Fantastic Arcade

****FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE****

Austin, TX—Tuesday, July 20, 2010—Fantastic Arcade, the new independent games festival presented by America’s largest genre film festival Fantastic Fest , today announced the launch of their debut 48-hour Machinima Film Challenge, with winner showcases to be presented during the games fest, September 23-26, 2010 in Austin, Texas. The challenge kicks off on Friday, September 10 and concludes on Sunday, September 12. Prize packages feature hardware and software from event partners Dell and AMD.

The free-to-enter Fantastic Arcade 48-hour Machinima Film Challenge has been developed and organized by award-winning machinima production group Rooster Teeth in Austin. Machinima gurus in their own right, Rooster Teeth are world-famous for their online web series Red Vs. Blue, as well as other popular machinima works, The Strangerhood, PANICS and Supreme Surrender. Judging will be led by Red vs. Blue creator and machinima pioneer Burnie Burns, along with a panel of industry professionals in games, media and film. Interested teams can sign up online now at: www.fantasticfest.com/arcade/machinima.

Beginning at 7 pm CST on Friday, September 10, 2010, production teams will have 48 hours to conceive, direct and edit a short film, four minutes or less in duration, using their favorite video games. The crew behind Fantastic Arcade 48-hour Machinima Film Challenge will provide a line of dialogue and a genre to each team at the start of their production launch. The main criteria for challenge entries is that each team demonstrates visual storytelling made within a real-time virtual 3D environment, utilizing a game engine.

The winning challenge team receives a Dell XPS 7100 PC including Eyefinity triple-monitor capability and hardware, plus 3 graphics cards ($ 2,500 value). The second place team receives a Dell Inspiron M501R notebook and three graphics cards ($1,500 value). The winning machinima films will also be screened at Fantastic Arcade and on the big screens at Alamo South as part of Fantastic Fest.

Challenge semi-finalists will be announced online on Monday, September 20, while winners will be announced live at the Fantastic Arcade Awards Show at 7 pm on Sunday, September 26 at the HighBall Ballroom, followed immediately by the Fantastic Arcade closing night party.

Designed as a games spin-off event from the main Fantastic Fest film festival, Fantastic Arcade is a debut games festival featuring fresh, cutting-edge games designed by independent game developers and publishers. Indie game designers will show off their new titles to an audience mix of Fantastic Fest attendees and game fans. More than 4,000 attendees are expected to visit Fantastic Arcade over four days for hands-on gameplay action in a fun, high octane environment at top Austin entertainment venue, the HighBall.

Fantastic Arcade features games showcases and demos from game publishers, live game demos by designers on the big screens at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar, and video game art installations featuring work by artist Cory Arcangel. Other Fantastic Arcade highlights include live chiptune music performances, speaker sessions with game industry professionals, screenings of popular games culture films, a Starcade game-show competition and a light saber dance party. Among other topics, the speaker sessions will explore the crossover and differences between the visual story-telling mediums of the film and game worlds.

Attendees at Fantastic Arcade will have a choice of a single day pass for $20, with access to all Fantastic Arcade films, panels, parties, happy hour and game demos for one day, or a basic $10 pass that provides access to the game demos and arcade for a single day. The VIP Fantastic Arcade Pass for $60 provides access to everything for all four festival days, plus a limited edition Fantastic Arcade T-shirt. Fantastic Arcade tickets can be purchased online now at www.fantasticfest.com/tickets-2/.

About Fantastic Fest

www.fantasticfest.com

Dubbed “The Geek Telluride” by showbiz bible Variety, Fantastic Fest is also known as the “Comic Con of film festivals.” Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the United States, showcasing eight days of offbeat cinema from independents, international filmmakers and major Hollywood studios. The 2009 edition hosted over 70 world, U.S. and regional premieres of the latest sci-fi, horror, fantasy and cult films from around the world. Fantastic Fest is scheduled for September 23-30, 2010.

For more into or to secure a media pass for Fantastic Arcade, contact Fiona Cherbak, ThemePark Studios, (512) 916-9633 or fiona@themeparkstudios.com, or contact Mike Plante, Fantastic Arcade creative director, at mike.plante@fantasticfest.com. For more information, visit www.fantasticfest.com/arcade.

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