Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

This week, a behind-the-scenes look into the game that uses a skateboard deck as a controller! Scrapebopard combines elements of rhythm, racing, and fighting games to create a unique boss attack experience. What's it like playtesting unique hardware? How much did they learn about electronics and wiring? How difficult was it to demo the game at alt.ctrl. GDC? What's next for the game? We explore th...

In this episode the your nice hosts discuss broken games, solved games, and purposely broken games. Ellen realizes that even if it is broken, doesn't mean you need to fix it. They discuss who's job it is to make a game fun, and how you can always make a game not fun.  This episode features the origin story of Stephen Business, and if you are still reading, spoiler alert: Mark's topic is a stealth...

It's our second climb into the scruff as your nice hosts continue development on "Dogpile!" We've updated the rules and did a lot of work toward defining the properties of a full prototype deck, consisting of 100, or 150... or maybe 250 unique cards? However many it ends up being, we're looking forward to part 3! Prompt Keep working on "Dogpile!" Game type Card game Player count 2-4 Setup Shuffle...

Your nice hosts accidentally stumble into the thesis of the show as this episode explores these two topics! Also found in the show: Stephen's composed song, Mark tries to avoid Entity Component Models and Ellen thinks about snakes for 20 minutes (but holds it together somehow). Beefsteak Tomato  -  Wikipedia Woman in Motion  -  Paramount Woman in Motion on Peacock  -  Peacock Woman in Motion on Tu...

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 are important. Also, Ellen takes a hard stand on...

It’s Ellen’s 100th episode as a Nice Games Club host! And there’s no better way to celebrate a big day than with a Nice Games Jam. Dale gave us a prompt and you’ll never guess the theme. Can your Nice Hosts come up with a playable prototype in “ruffly” an hour? Enjoy live edits, goofs, special cubes, and piles of dogs taken to the logical extreme! Ellen's first episode as a permanent host. "Click...

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 IRL Adam joined us, after a fashion, in a previous episode: Game Dev London does...

In this larger than normal episode, your nice hosts bring a lot to the top of the show with a bunch of exciting news. And there's still two topics to discuss after that! Mark brings his documentation A game, Stephen describes his time at SGDQ and Ellen has complaints to bring to the table. Summer Games Done Quick 2022  -  YouTube Stephen and Charles walking across SGDQ on camera  -  YouTube Dall-E...

Nina Marotta (and Kelso the cat) from High Moon Studios enters the clubhouse to talk about level and interaction design. She showers your nice hosts with bits of wisdom, such as: "Games are ugly for 90% of their development." "You have to live your life in order to be a good team member and a good designer." Level and Interaction Design Game Design Nina mentions the Geam Design program at Kent Sta...

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 considers some questions about off-ramps, the pa...

It's part three of our unintentional "Gamedev in..." series! Your nice hosts speak with Daniela Gamarra about making games in Peru. Daniela shares her perspective on entering the industry, making progressive games in a conservative culture, and being asked "how much do you need to make this game?" Previous "Gamedev in..." episodes: We spoke with Ryan Sumo for: Gamedev in the Philippines We spoke w...

Your nice hosts bring deep topics to the clubhouse this week! Listen in as Stephen forgets the name of the Uncharted lead character (but remembers the voice actor), Ellen brings up Mass Effect many, many times and Mark describes more interesting tidbits about Widget Satchel's development. Serious Play Conference LumbearJack  -  YouTube Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer  -  Stea...

It's a packed episode this week, with birthdays, illnesses, and some Nice Thinking. Stephen, Mark, and Ellen discuss how the group might put on a tournament for local gamers, featuring locally-made indie games. How can one create a competition that involves many different games of widely different genres? Hopefully your nice hosts are up to the challenge. Either way, you're in for a treat! Plus, w...

It's a sequel to last week's episode! This week, your nice hosts speak with Kent State University animation and game design professor Chris Totten about formal game design education. We get into the details of theory and practice, and discuss how teaching gamedev is both similar and different from other professional and artistic fields. Teaching Gamedev to Young People, Again! Game Design IRL An A...

In this episode Truman Simpson joins us to talk about teaching game development to young people, through Gameheads, an organization for which Truman is a long standing volunteer. The clubhouse discusses the importance of seeing what is possible and what is achievable, and Stephen is jealous of today's youths. Teaching Gamedev to Young People Game Design IRL Gameheads Truman Simpson volunteers with...

In this episode, Stephen, Mark, and Ellen talk about gameplay loops. Then, they talk about art direction. Then they talk about loops. And then art direction. And then, more loops. Just kidding! It’s a regular roundtable discussion about diagramming gameplay, establishing art direction, and when to take out the garbage. Habitica: Gamify Your Life Educating Intuition  -  Robin M. Hogarth ,  Universi...

At GDC, your nice hosts met and spoke with this week's returning guests. We were so impressed with their project "[i] doesn't exist," we wanted to have them on a full episode to talk about the unique machine learning system they built for it. Be nice and have a listen! LUAL Games on Twitter "[i] doesn't exist" demo  -  itch.io [I] doesn't exist - a modern text adventure  -  Kickstarter If you're i...

It's a Nice Postmortem! Ellen brings her instructional design colleague Mark Hamilton to discuss the development process behind the LxJamathon, a combination of both a hackathon and a game jam meant to allow instructional designers to practice their skills! Find out what went well and what didn't in this fascinating look into the event. Postmortem: "LxJamathon" Production Instructional Design Redd...

Game designer Monica Fan joins us this week for a Nice Games Jam that is extra-mischievous and extra-cute. There's drama amongst the roommates, and we're pretty sure the cat's to blame. But can we prove it? Can your Nice Hosts (and Nice Guest) make a playable prototype by the end of the episode? How many times will Stephen say "meow" before the outro rolls? So many questions! Monica Fan @DesignerM...

It's a Nice Postmortem! Hunter Bond and Mike Ducarme talk the making of Infernax —an old school adventure platformer with puzzle elements, unholy curses, and lots of old-school awesomeness. From its earliest conception to playtesting, promoting, and publishing, what did they do and what did they learn? Postmortem: "Infernax" Production Infernax  -  Twitter Just Shapes and Beats Berzerk Studio As p...

Settle in, because we could only trim the 5+ hours of interviews we recorded last month at GDC down to 2 hours. Of course, if you want to hear all of it, there's always the Patreon... 😉 The game Mark has been working on, "Dreamsettler," was officially announced on April 5th! GDC 2022 Special (Part 2) Cat Cafe Manager Roost Games Strange Horticulture, a game about selling plants, is one of the bes...

What does your work week look like? Are you locked into a 9-to-5 the way that Dolly Parton described it, or are you free to set your own schedule? What about your team as a whole?  In this week's episode, August Brown is back on the show to help us explore the topic of work week structure. The company where August currently works, Armor Games, has made headlines by shifting permanently to a four-d...

Dog lovers are in for a treat this week as we discuss ideas for games to play with your dog! Mark and Ellen enthusiastically bring many ideas to the clubhouse, while Stephen has a unique perspective on the topic.  Also: Ellen beats Metroid Dread! (There are spoilers for the game in the episode.) Turns out Stephen was wrong, there are credits in the most recent build of Fingeance! Peter Yang was on...

Your nice hosts, plus Dale, traveled to California for free bagels (and other reasons) in this first part of our yearly GDC special. GDC 2022 Special (Part 1) Games Industry Gathering Yerba Buena Gardens IGF Accepts Over 400 Entries for GDC 2022 Independent Games Festival 'Unpacking' and 'Inscryption' Lead in IGF 2022 Nominations Independent Games Festival Inscryption wins the IGF Grand Prize and...

This week your nice hosts are joined again by Alina Matson in a fun roundtable episode! Join us as we continue through Ellen's Metroid Dread journey, Stephen's newest discovery, and Mark's potential bonus side hustle. Alina was previously on the show to talk about visual coding! Visual Coding 0:05:33 Building Assets and Plugins Charles was last on the show on this episode about Level Editors. Leve...