Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

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Nice Plays: Solomon's Key (1987) Sep 05, 2017

Show notes

"Nice Plays" are video episodes where your nice hosts play and talk about a game, and after 17 minutes, our egg timer goes off and we give our final thoughts. In this episode, Stephen plays the NES port of the classic arcade game Solomon's Key!

Game: Solomon's Key
Developer: Tecmo
Publisher: Tecmo
Platform: NES
Release date: July 1987 (US)
Genre: 2D Puzzle-Platformer

Summary: "You and Dana, the wizard of Lyrac, must unlock Solomon’s scroll of secrets to restore peace in the constellations. With Dana’s magic, fire, and mystical powers, you will help release the imprisoned Princess of the Fairies and harness the evil forces within the constellations. But first, you need the key!"

Video

"You can see the cabbage in it." Video Game Immersion; Main Menus and First Impressions Aug 30, 2017

Show notes

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.

0:05:54

Video Game Immersion

Our pal and VR innovator Andrew Fladeboe.Representation and Embodiment in Virtual RealityJorge AlborPopMattersWould You Kindly Read This Article on Gaming’s Greatest Plot Twist?Mike DiverViceOur recent episode of Nice Plays: OneShotNice Games ClubYouTubeEnhancing VR Immersion with the CPU in Star Trek: Bridge CrewCristiano FIntel DevelopersCognitive Flow: The Psychology of Great Game DesignSean BaronGame DeveloperWhy Sonic the Hedgehog is awful, and always has beenRyan BrownMIrrorRequiem, a “roleplaying” mod for The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

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

0:39:27

Main Menus and First Impressions

Why do console games require a button press before showing the main menu?StackExchangeGame Design: Splash ScreenJesse FreemanMediumThe Ten Commandments Of Video Game MenusKirk HamiltonKotakuWe didn’t get a chance to talk about it in the episode, but here is a cool brea…Mike FaheyKotaku

"Proper ones and twos." Input Methods and Controls; Coding Syles; Splatoon 2, ur, I mean Shooters Aug 22, 2017

Show notes

This week, your nice hosts are still relaxing in Mark's dining room for an episode that has it all: a disagreement about Bluetooth, some good ClawTalk™, and the shortest conversation ever had on the subject of tabs vs. spaces. All this, plus a slightly higher than usual number of wild digressions.

Discuss this episode on Reddit in this thread on r/gamedev!

0:01:29

Input Methods and Controls

Stephen’s controller of choice, Power A FUSION.New Windows 10 Xbox wireless controller adapter delayed into 2018Gabe GurwinDigital TrendsMetro Nexus’ tutorial in actionMark LaCroixTwitterBehold, the unintuitive enjoyment of Claw Breaker.Martha MegarryYouTube“How to Claw Effectively”Ture VangaurdYouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY-o0zYxjyEGame Maker's ToolkitYouTube“You say jump, I say how high?” Martin FasterholdtMartha’s favorite Fingeance fighter, Sparky.This goofy game turns your entire keyboard into the controllerAndrew WebsterThe Verge

Alternative controls game Butt Sniffin Pugs, shown at Ctrl.Alt.GDC.

Rocksmith Vs. Rock Band 3 – The Pro Guitar ShowdownJeff AtwoodFake Plastic RockGuy beats Dark Souls with DK BongosJordan DevoreDestructoidGameplay of racing game Kirby Air RideMutch GamesYouTubeWe mentioned this previous episode"We joke here."we also mentioned this one"Will you be the best with me?"0:36:49

Coding Syles

What is your preferred Indent Style?Whatever you do, don’t code like this.@HisCursednessTwitterDon’t be a Stephen: Comment your code!Martha uses a cool HTML template engine called Pug.Getting started with Pug template engineAntónio RegadasMediumRussian nesting dolls are called matryoshka.Wikipedia

CamelCase or snake_case?

DarkBASIC, which Stephen used when he was young, went open-source in 2016!the Game CreatorsHistory around Pascal Casing and Camel CasingBrad AbramsMIcrosoft“Namespacing” in Objective-CMattname spacing hipster

JetBrains IDE’s: Webstorm for JavaScript and Rider for C#.

Visual Studio Code is a lightweight Visual Studio that Mark really likes.1:13:45

Splatoon 2, ur, I mean Shooters

Apparently, Splatoon devs didn’t realize the comparison to Super Mario Sunshine…Sean AyresNintendo EnthusiastDesigning FPS Multiplayer MapsDodgerOn Game DesignDesign Patterns in FPS LevelsKenneth Hullett & Jim WhiteheadUniversity of California - Santa CruzLost PlanetSomeCallMeVidalYouTubeLost Planet's only sequelWoophoroYouTubeWe also referenced our episode on Violence in Games

Community Managment (with Holly Harrison) Aug 15, 2017

Show notes

This week, the clubhouse is being occupied by Glitch's Summer 2017 Immersion Program cohort, so your nice hosts relocate to Mark's kitchen and talk over tea with the astoundingly insightful and utterly charming Holly Harrison, professional social media and community manager, to talk about building and engaging with an audience online.

Community Managment

Marketing Tide tries and fails to act cool in response to Mr. Clean... - @tide, Twitter ...while Sonic the Hedgehog succeeds. - @sonic_hedgehog, Twitter Arby’s does some cool video game things on Twitter. - @arbys, Twitter The true owner of @Velveeta - @Velveeta, Twitter You Know An Internet Joke Is Kinda Over Once Nintendo's Had A Turn - EThan Gach, Kotaku Building audience early with visuals-first development in Ooblets - Chris Priestman, Game Developer Consumers Aren’t Looking to Buy From Brands That Are ‘Cool’ on Social - SproutSocial The Simple Facebook Posting Strategy That Helped us 3x Our Reach and Engagement - Brian Peters, Buffer Follow the MNgamedev Bot on Twitter - @MNgamedev_bot, Twitter MN Game Dev Slack - mngamedevbot, Slack What We Know About The Instagram Shadowban, And How To Discover If You’ve Been … - PLANN Paper Darts, Literary Arts Magazine Comcast and Verizon’s Sneaky Push to Kill Net Neutrality Is Just Embarrassing - Libby Watson, Gizmodo Bioware "Kissing Day" tweet. - @Bioware, Twitter Innes McKendrick tweets about egg cups. - Innes McKendrick, Twitter Check your Twitter analytics - Twitter

Nice Plays: OneShot (2016) Aug 08, 2017

Show notes

It's Nice Games' Club take on the Let's Play! Introducing "Nice Plays," where the Nice Games Club gamedevs play nice games. Our first Nice Play features the recent indie (re-)release "OneShot." We talk about the game's unique design choices as we fumble around to figure out the controls.

But, like for every Nice Play, after 17 minutes of gameplay our egg timer goes off, which means it's time to end the show.

Game: OneShot (website)
Developer: Little Cat Feet
Publisher: Degica
Release date: June 30th, 2014 (original), December 6, 2016 (remake, Steam)
Genre: Adventure, Puzzle
Summary: "OneShot is a surreal top down Puzzle/Adventure game with unique gameplay capabilities. You are to guide a child through a mysterious world on a mission to restore its long-dead sun. The world knows you exist."

Video

"Ugly and hard to use." Your Game’s Website; Game Exhibits and Installations; Losing Jul 31, 2017

Show notes

This week, Martha stops short of detailing the DNS protocol, Mark describes a completely different Star Trek VR thing which he made for the Minnesota Orchestra Hall, and Stephen explains how to lose like a real champ.

Plus, like the classic 1985 film Clue, this episode has multiple endings!

Discuss this episode on Reddit using this thread in r/gamedev!

Stephen's headphone audio testing suite
White Land - F-Zero Arranged, YouTube
The Sea - Magic Pengel, YouTube
Do It - Tuxedo, YouTube
Stephen updated the feedback form! Let us have it!

0:08:13

Your Game’s Website

Stand Still, Stay Silent, a webcomic City of Hunger development blog Midwest Game Developers Facebook group presskit Domain Name SystemWikipediaThe Difference Between Shared Hosting, VPS, and Dedicated Hosting99robotsHTML5 Up (free, simple site templates)Everend Ooblets0:36:31

Game Exhibits and Installations

Mark’s “Holodeck” VR installation at Minnesota Orchestra Hall
- Installation, Gameplay, Photo, Animation, Props, People, More people!

An Ode to the OkudagramWill NguyenTreknewsVR Snowball Shooters A Maze Berlin VR Pigeons at A Maze Berlin 2017spuniorYouTubePeter Molydeux, a parody Twitter accountTwitterThe world of weird video games at Alt.Ctrl.GDCJessica CondittEngadgetHands-on with Line Wobbler: a 16 foot tall, one-dimensional dungeon crawlerNick RobinsonPolygon1:06:40

Losing

Dota 2 Tournament Holds Rage-Quit Competition For FansEric Van AllenKotakuBayonetta Pro Upsets Smash's Best To Win Evo ChampionshipEric Van AllenKotakuVVVVVV No Death ModemicrodicePeercastYouTubeSuper Mario Odyssey Won't Have Game Over ScreensHope CorriganIGN

"Maybe a Zeldo." Enemy AI; Co-op Games; Speedrunning Jul 25, 2017

Show notes

The clubhouse A/C broke, and it got so hot during the recording of this episode that your nice hosts started to get a little delirious.

But before they completely melted down, Mark talked about how Enemy AI can be a great tool for both level design and narrative design, Stephen collaborated on a discussion about co-op games, and Martha shared her excitement about the recently held Summer Games Done Quick speedrunning event.

Discuss this episode on Reddit using this thread at r/gamedev!

0:03:00

Enemy AI

Design Club - Super Mario Bros: Level 1-1 - How Super Mario Mastered Level Desi…Extra CreditsYouTubeNobody dies on the first goombaSephzillaDestructoid2007 AiGameDev.com Awards: Technical Innovation in Game AI Enemy design and enemy AI for melee combat systemsBart VossenGame DeveloperAnalysing Mario to Master Super Mario MakerGame Maker's ToolkitYouTubeChip’s Challenge:1AZabrush CimahiYouTubeSaltybetTwitchseebotschatTwitchThe Perfect Organism | The AI of Alien: IsolationTommy ThompsonAI and GamesA Thousand Tiny Details: Emergent Storytelling in Slime RancherSteven LumpkinTwitterPeople Have Discovered The Perfect Way To Mess With Your CatRachael KrishnaBuzzfeedMeet the Artist Using Ritual Magic to Trap Self-Driving CarsBeckett MufsonVice0:29:40

Co-op Games

Martha asked Mark to cut a part out of this section, but Stephen edited this episode, so...

Overcooked: How To Make Co-op Cookery FunPhilippa WarrRock Paper ShotgunMiyamoto talks Super Mario Galaxy co-opAlexander SliwinskiEngadget0:47:42

Speedrunning

Awesome Games Done Quick SpeedDemosArchive Ocarina of Time - Skip 99% of Traveling Across the FieldSwordless LinkYouTubeThe Man Who Does The Impossible in Super Mario 64Patricia HernandezKotakuSpeedrunning Rules Blindfolded speedrun raceNoko OnlineYouTubeI can't believe this actually happened (glitch discovered during blindfolded sp…TokyoboiYouTubeKotaku’s speedrun articlesKotakuIntelligent Qube by caneofpacciGames Done QuickYouTubeTASBot plays Brain Age by micro500, xy2_ in 20:06 - Games Done QuickYouTubeWorld Record Progression: Super Mario WorldSummoning SaltYouTube0:00 / 29:59 I Am Bread by Blood_Thunder in 20:50Games Done QuickYouTube0:00 / 1:06:01 The Talos Principle by Azorae in 58:16 Games Done QuickYouTubeTomb Raider: Underworld hard modeJarekSpeed Demos Archive

Yes, you can speedrun in Fingeance

New Trick Has Ocarina of Time Speedrunners Debating What A Glitch Actually IsHeather AlexandraKotaku

Games User Research, Redux! (with Hannah Murphy) Jul 17, 2017

Show notes

In a previous episode, we mentioned that Mark's game, Metro Nexus, recently underwent a usability study, so for this episode, we brought in the Games User Researcher who conducted it, Hannah Murphy!

Hannah talks about her work, explains the value of UX research for indie developers, and discusses the study she did for Metro Nexus.

Discuss this episode on Reddit using this thread in r/gamedev!

Games User Research and Analytics

UI / UX

Metro Nexus User Research

Metro Nexus Usability Report - Hannah Murphy Metro Nexus gameplay trailer video.Metro Nexus tutorial screen gif - Twitter

Linkst for User Research

IGDA Games User Research Special Interest Group UX & QA Testing: What's the Difference? - Lindsay Lauters Miller, Game Developer MIT’s Game Lab’s list of recommended courses includes a few which are focused o…How to break into Games User Research - Steve Bromley List of UX degrees offered by universities Best Colleges with Human Computer Interaction Degrees in the US - Universities.com #GamesUR on Twitter - Twitter How to Conduct a Heuristic Evaluation - Jakob Nielsen, Nielsen Norman Group Groupthink - Groupthink - Wikipedia On Indie Game Pricing - Dan Adelman, Game DeveloperIn the outro, we joke about our recent Live Episode! Listen to it!LIVE from GlitchCon 2017

"My computer vapes." Building a PC; Pen and Paper Games Jul 11, 2017

Show notes

Martha brags about her computer, Mark finds yet another excuse to talk about Star Trek, and Stephen is still holding out hope for a Smash Bros. announcement.

Discuss this week’s episode on Reddit using this thread in r/gamedev!

0:05:08