Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

Your nice hosts interview Ben Burnes, sole developer of recently released Color Jumper, to discuss the process of finally releasing a game, and the lessons learned along the way. Releasing a Game Marketing Production Color Jumper is available on Steam right now! You can try it out on the itch.io page The 20/60/20 Rule of Leadership”  -  Derrick Strand ,  LinkedIn Ben had mixed results with Keymail...

This week is Stephen's first turn as roundtable host, Mark teaches us about film and Martha sells her soul for three Destiny 2 faction tokens. Mark and Stephen and friends made it through Ludum Dare! Check out their game called Widget Satchel. 0:02:49 Influences What Is Blackout Poetry? These Fascinating Poems Are Created From Existing Art E. Ce Miller Bustle That action/puzzle game Stephen was tr...

(Watch this and other Nice Plays on YouTube for HD-quality.) In this episode, your nice hosts battle each other in a brand new indie fighting game. The overall win-loss record isn't important... the main takeaway is that Martha and Mark both beat Stephen. Game : Inflatality Developer : Hojo Studio Publisher : Hojo Studio Platform : PC Release date : Oct. 26, 2017 Genre : Fighting Video

(Watch this and other Nice Plays on YouTube for HD-quality.) In this episode, Mark plays the opening chapter of one of Martha's very favorite games, Borderlands 2, and then Martha takes over to show off her badassitude. Your nice hosts talk about narrative in FPS games, generous loot systems, and how wonderful/terrible Claptrap is. Game : Borderlands 2 Developer : Gearbox Software Publisher : 2K G...

This week, Martha hosts her first roundtable episode, Mark starts another argument, and Stephen gets sassy about his favorite game genre. Stephen did regret promising to have his talk notes up. They’ll be up ASAP! Martha had a blast at the My Brother, My Brother and Me show! 0:08:08 Fighting Games Games N’ Go in Roseville, MN often has Friday fighting game nights. The Moon Fields, a Wisconsin figh...

It’s a very special episode, as your nice hosts celebrate one year(!!!) of Nice Games Club by revising their favorite topics from the show’s first 50+ episodes. Also: Mark complains about Las Vegas, Martha repeatedly gets the last laugh, and Stephen doesn’t like talking about his problems. 0:03:06 Imposter Syndrome (revisited) Impostor Syndrome Is Not Just a Confidence Problem Alicia Liu Medium 0:...

A special episode, with a unique guest, who is also a fan of the show! Minneapolis-based Riddle Room creator and owner Art Allen enters the clubhouse to talk about making, designing, and operating puzzle/escape room games, and the ways in which its similar and different from creating digital games. Puzzle/Escape Rooms Physical Games Peeking Behind the Locked Door: A Survey of Escape Room Facilitie...

In this episode, Martha (and then Stephen) are tortured by bad level design and user-hostile game mechanics in the original Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2, while Mark praises the oft-misunderstood American version of the game. NOTE: Mark was wrong. There *were* mid-level checkpoints in the original Super Mario Bros. Game : Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japan) Developer/Publisher : Nintendo Platfor...

In this episode, Mark plays a new indie release by a Twin Cities developer. He dies a lot, and it's only partially the controller's fault. Game : Color Jumper Developer/Publisher : Tall Beard Studios Platform : Windows / Mac / Linux Year : 2017 Genre : Precision Platformer Color Jumper on Itch.io. Color Jumper on Steam. Ben Burnes on Twitter. Ben is also a musician and songwriter! ...and he stream...

In our first (and likely only ever) Halloween episode, Martha haunts the clubhouse, Mark delivers some bad Zelda-related news to Stephen, and from Stephen’s topic a thousand flowers bloom. Mark gave a talk on object-oriented programming at the first annual M+DEV confe… 0:04:41 Upcoming Games Tech Interview: Destiny 2 and Bungie's return to PC gaming Richard Leadbetter Eurogamer 18 new Nintendo Swi...

This week, we talk to Ben Franks, Dreamcast aficionado, and discuss the various ways its preservation has taken form. Your nice hosts also take a short trip down memory lane as we reminisce about our favorite video game hardware. Here's a video Martha captured while we were recording the episode, as Ben open…  -  Nice Games Club with Ben Franks ,  YouTube Preserving the Dreamcast Hardware Preservi...

In this episode, Mark plays one of Martha's favorites, the classic PC point and click adventure Pajama Sam 2 , and learns why she loves and is inspired by this game's development studio so much. Game : Pajama Sam 2: Thunder and Lightning Aren’t So Frightening Developer/Publisher : Humongous Entertainment Platform : PC (Windows, Mac, Linux) Year : 1998 Genre : Point & Click Adventure We mentioned,...

In this episode (Nice Games Club's 50th!), Martha plays (and finishes!) a game Stephen once recommended to Mark (but Mark forgot about). A first-person narrative, Thirty Flights of Loving is a 5-year old game written in a 10-year old engine, but still holds up, according to your nice hosts, anyway . Game : Thirty Flights of Loving Developer/Publisher : Blendo Games Platform : PC (Windows, Mac) Yea...

In this episode, Stephen fights his demons, Martha likes sports now, and Mark learns a lot about both. 0:02:41 Scope Creep Martha took a blacksmithing class! Also, her instructor told her this was a perfect forge weld . Martha brought up fighting scope creep on our GDC 2017 Special. GDC 2017 Special (Part 1) Project management is a way to combat scope creep that we’ve covered before, in the episod...

This week, Stephen finally gets a theme song, Mark plays devil's advocate, and Martha gets dangerously close to a topic your nice hosts swore to never talk about on the show. 0:02:40 DLC and Expansions When Mark was young, he bought unofficial Quake mods on CD-ROM . Turns out, Electronics Boutique and EB Games are the same thing . Day-One DLC Isn’t Always Evil, Says Borderlands 2 Guy Tina Amini Ko...

Uh oh… they're back… it's EVIL GAMES CLUB! Snide laugh! Malicious gafaw! In this, our second evil episode, your evil hosts revisit some of the dumb topics Nice Games Club covered in previous episodes, and correct the record where required. We're at it again, being evil, that is! Dale posts bugs on Instagram now.  -  Instagram This is the spider Dale was talking about in the intro.  -  Instagram 0:...

Well, it finally happened. Dale LaCroix, (aka: "#1 Playtester," one-third of Evil Games Club, and Mark's wife) joins your nice hosts in the clubhouse to talk about playtesting! Stephen writes down everything Dale says about what it takes to be a good playtester, Martha laughs at all of Dale's jokes, and Mark deals with the fact that his wife doesn't really like his game. We also talked about the r...

This week, Martha has so much to talk about that she runs out of time, Stephen espouses the virtues of building your own gamedev tools, and Mark names the episode after a Star Trek thing because it's his birthday today so he gets to. Discuss this episode on Reddit using this thread in r/gamedev. 0:03:31 Intro to Linguistics for Game Developers The Legend of Zelda’s Hylian Language Fandom The Langu...

"Nice Plays" are video episodes where your nice hosts play and talk about a game, and after 17 minutes, our egg timer goes off and we give our final thoughts. In this episode, Stephen plays the NES port of the classic arcade game Solomon's Key! Game : Solomon's Key Developer : Tecmo Publisher : Tecmo Platform : NES Release date : July 1987 (US) Genre : 2D Puzzle-Platformer Summary : "You and Dana,...

"Nice Plays" are video episodes where your nice hosts play and talk about a game, and after 17 minutes, our egg timer goes off and we give our final thoughts. In this episode, Mark plays the recent indie game Boor, and your nice hosts all find a lot to like about it! Game : Boor ( http://www.dazlog.com/boor/ ) Developer : DazlogStudio Publisher : Badland Games Platform : Windows, Mac, Linux Releas...

It's a slightly experimental show this week, as we try to see what a two-topic episode looks like. Also, Martha defends her love of coleslaw, Stephen still doesn't really like VR, and Mark has almost completely lost his voice. Discuss this week's episode on Reddit in r/gamedev here . 0:05:54 Video Game Immersion Our pal and VR innovator Andrew Fladeboe. Representation and Embodiment in Virtual Rea...

This week, your nice hosts are still relaxing in Mark's dining room for an episode that has it all: a disagreement about Bluetooth, some good ClawTalk™, and the shortest conversation ever had on the subject of tabs vs. spaces. All this, plus a slightly higher than usual number of wild digressions. Discuss this episode on Reddit in this thread on r/gamedev! 0:01:29 Input Methods and Controls Stephe...

This week, the clubhouse is being occupied by Glitch's Summer 2017 Immersion Program cohort, so your nice hosts relocate to Mark's kitchen and talk over tea with the astoundingly insightful and utterly charming Holly Harrison, professional social media and community manager, to talk about building and engaging with an audience online. Community Managment Marketing Tide tries and fails to act cool...

It's Nice Games' Club take on the Let's Play! Introducing "Nice Plays," where the Nice Games Club gamedevs play nice games. Our first Nice Play features the recent indie (re-)release "OneShot." We talk about the game's unique design choices as we fumble around to figure out the controls. But, like for every Nice Play, after 17 minutes of gameplay our egg timer goes off, which means it's time to en...

This week, Martha stops short of detailing the DNS protocol, Mark describes a completely different Star Trek VR thing which he made for the Minnesota Orchestra Hall, and Stephen explains how to lose like a real champ. Plus, like the classic 1985 film Clue , this episode has multiple endings! Discuss this episode on Reddit using this thread in r/gamedev! Stephen's headphone audio testing suite Whit...