Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

Latest Episodes:

"No referees?!" Curling; Off-Ramps Jul 07, 2022

Show notes

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 parts of a game that guide players as they end a play session. Should we as designers encourage players to take breaks?

Gato Roboto by doinksoft (from Devolver Digital) - Steam

0:10:15

Curling

About CurlingWorld Curling FederationWhy is this Olympic Sport called Chess on Ice?by user "Pete"Chess.comCurling might be an antidote to our troubled timesKristen GelineauThe Detroit NewsGlossary of curlingWikipediaDeflategateWikipedia0:50:00

Off-Ramps

How Gaming Breaks Can Make You a Better Player... and Why They're ImportantMichael HarmanMake Use Of

Gamedev in Peru (with Daniela Gamarra) Jun 30, 2022

Show notes

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 with "Game Devs Kenya" for:Gamedev in Kenya

Gamedev in Peru

IRL Production How Creative Leaders Play the Long Game for Innovation - Ideo U IGDA Peru IGDA Peru - Education Lima Game Jam LEAP Game Studios Bamtang Games Dirección Audiovisual, la Fonografía y los Nuevos Medios

A CableACE Award — **"That’s not a friendship!" Parasocial Relationships; Narrative Pacing** Jun 23, 2022
Show notes

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 - Steam
Max's award! - Twitter
Reed the Robotanist - Steam
Here's a CableACE award.
0:09:25
Parasocial Relationships
Parasocial InteractionWikipedia“The Player’s Parasocial Interaction with Digital Entities” Katrine KavliIT University in Copenhagen“Is It Weird for Adults to Have Imaginary Friends?”Stephen Dubner and Angela DuckworthNo Stupid Questions“Tragic but true: how podcasters replaced our real friends”Rachel AroestiThe Guardian0:45:21
Narrative Pacing
"Kurt Vonnegut on the 8 'shapes' of stories"Stephen JohnsonBig Think

Nice Thinking: "A Local Indies Tournament" Jun 16, 2022

Show notes

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, we get to finally hear Stephen's TRUE feelings about Star Trek.

Prehistoric Planet on Apple TV - BBC
The Man Who Fell To Earth - Showtime
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Paramount
COVID 19 Quarantine and Isolation Calculator - Centers for Disease Control
Alternate titles for this episode:
- "It finally got me"
- "Lil' Baby Stephen"
Episode artwork from RODNAE Productions on Pexels.

0:13:12

Nice Thinking

Elemetals: Death Metal Death MatchWALLRIDESteamAstral GunnersSati BrosSteamHyperDotCharles McGregorSteamSummer Games Done Quick Combo Breaker Tournament EVO Tournament "Challenges and Strategies for Hosting Massive Independent eSports Events"James LampkinGDC

Teaching Gamedev to Young People, Again! (with Chris Totten) Jun 09, 2022

Show notes

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 Architectural Approach to Level Design - Christopher W. Totten Kudzu - Pie for Breakfast Studios, itch.io La Mancha - Pie for Breakfast Studios, Board Game Geek GDEX and Origins 2022, June 8-12

Teaching Gamedev to Young People (with Truman Simpson) Jun 03, 2022

Show notes

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 Gameheads. Gameheads is an organization that teaches youth and prepares them for careers in game development. Gameheads is lead by Damon Packwood and operates out of Oakland and the Bay Area, CA, with possible expansions around the US.Gameheads Website Gameheads Twitter Damon Packwood's Twitter Truman Simpson's twitter

Teaching and Games cross-pollination

Ellen mentions that Teaching and Games is a cross-pollination that is a whole other episode, here are some Episodes on that topic from the archivesWe talked about educational institutions for game dev back in episode 16Games Education Ellen joined as a guest host way back in Episode 75Learning Through GamesWe also talked about teaching/learning durring the Redundancy topic in Episode 170"Stephen, his arms wide!"

Project Success

Stephen is working with Project Success to design a learning curriculum for middle school aged youths.Project Success WebsiteStephen mentioned design pillars, as one of the learning topics in project sucess, see also episode 187"A way to farm notions."

Soylent Green

Soylent Green is set in the year 2022 (that's this year!) and something we got distracted by on a tangent. Yes, soylent is a real product now.In 1973, 'Soylent Green' envisioned the world in 2022. - George Bass, The Washington Post Soylent (the real productAnd, if the people from Soylent want to sponsor us, please reach out at contact@nicegames.club

"Start fresh, in a certain way." Diagramming Gameplay Loops; Art Direction May 26, 2022

Show notes

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.

0:15:20

Diagramming Gameplay Loops

Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and LeaderboardsYu-kai ChouOctalysis GroupHow To Perfect Your Game’s Core LoopNathan LovatoGame AnalyticsLoops and ArcsDaniel CookLost GardenHow Games Use Feedback LoopsGame Maker's ToolkitYouTubeDaniel Cook: Game Design Theory I Wish I had Known When I StartedIGDA SeattleYouTubeExpanding UX: Gameplay LoopsVitaly StarushMediumThe Gameplay Loop: a Player Activity Model for Game Design and AnalysisEmmanuel GuardiolaResearchGateKurt Vonnegut Diagrams the Shape of All Stories in a Master’s Thesis Rejected b…Josh JonesOpen Culture0:42:00

Art Direction

Dreamsettler Reveal TrailerNo More RobotsYouTubeBack in the day, Nice Games Club talked about color theory.“When two colors of paint really love each other…” We talked about sources of inspiration and it reminded us of episode 141.Nostalgia and the Lo-fi Aesthetic

Machine Learning (with Anna-Lena Pontet and Luzia Hüttenmoser) May 19, 2022

Show notes

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 in Sweden, Lu and Al and their game will be at Arctic Game Week next week, May 25-28, 2022.
We first met Lu and Al and spoke with them for a recent episode:GDC 2022 Special (Part 2)
Some meta news: Mark wrote a song for this year's Charity EP Jam, which is actually a double-length album! All proceeds go to Able Gamers.

Machine Learning

Narrative Programming Simulated AI creatures demonstrate how mind and body evolve and succeed together - Devin Coldewey, TechCrunch What is GitHub Copilot? An AI Pair Programmer for Everyone - Daniel Diaz, Sitepoint Github Copilot Wants to Play Chess Instead of Code - Ido Nov, DagsHub Blog Chat Mapper Botpress Documentation as a gateway to open source - James Turnbull, Increment Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor Makes AI Meaningful and Menacing - Andy Brice, GamingBolt

Postmortem: "LxJamathon" (with Mark Hamilton and Ellen Burns-Johnson) May 12, 2022

Show notes

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 Reddit - Reddit Instructional Design Discord - Discord LxJamathon Website - Ellen Burns-Johnson and Mark Hamilton, LxJamathon LxJamathon itch.io - Ellen Burns-Johnson and Mark Hamilton, itch.io Midwest Mysteries - The Oscaloose - SoundCloud LxJamathon Entries - itch.io A Simple Guide to Four Popular Online Learning Formats - Nameera Sallum, CommLab India

Nice Games Jam: "Blame the Cat! (with Monica Fan)" May 05, 2022

Show notes

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!

PromptFrom Dale this time: "Design a game where you discover clues and have to solve a mundane mystery. Bonus points if there is a cat in it. EXTRA bonus point if it's the cat who did it!"Game typeCard gamePlayer count4Materials

Standard deck of playing cards

Coins or tokens to indicate the accumulation of blame

OPTIONAL: A real cat to sit in the middle of the game table

Setup

Sort the deck by suit.
1. Pull out the Aces and Jokers and set them aside. You'll use the Aces in a minute, but not the Jokers.
2. Remove six random cards from three of the suits (Clubs, Spades, and Diamonds) and set those aside for the game.
3. Shuffle the remaining cards into a deck and pull a random card from the deck. Don't look at it! This is the card that determines Who Really Did The Thing. Set it aside and don't peek until the end of the game.
4. Set the rest of the deck aside for a moment.
Deal the Aces randomly to determine which players get each suit. Whoever gets the Ace of Hearts is the Cat.
1. Once roles are determined, you can ignore the Ace cards, but it's useful for players to hold onto them as a reminder of what suit they have.
Deal each Human player two cards face-down. Deal the Cat player four cards face-down. Players can look at their cards but should not show their hands to the other players.
Place the deck of remaining cards face-down in the center of the table. This is the draw pile.
Place a pile of Blame tokens somewhere on the table so people can grab them (or throw them) as needed.

Rules

GOAL: Pin the blame on someone else! Once a player has accumulated 3 Blame tokens, they are GUILTY and the game ends.

Go around the table clockwise, taking turns. Each player can take one action on their turn; it's a fast-moving game of blame!

Player Actions

Cat-only actions:

Take a card from a human; the Cat chooses which card to take (without looking at the human's hand)
Give a card to a human
Make an accusation by playing three cards of the same suit (the Cat must play three cards to make an accusation)
Cat must meow when making a play…or maybe through the whole game?
The Cat cannot draw cards from the deck

Human-only actions:

Draw from the deck
Trade with each other; the player who initiated the trade is the one who selects which card to take from the other player’s hand (without looking at their hand)
Play a pair (it's easier for humans to make accusations)

Making an accusation:

A Human plays a pair of cards from the same suit, or the Cat plays three cards from the same suit. This is the Accusation.
The player whose Ace matches the suit from the Accusation receives a Blame token.
The first person to accumulate three Blame tokens is considered GUILTY, and this ends the game.

Winning the game:

Technically, you win if you don't end up as the guilty party, but there's more to it!
Reveal the hidden card that you set aside during setup. The whole group wins if the right person got the blame. Yay!
The Cat can feel extra good if they were the real culprit, but one of the Humans was found GUILTY.
The Humans can feel extra good if one of them was the real culprit, but the Cat was found GUILTY. Congrats; you can all continue to live harmoniously as roommates.

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