Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

Latest Episodes:

A selfie of Mark, wearing sunglasses and a cloth face mask, at the bottom of a staircase, pointing up. — **"Forged by that experience." Frustration; Meetings** Oct 01, 2021
Show notes

This week, it's the inaugural episode recorded from the *brand new clubhouse* inside the office of **Noble Robot**, the gamedev co-working space that Mark just opened up in northeast Minneapolis!
Ellen lays out everyone's frustrations, Stephen sets the agenda, and Mark has words for Whirlpool.
This way to the new clubhouse!
Here's the office fridge, moments before it got really frustrating.
The new clubhouse, in "conference room" mode.
Your nice hosts each work with remote teams from all over the world, so Mark put together a "world clock" display as the visual centerpiece of the office.
Stephen works in this office, so it needs two things: tea, and Kirby memorabilia.
0:10:34
Frustration
0:50:28
Meetings

A photo of an empty refrigerator with the doors missing. — **"Forged by that experience." Frustration; Meetings** Oct 01, 2021
Show notes

This week, it's the inaugural episode recorded from the *brand new clubhouse* inside the office of **Noble Robot**, the gamedev co-working space that Mark just opened up in northeast Minneapolis!
Ellen lays out everyone's frustrations, Stephen sets the agenda, and Mark has words for Whirlpool.
This way to the new clubhouse!
Here's the office fridge, moments before it got really frustrating.
The new clubhouse, in "conference room" mode.
Your nice hosts each work with remote teams from all over the world, so Mark put together a "world clock" display as the visual centerpiece of the office.
Stephen works in this office, so it needs two things: tea, and Kirby memorabilia.
0:10:34
Frustration
0:50:28
Meetings

"Godot! God-ot? Godot." Learning a Game Engine; Guns Sep 24, 2021

Show notes

On this week's episode, your nice hosts explore two completely separate but fully compelling topics! Ellen learns a new engine, Mark discusses why shooting could be a more interesting mechanic than it is, and Stephen completely misses a pun.

Astral Gunners
Pillars of Creation
Games shown at 2D Con 2021:
- Snow Day: The Cold War
- Emery
- Johnny Chainsaw
- Armed and Gelatinous
- Captain's Log: Crisis Detected
- Merchant of Windvale
- Far Away
- Magical Unicorn Quest
- Chronicles of the Wolf and Wallachia: Reign of Dracula
- Eterbal Exodus
- Widget Satchel
- They Stirred
- Astral Gunners
- Fitment
- Fingeance
- Ollie-Oop
- HyperDot
- CULTivate
- Pillars of Creation

0:13:05

Learning a Game Engine

The Only Certainty Is That He Won’t Show UpDave ItzkoffThe New York TimesStep by Step Godot Documentation - IndexGodot EngineStep by Step Godot Documentation - InstancingGodot EngineStop Waiting for Godot JamTerry Cavanaghitch.io#stopwaitingforgodotTwitterTypes of Interference in PsychologyKendra Cherryverywellmind0:43:14

Guns

Critical Reaction to Mass Effect CitadelMetacritic20 years on, Bushido Blade remains a fighting game masterpieceSimon ParkinEurogamerAny good 1 hit kill games out there?Reddit

Nice Thinking: "The New Clubhouse" Sep 16, 2021

Show notes

After many months of recording over Discord (or together in Mark's and Dale's apartment), Nice Games Club is finding a new place to meet. Well, "finding" isn't really the right word. Mark and Dale are making it happen. The new clubhouse is being customized as a workspace and community hub, and this week on the show, Your Nice Hosts talk about how to start things up in the new spot.

The New Clubhouse

Ergonomic stools by Herman Miller

The cover image for this episode's page is from The Treehouse, an educational game published in 1991. Ellen played this game a lot when she was a kid. Learn more here: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/the-treehouse-1ag

Star Trek games (from Enterprising Individuals) Sep 10, 2021

Show notes

Recently, Mark appeared on an episode of the Star Trek interview podcast (and fellow Minnesota production) Enterprising Individuals to talk about Star Trek video games. It was a lively discussion and we're pleased to re-broadcast it here.

Thanks to host Aaron Coker and producer Diane Blum for arranging the interview and allowing your nice hosts to re-post it as an episode of Nice Games Club.

Enterprising Individuals
Happy Star Trek Day everyone! Wednesday of this week marked the 55th anniversary of the first airing of Star Trek on television, and Paramount's marketing department celebrated the event with a multi-hour livestream of upcoming announcements and touching tributes.

Star Trek games (from Enterprising Individuals)

For show notes, check out the episode's page on the Enterprising Individuals website.

Nice Games Jam: "Ƈɧɇᵴʂ 2⁴ (Live at 2D Con 2021)" Sep 02, 2021

Show notes

It's your nice hosts second live episode for 2D Con, Minnesota's biggest video game event.

Stephen asks the audience to boo at him, Ellen knows the lingo, and Mark isn't making sense.

Prompt"Chess 2" "Four-dimensional" "Welcome to Night Vale"Game typeTabletop gamePlayer count2Materials

4x4 board.

3 Pawn pieces per player.

1 "Mayor" (King) pieces per player.

An unspecified number of Glow Cloud (Queen), Librarian (Bishop), and Reverse Pawn pieces.

Setup

Place or draw a 4x4 chess-style board.
Arrange three Pawn pieces and one Mayor piece along the home row of each player, arranged left-to-right (from each player's point of view) in this pattern: Pawn-Pawn-Mayor-Pawn

Rules

The goal is to capture the opposing player's Mayor. Mayors move like Kings in Chess. Play proceeds exactly like Chess, with the following exceptions/additions:

A player may, instead of making a move, "undo" their most recent move, as long as the space where their most recently moved piece previously was remains open. If the player's most recently moved piece was just captured on their opponent's turn, that piece still returns to it's previous position.
When a Pawn reaches the opponent player's home row, that piece is promoted to one of three positions, randomly using a 6-sided die:
- Reverse Pawn (1-3): Same as a Pawn, but moving in the other direction. When a Reverse Pawn returns to the player's home row, they are not promoted but become a standard Pawn again.
- Librarian (4-5): Equivalent to a Bishop in Chess.
- Glow Cloud (6): Equivalent to a Queen in Chess.

Pitching Tabletop Games (with Peter Yang) Aug 26, 2021

Show notes

It's a packed clubhouse for this special episode! Your regular hosts are joined by two guests: Peter Yang and Dale LaCroix. Peter is a game designer, creative director, and tabletop games agent based out of Minnesota. Dale, as you know, is just plain evil. The adventure of the day—pitching games to tabletop publishers. And Peter is our guide!

Pitching Tabletop Games

Marketing Physical Games Tabletop

Listen to the episode where GLOM first took shape (episode 210).

Glom Protospiel MN (2020)Twin Cities Playtest with IGDA-TC GenCon Origins Game Fair Tabletop Simulator - notes on importing cards - Dale LaCroix The Game Crafter - Print cards on demand with this website

Designing for VR (with Dana Ware) Aug 19, 2021

Show notes

This week, your nice hosts welcome creative director and all-around "VR Specialist" Dana Ware to talk about location-based entertainment, the incredible potential of VR during a pandemic, and where VR will be in 5 years.

Designing for VR

Game Design IRL VR / AR / XR Dark Slope Studios The Void - Wikipedia Malls have a future: location-based entertainment - Kim Schaefer, VentureBeat Curtis Hickman - Speaker Biography - Future of Storytelling Facebook Horizon

"The random bobblehead." Bonus Content; Giving Talks Aug 12, 2021

Show notes

It's that time again! Time for another episode, that is. Mark tries to convince his fellow hosts that games should include more bonus content—developer commentary, concept art, and so forth. Stephen talks about giving talks, even though he doesn't like to give talks. And Ellen finished a game!

What should Ellen play next? A poll for you! - Twitter
My Boy! Emulator (Android app) - Google Play Store
Is this the episode in which Martha and Stephen tried to teach Mark about Pokémon?"How would I know that?"
Too Many Choices: A Problem That Can Paralyze - Alina Tugend, The New York Times
Header image: The fictional black hole, "Gargantua," from the film Interstellar (2014). Credit: Double Negative @ https://www.dneg.com/
The "postroll funny" is a line from the poem "What Did?" by Shel Silverstein as published in the collection A Light in the Attic.

0:12:16

Bonus Content

Games mentioned in this segment included:

Paper Mario: The Origami King
Closed Hands
30 Flights of Loving
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Batman: Arkham series

A previous NGC episode discussed the topic of "unlockables."

"Please cheat, I don't care."‘Ask Iwata’ Book Review: A Much Needed Chronicle Of A Gaming LegendOllie BarderForbesWrinkles in Spacetime: The Warped Astrophysics of InterstellarAdam RogersWiredFirst Images of a Black Hole from the Event Horizon Telescope*Susanna KohlerAAS NOVAGame Changers (2019 exhibit)Science Museum of Minnesota

* CORRECTION: The black hole in question is Messier 87, not "TON 68" as Ellen mentioned on the podcast. The designation of the black hole that Ellen thought she was referring to is TON 618. The black hole that's part of the TON 618 quasar is one of the most massive black holes ever discovered.

0:45:29

Giving Talks

View recently-broadcasted talks from IGDA-TCTwitchResonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences (a book)Nancy Duarte

Nice Thinking: "Giblet the Trash Can" Aug 04, 2021

Show notes

This week, we try something new in the clubhouse with the very first Nice Thinking! In Nice Thinking, your nice hosts have a concept or idea that hasn't been fully fleshed out and we workshop it on air. This episode has Ellen bringing in the goal of encouraging parkgoers to throw away more garbage to take care of her neighborhood park. There's a lot of trash talk in this episode, listen to find out what your nice hosts come up with!