Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

On this week's episode, your nice hosts explore two completely separate but fully compelling topics! Ellen learns a new engine, Mark discusses why shooting could be a more interesting mechanic than it is, and Stephen completely misses a pun. Astral Gunners Pillars of Creation Games shown at 2D Con 2021: Snow Day: The Cold War Emery Johnny Chainsaw Armed and Gelatinous Captain's Log: Crisis Detecte...

After many months of recording over Discord (or together in Mark's and Dale's apartment), Nice Games Club is finding a new place to meet. Well, "finding" isn't really the right word. Mark and Dale are making it happen. The new clubhouse is being customized as a workspace and community hub, and this week on the show, Your Nice Hosts talk about how to start things up in the new spot. The New Clubhou...

Recently, Mark appeared on an episode of the Star Trek interview podcast (and fellow Minnesota production) Enterprising Individuals to talk about Star Trek video games. It was a lively discussion and we're pleased to re-broadcast it here. Thanks to host Aaron Coker and producer Diane Blum for arranging the interview and allowing your nice hosts to re-post it as an episode of Nice Games Club. Enter...

It's your nice hosts second live episode for 2D Con, Minnesota's biggest video game event. Stephen asks the audience to boo at him, Ellen knows the lingo, and Mark isn't making sense. Prompt "Chess 2" "Four-dimensional" "Welcome to Night Vale" Game type Tabletop game Player count 2 Materials 4x4 board. 3 Pawn pieces per player. 1 "Mayor" (King) pieces per player. An unspecified number of Glow Clou...

It's a packed clubhouse for this special episode! Your regular hosts are joined by two guests: Peter Yang and Dale LaCroix. Peter is a game designer, creative director, and tabletop games agent based out of Minnesota. Dale, as you know, is just plain evil. The adventure of the day—pitching games to tabletop publishers. And Peter is our guide! Pitching Tabletop Games Marketing Physical Games Tablet...

This week, your nice hosts welcome creative director and all-around "VR Specialist" Dana Ware to talk about location-based entertainment, the incredible potential of VR during a pandemic, and where VR will be in 5 years. Designing for VR Game Design IRL VR / AR / XR Dark Slope Studios The Void  -  Wikipedia Malls have a future: location-based entertainment  -  Kim Schaefer ,  VentureBeat Curtis Hi...

It's that time again! Time for another episode, that is. Mark tries to convince his fellow hosts that games should include more bonus content—developer commentary, concept art, and so forth. Stephen talks about giving talks, even though he doesn't like to give talks. And Ellen finished a game! What should Ellen play next? A poll for you!  -  Twitter My Boy! Emulator (Android app)  -  Google Play S...

This week, we try something new in the clubhouse with the very first Nice Thinking! In Nice Thinking, your nice hosts have a concept or idea that hasn't been fully fleshed out and we workshop it on air. This episode has Ellen bringing in the goal of encouraging parkgoers to throw away more garbage to take care of her neighborhood park. There's a lot of trash talk in this episode, listen to find ou...

Your nice hosts do their best to "attend" GDC 2021, and end up having a really good time. Mark imagines his business card, Ellen asks questions, and Stephen proves he's human . Game Developers Conference webpage GDC 2021 Sessions Indie SoapBox GDC Glitch City LA Demystifying Indie Publishing Offers August Brown GDC August joined us in a previous episode: Developer/Publisher Relations Avoid an Iden...

In this episode, Mark gets defensive about his fair city, Ellen declares her love of Big Buttons, and Stephen almost forgets Fingeance , the game he worked on for seven years. 0:14:00 Gamepads The Evolution of the Xbox Controller Alessandro Fillari GameSpot The Evolution of the PlayStation Controller Adam Bankhurst IGN List of Nintendo controllers Wikipedia 0:54:54 Nature in Games Minneapolis Name...

Your nice hosts come together for their first Nice Games Jam in person in a very long time! Did seeing each other together result in even wilder game jam shenanigans than you'd expect? Listen to the episode to find out! PlayThinker Deck  -  The Game Crafter Prompt We used Ellen's PlayThinker Deck to make this game! Goal card was "Efficiency", interaction cards were "Combination", "Approach", and "...

Holly Harrison, aka "Best Friend of the Show," is back in the clubhouse! And we recorded this episode in person again! Can you tell? It probably comes through in the goofs... There's plenty of silliness in this week's episode, even though your Nice Hosts explore some serious topics. Holly asks us what we can do to become more ethical consumers (and developers) of games. Ellen examines the dynamics...

Back in March, Mark created a game engine in an unfamiliar programming language for an unreleased console... and in June he explained himself in a presentation at IGDATC's Gamedev Meeting. The full video presentation of Mark's talk "So, you made a game engine?" Noble Engine, a li'l game engine for Playdate Noble Robot GitHub Noble Engine Project Template Noble Robot GitHub Playdate console Playdat...

Starting an indie studio is hard, starting a worker-owned cooperative is harder. This week your nice hosts interview longtime friend of the show Reese Valentine and their fellow co-founder Mackenzie Denker, both of Amelore . It's co-ops 101, which happens to be exactly the info Stephen needs right now! Amelore Coop website Amelore on Twitter Reese previously visited the clubhouse for one of our ea...

This week, Mark talks about Star Trek, Stephen wants to talk more about Star Trek, and Ellen hypes the website.

Your vaccinated hosts return to the clubhouse to record their first in-person episode in over a year. This one's for us, but you might like it, too. There was a lot of hugs before the recording. Charity EP Jam (the new album drops June 11th!)  -  Chel Wong Indie bundle for Palestinian Aid  -  Alanna Linayre ,  itch.io Mark's "Widget Satchel II" was featured in Panic's E3-style announcement video....

Can games be used for therapeutic purposes? Absolutely! In this episode we talk with Adam Davis, therapeutic Game Master, and a co-founder and executive director of Game to Grow, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The organization is focused on "the use of games of all kinds for therapeutic, educational, and community growth." Adam shares his experiences from over a decade in therapeutic play—how Game to Grow...

This week in the clubhouse, your nice hosts discuss the not so-intuitive nature of novelty, and the novel method of using intuition in games. Featured in the episode: Ellen reveals secrets of her home, Stephen relates a topic to fighting games for the 218th time, and Mark brings up the best parts of the Mass Effect trilogy. Matias Ergo Pro Keyboard Ellen mentioned screen burnout, a topic we've cov...

There's a second Mark in the clubhouse! This week we're joined by Mark Mandel, who is involved in many things worth mentioning! Mark is a Developer Advocate at Google Cloud for Games, leading the Developer Relations team; he founded Agones, a game server hosting platform; he has a dog. What else? Listen to find out. During this episode, Mark talks about open source software in the gamedev scene—wh...

This week, we talk about the core interactions that games are made of with Allan Rust, creative director of The Game Agency. We've been wanting to have Allan on the program for a long time, and it was worth the wait! Ellen and Mark's Ludum Dare 48 game, Sonder (a story) can now be played in a web browser from its Itch.io page ! Stephen (and company)'s game Fingeance is still hot off the presses. G...

Oh dang, Fingeance is out! In this episode, Stephen talks about finally releasing his long-in-development game that's been a big part of Nice Games Club history, too! Hear about the game's unique development history, why now was the right time to put it out into the world, and learn a bit about how you might want to to approach your own long-gestating projects. Fingeance on itch.io (download for f...

Sound the alarm, it's the second half of Evil Games Club's latest nefarious reign over the clubhouse! This time, Adia, Dylan and Dale take their misdeeds to new heights with an "Evil Games Jam." Can they invent a playable game and test it in a single episode? What maddening mechanics will be unleashed from these malevolent minds? Take shelter under your headphones and listen if you dare! The Inter...

Uh oh! The evils are back again for the first of a two-episode residency in the clubhouse, where Dale takes a hair census, Adia is "air-quoting heavily," and Dylan is a child of the Internet... literally. 0:05:21 Playing Outside Your Genre / Difficulty Expert Tips Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night Doesn't Tell You Justin Clark SVG How the Video Game Industry Quietly Powered Through a Pandemic Tril...

This week, your nice hosts get smart. Stephen approaches a major milestone, Ellen's planning her first PC build, and Mark does a book report. Plus, there's a new feedback form for you to sample and enjoy!  Aged. Learned. It's Nice Games Club. Fingeance trailer  -  Escape Industries ,  YouTube Fingeance main site  -  Escape Industries Buy Fingeance on Itch.io! Razer Kishi controller Amazon Luna con...

It's back to basics this week as we welcome Osama Dorias, lead game designer on the upcoming Gotham Knights at WB Games Montréal, to talk about his multi-year journey of making games with his kids, and what it taught him about his craft. It might be our cutest episode yet! Osama, along with  Fawzi Mesmar , and Rami Ismail , recently launched their own very nice gamedev podcast, The Habibis ! Build...