Fantastic Arcade 2024: Fun Size Edition!
Fantastic Arcade, a production of the Games Y’all division of The Museum of Human Achievement, will return Saturday, October 26 at the Baker Center in Hyde Park, Austin. Tickets are now on sale.
FANTASTIC ARCADE: Fun Size Edition! is a one-day event that showcases a curated selection of groundbreaking talks and independent games. This event marks the post-pandemic return of FANTASTIC ARCADE, an annual festival which brings together international and local developers to show off their work, talk about the state of independent gaming via panels, and interact with attendees. FANTASTIC ARCADE: Fun Size Edition! will be held at The Baker Center in Austin, TX. FANTASTIC ARCADE is curated by Games Y’all and produced by The Museum of Human Achievement. Hosting FANTASTIC ARCADE: Fun Size Edition! opens the door to return to Party Size events in the future!
The Museum of Human Achievement is a community-driven space grounded in affordability, inclusivity and access for artists. MoHA’s vision is for an empowered, resilient creative community where each member has the resources to foster well-being, prosperity, and a self-determined future.
Games Y’all is a monthly event held at venues around Austin for indie devs, digital artists, and games fans. Games Y’all celebrates, amplifies, and supports the unique and underrepresented within indie games and beyond. Game submissions are accepted on a rolling basis, with occasional themed calls for specific months.
The Baker Center is located in Hyde Park, a neighborhood in north central Austin, just north of the University of Texas Austin main campus. The building contains a Cafetorium and Black Box Theater.
History
Fantastic Arcade
FANTASTIC ARCADE started in 2010 as part of Alamo Drafthouse’s Fantastic Fest as an initiative to bring video games to the genre film festival. It quickly grew into a beloved annual celebration of experimental and cult video games which featured original games, off-the-beaten-path developer talks, tournaments, and other assorted amazing happenings, originally curated by JUEGOS RANCHEROS. The curation has now been moved to Games Y’all, the spiritual successor. Anti-convention, comfortable, fun, unexpected, not a networking event.
In 2017 FANTASTIC ARCADE split from Fantastic Fest to become a standalone festival. In 2019 FANTASTIC ARCADE became a program of The Museum of Human Achievement, which curated a 10 year Retrospective of the festival. 2024 will be our first year back after a pandemic hiatus.
FANTASTIC ARCADE is an annual festival which celebrates, amplifies, and supports the unique and underrepresented in indie video games and play. FANTASTIC ARCADE operates with Games Y’all as a community year-round monthly physical meetups and other ongoing digital programs
The Museum of Human Achievement
Founded in 2012 by a dedicated group of artists and community leaders, The Museum of Human Achievement (MoHA) is a community-driven art space grounded in principles of affordability, inclusivity, and access. MoHA promotes an empowered, resilient creative community where each member has the resources to foster well-being, prosperity, and a self-determined future. MoHA’s $4k 2012 operating budget came from the donated savings of a piano teacher and the exhaustive efforts of seven friends with no loans or institutional support. In ten years, MoHA has grown from an informal DIY collective to a 501(c)3 nonprofit which confronts the displacement of artists, creatives, culture bearers and the working class community upon which Austin has built its identity.
Games Y’all
Founded in 2022, Games Y’all is a monthly meetup hosted by The Museum of Human Achievement for indie devs, digital artists, and games fans. Games Y’all has featured 150+ games, and thrown 20+ Monthly events. We celebrate, amplify, and support the unique and underrepresented within indie games and beyond.
Games Y’all is the spiritual successor of JUEGOS RANCHEROS which was founded in 2011 from an Austin-based community of independent game developers and fans.
The Baker Center
The Baker Center is located in Hyde Park, a neighborhood in north central Austin, just north of the University of Texas Austin main campus. The Baker Center was initially used as an elementary school, and was later used as a middle school, high school, and Austin Independent School District administrative building. The building is now used as the headquarters for Mighty Coconut, Austin Classical Guitar, and other businesses. Among the office spaces, the building contains a Cafetorium and Black Box Theater.