Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

With Mark still away, Ellen returns to in the clubhouse for another episode! This week, she invited her husband, strategy consultant / Agile coach / Scrum Master Eric Johnson, to discuss Agile Development and iterative workflows. Agile Development Production Why people still believe in the Waterfall model  -  Tarmo Toikkanen An Agile Approach to Launching the Nordstrom Sunglass Application  -  Nic...

Mark is away this week, so Ellen Burns-Johnson joins us once again as a guest host! We get philosophical and reflective in this episode, talking about finding "fidelity" and taking in constructive criticism. What can you make abstract in your game and what needs to be realistic? How do you take negative feedback with grace? Is it the players who are wrong, or are you just not asking the right ques...

It's story time this week in the clubhouse. Featuring updates on projects from Martha, endless family game fights with Stephen, and Mark's shady past as a rhythm game DJ (he needed the money, but there was no money). "Unpacking" is planned for a late 2020 release. 0:04:49 Multi-Generational Gaming Yoshi’s Crafted World dev comments on the game’s difficulty @NE_Brian Nintendo Everything Single-play...

"HONK!" It's time for another Nice Games Bulletin! We talk about recent releases, game industry news...and also Star Trek news because we can't help it. Bulletin topic (Recent releases) Timecode 0:05:51 Untitled Goose Game Review - The Joys Of Goosing Around  -  Kimberly Wallace ,  Game Informer The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is the perfect Zelda for younger fans  -  Russ Frushtick ,  Polyg...

Your nice hosts catch up on all the game releases that gamedev Twitter was going on about during the last few weeks. We then talk about how it all comes together, and revisit an old topic, now that nearly three years have passed and so much has changed. The latest game trailer to submit to the #StephenTest is "Reginald Does His Thang" by Gibrian Foltz. Available now on Steam and Itch! Stephen is w...

It's our 150th episode! To celebrate we finally have Martha's dad David R. Megarry on the show to talk about designing board games and specifically designing the fantasy adventure board game Dungeon! We get to hear the inspiration behind some of the now iconic game mechanics, unexpected lessons he learned along the way and why community is so important to a game designer. We even hear some stories...

It's another Nice Games Jam! This time, our boyfriend Dylan sent in a particularly interesting challenge, asking your nice hosts to design a game where the player's load-out impacts the game's controls. After an aborted attempt to make it into a game consisting of physical props, we came up with a very strange concept for a video game where you equip and battle a bunch of different controllers as...

This week Martha just got back from the XOXO Festival and Conference in Portland! She gives a run down of all the cool video game related content and what it was like to be there. Then Stephen talks all about Randomization and how you can use it to enhance or detract from your game. Stephen manipulates the RNG, Mark doesn’t understand loot color coding, and Martha just wants to sort things. 0:19:5...

It's still Wednesday in the clubhouse, which means an extra-long meta section where your nice hosts discuss showing off games at the recent 2DCon convention, Martha maturing both as a person and a culture, and what it feels like to have your words translated into Japanese. Oh, and we talk about designing rumble for your game, and close out the show with a great discussion about making games design...

It's Nice Games Bulletin time! We bring you all the news from the video game world leaving no stone unturned. We’ve got news in all varieties- Nice News, Medium News, Bad News and Dad News! So much news! Join your Nice Hosts as we sort it all out. Photo credit: Foam Sword Games- Knights and Bikes promo screenshot Bulletin topic (Recent releases) Games: Knights and Bikes Man of Median Control Remna...

This week your nice hosts are joined in the clubhouse by visual artist and games UI designer Jajeev Nithiananda. He talks the good and bad of game UI, working with demanding clients and argumentative co-workers, and explains how function and form must work together to create a good experience for the player. User Interfaces Art UI / UX PGA TOUR Golf Shootout on Google Play and iOS App Store . UI B...

This week your Nice Hosts break open Power Fantasies and Indie Game Trailers and analyze what makes them work! Can boredom be a game mechanic? Is the age old storytelling rule "show don't tell" actually bad advice for indie game trailers? Can a power fantasy game really ever have too many explosions?? Picture credit Gearbox Software If you have a trailer for your game and want to get some feedback...

Ellen is back to help out with a Nice Games Jam! Our prompt: create a JRPG-inspired game in under an hour. But like any good JRPG, it took twice as long to complete as expected... Ellen's handwritten notes are worth a look! (PDF) And here's the Wikipedia page for Weevil , which Ellen wanted you to see. Prompt What would the Nice Games Club take on a JRPG be? Do that Game type Paper prototype Playe...

While Stephen is away at the Game Devs of Color Expo in New York, Ellen Burns-Johnson joins in the club house to discuss organizing your game library and what to do when you actually know nothing about marketing. Martha throws it in the 'eh' pile, Mark delegates, and Ellen has it all under control. Game Devs of Color Expo 2019 Depression and the Solace of 'Grinding' in Online Games  -  Julie Muncy...

This week, your nice hosts are joined by Marina Kittaka, artist and co-developer on the upcoming Anodyne 2: Return to Dust . Marina made the 30-foot journey from her desk to the clubhouse in order to discuss Anodyne's theme of nostalgia, the "personal" authenticity of the game's lo-fi PS1-era aesthetics, jumping in to her first 3D project, leveraging your limitations, and more! Nostalgia and the L...

This week your Nice Hosts appear out of nowhere to discuss Stealth Games and Motion Controls! Mark shoots lasers, Stephen time travels and Martha joins a geriatric gang. Dishonored 2 cover art copyright Bethesda. 0:01:30 Stealth Games Banana Bread (Griffin & Justin of Polygon play SpyParty) Polygon YouTube Giant Bomb Plays Hitman Let's Plays Fly On The Wall YouTube Why Fashion in (Most) Games Suck...

This week, your nice hosts talk about a pair of game genres that none of them are that wild about, and Mortho returns to brighten the proceedings! Our previous episode on "unloved" topics: “Try it once!” "Try it once." You Never Realized Fonts Could Be This Exciting  -  Mike Fahey ,  Kotaku Donut County is the Anti-Katamari  -  Marcus Estrada ,  Hardcore Gamer Slay the Spire is my favorite game to...

All the news that fit to pod! Mark makes a Mario, Martha adds things to her wishlist and Stephen gets mad at his TV. Bulletin topic (Recent releases) Timecode 0:00:42 Super Mario Maker 2: Building On Success  -  Kyle Hilliard ,  Game Informer Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: The Kotaku Review  -  Joshua Rivera ,  Kotaku The making of Samurai Showdown (2019)  -  Alex Kane ,  Polygon Crash Team Ra...

This week, we welcome friend of the show Matt Gravelle into the clubhouse to talk about the ups and downs of, and lessons learned from, the decade-plus history of his indie game company, Graveck Interactive. Topics include the early days of Unity, holding the top-selling spot in the iOS App Store for months(!), weird guidelines from film studios on licensed web games, creating VR experiences for m...

Stephen has been working on patches for Treasure Stack and Mark has been busy getting age ratings around the world for Widget Satchel so this episode is jam packed with knowledge! Mark tricks his parents, Martha hides from E.T. and Stephen balances the game. Game Devs of Color Black Mirror’s ‘Striking Vipers’ uses fighting games to flirt with the theme of…  -  Gretchen Felker-Martin ,  Polygon The...

Stephen's back from E3, and brought back tales of standing in line, going out at night, and staying in on Thursday. But before hearing about all the unreleased games Stephen played while in Los Angeles, your nice hosts discuss all the news and announcements from the show. 0:05:28 Google Stadia at E3 2019 0:16:57 Microsoft E3 2019 E3 2019: ID@Xbox Shines the Spotlight on Amazing Independent Games L...

This week is another Nice Games Jam! We got a prompt from Martha's Boyfriend Dylan to "make a puzzle game that includes a written document that updates as you play." You can play the game we came up with in the episode using the rules in the show notes below! Prompt Make a puzzle game that requires a text/readme file or some other sort of text thing that you have to use as a guide to figure out th...

This week in the clubhouse, Stephen wants do more with less, Mark wants to do more with more , and Martha wants to do less to more. "Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language"  -  Gretchen McCulloch ,  book "Your conference is too damn big"  -  John Pavlus ,  Fast Company "The Game Design Studio on a Boat"  -  Clinton Nguyen ,  Vice Evil Games Club co-host Dale is now tweeting for...

This week we have Beth Korth of Howling Moon Software back to talk about Narrative Design and her process for designing and writing Verdant Skies! We talk all about the creative process from creating ideas in her head to writing in a markup language Andy created so she could control the game as she wrote dialogue and cut scenes. Narrative Design Narrative Beth's Notebook Naming the game Designing...

This week in the clubhouse, Stephen breaks the ice, Martha dreams of writing passwords, and Mark makes a Jurassic Park reference ( @ us if you recognize it!). Our pal Abdiwak Yohannes is making Boji: Boji theme song on Soundcloud!  -  Abdiwak Yohannes Boji in action!  -  @heyglitch ,  Twitter Boji Animated!  -  @heyglitch ,  Twitter Regular news "Super Mario Maker 2 news dump"  -  Sam Machkovech ,...