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Much Ado About Unity (with Freya Holmér) [Nice Replay] Jan 18, 2024

Show notes

#324Much Ado About Unity (with Freya Holmér)Special2023.09.22

Earlier today, Unity issued an update to their controversial "runtime fee" policy introduced last week. What changed? What didn't? How could this have even happened? What does it mean going forward? Can we ever trust Unity again?

We get into all of it, from the original announcement on September 12th, to the "open letter" update and "fireside chat" on September 22nd. Your nice hosts are joined by special guest and "Unity Insider" Freya Holmér, who offers some additional context and much-needed clarity about the events of the last 10 days.

Unity Runtime Fee and Subsequent Policy Correction

Mark LaCroix Stephen McGregor Ellen Burns-Johnson Freya Holmér IRL Tools The original policy: "Unity plan pricing and packaging updates" - Unity The current policy: "An open letter to our community" - Unity Unity's Marc Whitten - Answers Unity Price Policy - Jason Weimann, YouTube 'Flappy Bird' Guy Gets $12 Million Bill From Unity - Mark Roebuck, Hard Drive

"Today’s the day that I screw things up." Pre-production; Idle Games [Nice Replay] Jan 11, 2024

Show notes

#282"Today’s the day that I screw things up."Roundtable2022.10.13

Your nice hosts start off strong with an excellently performed intro, and it just gets better from there!

The Game Agency - The Game Agency

Pre-production

0:06:24Stephen McGregor Production

Idle Games

0:31:45Mark LaCroix Game Design Gaming 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 Mechanics and Monetization of Self-Playing Games - Anthony Pecorella, YouTube “It Started as a Joke”: On the Design of Idle Games - Katta Spiel, Sultan A. Alharthi, Andrew Jian-Lan Cen, Jessica Hammer, Lennart E. Nacke, Z O. Toups and Tess Tanenbaum, CHI PLAY

The Logistics of Moving On (with Zach Barth) [Nice Replay] Jan 04, 2024

Show notes

#293The Logistics of Moving On Interview2023.02.22

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 shutting down for good this time - Alex Calvin, gameindustry.biz Legal Systems Very Different From Ours - David Friedman, Peter Leeson, David Skarbek Why Walking Helps Us Think - Ferris Jabr, The New Yorker Coincidence

Cheating (omnibus edition) Dec 28, 2023

Show notes

This year, Ellen thought a lot about cheating in games. So your nice hosts kept doing episodes about it. Three in total over this last summer. So, to kick off this year's run of Nice Replays, we’ve stitched all three topics together into one SUPER MEGA NICE NEW YEAR’S OMNIBUS EPISODE!

Cheating (omnibus edition)

Part 1:"What's a little grand larceny?"Part 2:Cheating, Part 2Part 3:"Sad or fascinating?"

Nicest of 2023 Dec 21, 2023

Show notes

The clubhouse continues the annual tradition of reviewing the past year. But first they need to talk about Doctor Who and new Minnesota state flag. Ellen makes her first programming joke, and Dale learns to add comments from the editing booth.

Finally, everyone shares which games they have been playing the bees out of in 2023.

But, wait... there's more: your nice hosts also talk about what they are anticipating for 2024.

Doctor Who
Donna Noble is the best companion - Wikipedia
Cucumber, a miniseries by Russell T Davies - Wikipedia
It's a Sin, a miniseries by Russell T Davies
Minnesota State Flag
The new Minnesota state flag - Briana Bierschbach, Star Tribune

0:10:30

Our accomplishments

Mark's Accomplishments:

Glom
Dogpile!
IGDA Twin Cities Calendar full of events
IGDA Twin Cities's Playtest Event
Maintenance of Noble Engine
Major Accomplishments in Dreamsettler
- including securing a big third party developer for a minigame

Stephen's Accomplishments:

Glom
Future Club got funding to produce a vertical slice of a game
Working on Future Club projects and pitching them (to a celebrity!)
Survived a snake basement

Ellen's Accomplishments:

Glom
TWO custom game projects that Ellen is not allowed to talk about
Noodle Training Arcade
Serious Play Conference
Got a road bike
Moved to Duluth

Your nice hosts talked about thier work as a tabletop development team in:The Nice Board Game Industrial Complex, a Nice Games Club Skunkworks ProjectMark gave a short presentation at the IGDATC holiday party about all the work that the group did in 2023.Ellen talks about her experience at the serious play conference in:Serious Play Conference 2023Mark talked about Noble Engine in:"So, you made a game engine?"0:29:11

Nicest of 2023

Ellen's Nicest:

Baldur's Gate III
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
NY Times Games App Magic the Gathering
Rival Stars Horse Racing
Games from the Studio 'Afterburn'

Mark's Nicest:

Super Mario Wonder
Super Nintendo World
Star Trek: Resurgence
Zachtronics Solitaire Collection
Puzzmo

Mark's Honorable Mentions:

Spider Man 2
Tears of the Kingdom
Star Trek: Infinite

Stephen's Nicest:

Spirit Island
Forspoken
Deceive, Inc.

Stephen's Honorable Mentions:

Tears of the Kingdom's Ascend ability
Baldur's Gate III

Mark mentioned what he usually calls "Super Mario Theme Park," which we talk about more in:GDC 2023 SpecialWe interviewed Zach of Zachtronic's Solitaire collection in Episode 293The Logistics of Moving On Puzzmo is now publicly available!1:01:08

Most Anticpated of 2024

Ellen's picks:

Hellblade II: Henua's Saga
Ultros
Hyper Light Breaker
Little Kitty, Big City
Dustborn
Concord

Mark's picks:

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake
Princess Peach: Showtime!
More Playdate games!

Stephen's picks:

Dragon's Dogma 2

1:16:13

2024 Gamedev Resolutions

Ellen's Resolutions:

Make stuff
Make stuff in Godot Engine
Make a portfolio
Do less work, make more stuff
Unpack some boxes

Mark's Resolutions

Get Dreamsettler out
Set up future for Noble Robot office
Set up console SDK environments again for DS and others (Metro Nexus, porting work).

Stephen's Resolutions

Look into game engines other than Unity

Creative Career Paths (with Will Bredbeck) Dec 14, 2023

Show notes

Will went to school for illustration. After many plot twists—including a bike accident, leading a team of animators, and climbing mountains in Alaska—he ended up working in games. Now, he's a design director and creative consultant, working on games that aim to make the world a better place. This week, Will joins us in the clubhouse to discuss how he's made decisions about his creative career and where those decisions have taken him. New gamedevs and creative folks, you might find inspiration in Will's story. Experienced gamedevs, you might be reminded to think about where you've been and where to find meaning in the next chapter of your career.

Creative Career Paths

Art Game Design IRL Misc.Kablam! - IMDB Headkicker II - Arcade History U.B. Funkeys - Wikipedia Microsoft Solitaire turns 30 years old today and still has 35 million monthly p… - The Verge NYT Connections Game - The New York Times Traveling While Black - Felix and Paul EverFi Build Your Stax (game)

An image of a person holding a pigeon. — **Nice Games Jam: "The Loft"** Dec 08, 2023
Show notes

This week, the clubhouse becomes the birdhouse; we're talking pigeons! Dale created a prompt inspired by Ellen's activities as a child and she bombards your nice hosts with a TON of pigeon facts! We somehow designed a game out of it!
As a note, Ellen's was still recording remotely but the first 5 minutes she was recording on the wrong mic! We corrected it after those 5 minutes.
Breeds of Pigeons across the Globe. - Layne Gardner, The American Pigeon Museum and Library
Racing Pigeon Training 25 mile - Hoosier Outdoors, YouTube
Racing Pigeons VS. Falcon (Pt.1) - "One Wing" - @Pigeonmaniacom, YouTube
Amazing video of a hawk chasing a homing pigeon - Their own world, YouTube
A Rare Appreciation of the New York Pigeon - Alexandra Wolfe, The Wall Street Journal
Ellen's pictures of pigeons she posted in the Miro board
PromptCreate a game where you breed and raise pigeonsGame typeDesign documentSetup
None yet! It's a game design doc.
Rules
Control a group of pigeons
Real time strategy racing game
Manage each bird by going to each bird, checking statuses and causing communication so pigeons can help each other get to the goal
Players can give stats bonuses to each individual bird
You as the player don’t know where the pigeons are going, you have to figure out where the pigeons’ goal is
Can be multiplayer
Swapping between each pigeon gives you information about that pigeons’ status
Players have a very vague idea of where to go at the start
When a predator appears, the player needs to outsmart the predator to escape and keep racing
Then the player is off course and needs to find their way back
Some races can be longer, where you need to find a place to rest for the night and have enough food
Game loop
You get a random selection of pigeons
Compete in a race
Start in a random place on the map
Pigeons know where they need to go but the player does not
Players need to deduce where the pigeons are going and make sure to lead all of them in the right direction
Players control each pigeon individually, moving a pigeon will influence the other pigeons but will not move fully in that direction. Players need to guide each pigeon to their goal as a group, but control them individually.
Control of pigeons is in third-person perspective, players need to jump between pigeons to see the whole view of the flock
There are areas on the map that the player will know about that can have more risk involved (like areas where predators will often be)
There can be some collectables around that the player can pick up with birds to get bonuses (more points? movespeed?)
When you complete the race, you can remove a pigeon from the racing group and add a new pigeon from a set of 3 randomly generated pigeons

A picture of a person holding a pigeon. — **Nice Games Jam: "The Loft"** Dec 08, 2023
Show notes

This week, the clubhouse becomes the birdhouse; we're talking pigeons! Dale created a prompt inspired by Ellen's activities as a child and she bombards your nice hosts with a TON of pigeon facts! We somehow designed a game out of it!
As a note, Ellen's was still recording remotely but the first 5 minutes she was recording on the wrong mic! We corrected it after those 5 minutes.
Breeds of Pigeons across the Globe. - Layne Gardner, The American Pigeon Museum and Library
Racing Pigeon Training 25 mile - Hoosier Outdoors, YouTube
Racing Pigeons VS. Falcon (Pt.1) - "One Wing" - @Pigeonmaniacom, YouTube
Amazing video of a hawk chasing a homing pigeon - Their own world, YouTube
A Rare Appreciation of the New York Pigeon - Alexandra Wolfe, The Wall Street Journal
Ellen's pictures of pigeons she posted in the Miro board
PromptCreate a game where you breed and raise pigeonsGame typeDesign documentSetup
None yet! It's a game design doc.
Rules
Control a group of pigeons
Real time strategy racing game
Manage each bird by going to each bird, checking statuses and causing communication so pigeons can help each other get to the goal
Players can give stats bonuses to each individual bird
You as the player don’t know where the pigeons are going, you have to figure out where the pigeons’ goal is
Can be multiplayer
Swapping between each pigeon gives you information about that pigeons’ status
Players have a very vague idea of where to go at the start
When a predator appears, the player needs to outsmart the predator to escape and keep racing
Then the player is off course and needs to find their way back
Some races can be longer, where you need to find a place to rest for the night and have enough food
Game loop
You get a random selection of pigeons
Compete in a race
Start in a random place on the map
Pigeons know where they need to go but the player does not
Players need to deduce where the pigeons are going and make sure to lead all of them in the right direction
Players control each pigeon individually, moving a pigeon will influence the other pigeons but will not move fully in that direction. Players need to guide each pigeon to their goal as a group, but control them individually.
Control of pigeons is in third-person perspective, players need to jump between pigeons to see the whole view of the flock
There are areas on the map that the player will know about that can have more risk involved (like areas where predators will often be)
There can be some collectables around that the player can pick up with birds to get bonuses (more points? movespeed?)
When you complete the race, you can remove a pigeon from the racing group and add a new pigeon from a set of 3 randomly generated pigeons

A screenshot of the Debug Menu in Widget Satchel. — **"Am I making a joke?" Debug Functionality; Polish** Nov 30, 2023
Show notes

Your nice hosts start this episode with some personal updates, and (spoiler) it does not "go quick" as planned, then take on two really fascinating production topics. Ellen puts both drawings on the fridge, Mark recommends a modern Polish masterpiece, and Stephen is a changed man.
**BONUS:** This week's outtakes were much too long to include at the end of the show, so we put them on Patreon! It's 10+ minutes of behind-the-scenes outtakes that go a littler further than usual in revealing how your nice hosts assemble the program. Plus, bonus-bonus: an explanation of Mark's "Wandelprober." *Any monthly donation amount will get you access to this and a bunch of other bonus content, as well as an ad-free episode feed. Join now!*
Noble Engine - Noble Robot, GitHub
M+Dev: A Midwest Gamedev Conference - Wisconsin Games Alliance
Toppers Pizza Rolls Out Vegan Menu Across All Locations - VegWorld Magazine
Green Border is Agnieszka Holland’s Triumphant Stand Against Polish Corruption - Lena Wilson, The Film Stage
Agnieszka Holland’s ‘Green Border’ Acquired for the U.S. and U.K. by Kino Lorbe… - Elsa Keslassy, Variety
0:42:09
Debug Functionality
The debug menu Mark made for Widget Satchel.Explaining the "Probes" of TheatreChris PetersonOnStage Blog0:42:09
Polish
The Art Of Game Polish: Developers SpeakJ. Matthew ZossGame Developer

Scoping for Your Project (with John Donkin and Rob Donkin) Nov 23, 2023

Show notes

In this episode the brothers Rob and John Donkin of BadViking join the hosts in the clubhouse for a frank discussion on goals and expectations, scoping, and setting milestone timelines, and making feedback useful.

Scoping for your Project

Production Bad Viking talks about Strange Horticulture, their most recent game Best Best review for Strange Horticulture - Alice Bell, Rock Paper Shotgun PC Gamer Review - Christopher Livingston, PC Gamer

Game-based Learning (with Jennifer Javornik) Nov 16, 2023

Show notes

Ellen spoke with this week's guest, Filament Games' chief partnerships officer Jennifer Javornik, at the 2023 Serious Play Conference in Toronto, Canada about game-based learning, but also about commercializing serious games, growing the game development industry in the midwest US, and a whole lot more.