Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

In this week's episode, the Nice Hosts want to make this year's IDGATC summer picnic the very best, like no picnic ever was. Lydia brings to the table a game that relies on knowing nothing about Pokémon, Mark accuses her of knowing too much about Pokémon, and Stephen does his best as their acting Person-Who-Knows-Pokémon (nicegames.club/feedback). Will they make a game in time to play that weekend...

In addition to the topics of this episode, we also revisit Lydia's bachelorette party game made in a previous episode! Listen to find out how it went, as well as the fascinating conversations your hosts talk through. We talked through Lydia's bachelorette party game in this Nice Thinking episode. Bachelorette Weekend Dinner Quest 0:12:23 Discussing Scope 0:32:06 Inspiration Though Research Valet W...

This week's guest has good advice, harsh truths, hard numbers, and a big smile. Amir Satvat, tireless advocate and resource-provider for game developers looking for work via his organization ASGC (Always Supporting the Games Community), enters the clubhouse to help your nice hosts wrap their minds around a difficult job market. The Job Market IRL Always Supporting the Games Community homepage ASGC...

In this episode Lydia discusses how best to make all her friends hangry by making them do puzzles before releasing food. By which I mean, she got Stephen and Mark to do her work for her. So, if you were part of the weekend of puzzles and quests that Lydia was preparing for, please tell us how Stephen and Mark did, at nicegames.club/feedback . Lydia got Mark a present, which the clubhouse audibly r...

Seatbelts, everyone! This week the Nice Hosts talk vehicles, which apparently means more than just cars. That's good news because none of them know much about cars (hopefully Nice Guest and vehicle specialist, Kris Roberts doesn't notice). So pile on in and buckle up: we're going to talk about the challenges of capturing the feel of a vehicle with video game inputs, what a solid vehicle system nee...

After the supersized meta of this episode, your nice hosts discover (or rediscover in some cases) the joy of part-time work, and contemplate the intricacies of hints for games. Lydia gave this card to Stephen for his graduation party! Gabe Korth was mentioned during the meta, recently found in this Nice Games Jam episode! Repair-ent 0:22:45 Part-time Work Speculative work Wikipedia Hint Chicory: A...

Your nice hosts have talked a lot over the years about exploitative game design, and this week we brought in an expert on gamification to lay out some of the dark patterns in games that take players' money and time via deceptive framing and UX. https://samliberty.com Sam Liberty  -  Medium Sam Liberty  -  LinkedIn Dark Patterns Game Design Why “Addictive” Gameplay Should Never Be The Goal  -  Lydi...

In this episode, Yuri Lowenthal, prolific actor and Insomniac's Spider-Man, web-crawls into the clubhouse and does whatever a spider can, assuming a spider can talk into a microphone about the art of acting in video games. Mark explores the difference between screen acting and voice acting, Lydia takes comfort in the fact that when you have a team supporting you, you’re not going to mess it up on...

Warm weather is on the way and you need to stay hydrated. As a start, take a sip of water every time you hear the phrase "in the 90's." This week we're learning about Interactive Fiction - its history, communities, and transformations over the years - from living archive of the medium, Andrew Plotkin. As a bonus, Stephen discovers that he isn't the only one who is wrong about things!  Credit for t...

We talk of the old and the new in this episode, where we sort of revisit a long ago discussed topic and bring in a new topic for our (and your) perusal. Lydia, Mark and Dale (not Stephen) finishing Video Game Mayhem... ... and Wizard's Tower in record time! Trapped Puzzle Rooms MPS Community Education Lydia's family sewing machine! 0:09:39 Exhibiting Your Game 0:39:39 Design Investigations Reading...

We welcome August Brown back into the clubhouse once more to discuss healthy criticism in the workplace, and how to foster that environment in your spaces. Healthy Criticism Production Hotel Infinity  -  Studio Chyr No Hard Feelings  -  Liz Fosslien & Mollie West Duffy ,  Portfolio

How is it April? The episodes have been so long lately it feels like it should be more than two months since the hiatus ended. As a countermeasure, the Nice Hosts have another set of roundtable topics to break up your week and retune the time dilation. Stephen tries hard not to talk about fighting games, Lydia ponders the nature of instructions, and everyone talks a lot more about Mario than they...

All of your regular hosts finally make it into the clubhouse again to present to you a roundtable! After a fairly lengthy meta (it's been a long time y'all, but all interesting stuff!), we expose elements of 3D lighting and discuss an internet meme that's maybe relevant for game development. No Kings Protests Erin Macdonald YouTube Channel  -  Erin Macdonald ,  YouTube GURPS Prime Directive Core R...

WARNING: This episode is even longer than last week's ! Settle into the back half of GDC 2026 with tales from your nice hosts about interesting talks, the "new" Festival Hall, what it feels like to be up for multiple major industry awards, running into people you know for the first time, and flying home to a impending snowstorm. In this Patreon-exclusive video, Lydia thought to mark her first GDC...

This year's GDC Special is a big one. So big that this episode is over 2 hours long... and it's only part 1 (but your nice hosts don't know that yet)! 0:15:49 GDC 2026 - Monday GDC Encounters: Speed Networking Day 1 Game Developer Conference The Tension: Designing for Discomfort in 'Wanderstop' Steven Margolin Game Developer Conference The Black Designers' Dilemma "Carl Varnado, Jabari Ali, Jarory...

In this Episode, Ian once again joins the clubhouse as Dale and Mark are off on a nerdy vacation. Lydia wrestles with the term "cozy," and Stephen does some self exploration to determine why so-called cozy games make him more stressed out. Then, he creates a whole topic just to talk about the fast travel system in Dragon’s Dogma 2. Stephen pitched Sledgehammer Bride to Melanated Games Kitchen. Mel...

Watch out, Clubhouse! Evil Games Club is out of the air vents and back in orbit to interrupt your regularly scheduled Nice Programming. Five years in the vacuum of space haven't dulled their ne're-do-well nature one bit. In fact, they just intercepted a game jam prompt from one of the Nice Hosts. Will Dale, Ian, and Sam prove once and for all that Evil trumps Nice? Well,  duh,  of  course  they do...

While Mark is off on a Star Trek cruise, the rest of your nice hosts invite Lydia's husband Ian Peters to discuss tabletop games, specifically RPGs! We've split this supersized episode and topic into three different acts for your listening pleasure. 0:01:58 Holistic Connection of Theme and Mechanic Blades in the Dark Evil Hat Productions GURPS: Generic Universal RolePlaying System Steve Jackson Ga...

Your nice hosts had an eventful time off from new episodes, but now they're back! So yeah, this is a long one... What The Show Did on Winter Break (2025-26) Boot the Dispute - a thing that solves your problems! YouTube Art & Fear Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking David Bayles and Ted Orland Lydia's Website Glom Nice Games Club What Each of Us Did On Winter Break (2025-26) IDGAT...

#417 Reinventing GDC Interview 2025.11.27 After the discussion, DeLoura turned the tables on your nice hosts and asked a question of his own. It didn't fit into the episode, but we saved it and put it up as a Patreon exclusive bonus segment ! Mark DeLoura's decades-long career in games includes roles ranging from Nintendo engineer to White House senior advisor. A longtime and passionate developer...

#393 "I’m intrigued by big door." Roundtable 2025.06.12 Mark rushes through the introduction to talk about his two rush projects, one of which, Blippo+ , was announced on Sunday during the PC Gaming Show! You'll hear more about that next week, but until then, Lydia talks about feeling seen in Anime, Stephen laments that his filmmaking class has not only ruined movies for him, but also music, and D...

#381 Dinosaurs of North Dakota Nice Games Jam 2025.03.13 The clubhouse gets Cretaceous this week; your nice hosts have been challenged to create a game about dinosaurs and their feeding habits. Prompt Make a game about the feeding habits of dinosaurs or of paleontologists, bonus points if all the dinosaurs are from the same era. Game type Design document Player count 1 Rules Cretaceous period Flow...

#405 Fishing Minigame Collection Nice Thinking 2025.09.04 Stephen Business is back! And he’s attempting to make a meme into a reality. The clubhouse attempts to answer these (and other) questions: How many fishing minigames is too many fishing minigames? Is it okay to shoot fish with lasers? Who are those teenagers with emo hair in the Bentley? Should Stephen make something on the Playdate? Why do...

#396 3D Workflows for Indie Devs Interview 2025.07.03 We welcome Freya Holmér back into the clubhouse to talk about 3D game development for independent game developers. We get into the specifics of the tools available for devs and why they work and don't work for different teams, but it's mostly an excuse to talk about Freya's new 3D modeling software. Half-Edge  -  Freya Holmér Shapes  -  Freya H...

#391 "The things that create the geometry." Roundtable 2025.05.29 Your nice hosts all secured a Switch 2 pre-order... from a certain point of view. Then, Stephen examines the body, Mark attempts a vocabulary, and Lydia has recommendations. Chants of Sennaar  -  Wikipedia Nintendo Switch 2 preorders were a total mess — at first  -  Jay Peters ,  The Verge Missed out on a Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order...