Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

Latest Episodes:

"A place where people live." Animation; Establishing a Sense of Place Jun 12, 2020

Show notes

In this extra big, beefy, and somewhat late episode, your nice hosts talk about recent events and share some personal thoughts on anti-black racism, police violence, and white privilege. Also, Mark is a smart animator, Stephen makes us feel the space and the place, and Ellen doesn’t want to live on the planet Zebes.

Special: George Floyd, police violence, protests
Official George Floyd Memorial Fund
We Love Lake Street
Black Visions Collective
Black Table Arts
Reclaim the Block
Since we recorded this episode, Itch launched a massive bundle of over 1500 titles (including Widget Satchel and other Minneapolis-made games), whose proceeds will be donated to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund.
Meta
Widget Satchel is out in Japan! Well, technically it's Widget Satchel ~Ferret's Treasure~.
Keep an eye on igdatc for upcoming virtual playtesting sessions using Parsec.

0:27:00

Animation

Realtime Procedurally Animated SpidersYouTubeResearch: How Virtual Reality Can Help Train SurgeonsGideon BlumsteinHarvard Business ReviewThe Animator's Survival Kit (Expanded Edition)Richard E. Williams1:02:00

Establishing a Sense of Place

Does Russia have McDonald’s? Yes, McD's has been there for 30 years.

What Spider-Man PS4 gets right (and wrong) about New York CitySimone de RochefortPolygon

"How Quality Is It?" Leadership; Pricing Jun 04, 2020

Show notes

This week on the program, Ellen sings along, Mark sings praise, and Stephen sings the gospel of Stephenism.

0:24:37

Leadership

Gaming can make a better worldJane McGonigalTEDTetris: The Games People Play by Box Brown reviewJames SmartThe GuardianSakurai Battled Through Health Issues With An IV Drip During Smash Ultimate Dev…Ryan CraddockNintendo LifeFormer Nintendo chief Reggie Fils-Aimé joins new podcast to raise funds for hom…Gene ParkThe Washington PostGodot Engine was awarded an Epic MegaGrantJuan LinietskyGodotTrain Jam perfectly captures the magic of both traveling and game dev Katherine CrossGame Developer0:59:56

Pricing

Massively Overthinking: Are modern games too cheap?Bree RoyceMassively OverpoweredHere's the reason most new console video games cost $60Michelle Yan and Ben GilbertBusiness InsiderDevelopers Cash In By Selling Their Switch Games For PenniesStephen J. BronnerKotaku

Gamedev in the Philippines (with Ryan Sumo) May 26, 2020

Show notes

Your nice hosts interview Ryan Sumo, Art Director and CEO of Squeaky Wheel Studio, an independent developer and publisher based in the Philippines. Topics include community building, conferences, becoming a publisher through serendipity, and the benefits of being transparent with your development practices. Plus jokes!

Gamedev in the Philippines

Misc.The Top 50 mobile games of 2006 - Stuart Dredge, Pocket Gamer Spacechem - Steam GDAP (Game Developers Association of the Philippines)IGDA Philippines Manila ESGS conference on Instagram Bit Summit conference (Japan)Level Up conference (Kuala Lumpur)Rock of Ages 2: Bigger & Boulder - Steam Ryan's posts on Gamasutra - Ryan Sumo, Game Developer

"Kapow?" Fun in Games; Porting Your Game May 19, 2020

Show notes

Your nice hosts talk big picture and get deep into the weeds this week. Mark runs Flash at 60fps on the Switch, Ellen makes a Star Trek reference, and Stephen wants more games that aren't fun.

Hey you! If you're porting a project, whether it's just to a new Unity build target, or to a whole new codebase, we want to hear about it! contact@noblerobot.com or @NiceGamesClub.

0:11:09

Fun in Games

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Is Bringing Back The Instakill Hidden Blade, In A Sig…Stephen TotiloKotakuAssassin’s Creed Odyssey Developers Say Breaking Series Traditions Made For A B…Stephen TotiloKotaku15 things you can do to make Breath of the Wild feel new againPatricia HernandezPolygonRaph Koster's Theory of Fun, ten years onLeigh AlexanderGame DeveloperSolaris (1972) - trailer0:44:11

Porting Your Game

Your Indie Game on Console: A Practical Guide to PortingThomas O'ConnorGDCOUYA works with Xbox 360 and PS3 controllersRik HendersonPocket-lintMicrosoft Windows Astoria bridge for Android is deadJan VermeulenMyBroadbandHaxe (programming langauge)WikipediaPost-Mortem on Transitioning from Flash to HaxeDoug PearsonGameDaily ConnectC-- (programming language)WikipediaIntroduction to OpenFLHaxeFlixel documentationEpic Games' Unreal Engine Heads To FlashKris GraftGame DeveloperAdobe Flash Player Export in Unity 4.0Ralph HauwertUnitySunsetting FlashDavid HelgasonUnityDevelopment of Duke Nukem ForeverWikipedia

Mark's game, Metro Nexus, running on the Nintendo Switch. — **"Balance all those prices." Economies; Ergonomics** May 13, 2020
Show notes

Mark gets back to *Metro Nexus*, Stephen explores the strange land where in-game and real-world economics overlap, and Ellen makes sure we have good posture.
Metro Nexus is running on the Switch!
Global Games Pitch
IGDATC Widget Satchel Postmortem - igdatc
0:11:20
Economies
Currencies in Star Trek OnlineGamepediaHow Warframe built an ethical free-to-play economyBen KucheraPolygonI Am Not At All Relaxed by Animal CrossingCecilia D’AnastasioWired0:55:15
Ergonomics
The Gamer’s Guide to Ergonomics: Your Posture, Chair, Desk, Fingers and everyth…Matthew Hwu1HPYour posture is killing you: What gamers should know about ergonomicsRoman JakobVentureBeatHerman Miller Embody chair Mark's very neat workspace."Kind of messy. Don't show my mom." ~ StephenEllen's workspace. Rustic. Dog.

A photo of Mark's very neat workspace. — **"Balance all those prices." Economies; Ergonomics** May 13, 2020
Show notes

Mark gets back to *Metro Nexus*, Stephen explores the strange land where in-game and real-world economics overlap, and Ellen makes sure we have good posture.
Metro Nexus is running on the Switch!
Global Games Pitch
IGDATC Widget Satchel Postmortem - igdatc
0:11:20
Economies
Currencies in Star Trek OnlineGamepediaHow Warframe built an ethical free-to-play economyBen KucheraPolygonI Am Not At All Relaxed by Animal CrossingCecilia D’AnastasioWired0:55:15
Ergonomics
The Gamer’s Guide to Ergonomics: Your Posture, Chair, Desk, Fingers and everyth…Matthew Hwu1HPYour posture is killing you: What gamers should know about ergonomicsRoman JakobVentureBeatHerman Miller Embody chair Mark's very neat workspace."Kind of messy. Don't show my mom." ~ StephenEllen's workspace. Rustic. Dog.

Building Substance (with Sébastien Deguy and Jérémie Noguer) May 05, 2020

Show notes

Mark interviews Sébastien Deguy and Jérémie Noguer, the Vice President and Principal Product Manager of 3D & Immersive at Adobe, about developing Substance, the leading suite of tools for 3D texturing and material creation.

In a wide-ranging discussion, your nice guests reveal what it's like joining a big ol’ company like Adobe, how to design a tool for multiple audiences, the difference between "black magic" and "white magic," and how COVID-19 is impacting their teams.

They also share a peek into the future of licensing and subscriptions for Substance and Adobe's other 3D tools, and the reason they haven't been able to release a Blender plugin yet.

Building Substance

Art Production Tools Substance & 3D News Livestream (GDC 2020 Keynote) - GDC, YouTube Adobe Announces Substance Designer and Painter Updates - Animation World Network

"Click here for fleet operations." Nice Games Bulletin Apr 30, 2020

Show notes

This week, it's Ellen's first rodeo as your permanent nice host, Stephen looks forward to watching someone else play The Last of Us Part II, and Mark is a bad VR person.

Bulletin topic (Recent releases)

Timecode0:14:55

Remakes:

FFVII Remake
Persona 5 Royal
Saints Row: IV - Re-Elected
Doom 64

Delays

Last of Us Part II
Iron Man VR
Marvel’s Avengers

Half-Life: Alyx Switch Lite (Coral)

Bulletin topic (News)

Timecode0:31:59

Events

Confirming your nice hosts' suspicions, just after this episode was published, GDC announced that GDC Summer will be an online-only event.

San Diego Comic-Con 2020 is officially canceled due to coronavirus - Tracy Brown, Los Angeles Times

Media drama!

Press Sneak Out - Jason Schreier, Kotaku

Jason Schreier (and co-hosts) took his podcast to the Maximum Fun network.

Two More Editors Depat G/O Media in Ongoing Exodus - Brandon Katz, Observer Vox Media Furloughs 9% of Staff for Three Months, Cuts Salaries and Benefits - Todd Spangler, Variety

Valorant

Why Valorant’s anti-cheat system has to launch when your computer starts - Austen Goslin, Polygon Riot places $100,000 bounty on Valorant anti-cheat system bugs - Jordan Gerblick, GamesRadar Valorant makes you watch before you play—that’ll change online games forever - Sam Machkovech, Ars Technica

Hardware Shortages

Resellers Using Checkout Bots Are Driving the Nintendo Switch Shortage - Joseph Cox, Motherboard Nintendo Switch Is Sold Out Everywhere, So This Guy Built One Himself - Matthew Gault, Vice

PS5

Sony Plans Limited PlayStation 5 Output in First Year - Takashi Mochizuki and Yuki Furukawa, Bloomberg PS5 controller, the DualSense, officially revealed - Connor Sheridan, GamesRadar

"Martha, Martha, Martha!" Ending Projects; Starting Projects Apr 21, 2020

Show notes

Martha has a big announcement, Mark tells the story of Babylon 5, and Stephen owes everyone a hug. Also, Ellen is back in the (distributed) clubhouse with her own big news!

Stephen didn’t know what the word "Emeritus" means, so he put it in the notes: "Holding, after retirement, an honorary title corresponding to that held last during active service."
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, NPCs can be seen breaking character after you walk away from them (via Twitter).

0:13:13

Ending Projects

Definition of DoneAgile Alliance"A Work of Art Is Never Finished, Merely Abandoned"Quote InvestigatorAdam Savage On Why Mythbusters EndedB. Co Creative AgencyYouTubeHow Babylon 5 went from space opera to space junkBen GazurThe GuardianTHE INSTITUTE: a 2013 documentary film The Perplexing Final Chapter Of San Francisco’s Jejune InstituteRick PaulasThe Awl"How I Met Your Mother" Kids Kept Show's Ending Secret for 9 YearsBrian Anthony HernandezMashableThe reason Rebecca Sugar made Steven Universe Future, and why it’s the actual e…Tasha RobinsonPolygonRock Band Network Shutting Down After Four Years and Over 2,000 SongsEddie MakuchGameSpotProject management triangle (aka: "The Iron Triangle")Wikipedia1:11:55

Starting Projects

Mark's "Noble Menu" system for Unity is available on Itch.io.

"Stephen, his arms wide!" Redundancy; Arcades Apr 14, 2020

Show notes

Ellen Burns-Johnson joins us once again in the virtual club house to discuss Redundancy and Arcades! Ellen teaches us about how we learn, Mark balances the game, Martha only plays the best character, and Stephen has a revelation.

Photo Credit: Michelle Bruch, from this Southwest Journal Article about the Donutron

0:13:01

Redundancy

The Forgetting Curve hypothesis by Hermann EbbinghousWikipediaThe Distributed Practice learning strategyWikipedia0:50:39

Arcades

Why You Can't Call It a "Barcade"Brenna HouckEaterDino Dash Abdel ShahiedYouTube

The 'Donutron' Arcade at Glam Doll Donuts in Minneapolis

Nice Games Jam: "5-4-7-3" Apr 10, 2020

Show notes

This week, your nice hosts put together a design document for a co-op game of corporate espionage. Martha wants to crawl through vents, Mark wants low stakes moral choices, and Stephen wants everyone to yell at everyone.

On Wednesday this week, Mark presented a in-depth postmortem on the production of Widget Satchel for the April IGDATC monthly community meeting, held remotely on Twitch. You can "attend" the meeting ex post facto on the IGDATC Twitch channel!

Prompt"How about an asymmetrical couch co-op game? Maybe it's meant to be played with a younger sibling, or maybe it's a teaching tool."Game typeDesign documentPlayer count2Rules

Premise

Two players, who are a team of freelance infiltrators.
- One player is out in the field doing their thing (1st-person perspective).
- One player is a hacker at home base, providing assistance to the field player (in VR).
Spy theme, corporate espionage.
Field player observes the scene, gathering information for the hacker so they can do the hacking.
Field player does some deduction, but they are playing an action game, while the hacker player is playing a puzzle game..
Hacker is doing their hax from a kind of holographic computer interface (Minority Report-esque perhaps). They do not see what the field player sees directly, but have many resources at their disposal (camera feeds, scanning tech, etc)
Hacker manages resources and allocates mechanical abilities to the field player based on mission requirements and moment-to-moment events.
Game is a series of missions, Hitman-style, selected in any order. Each mission contributes to a larger narrative of rival companies/factions.

Pre-Mission

Players see information about future missions, the team chooses the next mission, but the hacker player literally picks it, opening up potential conflict between players.

Throughout the campaign, various moral choices can crop up. The team can choose their missions based on which client they support, or they can chose to become double agents, thwarting their client's goals.

Example Mission

Infiltrate a restaurant that actually is a complicated science lab to steal a secret recipe.

First task: sneak past into the entrance of the lab:
- Hacker player needs to manipulate orders and customers so that few people see the field player.
- Field player observing the state of play in the restaurant and doing the actions.
Second task: get past a bunch of lasers.
- Hacker player can take out some lasers and protect the field player using shields.
- Field player gets past the lasers through first-person platforming actions.
Third task: get the recipe.
- Field player is sneaking past guards or other security obstacles.
- Hacker player is opening vault with the recipe and doing stealth gadget things.
- Getting to the recipe, do you steal the recipe or copy the recipe down?
  - Do you want to simply defeat opponents, or destroy them?
  - As with mission selection, one player (the field player in this case) literally makes the call, but the game encourages the team to choose their course of action together.
Last task, get out of restaurant
- Option for field player: could sneak through vents, or take the same way out, or run past guards in a mad dash to escape.
In the case of a "stealth fail state," hacker player must hacking frantically to resolve the situation quickly (i.e.: convincing the guards it was a false alarm, disabling the lights to give the field player time to hide, etc), while field player is explicitly avoiding conflict.