Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

In this episode your nice hosts welcome Rick Stemm of PikPok to the clubhouse to talk about what happens after a game gets greenlit. Turns out the answer involves building your team and trust. Rick touts the idea of a sh*tty first draft - faster and worse. Coaching feedback givers for what you are looking for, and the importance of building a trust in a team. Rick spouts useful idioms and your hos...

We return to the topic of cheating for the third (and final, maybe?) time this week! In this episode, Ellen brings cheating to a close, Mark makes up a band he'd totally listen to, and Stephen comes up with an engaging dish washing game. Cubistry  -  Match 2 LLC ,  Google Play Store 0:12:26 Cheating, Part 3 We first visited cheating in this episode. "What's a little grand larceny?" Cheating Part I...

Your nice hosts get called to the boss' office to interview Frani Esquenazi, who is Stephen's actual boss at Future Club. Frani discusses servant leadership, getting your "C" legs, and not having all the answers. Leadership IRL Production Servant Leadership  -  Mind Tools Servant Leadership is NOT What You Think  -  John S. Todorovic ,  LinkedIn Women in Games  -  Discord

In the second installment of your nice hosts' discussion about cheating in games, we talk about the nature of cheating in contemporary video games: what it looks like, what factors shape it, and how worried we gamedevs should be about it. Yeah, we had so much to say about cheating that we couldn't fit it into one episode. Can we fit it into two? Also, Mark skips the punctuation, Stephen is excited...

In this episode your nice hosts chat with Anna C. Webster lead writer on The Foglands, and her cat Montezuma. Anna talks about how writing for games is different than writing for other medias, including making decisions on what options the player can make (you can never let your player do anything because scope), and writing for players that role-play as the character vs. wearing the character's c...

After a fairly self-indulgent meta, your nice hosts eventually get into the nitty-gritty of both Player Motivation and Copying Others. Listen after the outro to hear a plethora of fun horse names! Normal Gossip  -  Kelsey McKinney ,  Defector Tour de France: Unchained  -  Netflix 0:26:57 Player Motivations Gamer Motivation Profile Quantic Foundry Board Game Motivation Profile Quantic Foundry We've...

Quinn K joins the clubhouse to break down their IGF-nominated game "An Outcry." Your nice hosts learn about choosing your own limitations, the Haunted PS1 scene, and how much playtesting is still not enough playtesting. Postmortem: "An Outcry" An Outcry  -  Quinn K ,  itch.io RPG Maker 2003 Oulipo: freeing literature by tightening its rules  -  Andrew Gallix ,  The Guardian Dogme 95  -  Movements...

In this week's roundtable, Ellen needs help with ALL the things. Stephen and Mark offer advice on where to find people who can help, and discuss some of the hidden challenges of expanding one's team. Later, Stephen challenges everyone to think about how games can do a better job of implementing companion characters. Also, some host backstory tidbits, weird horse names, and (of course) a bit about...

(Some of) your nice hosts went to Origins Game Fair last week! Aside from taking in the show and learning more about the world of board games, they were there to attend the launch of their card game Glom . But before they went, they talked about the state of the next card game they're working on (and working on pitching to publishers), Dogpile! The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth  -  Smithsonian I...

Your nice hosts return to form with a roundtable recorded together for the first time in a while! In this episode, Stephen sneaks a mini-topic in, Ellen asks some controversial questions and Mark helps us realize when we're breaking the law. As a side note, Glom is available right now! We've talked about it plenty on the show, but for more information or purchasing info you can go to  nicegames.cl...

After Mark's time with COVID, the first day he was free to go outside, the area was covered with the smoke of distant wildfires. Another bout of smoke has rolled in to the Twin Cities just in time for the release of this episode. The club spends this Nice Thinking episode talking about the making of Glom , and discussing their feelings about pitching and publishing board games. They discover that...

Your nice hosts recorded separately again this week, as Mark has been isolating at home. Stephen rants about examines fall damage mechanics in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and other games. Is fall damage overrated? Well, Stephen has OPINIONS. Mark talks about all of the things he's been doing to occupy his mind while he's been stuck in his apartment by himself—including some deep thinking a...

This week, Ellen and Stephen learn guest Zack Gilbertson's whole deal. Afterwards, Zack walks your nice hosts though an overview of what it's like for an indie developer to work with Unreal Engine, a popular-but-slightly-less-popular-than-Unity game engine. Unreal Engine Game Design Production Programming Tools Unreal Engine  -  Epic Games Lighting in Unreal Engine 5 for Beginners  -  William Fauc...

Max Kunze, Nice Games Club Guest Booker, takes over for Mark while he's still sick this week on another Nice Games Jam! Mark actually created the prompt for this episode, and your nice hosts find a way to inject many explosions into this board game made from it that you can try out yourself using the rules below! The playtest session we alluded to in the episode is on Patreon! If you want to hear...

On this episode, we talk with two of Ellen's coworkers and the Games Agency, Jamaal Sawyer-Dymski & Greg Borreson. They talk about their career paths, from their time as young nerds, to working in very different areas of computer sciences and programming, to the fact that saying "Enhance" doesn't actually help with anything CSI style, to working with your nice host, Ellen. Ellen has some audio pro...

In this episode, Stephen points out the number three! It’s everywhere! Also, what is it about animation that captures our minds and imaginations so effectively? Your hosts explore the topic and share some ideas. Ellen gets hung up on math, and Mark tries to keep everyone calm.  Good Question: How Do Street Sweepers Work?  -  WCCO - CBS Minnesota ,  YouTube A street sweeper in Bloomington, Minnesot...

This week, your nice hosts clop along sprawling acres of horse games and horses in games. They are led to water by the foremost expert on the topic, Alice Ruppert, creative director of the recent Horse Tales - Emerald Valley Ranch and writer of the horse-gaming blog The Mane Quest . The Taxonomy of Horse Games Game Design Gaming Production The Mane Quest Horse Tales - Emerald Valley Ranch

Your nice hosts explore the finality and the lusory this week with these two topics. In the process, Stephen struggles with a simple concept, Mark gets to 82% completion and Ellen figures out a way to blow up a transition. Glom is available for preorder! Find links here. 0:13:40 Endings 0:38:51 Lusory Attitude Lusory Attitude Wikipedia Lusory Definition Merriam-Webster We bring up our Curling epis...

According to Minnesota Public Radio, it's  hot girl sinkhole spring . In other words, we have an insane number of potholes right now in the Twin Cities, and since we can't do anything other than wait for the hardworking folks of road repair to fix them, we made a game about the whole situation. Andy and Beth Korth join for this special Nice Games Jam! GLOM preorder through Miniature Market GLOM pr...

Dale learned a lot while editing this episode. She learned the board game ‘Spirit Island’ is about spirits that protect an island, and she is pretty sure that this is the same premise as hit TV show ‘LOST’. She learns that CSS is not a programming language or a mark-up language And she learns that CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets She learns that AAA games are easy (not sure why she struggles...

Ellen and Stephen get spooked discussing small and/or novel horror games and experiences with Online Simulator developer Rosalie Vile. Ellen works backwards from the punchline, Stephen doesn't know about 80%, and Mark is still in California (thanks, calendar math). Tiny Horrors Game Design Narrative Online Simulator  -  Rosalie Vile ,  itch.io Sunday  -  EZBake Games ,  itch.io Skinamarink A Norma...

We hear from "California Business Mark" who spent the week on-location at GDC 2023. Mark summarizes some of the best talks and events he attended at the conference, featuring Kirby, the Playdate console, secrets in Tunic , Max, and more!  Support Final Strike  -  Lane Davis ,  Gamefound Current COVID guidelines from the CDC  -  Centers for Disease Control Super Nintendo World  -  Universal Studios...

Your nice hosts welcome Andrew Kenady, also know as Nintendrew on YouTube, to the show this week! He brings a postmortem about his recently released action platformer C.A.R.L. Postmortem: "C.A.R.L." Game Design Marketing Production C.A.R.L.  -  Andrew Kenady and Morningstar Game Studio C.A.R.L. on Steam  -  Andrew Kenady and Morningstar Game Studio ,  Steam Nintendrew  -  YouTube Morningstar Game...

In this episode, Mark makes up a reason to take a road trip, Ellen outwits everyone, and Stephen was also there. Zachtronics Solitaire Collection LACMA A Better Route Planner 0:24:43 Secrets & Easter Eggs The Super Mario 64 Coin that Took 18 Years To Collect Patricia Hernandez Kotaku PC Cheat Codes IGN Reddit on video game Secrets Reddit Secrets That Weren't Discovered in Games For Years Jordan Ba...

Ellen's nephews have charged her with the task of making a board game about pizza. Making a clone of Hasbro's  Candy Land  is more difficult than it sounds, especially since these young stakeholders have requested some "creative deviations" from the design of the original board game. Stephen and Mark step in to help out. Can your nice hosts realize the wild, cheesy dream that is  Pizza Land? Candy...