Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

#361 "The lensing effect of the window." Roundtable 2024.08.22 It’s hot in the clubhouse and hot in Ellen’s greenhouse this week, so your hosts are eager to crunch through some discussion. Ellen introduces the concept of the MDA framework, and the differences between Theming and Aesthetics, and Stephen comes to a major conclusion about parrying. Theming vs. Aesthetics 0:06:40 Ellen Burns-Johnson G...

#371 Tutorialization with Puzzles Interview 2024.11.01 "Tutorials shouldn’t feel like tutorials!" Like most aspects of game design, it's an easy concept to summarize but a difficult one to pull off. Luke Spierewka and the team at Afterburn Games have mastered it, using their charming approach in successful titles like  Golf Peaks  and  Railbound.  Come learn the arcane secrets of the puzzle game t...

#347 "A slow meat computer" Roundtable 2024.05.16 In the episode, Mark, Ellen, and Stephen talk local events, including (don’t worry everyone’s fine) a fire in the clubhouse’s building, construction, and the games they are playing, so if you are just here for the topics, go ahead and skip to minute 23. Ellen learns about King Making, Stephen humble brags about being good at Smash Brothers, and Dal...

#338 Eddies Nice Games Jam 2024.03.11 The clubhouse is caffeinated and ready to jam, game jam that is. The clubhouse is giving a prompt where air movement is the main mechanism of action and they create a physical game for a tabletop (in the style of 'Hungry Hungry Hippos'). The notoriously unpredictable 'Eddies' of air movement gives this game it's name. The main challenge for the team - a more s...

#354 The Intersection of Puzzle and Story Interview 2024.07.05 Narrative designer and pal of the program Beth Korth fills in for Ellen as guest host this week and next! Your nice hosts welcome famed designer Ron Gilbert (Monkey Island, Thimbleweed Park) into the clubhouse to discuss the virtues of inexperience, friction for its own sake, how it's all about story, and it's puzzles all the way down....

#353 "The super-powerful beam or whatever." Roundtable 2024.06.27 This week, your nice hosts talk about code that isn't yours and ask about the natural conclusion of the narrative. Mark is handy, Ellen kinda wants to add a note, and Stephen is grounded. It looked so easy in the brochure, but the brochure lied  -  Antony Ingram ,  Hagerty Code Libraries 0:07:41 Mark LaCroix Production Programming T...

It's a cheery and bright episode to get you through the dark cold days of winter! ☃️ Your hosts (plus guest Joanna May) wrap up 2024 with a readout of their nicest things from the year—nicest games, nicest accomplishments, and nicest procrastinations. Plus, plans and projects for 2025, some soft resolutions, and a review of some exciting upcoming titles you're likely to see hit various storefronts...

We invite Joanna May into the clubhouse to discuss serialization. We get ever so slightly closer to discovering what serialization even is with Joanna's help! We also have a little time to throw a little shade at Stephen's commenting style and brackets on their own line. Chickensoft Tibo, artist of the Chickensoft mascot. Eating your own dog food (Dogfooding)  -  Wikipedia Logic Blocks  -  Wikiped...

In this episode Lydia is back in the clubhouse to discuss her first job, and to help make a game about said job. But, because your nice hosts couldn't choose just one, it is also about Ellen's job at her parents' pet store, and Stephen's first job. Mark's also. When introducing Lydia to the concept of a nice games jam, the stages of the nice game jam are referenced. Here are the stages: 1) Panic 2...

All of your hosts are together in the Clubhouse for a special interview! Lydia Symchych is an impact game designer who has been working with Ellen over the last year. Today, she shares her experience of making an escape room that needed to be rendered in both "physical" and and digital environments. Also, sound effects and pillows. In the USA, November 28th is Thanksgiving Day, and November 29th i...

Your nice hosts chew over a concept Stephen brings into the clubhouse: a series of "game jams" where participants iterate on one specific idea in each session. Playdate Update - Fall 2024  -  Panic ,  YouTube Noble Engine  -  Noble Robot IGDATC Events  -  igdatc 0:04:30 Iterative Game Jam Meditations

Releasing 2019's "Baba is You" after more than a decade of making puzzle games was a milestone for this week's guest, but it was also just the beginning of his design journey. Arvi "Hempuli" Teikari talks to your nice hosts about the balance between giving players freedom and constraining their expression, the pacing and sequencing of individual puzzles, what happens when a "cool" design annoys pl...

In this episode Ellen usurps the normal process for a nice game jam prompt to explore her own idea on tabletop mechanics. Who would have thought the scoring system for this game would be 'Points for the Future War'? Stephen's One-Minute Movie  -  Stephen McGregor's Group ,  YouTube Discussion during development Subbuteo Soapboxderby.org Bullet Bill Soapbox Derby Car  -  Lou Whitmire ,  Mansfield N...

"Tutorials shouldn’t feel like tutorials!" Like most aspects of game design, it's an easy concept to summarize but a difficult one to pull off. Luke Spierewka and the team at Afterburn Games have mastered it, using their charming approach in successful titles like  Golf Peaks  and  Railbound.  Come learn the arcane secrets of the puzzle game tutorial! Also featuring some great  room sound . Afterb...

This week, your nice hosts talk a little bit about our civic duty before getting into two very on-brand topics. Make a plan to vote on (or before!) November 5th. Information at https://vote.org/ Everything You Need to Vote  -  Vote.org What States Allow Same Day Voter Registration and When?  -  Rock the Vote The Only Patriotic Choice for President  -  The New York Times These are the Republicans e...

We welcome Timothy Staton-Davis into the clubhouse to talk both the broad strokes and the nitty-gritty of combat design. Melanated Game Kitchen  -  itch.io Combat Design Art Game Design We talked about "juice" in game design way back! You can find links related to the topic here as well. "I am a Juice Journeyman!" Pacing  -  Robert Yang, Andrew Yoder ,  The Level Design Book

This week, Ellen kicks things off with a chat about how games tell players, “This might be tough!” and how to make that fun and fair. Stephen and Mark jump in with their takes on what makes difficulty settings shine. Then, Mark thinks about the practice taking familiar game mechanics and twisting them into something fresh. Think pacifist runs or limited equipment modes. Why limit yourself to one w...

This week, learn about what Ellen was like as a student. Stephen wonders if he’s made a huge mistake, Ellen does some work research, and Mark insists that there is no such thing as magic. Stephen started a new class: Film making Ellen forced her parents to play another game! Parks Board Game Mark saw the Badger Badger Mushroom song for the first time and was underwhelmed. Consequently, Dale was ed...

Entering the clubhouse this week is our the third Owl (employee of Owlchemy Labs) and first Peabody Award winner (as lead developer for We Are OFK ), to talk about the "dos," "don'ts," and "good enoughs" of optimization. Cleveland video game designer Jarryd Huntley wins Peabody Award for ‘We Are OFK’  -  Joey Morona ,  cleveland.com We are OFK  -  Peabody Awards Cleveland Game Developers  -  Linkt...

There are now episodes of Nice Games Club for each new day of the year! When you get to the last day of that year, you'll hear about Audio Middleware and Psychic Distance from us in the clubhouse. About the Fair  -  Minnesota State Fair 0:17:06 Audio Middleware An example of audio tech conversations we've had in the past. Game Audio Tools and Workflows Wwise Audiokinetic FMOD FMOD 0:51:32 Psychic...

In this episode the boys are back in Minneapolis, but they are still thinking about their time with Ellen in Duluth, or Roboluth ;) s So they are using this episode to talk about instructions, again, but this time though the lens of the different types of "user personas" who will be reading it. Instructions What is Roboston? Roboston is a tabletop game that the the Nice Games Club came up with dur...

Once again from hilly Duluth, Minnesota! On Day 2 of a game design weekend retreat, your nice hosts tackled rules—writing rules, rewriting rules, and playtesting them. It was a long day, culminating with a family playtest of  Roboston , featuring a newly written rulebook. How did it go? Well, there's more work to be done, but we learned a lot. Your hosts discuss this and more in today's episode, r...

It's a nice sleepover as this (and next) week's episode is recorded from Ellen's basement in Duluth. Mark has an angle, Ellen shares her topic, and Stephen manages. The view from the rotating resturant that Mark took Stephen to  -  Ragnar Eythorsson ,  YouTube Karen Puzzles  -  Karen Kavett ,  YouTube 178 (TNG) + 176 (DS9) + 7 (TOS movies, including "Generations" because Kirk was in it) = 361 epis...

It’s hot in the clubhouse and hot in Ellen’s greenhouse this week, so your hosts are eager to crunch through some discussion. Ellen introduces the concept of the MDA framework, and the differences between Theming and Aesthetics, and Stephen comes to a major conclusion about parrying. 0:06:40 Theming vs. Aesthetics The MDA Framework Wikipedia Ellen promised Dictionary.com definitions, so here you g...

We invite music producer and sound designer Dave McKee into the clubhouse to talk about accessibility in games this week. Accessibility Accessibility Game Design Control Accessibility Report  -  "Vivek Gohil, Ben Kendall" ,  Family Gaming Database Inclusive Gaming: How Game Developers Can Make Video Games More Inclusive And A…  -  Accessibility.com Visual impairment accessibility musts: High Contr...