Fantastic Fest adds Arcade, a new indie games festival

The film and video-game industries have had a strange coexistence. Separate though they are (for now), their impact on each other is unmistakable. Many big action movies, including the biggest of them all, "Avatar," look like shoot-'em-up video games. And games, as they've grown in technical sophistication, continue to ape film genres and visual styles (the recent Western-themed hit "Red Dead Redemption" and the "Halo" series, to name just two).

There've been very few successful crossovers. Game adaptations of movies are typically disasters, while movies based on video games are often even worse. (Summer's video game-flavored "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" earned good reviews but underperformed at the box office.)

Navigating this rocky middle ground of entertainment is Fantastic Arcade, a new festival branching off from Austin's popular film-focused Fantastic Fest. The four-day Arcade begins today for what organizers hope will be many years of panels, game-related film screenings, music and a carefully curated showcase of independent games.

Festival organizers say they're expecting about 2,000 attendees, including attendees of the film side of Fantastic Fest, who'll have an open invite to attend the Arcade events.

Featuring celebrities of the gaming world such as Richard Garriott and "Braid" creator Jonathan Blow, Fantastic Arcade is sprawling and ambitious for a games festival in its first year. It'll try to retain the vibe that has made Fantastic Fest well-known among film geeks while blazing its own digital trail.

Tim League, owner of the Alamo Drafthouse franchise and founder of Fantastic Fest, had been trying to get a spinoff games fest off the ground for several years when he hooked up with Mike Plante. Los Angeles-based Plante, who would become lead curator of Fantastic Arcade, has worked for film festivals including Sundance and had originally tried to put together a games festival to go with Las Vegas-based Cinevegas in 2008. That effort didn't get off the ground, but with League's help, Plante was able to make it happen in Austin.

In keeping with Fantastic Fest themes, the emphasis will be on fantasy, action and monsters. Plante says Fantastic Arcade exists to give smaller, lower-budget games a chance to get in the hands of gamers.

"When it really gets down to it, we don't give a (expletive) how much money went into making a game as long as it's fun to play and it fits into the theme," he said.

Plante himself is still firmly rooted in the film world, and that might separate Fantastic Fest from events like Los Angeles game-industry-focused conference E3, the game-culture-centric Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle and Boston, and IndieCade in Culver City, Calif., which focuses on smaller, off-the-radar games.

"We're very interested in crossovers between the video-game world and film world," Plante said. He points to one of the 29 games featured in Arcade's Showcase, the beautiful puzzle game "Machinarium," as an example of that cross-pollination. His references go straight toward the film world while describing it.

"It looks like Terry Gilliam or David Cronenberg did the artwork for it," he said, excitedly.

A packed lineup

Fiona Cherbak, one of the main organizers of Fantastic Arcade, has been working with curators, game developers and filmmakers across the country in addition to reaching out to local talent.

She says Arcade wanted to bring far-flung indie games here, but also to spotlight talent in the area. "Austin has its own challenges," she said. "It's not considered a top-20 market. But we have an enormous game development community here. There are fresh ideas and designers you've never heard of or met doing exciting things on their own the industry should be aware of."

The fest also includes:

• A keynote speech today from Austin's Richard Garriott, famed developer of "Ultima" who this year launched a new social and casual gaming company called Portalarium.

• Sunday screenings of winners of a recent "48-Hour Machinima" challenge hosted by Burnie Burns, founder of Austin's Rooster Teeth Productions . Machinima filmmakers use the graphics engines that power video games to create their own works of art. Rooster Teeth will also be debuting its own new Machinima work, "Red vs. Blue: Revelation."