Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

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"Steal this episode." Writing for Games; Intellectual Property and the Public Domain Feb 06, 2019

Show notes

Your Nice Hosts are back from PodCon 2 and fresh off the Global Game Jam where Martha wrote a game for the first time! We talk all about that experience as well as celebrate Public Domain Day for the first time in 20 years. Mark guides us through the history of copyright, Stephen jams in 3D and Martha is a totally normal McElroy Fan (tmtmtmtm)

Photo by GLITCH

0:15:15

Writing for Games

One Polar Night0:37:57

Intellectual Property and the Public Domain

Public Domain Day 2019 (Duke University Website)“Happy Birthday” is public domain, former owner Warner/Chapell to pay $14Joe MullinArs TechnicaCopyright vs Trademark vs PatentUnited States Patent and Trademark OfficeAll by MyselfIrving Berlin, Aileen StanleySherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century theme song The Patent on Loading Screen Minigames is About To ExpireLuke PlunkettKotakuOracle vs Google trial Java runtime

What We Did On Our Winter Break (2018-19) Jan 29, 2019

Show notes

Ellen Burns-Johnson joins us once again in the club house to discuss our work on Widget Satchel (a platformer staring an adorable ferret!) We talk all about what went well, what was challenging and what is still left to do.

Widget Satchel: Our goal is to release in April 2019.
Wishlist Widget Satchel now on Steam!
Code Comment episode about Widget SatchelCode Comment: "Widget Satchel"
Ludum Dare special video episode featuring the first prototype versionNice Plays: Ludum Dare 40 games (2017)

What We Did On Our Winter Break (2018-19)

Nicest of 2018 Jan 15, 2019

Show notes

We're back with new episodes for the new year! Friend of the show Ellen Burns-Johnson joins us in the clubhouse for the annual Nice Games Club Nicest of 2018 where we talk about some games we liked that came out in 2018 - or at least that we played in 2018. Stephen is on brand with his signature fighting moves, Ellen has Unity in her sights for 2019, Martha has to think of new titles for herself, Mortho barges in to steal the show and Mark -twist- doesn't talk about a Star Trek game.

Ellen is here!
Podcon 2
We will be there in Seattle this weekend!
You can attend the con remotely and watch live streams of the talks/live shows.
Global Game Jam Eventbrite
January 25-27, 2019
There is a free Diversity ticket option.
No experience required to jam.
Remember a healthy game dev is a better game dev so go home and sleep, eat, drink lots of water and don’t crunch- make a smaller game!

Local Releases (2018)

Video Games

Claw Breaker (Team Klaw)Verdant Skies (Howling Moon Studio)Newt One (DevNAri)Joggernauts (SpaceMace)Optica (GLITCH)RJdoesVR (local OculusGo developer)Hardlight Blade (released in 2018)

Asimov (early access in 2018)

FireZone (coming soon)

Board and Card Games

Root (Leder Games)Vast: The Mysterious Manor (Leder Games)Squirmish (Steven Stwalley)Too Many Bones: Undertow (Chip Theory Games)

Martha's Nicest (2018)

Celeste (Matt Makes Games)Nintendo Labo (Nintendo)

Ellen's Nicest (2018)

Fate: Core System (Evil Hat Studio)Pyre (Super Giant Games)

Mark's Nicest (2018)

Spiderman (Marvel/Sony)Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)

Stephen's Nicest (2018)

Soulcalibur VI (Project Soul)Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo)Girlfriend Review of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Martha's Most Anticipated (for 2019)

Ooblets (Glumberland)In the Valley of Gods (Campo Santo)

Mark's Most Anticipated (for 2019)

Dreams (Media Molecule)Luigi’s Mansion 3 (Nintendo)Yoshi’s Crafted World (Nintendo)Widget Satchel (Noble Robot)

Stephen's Most Anticipated (for 2019)

Nioh 2 (Team Ninja)Smash Bros. DLC (Nintendo)

Ellen's Most Anticipated (for 2019)

Baba is You (Hempuli)Alien Isolation 2 (Cold Iron Studios)

"Right the dang now." Scope Creep; eSports [Nice Replay] Jan 08, 2019

Show notes

#51"Right the dang now."Roundtable2017.10.07

Stephen will be speaking at the November IGDA Twin Cities meeting! Details will be posted at igdatc.org soon.

In this episode, Stephen fights his demons, Martha likes sports now, and Mark learns a lot about both.

Scope Creep

0:02:41Stephen McGregor Production

Martha took a blacksmithing class! Also, her instructor told her this was a perfect forge weld.

Martha brought up fighting scope creep on our GDC 2017 Special.GDC 2017 Special (Part 1)Project management is a way to combat scope creep that we’ve covered before, in the episode"We joke here."A core concept for your game can help focus ideas as well. We go over this in our Game Design Primer topic in our episode"That makes me retroactively nervous." Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making - Sam Kaner

Our post on the r/gamedev. Special thanks to SaxPanther, ledat, GravityGamesInt, Bwob, and DustyPixel for their stories.

SaxPanther created a battle royale game out of the Unity Roll-A-Ball tutorial.ledat shared a story on how one person accidentally created banking software after attempting to streamline coffee orders.

eSports

0:30:53Martha Megarry Events Gaming

League of Legends

League of Legends World Championship is happening RIGHT THE DANG NOW!
Martha will be rooting for her favorite team, C9.

Player Signings, Salaries, and More in the Overwatch League™ - Blizzard Entertainment League of Legends' ratings top NBA Finals, World Series clinchers - Patrick Dorsey, ESPN An example of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament casting. - Twitch The Story of DOTA - Paul Dean, Eurogamer The biggest Call of Duty tournament shines light on growth of esports - Jordan Crook, TechCrunch The Rise and Fall of StarCraft II as an eSport - Kevin Hovdestad, IGN How Intellectual Property Rights Are Hurting Esports Teams - Leonard Langenscheidt, The Esports Observer There is, in fact, a Civilization VI eSports scene. - Leif Johnson, Motherboard

Nice Games Jam: "Pass them Laughs (Haha!)" [Nice Replay] Jan 01, 2019

Show notes

#105Ha-Ha!Nice Games Jam2018.09.25

This week on Nice Games Club we are trying out a new type of episode: Nice Games Jam! We get a topic from Martha’s boyfriend Dylan and then attempt to create a playable game by the end of the episode. We then include the rules here in the show notes for you to play at home!

Let us know what you think of this episode format on the feedback from!

Prompta realtime card game [for PC]Game typeCard gameMaterials

52 Card deck + two jokers

Six sided die (One per Player)

A stuffed trophy - we used a plush Toad! but a jesther hat would be the most appropriate

Setup

Each player starts with seven cards.

Rules

This game happens in real time. No turns!
Roll for six with the dice, if so draw a card then pass it or another card in your hand to someone
If you’re passed a card, you have to discard a card that was not passed to you.
Having a joker allows you to pick up the TROPHY (Toad) on a roll of six.
If you pick up the TROPHY (Toad), the game stops, you announce you have a joker and are looking for another, if someone has it they have to give it to you, the person losing a joker draws a card, the person gaining the joker discards a card.
If you have two jokers, you can end the game early by saying “haha!” at any point.
If you gain a joker you cannot discard it.
The game ends if someone says “haha!” or as soon as the deck runs out (and all card passes are resolved.)
If you have the highest poker hand, you win!

"I have so much feelings..." Loot Systems; Loot Boxes [Nice Replay] Dec 25, 2018

Show notes

#63"I have so much feelings..."Roundtable2018.01.02

This week, your nice hosts get into it. Stephen is split on everything, Mark is the bad guy, and it's all Martha's fault.

Stephen and Mark talked about their Ludum Dare 40 game, Widget Satchel, which Martha played on last week’s Nice Plays episode!

Loot Systems

0:03:58Stephen McGregor Game Design Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Players Are Tricking Amiibos To Grind For Rare Loot - Ethan Gach , Kotaku Nioh's latest patch fixes its most annoying flaw - Jeffrey Matulef, EurogamerStephen brought up our recent episode on repetition in games,"Schrödinger’s Animal Crossing."NeuroVoider Chock-Full of Rogue-Like KillBot Twin-Stick Shooting - James Cunningham, Hardcore Gamer Bungie says it " betrayed" Destiny 2 fans over transparency - YouTube

Loot Boxes

0:29:30Martha Megarry Gaming Marketing Loot boxes in video games will soon get a review flag from OpenCritic - Sam Machkovech, Ars Technica What You Need To Know About Shadow of War's Controversial Loot Boxes - Patricia Hernandez, Kotaku A Guide To The Endless, Confusing Star Wars Battlefront II Controversy - Gita Jackson, Kotaku Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford is ‘very much against predatory monetization schem… - Dustin Bailey, PCGamesN An inconvenient truth: game prices have come down with time - Ben Kuchera, Ars Technica I Just Got A Bunch Of Overwatch Gift Cards, And I'm Terrified To Use Them - Nathan Grayson, Kotaku How Luis Von Ahn Turned Countless Hours Of Mindless Activity Into Something Val… - Alison Griswold, Business Insider

Game Designer Damion Schubert posted a thread on Twitter about how to do loot boxes ethically. Mark was not convinced.

"We are artists and we should be artists." Demoing and Playtesting; Project Management; Messages and Meanings [Nice Replay] Dec 18, 2018

Show notes

#15"We are artists and we should be artists."Roundtable2017.03.13

A day late but worth the wait! In this high signal-to-noise roundtable episode, each member of the club picks a topic that they are particularly passionate about:

Stephen shares his wisdom and guidance about playtesting your work early and often, Martha helps you get your act together in a practical discussion about project management, and Mark tries to explain the obligation he feels as an artist, but picks a weird hill to die on as he wrongly insists that Portal 2 isn't really about anything.

We're trying to make the show even better and we need your input! Be nice and visit our feedback form to tell us what you think!

Ice Cold Games @zacharyjohnson NIce Games Club Feedback Form

Demoing and Playtesting

0:03:27Stephen McGregor Production

Project Management

0:33:26Martha Megarry Production Tools trello Agile Development - Wikipedia Waterfall Development - Wikipedia Kanban Development - Wikipedia The Blue Yarn - 99% Invisible - The Blue Yarn, 99% Invisible NUMMI (2015) - NUMMI, This American Life

David Megarry's Three Questions all project managers should ask:
“Do you have all the resources you need?"
"Do you have any roadblocks or impediments?"
"Are you on schedule?”

“A project manager (PM) is more of a problem solver than anything else. If you don’t have the resources, the PM finds them. If there are roadblocks, the PM helps to find a way to get around them. If not on schedule, the PM alters it or adds more resources or changes scope. Above all, the PM communicates with management as to the state of the project so they can make proper decisions and not be blindsided or surprised.” -David Megarry

Messages and Meanings

0:52:56Mark LaCroix Game Design Summerland - Michael Chabon, Novel A Closer Look at How Three Assassin's Creed Games Have Handled Slavery - Evan Narcisse, Kotaku For Honor's accidental alt-right connection - Allegra Frank, Polygon

"You can see the cabbage in it." Video Game Immersion; Main Menus and First Impressions [Nice Replay] Dec 11, 2018

Show notes

#42"You can see the cabbage in it."Roundtable2017.08.30

It's a slightly experimental show this week, as we try to see what a two-topic episode looks like. Also, Martha defends her love of coleslaw, Stephen still doesn't really like VR, and Mark has almost completely lost his voice.

Discuss this week's episode on Reddit in r/gamedev here.

Video Game Immersion

0:05:54Stephen McGregor Gaming Our pal and VR innovator Andrew Fladeboe.Representation and Embodiment in Virtual Reality - Jorge Albor, PopMatters Would You Kindly Read This Article on Gaming’s Greatest Plot Twist? - Mike Diver, Vice Our recent episode of Nice Plays: OneShot - Nice Games Club, YouTube Enhancing VR Immersion with the CPU in Star Trek: Bridge Crew - Cristiano F, Intel Developers Cognitive Flow: The Psychology of Great Game Design - Sean Baron, Game Developer Why Sonic the Hedgehog is awful, and always has been - Ryan Brown, MIrror Requiem, a “roleplaying” mod for The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

Mark is up to 118 shrines in Breath of the Wild. Stephen is not happy.

Main Menus and First Impressions

0:39:27Mark LaCroix UI / UX Why do console games require a button press before showing the main menu? - StackExchange Game Design: Splash Screen - Jesse Freeman, Medium The Ten Commandments Of Video Game Menus - Kirk Hamilton, Kotaku We didn’t get a chance to talk about it in the episode, but here is a cool brea… - Mike Fahey, Kotaku

Martha dancing similarly to the crabs in the game Claw Breaker. — **The Gaming Press (with Ben Hanson) [Nice Replay]** Dec 04, 2018
Show notes
#88The Gaming Press Interview2018.05.29
Stephen is away showing off his games at the Anime Central convention, so we're also joined this week by our new permanent guest host and self-proclaimed "mean old lady," Holly Harrison, who was a guest on a previous episode!
For an episode 18 months in the making, Ben Hanson, video producer for Game Informer and host of the excellent gaming podcast The Game Informer Show, finally enters the clubhouse for a wide-ranging discussion about which games and developers get the attention of the gaming press, developing games for modern audiences, and creative leadership in both AAA and indie teams.
The Gaming Press
Gaming IRL Marketing Here is the fabled tweet that started the long road to this episode.
Subscribe to The Game Informer Show via RSS (podcast) or on YouTube.
Get more of Ben's unimpeachable wisdom on Twitter!How A Japanese Reality TV Show About Nothing Became A Global Hit - Mia Nakaji Monnier, Buzzfeed Ben mentioned a clubhouse favorite game by a local developer, Color Jumper (on …Enjoy Martha's famous crab dance!Where the Water Tastes Like Wine Postmortem - Johnnemann Nordhagen, Medium Ben mentioned the Easy Allies podcast Alan Alda's Experiment: Helping Scientists Learn To Talk To The Rest Of Us - Lulu Garcia-Navarro, NPR

"Try it once." Watching Games; Narrative in Games; Board Games [Nice Replay] Nov 27, 2018

Show notes

#10"Try it once."Roundtable2017.01.30

Our 10th(!!!) episode has your nice hosts teetering on the edge of not-so-niceness as they each describe something they just don't get (or don't quite like) in gaming, and hope the other two can bring them around.