroDancer is a hardcore rhythm-based roguelike game. Can you survive this deadly dungeon of dance, slay the NecroDancer, and recapture your still beating heart? Or will you be a slave to the rhythm for all eternity?
Quadrilateral Cowboy (Blendo Games)
A twentieth-century, tongue-in-cheek Cyperpunk adventure-When you have a top-of-the-line hacking deck armed with a 56.6k modem and a staggering 256k RAM, it means just one thing: you answer only to the highest bidder.
The Yawhg (Damian Sommer, Emily Carroll)
The Yawhg is a one- to four-player choose-your-own-adventure game that randomizes a unique story every time you play. The evil Yawhg is returning. How will the town’s locals lead their lives in the meanwhile, and what will they do when the dreaded Yawhg finally arrives? The fate of a community hinges on the characters’ actions, and the decisions of their players.
Icarus Proudbottom Teaches Typing (Holy Wow Games)
There are many ways to put words into a computer, but "Typing" is the greatest! "What is typing," you ask? Let Icarus Proudbottom and his Owlkin spirit animal friend Jerry show you the ropes with Icarus Proudbottom Teaches Typing! Beware, however- this game will not in any way teach you to type.
In addition to these free-to-play games, panels, and tournaments, Fantastic Arcade will stage it’s second annual Gamemaking Frenzy competition, where amateur and pro game developers alike try their hand at creating a working videogame within 48 hours. This year Gamemaking Frenzy joins its sister Filmmaking Frenzy competition in exploring the theme, “Intergalactic Fantastic”. Creators around the world can take part at home by registering at gamemakingfrenzy.com. The Gamemaking Frenzy begins on the night of Friday the 13th of September, and the best games will once again be recognized with prizes presented by a suprise guest.
Check out Facebook and Twitter for all of the latest Fantastic Arcade news and happenings.
For the latest Fantastic Fest developments visit the Fantastic Fest Facebook & Twitter.
For press inquiries and free media registration for Fantastic Arcade please email Wiley Wiggins, wiley.wiggins@fantasticarcade.com
For more details regarding Fantastic Fest, contact festival publicist Brandy Fons, at brandy@fonspr.com. For more information, visit www.fantasticfest.com.
About Fantastic Arcade
Fantastic Arcade introduces the worlds of fantastic film and independent games to one another over cocktails. At Fantastic Arcade, we showcase a curated selection of brand new independent games as well as a larger sampling of important groundbreaking independent games from the last couple of years, with international guest developers in attendance to show off their work, talk about the state of independent gaming via panels, and interact with attendees during play sessions and nightly parties and happy hours. We feel that video games rightfully belong side by side with shorts and feature films at Fantastic Fest. The artistic merit of these games will be honored with both audience awards and a juried competition. Admission to Fantastic Arcade is free and open to the public.
About Fantastic Fest
Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world. In years past the festival has been home to world premieres of FRANKENWEENIE, RED DAWN, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3 & 4, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, APOCALYPTO, ZOMBIELAND and RED while the guest roster has included such talent as Tim Burton, Andy and Lana Wachowski, Mel Gibson, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Ryan Reynolds, Karl Urban, Josh Hartnett, The RZA, Dolph Lundgren, Paul Rudd, Bill Pullman, Paul Thomas Anderson, Kevin Smith, Jon Favreau, George Romero, Darren Aronofsky and Mike Judge. Fantastic Fest also features world, national and regional premieres of new, up-and-coming genre films. Fantastic Fest has seen the acquisition of many titles, including BULLHEAD, KILL LIST, MONSTERS, KLOWN, THE FP, PENUMBRA, HERE COMES THE DEVIL, NO REST FOR THE WICKED, VANISHING WAVES, COMBAT GIRLS and I DECLARE WAR. Fantastic Fest is held each year at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Texas. Alamo Drafthouse has been named the best theater in the country by Entertainment Weekly, Wired and TIME. Variety included Fantastic Fest in a list of "10 Film Festivals We Love," and was also named one of the "25 coolest film festivals" by Moviemaker Magazine.