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 in the next calendar year. A happy year's end to all! Cover image credit goes to Animal Crossing Wo...
Dec 20, 2024•Ep. 378
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 - Wikipedia Serialization Programming Tools Serialization - Wikipedia BinaryFormatter migration guide - gewarren,...
Dec 12, 2024•Ep. 377
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) Prompt 3) More Panic 4) Scramble 5) Oh, we can do this 6) We did this - let’s do more We have thro...
Dec 05, 2024•Ep. 376
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 is National Native American Heritage Day. Happy holidays, if you're in the USA—and if you're not, we ...
Nov 28, 2024•Ep. 375
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 0:04:30Iterative Game Jam Meditations...
Nov 21, 2024•Ep. 374
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 players, and more. Arvi's cats make a spirited apperance in the back half of the episode. Here they ar...
Nov 15, 2024•Ep. 373
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 News Joural PromptMake a tabletop game where the core mechanic is modulating the friction on the board.Game...
Nov 07, 2024•Ep. 372
"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 . Afterburn Games (studio) Tutorialization with Puzzles Game Design On crafting Railbound, a cozy track-bending p...
Nov 01, 2024•Ep. 371
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 endorsing Harris over Trump - Niha Masih , The Washington Post Donald Trump Is Unfit to Lead - The New York...
Oct 24, 2024•Ep. 370
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...
Oct 17, 2024•Ep. 369
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 way to play when you can remix the whole game? As always, there are some goofs in here, too. Unity 6 ...
Oct 11, 2024•Ep. 368
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 editing and then also got to see it for the first time, and found that this was the correct response. ...
Oct 03, 2024•Ep. 367
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 - Linktree Optimization Hardware Production Programming Is Using LINQ in C# Bad for Performance? - James Vickers ,...
Sep 26, 2024•Ep. 366
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 0:17:06Audio MiddlewareAn example of audio tech conversations we've had in the past. Game Audio Tools and Workflows Wwise Audiokinetic FMOD FMOD0:51:32Psychic Distance Psychic Distance: what it is and how to use it Emma DarwinThis Itch of Writing...
Sep 19, 2024•Ep. 365
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 during an podcast Game Jam Episode. For anyone new to the podcast, we recommend starting two episodes b...
Sep 12, 2024•Ep. 364
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, recorded on Day 3 of Mark's and Stephen's trip to Duluth. Minnesotan Phrases - Wanderlust In Real Life...
Sep 06, 2024•Ep. 363
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 episodes Nice Games Club = 362 episodes One Piece aired it's 362nd episode 16 years ago. As of press time, it'...
Aug 29, 2024•Ep. 362
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. 0:06:40Theming vs. Aesthetics The MDA Framework WikipediaEllen promised Dictionary.com definitions, so here you go: Aesthetics Dictionary.com Theme Dictionary.comWe talked about theming and aesthetics for a GameJam ...
Aug 22, 2024•Ep. 361
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 Contrast User-set color schemes Big Icons! (more important even than large text, which is also important) Leve...
Aug 15, 2024•Ep. 360
We face complexity head-on this episode with two topics that will get your neurons firing. Mark walks through considerations involved with publishing a game to multiple platforms. It's not easy, but it's a lot easier if you plan for it from the start! If you've listened to recent episodes, you'll know that Stephen has been obsessed with the tabletop game Spirit Island. Today, he shares some of the work he's done in creating a new, customized spirit for the game. Also, Mark experiences glitches, ...
Aug 09, 2024•Ep. 359
"Pillar of the community" and creator of Chipmunk2D Scott Lembcke visits the clubhouse to talk velocity, constraints, and rigidbodies. Ellen gets the music in her head, Stephen didn’t learn the opposite lesson, and Mark makes a pretty good joke about friction. Physics 101 Programming Chipmunk2D - Scott Lembcke , GitHub Gopher (protocol) Building Excalibur.js - Erik Onarheim , YouTube I'm pretty sure this was the song stuck in Ellen's head. What is an AABB? - Michael Rubloff , Radiance Fields Ver...
Aug 01, 2024•Ep. 358
In this episode, Stephen gets excited about Summer Games Done Quick, reveals some Doctor Who spoilers, and then is shocked that Flappy Dragon has more dragons. Ellen ponders rituals, and why she comes back to some games and not others. And finally, Mark wonders if it is okay to get lost in a super-fun mini-game. 0:12:21FamiliarityEllen asks the internet: What are "casual Games"? https://www.perplexity.ai/search/What-are-casual-lDsnct7cTKiv.pJMXYef6w Ellen asks the internet: What are "Cozy Games"...
Jul 25, 2024•Ep. 357
In the first Nice Games Jam in a few months (and we made it a long one!), your nice hosts explore the history of bicycles to develop a racing board game. Our last Nice Games Club episode: Eddies Two Wheels Good - Jody Rosen Safety Bicycle - Wikipedia PromptDesign a racing game in a historical setting.Game typeTabletop gamePlayer count2 - 4Materials Map book 4-sided dice Meeple to represent racers Setup Choose a map to race on in the map book (only one made right now) Choose a starting point and ...
Jul 18, 2024•Ep. 356
Time is money, friend! Okay, not always. Sometimes time is a puzzle involving many interlocking responsibilities. That’s Beth’s situation, and she asks Mark and Stephen for advice on time management in the second half of this roundtable episode. During the first half, Stephen shares some BIG NEWS that will soon place some additional responsibilities on his shoulders. Beth and Mark offer suggestions. Narrative Nuance Verdant Skies 0:4:40Creative Direction A previous episode relating to Stephen's ...
Jul 12, 2024•Ep. 355
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. The Intersection of Puzzle and Story Game Design Narrative Production Return to Monkey Island will have a hint system because the internet exists now - Joshua Rivera , Polygon Verdant Skies - Steam Classic Game Postmortem: Maniac Mansion - GDC , YouTube The phrase "co...
Jul 05, 2024•Ep. 354
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 0:07:41Code Libraries Best practices for writing code comments Ellen SpertusStack Overflow Blog Declare namespaces to organize types Microsoft LearnYour nice hosts discussed licensing in a previous episode: "What's a little grand...
Jun 27, 2024•Ep. 353
This week we invite Ryan Adams, of Corgi Art House fame, to discuss his expertise in game production. Ryan shows us how production is more than just moving tickets around, and how valuable it is to have someone on the team organizing tasks for everyone. But also, there's plenty of moving tickets around! Game Production Production Corgi Art House Blood On The Thames - Steam ClickUp Building Better Games - Benjamin Carcich and Aaron Smith Becoming a Game Producer - Pauline Gepilano How to prepare ...
Jun 20, 2024•Ep. 352
This episode recounts each guests' recent project - Stephen is developing a new spirit for Spirit Island, Ellen is getting into music, and Mark talks at length about his car. The club helps Ellen process a recent pivot her company had to make. And Mark reveals some simple insights from his life: urgent vs. high priority, he has an irritating existence, that he's very restless, that he's skeptical of his satisfaction, somethings that I know very well, being married to him. The episode ends with a...
Jun 13, 2024•Ep. 351
As MEMODEMO, Kobe Anthony creates music for video games and inspired by video games. In this episode, we learn about Kobe's creative process for composing music. He also shares a bit about how he uses his DAW (digital audio workstation) to capture sounds and convert them into melody and beats. Also featured in this episode: memes, rhythm games, and three seconds of terrible beatboxing. Creative Process & Workflow for Music Audio Izotope RX 11 (audio repair toolkit) XO by XLN Audio 2 Mello No...
Jun 07, 2024•Ep. 350
Stephen brings a half-baked thought into the clubhouse for this Nice Thinking episode: how can we improve dialogue systems? He's got some opinions, which Mark and Ellen immediately debunk, but it leads to some engaging conversation. Dialogue Through Goals
May 29, 2024•Ep. 349
