Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

Latest Episodes:

Nice Thinking: "Ladder Game" Oct 09, 2025

Show notes

It's been awhile, but it's time for another video episode! This week, Mark's colleague Mike Lasch enters the clubhouse to build a digital prototype live on-air!

Ladder Game

Playable "Ladder Game" prototypeMichael LaschConstruct 3 Kuru Kuru KuruinWikipediaRoundaboutNo GoblinSteamSokobanWikipedia

Nice Games Jam: "I’m Holding It for a Friend" Oct 02, 2025

Show notes

We invite Joanna May into the clubhouse again in this supersized episode to design a game about stowing illicit goods into spacecraft as it's being built!

(Note: Minor hiccup with the audio recording in the first 2 minutes, so Lydia is off mic briefly but it fixes itself.)

Tangrams - Wikipedia
We mention Dogpile!, a game we made in a previous game jam.Dogpile!

PromptDesign a puzzle game about loading passengers and/or cargo into various spacecraft (or other transport).Game typeTabletop gamePlayer count4 or moreRules

The ship is a pad of paper with outline of ship (legal pad sized)
- The interior is blank, what you draw is the interior spaces
- Each turn, the freighter captain draws the modules
  - False walls, freezers, to shape what you can put in there
  - They have their own secret goal
- Each turn, the other players are smuggling things (they don’t know about what others are doing)
  - Contraband
  - Each turn they can put one thing in there or move a thing
    - Maybe you have to slide it only, you can’t pick it up after it’s been added
Each game has an ending determination and then also a scoring system
- Everyone loses if ship gets caught
Hidden role game?
- Freighter Captain
  - Makes the ship
- Contraband smuggler
  - Tries to add the most of contraband as they can
- Honest worker
  - Wants to add the most of the goal as possible
- Inspector
  - Wants to find the smuggler

"Ain’t nothin’ left." Role-playing; To Rebuild or Not to Rebuild Sep 25, 2025

Show notes

Joanna May returns to the clubhouse as a guest host! Your four nice hosts chat Tetris, knitting, and CSS, but also have a pair of actual topics to discuss...

Mark's game Blippo+ is out NOW! Go buy it on Switch and Steam!

0:13:36

Role-playing

Complete History Of The Soviet Union, Arranged To The Melody Of TetrisPig with the Face of a BoyYouTubeTetris (film) - Historical accuracyWikipedia0:35:27

To Rebuild or Not to Rebuild

Joanna previously joined us as a guest to discussSerialization Godot 4.5 release notes - SDL3 gamepad inputGodotNoble EngineNoble RobotGitHubThe Slow Way Is the Fast WayMark Samples

Joanna and Mark debated a concept called "Utility-first CSS"

A Year of Utility Classes (Pro)Michelle BarkerCSS { In Real Life }What is Utility-First CSS? (Anti)Heydon PickeringHeydonWorks

Serious Play Conference 2025 Sep 18, 2025

Show notes

Your nice hosts Lydia and Ellen are on a seriously playful adventure in beautiful Rochester, New York for the Serious Play conference! They discuss game accessibility, D&D therapy, lexical gaps, validation, and more.

In addition, Lydia beats the pavement and gets the hot scoop on what attendees learned at the conference and the games that shaped them.

Many thanks once more to:

Serious Play for Lydia's press pass.
Ellen for the cute little lavalier microphones that made interviews possible.
Ellen and Nikita for being the best travel buddies ever.
Interviewees for sharing their thoughts with our nice listeners.

Serious Play Conference
Ellen's previous trip to this conference was recounted in:Serious Play Conference 2023

Serious Play Conference

Xbox Adaptive ControllerXbox.comPlayStation Access ControllerPlaystation.comQuadstickAble Gamers

"There's little guys in my screen." Video Content; Use the Dang Potion! Sep 11, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Mark and Stephen talk about what they are excited about. Lydia deals with a existential crisis about keeping too much stuff. And nobody talks about the full motion video game that Dale made during a Global Game Jam during the topic on video content, where they talked extensively about FMV games. Don't worry! Dale edited this episode and linked the game in the show notes below. ;)

Lydia played some Dutch games
Geharrewar in de Sushi-bar - Board Game Geek
Port Royale - Board Game Geek
Stephen is very excited about Kirby Air Riders. Is it as good as he anticipated? Past Stephen sure hopes so!
Kirby Air Riders Direct 8.19.2025 - Nintendo of America, YouTube
Mark went to L.A. for the Blippo+ Exhibition
Blippo+ - Steam
Pre-order Blippo+ on Switch - Nintendo
Mark's favorite museum: LACMA
Nice Games Alliance
Nice Games Alliance is the org that supports the local community
Beth Korth was recently on the show in Episode 382 to talk aboutNice Games Alliance Workshops
When the club plugs the Discord, Mark mentions a Discord conversation the podcast's outro in Episode 400"From apocrypha or experience." 400th Episode Special

Video Content

Blippo+Telling LiesWikipediaDinosaur Hunter (aka 3D Dino World)WikipediaQuantum BreakWikipediaControlWikipediaWitnessWikipediaDragon's Dogma 2 Steak videoYouTubeAlan Wake 2 Global Game JamGlobal Game Jam

The FMV (Full Motion Video) game Dale and Beth made for Global Game Jam 2020, Corporate Espionage, is very campy. Enjoy!

Use the Dang Potion!

The reasons Lydia doesn't use the Potion:

1) She might need it (more) later, I don't want to waste it2) Everything could matter

And more reasons:

3) Things are power in a power fantasy game, and it's hard to give up power 4) Potions feel like an assist mode, because you want to be better than that 5) Gambler's fun

Combatting the natural emotional response for players to keep their stuff

Make stuff very abundant, and add use ware (like Zelda Breath of the Wild) Add narrative context that the intention is to sell it for in game money (like in Spirit Farer) Add explicit indicators that an item is required for a quest.Create items that are specific to a single purpose.Discourage gathering more items by making them annoying to collect

Nice Thinking: "Fishing Minigame Collection" Sep 04, 2025

Show notes

Stephen Business is back! And he’s attempting to make a meme into a reality. The clubhouse attempts to answer these (and other) questions:

How many fishing minigames is too many fishing minigames?
Is it okay to shoot fish with lasers?
Who are those teenagers with emo hair in the Bentley?
Should Stephen make something on the Playdate?
Why do people go fishing?
Does anyone actually like fishing?

You can wishlist 'Blippo+' on Steam! - Steam

Fishing

Lydia kicked of this topic with a comment an episode, maybe this one?Revisiting Your Games Fishing Minigame MemeRedditLydia learned about noodling from this youtube channelBon AppetitYouTubeFeeding time at a Fish Hatchery is bonkers!YouTube

Lydia's nice list of games with fishing minigames

Tales of Arise Pokemon Animal Crossing Stardew ValleyLegend of Zelda (many) SkyrimKirby The Forgotten Land Verdant Skies Spiritfarer Red Dead Redemption 2 Final Fantasy (many) Sonic Frontiers Far Cry 5Hades

"Okay, I need to learn buttons." microStudio; Min-Maxing Aug 28, 2025

Show notes

It is a joyous day for pancake lovers everywhere, and a joyous week in the Clubhouse for Lydia who successfully made a thing using code! WOW! She shares her experience learning how to make buttons (and everything else) in microStudio. Then the Nice Hosts get real about their experiences with min-maxing in games. You know it's a good topic when it promises at least one spinoff topic so buckle up.

Also in this episode: Mark is doing level design when he should be playing Donkey Kong Bonanza, new laptop(!), and the existential horror of the cozy game genre.

0:12:09

microStudio

Lydia's starting point for her incremental learning plan."A Paragraph Signing"microStudiomicroStudioLydia's Experiment 1 - TutorialPress space to start. Use the arrow keys to move the slime to the cookie. microStudioLydia's Experiment 2 - Buttons PracticeClick the heart to add it to the skeleton’s chest microStudioLydia's Experiment 3 - Build a SkeletonClick on the buttons to add silly organs to the skeleton. Keep clicking the button to cycle through your options for that organ. microStudioLydia's Experiment 4 - Despawn PracticePress space to add 10 seconds to the timer. Click correct or incorrect to add or subtract points to the score. Clicking spawns sparkles! microStudio0:37:00

Min-Maxing

Concept Art Workflows (with Laura Onderwater) Aug 21, 2025

Show notes

Returning "favorite" Laura Onderwater re-enters the clubhouse to talk about task tracking, naming conventions, and paper trails of various kinds in an engaging discussion on concept art workflows. Even if you’re not part of an art team, there’s a lot to take away from this one!

We spoke with Laura previously in an episode onVisual Worldbuilding

Concept Art Workflows

Art Production Laura on Artstation Laura on Bluesky

Nice Games Jam: "Repair-ent" Aug 14, 2025

Show notes

As promised, the three Korths, Andy, Beth and Gabe, join us in the clubhouse for our hundred and two or so episode tradition! The clubhouse was too crowded to fit Mark in, but having five hosts makes up for it. Your nice hosts design a game about fixing the messes your child makes and then returning the favor as you age.

Andy had brought up a chaotic game where you need to prevent your infant from getting into trouble, turns out there's a lot of those but here's an example!
Who's Your Daddy - Evil Tortilla Games, Steam

PromptCreate a game where you need to follow around a person or a thing that is breaking stuff. You gotta fix it!Game typeDesign documentPlayer count1Rules

Child causes destruction and you have to fix it
Child become adult you have to fix parent stuff
Parent needs to work (remotely) and also fix whatever the kid has broken
- You want to fix the things as best as you can before your partner gets home
- Partner will do some fixing at the end of the day (to prevent negative feedback loop)
Each level is just one day in the life of this family
- The last level, the parent retires and now the kid is an adult and has to fix parents’ messes
- And maybe also has a kid they need to take care of
Mess examples
- Older parent
  - Find keys
  - Knocking a pot off the stove
  - Install rail in shower/toilet
  - Bookcase falls down
- Toddler
  - Pulling things with cords (as toddler)
  - Crayons on the walls
  - Legos (or any toy)
- Pulled shower curtain
- Teenager
  - Get mad at a thing and punch a hole in the wall
  - Leave the fridge open
  - Shave without cleaning sink
  - Dirty clothes
  - Plates everywhere
  - Dart board
  - Sticky slime
  - Leave milk on table
What does cleaning look like?
- Different minigames
Co-op mode
- Two parents, or parent and grandparent
Orthographic camera angle that slides from one room to another
Maybe the daycare couldn’t take the kid today
- Basically these are snapshots of unexpected parenting that the player needs to deal with
Need moments of time for narrative/exploration time
- When you find an important item, time stops so the player can appreciate it
- You can find things that you made as a kid
More preventative tasks for the player to do
- Place paper around so kid doesn’t draw on walls
Parent sim
- Decisions impact future decisions and might cause problems depending
- How you parent changes how you recover energy/your stats during elderly stages
Intro
- Set the tone of the home
- Ask questions for the player to adjust the game for them somewhat
  - How does a messy home make you feel?
  - How do you respond to criticism? How do you respond to conflict?
  - Center questions on the parent, not the child.
  - What kinds of appliances do you have in your home?

Revisiting Your Games (with Andy Korth) Aug 07, 2025

Show notes

As is tradition, a couple of episodes after a hundredth we invite one or more of our pals the Korths into the clubhouse. This time we were lucky enough to have all of the family Korths (coming soon), and a bonus interview with Andy Korth! We talk with him about his recent work updating Verdant Skies.