Can’t tell your local gaming news from gaming news birthed in other, less important locales? Here’s a few things that have happened or will happen.

For the second year, Juegos Rancheros hosts South by No Quarter, a showcase of games featured at the original No Quarter event in New York City. NYU’s Game Center annually commissions games from forward-thinking game developers and hosts an event to show off those creations. Now we get a crack at these games including a 16-player variation on chess called, appropriately, Speed Chess from Bennett Foddy, who is most famous for his nigh-impossible running game QWOP. You can witness Speed Chess‘ insanity in the gif below. Check out the Juegos website for more info on the games scheduled to be at the event.

Since Warren Spector’s studio, Junction Point, closed back in January questions surrounding his next move have swirled only to be answered, repeatedly, in the past weeks. First, it was announced that he would be heading UT’s Gaming Academy, and just a few days ago the Captivate Conference tapped him to keynote. As we’ve mentioned before, Captivate announced its plans to bring gaming, music, and film together, but were light on details. Spector is the first confirmed speaker, and his background as a game development luminary, film buff, and sometime DuckTails comic writer puts him in a unique spot to address the conference’s varied media.

Local game-culture website, Venus Patrol announced they would be co-hosting an “alternative press conference” at E3 called Horizon. They announced on Wednesday the first few participating studios. Double Fine, who continue to rack up obscene amounts of money via Kickstarter, will be on hand. Also showcasing will be Capy of Sword & Sworcery fame and Media Molecule, creator of the LittleBigPlanet series and the upcoming Tearaway. The event will be live streamed from the E3 conference in Los Angeles with the help of the event’s other host, MOCAtv.

This article appears in May 31 • 2013.

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James graduated from Columbia University in 2000 and moved to Austin a year later. Ever since, he has followed the arts and video game scene in ATX, editing and writing stories for the Chronicle along the way. Over his more than 20 years with the paper he has climbed the "corporate" ladder from lowly intern to managing editor.