Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

This week, your nice hosts talk about last week and next week. Mark wants you to frame things, Stephen wants a definition, and Ellen wants you to start a fight with her on Discord. Ellen's team made a gross game for Global Game Jam 2023! Star Trek: Picard, Final Season Premiere (full free episode)  -  Paramount+ ,  YouTube 0:17:12 Visual Composition Composition for Noobs Flow Studio YouTube Compos...

Your nice hosts invite Zachtronics founder Zach Barth to discuss the closing of the studio and the logistics of moving on from that. In this episode, you'll also hear about ruminations on what success means as a game dev, a theory about how great walking is and exclusive news about Zach's future plans. The Logistics of Moving On IRL Production Zachtronics website Last Call BBS Why Zachtronics is s...

The year 2022 in review! Yes, it's now halfway through February, but being a few weeks late is part of the annual "Nicest Of" tradition. Your hosts (plus guest Holly Harrison) revisit their notable games and goals from 2022, and make some plans for 2023. Holly is here in the clubhouse for this recording! Things that happened in 2022: We sold GLOM! It's coming out in 2023. Mark announced a game ( D...

Your hosts recall what they did over their winter break this year (aka hiatus). Ellen played video games and games with her dogs, Stephen watched and reviewed some movies (please tell him what to watch next!), and Mark mostly watched Doctor Who. Big news for the show: We now have ad-free episodes on Patreon ! What We Did On Our Winter Break (2022-23) Ellen played video games Banner Saga Death Driv...

#278 "Insert interesting car here." Roundtable 2022.09.14 Your nice hosts' pronunciation is on point this week as they say a really hard word a large number of times! In this episode, Mark and Ellen BOTH introduce even more complicated words to the other hosts, and Stephen admits to losing an argument (which he'd done on the show before but still don't tell his brother). Noble Robot Office Verisim...

#271 Neurodiversity in Gamedev (with Adam Clewes-Boyne) Nice Thinking 2022.07.28 This week, we invite our first guest for Nice Thinking! Adam Clewes-Boyne is putting together an initiative for neurodiversity advocacy and education in the games industry, specifically focused on ADHD. It started as a meetup at a conference, and Adam wants to see where it can go next. Neurodiversity in Gamedev Events...

#244 "Maximum Whooo!" Roundtable 2021.11.25 As the podcast approaches its fifth anniversary, your hosts get a little (more) frivolous. Mark shares some industry news about hardware releases. Ellen prompts everyone to share their experiences of learning development tools and examine their process of learning through the lens of Maximum Whooo. Stephen explores the difference between cooperative and...

#273 The State of VR in 2022 Interview 2022.08.11 Your nice hosts talk to Andrew Eiche, COO at Owlchemy Labs (Job Simulator, Vacation Simulator, Cosmonious High) about the state of VR in 2022, and where VR and VR development tools may be going in the coming years. Andrew talks about how industrial design should influence VR design, why you shouldn't take inspiration from movies, and how ergonomics...

#281 StorySlide (with Osama Dorias) Nice Games Jam 2022.10.06 Game designer Osama Dorias returns to the clubhouse to help design a game that can be played remotely, and provides some (much needed?) structure to the Nice Games Jam process. Stephen is obsessed with Bananas, Ellen contemplates her mystery banana gift, and Mark realizes some of these concepts might be too complicated for small childre...

#252 Visual Coding Interview 2022.03.17 This week we're joined by Alina Matson, developer of Fitment —a microworkout app designed with cozy gamers in mind. Alina talks about how she has used the popular Unity plugin Playmaker to kick-start her transition from a career in mechanical engineering to gamedev. Positive vibes abound. Plus, surprise singing! Visual Coding Programming Tools Playmaker  - ...

#247 Designing like a Dungeon Master Interview 2021.12.10 Your nice hosts (Ellen, mainly) conduct a double-interview, with a consummate professional and a committed amateur, on the subject of game design though the lens of tabletop game mastering. Subjects include the dynamic between system design and session design, the balance between planning and improvisation, and how players can be encouraged...

#268 "No referees?!" Roundtable 2022.07.07 How much of the culture around a game is rooted in its design? That's one of the questions that comes up as Mark takes us on a tour of curling—an Olympic sport that's described as "chess on ice." We examine its origins, the Spirit of Curling, and some specific rules that may have a big impact on how players behave towards one another. Later, Stephen consi...

Sarah Yu and Beth, developers of Bugaboo Pocket, join us once again in the clubhouse after our chance meeting at GDC! Listen in as we gush about bugs a lot, but also discuss how to present personality traits of your pets in pet management games. There's also a bunch of cool videos of bugs in this episode's show notes! Sarah and Beth were also interviewed by us during GDC in 2022. GDC 2022 Special...

The clubhouse comes together this week to realize the danger and fear surrounding Save Data. Mark talks about the advantages of Json and xml, then immediately tells why he choose neither of them for his project. Stephen summarizes why meetings are great and why everyone is sometimes a tech artist (Make it more... Dynamic?), and the team discusses how to best communicate between people who have dif...

It's the show's sixth anniversary! To celebrate, Stephen, Mark, and Ellen play two "talky talky" games on the air:   Where Should We Begin: A Game of Stories  by Esther Perel, and  Hypertheticals  by Chuck Klosterman. These games offer your hosts some interesting discussion prompts, with interesting results. Episode 280, a recent one in which we talked about journaling. "Two bits of goop." "Baldri...

This week, fellow nice gamedev Millie Walker enters the clubhouse to discuss her approach to combining genres. It's an episode full of synthesis, but not photosynthesis because Stephen doesn't want to talk about his bonsai tree. Fusing Genres Game Design Marketing Myth Caller: The Nightmare Shaman  -  Karatkuro Xander the Monster Morpher: Universe Breaker  -  Karatkuro ,  Steam We previously tackl...

Lots of technical talk in this episode as your nice hosts wade into these two large topics!  Flappy Dragon  -  Google Play Store 0:09:27 Cameras Linear Interpolation Wikipedia Super Mario World Camera Logic Review Shaun Inman YouTube Camera Movements for 2D Platformers: How Do I Know Which One to Choose Sam Hu Sam J H Hu Pro Camera 2D Luís Pedro Fonseca Unity Asset Store 0:31:52 Bug Tracking and T...

It’s everyone’s favorite rhythm fighting game that doesn’t exist yet, ‘Rhythm Rumble’, back for more discussion in this week's NiceThinking Episode. Ellen learns a new word, Mark rants about Unity’s PlayerPrefs, and Stephen admits that he still hasn’t learned to take good notes. They all agree that you have to spend more time researching than you want to, and that Dale is awesome. PlayerPrefs in U...

It's spooky season! Stephen is SO over it, but he can't escape all the scary stuff happening in this week's episode. We start with a lesson on the necromantic arts of branding and iconography, guided by Mark, a master of these dark magics. After the break, Ellen raises a past topic from the dead in order to explore the ethics of manipulating players' brainnnsssss. Also mentioned: candy corn, house...

This week, we talk with Super Rare Games' "Head of Words," Ryan Brown, about his company's approach to physical game distribution for indie games, and what it takes to get your game not just on a Nintendo, but on a Nintendo cartridge. Physical Releases for Indies Marketing Production Super Rare Games Super Rare Games  -  Twitter Super Rare Games - Developers & Publishers publishmygame@superraregam...

Your nice hosts start off strong with an excellently performed intro, and it just gets better from there!  The Game Agency  -  The Game Agency 0:06:24 Pre-production 0:31:45 Idle Games Star Trek Lower Decks: The Badgey Directive Review: The Final Fun-tier? Steven Shaw Droid Gamers How to make an idle game: Everything you need to know about incremental mobile … David Hartery Adjust Idle Games: The...

Game designer Osama Dorias returns to the clubhouse to help design a game that can be played remotely, and provides some (much needed?) structure to the Nice Games Jam process. Stephen is obsessed with Bananas, Ellen contemplates her mystery banana gift, and Mark realizes some of these concepts might be too complicated for small children. Osama previously joined us for episode 211: Building Blocks...

In this slightly-longer-than-normal episode, we start with a pandemic check-in. (Bivalent boosters are available! Go get 'em!) Ellen leads us on a journaling journey, sharing the embarrassing evidence of past attempts. Stephen challenges us to think through examples of adaptation, or maybe translation, or transcreation...well, we mostly figure it out by the end. Mark is extra-sharp with the one-li...

We welcome our first pseudonymous guest to the clubhouse to discuss what it's like making a game to carry the banner (and serve the community) of a previous title. Designing a Spiritual Successor Game Design Gaming Production Sanctuary Shattered Sun: Real Time Strategy Supreme Commander  -  Wikipedia Interview With Special Bread!  -  Sanctuary ,  YouTube Pac-Man Championship Edition is an electrif...

Your nice hosts' pronunciation is on point this week as they say a really hard word a large number of times! In this episode, Mark and Ellen BOTH introduce even more complicated words to the other hosts, and Stephen admits to losing an argument (which he'd done on the show before but still don't tell his brother). Noble Robot Office 0:05:23 Verisimilitude Verisimilitude Definition Dictionary.com V...