Shows / Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
The podcast where nice gamedevs talk gaming and game development. Nice!
Episodes
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Thinking: "Fishing Minigame Collection"
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…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"Okay, I need to learn buttons." microStudio; Min-Maxing
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…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Concept Art Workflows (with Laura Onderwater)
Returning "favorite" Laura Onderwater re-enters the clubhouse to talk about task tracking, naming conventions, and paper trails of various kinds in an engaging…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Games Jam: "Repair-ent"
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…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Revisiting Your Games (with Andy Korth)
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…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"From apocrypha or experience." 400th Episode Special
It's a big one for your nice hosts... and your newest nice host wants to know more. Lydia takes Mark and Stephen though the history of the program, in three…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"Half trash compactor, half empty." Composting; Overdesigning
Ellen's back for a serendipitously in-sync pair of metacognition-rich roundtable topics. In this episode, Lydia shares a chapter from one of her favorite books…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Thinking: "Untitled Memory Mechanic"
Ellen’s back in the clubhouse, let’s see what she remembers. Lydia brings a Dungeons and Dragons mechanic about recovering memories called 'Untitled Mechanic,'…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"Everyone hates Jira." QA Workflows; Designing Discovery
Your nice host return to the complex and sometimes underappreciated world of quality assurance in the game dev space, and also explore discovery as a design…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
3D Workflows for Indie Devs (with Freya Holmér)
We welcome Freya Holmér back into the clubhouse to talk about 3D game development for independent game developers. We get into the specifics of the tools…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Games Jam: "Head in the Clouds"
This week, your Nice Hosts have a new prompt from a new source. Lydia's husband, Ian, draws from a rainy source of inspiration and the Hosts are all-in. We…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"It's about trust." Save Systems; Keeping Secrets
Your nice hosts talk about saving both your position in a game and saving your secrets from being spread around. Also in this episode: Stephen's birthday is…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"I’m intrigued by big door." Emotional Effects of Music; A New Foe Has Appeared!
Mark rushes through the introduction to talk about his two rush projects, one of which, Blippo+, was announced on Sunday during the PC Gaming Show! You'll hear…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Video Game History (with Adrian Sandoval)
This week in the club house Adrian Sandoval describes how video games are speed running art history. Your nice hosts have their minds blown many times and…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"The things that create the geometry." What Happened With Future Club; Design Surface Area
Your nice hosts all secured a Switch 2 pre-order... from a certain point of view. Then, Stephen examines the body, Mark attempts a vocabulary, and Lydia has…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Mental Health and Discrimination (with Ashley Phipps)
The clubhouse welcomes Ashley Phipps, producer for the game Clock Out at 2, to discuss the topic of mental health and discrimination. Mental Health and…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"This is an impossible challenge." Friction by Design; Diversity in Scoring
In this episode the club house talks about the games that they have been playing. Mark attempts to define the terms good friction and bad friction, declares…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Video Game IP Law (with Haley MacLeon)
Your nice hosts get a crash course on video game IP law from lawyer and MinnMax cohort, Haley MacLeon. We learn about incorporating, publishing agreements, the…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"Our sense of epoch." Let's Plays; Responsive Game Design
A new Nintendo is on the way, and your nice hosts talk about both it and the world it's being born into. It kicks off a longer than usual episode where Lydia…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Games Jam: "The Intergalactic Dining Consortium"
Your nice hosts settle their differences in opinions when it comes to food to serve up a fresh game design document in a new Nice Games Jam episode. Prompt…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"You shouldn't pet the wolf." The art of Saying No; Tiny Interactions
Mark is still out sick, so Dale takes his place in the clubhouse and brings a topic! The club makes a prediction that by the time that this episode comes out…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Games Jam: "Time Traveler Estate Sale"
Roles reverse as Dale joins Stephen and Lydia for a Nice Game Jam prompted by Mark. The results are an antiques-fueled jaunt through time, and an unexpected…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"Nice Games Club cannot solve all of your problems." Begging for Money; Quality of Life
Beth leads Mark and Stephen through a therapy session. Stephen talks Kickstarter, Mark talks Patreon, and everyone agrees Beth's game Verdant Skies is great…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Thinking: "Nice Games Alliance Workshops"
Beth Korth, board member of Nice Games Alliance, enters the clubhouse to talk about the purpose of the NGA and how to best fulfill that mission. They discuss…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"A Paragraph Signing" Incremental Learning ; Making Science Fiction Worlds
Lydia joins the clubhouse for her first regular episode as a host (it's calendar math)! The clubhouse discusses the release of Civilization VII and how it is…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Games Jam: "Dinosaurs of North Dakota"
The clubhouse gets Cretaceous this week; your nice hosts have been challenged to create a game about dinosaurs and their feeding habits. Prompt Make a game…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"More Ellen in the future." What We Did On Our Winter Break (2024-25)
NEWS! New episodes now come out a week early on Patreon!! Sign up to listen to next week's episode now! We talk about why, and the silly reason why now, in…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Puzzle Systems (with Arvi "Hempuli" Teikari) [Nice Replay]
#373 Puzzle Systems Interview 2024.11.15 Releasing 2019's "Baba is You" after more than a decade of making puzzle games was a milestone for this week's guest…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
“That’s way too many pawns.” Communicating Difficulty; Remixed Play Modes [Nice Replay]
#368 “That’s way too many pawns.” Roundtable 2024.10.11 This week, Ellen kicks things off with a chat about how games tell players, “This might be tough!” and…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Optimization (with Jarryd Huntley) [Nice Replay]
#366 Optimization Interview 2024.09.26 Entering the clubhouse this week is our the third Owl (employee of Owlchemy Labs) and first Peabody Award winner (as…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Thinking: "Dialogue Through Goals" [Nice Replay]
#349 Dialogue Through Goals Nice Thinking 2024.05.29 Stephen brings a half-baked thought into the clubhouse for this Nice Thinking episode: how can we improve…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"The lensing effect of the window." Theming vs. Aesthetics; Parries [Nice Replay]
#361 "The lensing effect of the window." Roundtable 2024.08.22 It’s hot in the clubhouse and hot in Ellen’s greenhouse this week, so your hosts are eager to…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Tutorialization with Puzzles (with Luke Spierewka) [Nice Replay]
#371 Tutorialization with Puzzles Interview 2024.11.01 "Tutorials shouldn’t feel like tutorials!" Like most aspects of game design, it's an easy concept to…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"A slow meat computer" King Making; Thinky Bits (Off-Screen Gameplay) [Nice Replay]
#347 "A slow meat computer" Roundtable 2024.05.16 In the episode, Mark, Ellen, and Stephen talk local events, including (don’t worry everyone’s fine) a fire in…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Games Jam: "Eddies" [Nice Replay]
#338 Eddies Nice Games Jam 2024.03.11 The clubhouse is caffeinated and ready to jam, game jam that is. The clubhouse is giving a prompt where air movement is…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
The Intersection of Puzzle and Story (with Ron Gilbert) [Nice Replay]
#354 The Intersection of Puzzle and Story Interview 2024.07.05 Narrative designer and pal of the program Beth Korth fills in for Ellen as guest host this week…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"The super-powerful beam or whatever." Code Libraries; Game Overs [Nice Replay]
#353 "The super-powerful beam or whatever." Roundtable 2024.06.27 This week, your nice hosts talk about code that isn't yours and ask about the natural…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nicest of 2024
It's a cheery and bright episode to get you through the dark cold days of winter! ☃️ Your hosts (plus guest Joanna May) wrap up 2024 with a readout of their…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Serialization (with Joanna May)
We invite Joanna May into the clubhouse to discuss serialization. We get ever so slightly closer to discovering what serialization even is with Joanna's help!…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Games Jam: "Space Mall Mystery VHS Game"
In this episode Lydia is back in the clubhouse to discuss her first job, and to help make a game about said job. But, because your nice hosts couldn't choose…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Digital Escape Rooms (with Lydia Symchych)
All of your hosts are together in the Clubhouse for a special interview! Lydia Symchych is an impact game designer who has been working with Ellen over the…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Thinking: "Iterative Game Jam"
Your nice hosts chew over a concept Stephen brings into the clubhouse: a series of "game jams" where participants iterate on one specific idea in each session…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Puzzle Systems (with Arvi "Hempuli" Teikari)
Releasing 2019's "Baba is You" after more than a decade of making puzzle games was a milestone for this week's guest, but it was also just the beginning of his…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Games Jam: "Soapbox Derby OF TIME"
In this episode Ellen usurps the normal process for a nice game jam prompt to explore her own idea on tabletop mechanics. Who would have thought the scoring…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Tutorialization with Puzzles (with Luke Spierewka)
"Tutorials shouldn’t feel like tutorials!" Like most aspects of game design, it's an easy concept to summarize but a difficult one to pull off. Luke Spierewka…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"Please go vote." Runtime Asset Management; Double Jump vs. Dash
This week, your nice hosts talk a little bit about our civic duty before getting into two very on-brand topics. Make a plan to vote on (or before!) November…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Combat Design (with Timothy Staton-Davis)
We welcome Timothy Staton-Davis into the clubhouse to talk both the broad strokes and the nitty-gritty of combat design. Melanated Game Kitchen - itch.io…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
“That’s way too many pawns.” Communicating Difficulty; Remixed Play Modes
This week, Ellen kicks things off with a chat about how games tell players, “This might be tough!” and how to make that fun and fair. Stephen and Mark jump in…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"Numbers go up." Scoring 101; Turning off the Gamedev Brain
This week, learn about what Ellen was like as a student. Stephen wonders if he’s made a huge mistake, Ellen does some work research, and Mark insists that…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Optimization (with Jarryd Huntley)
Entering the clubhouse this week is our the third Owl (employee of Owlchemy Labs) and first Peabody Award winner (as lead developer for We Are OFK), to talk…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"It's hard how my mind works." Audio Middleware; Psychic Distance
There are now episodes of Nice Games Club for each new day of the year! When you get to the last day of that year, you'll hear about Audio Middleware and…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Thinking: "Player Personas"
In this episode the boys are back in Minneapolis, but they are still thinking about their time with Ellen in Duluth, or Roboluth ;) s So they are using this…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
The Duluth Basement Session
Once again from hilly Duluth, Minnesota! On Day 2 of a game design weekend retreat, your nice hosts tackled rules—writing rules, rewriting rules, and…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"Apply your context, thusly." Instructions; Cynicism
It's a nice sleepover as this (and next) week's episode is recorded from Ellen's basement in Duluth. Mark has an angle, Ellen shares her topic, and Stephen…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"The lensing effect of the window." Theming vs. Aesthetics; Parries
It’s hot in the clubhouse and hot in Ellen’s greenhouse this week, so your hosts are eager to crunch through some discussion. Ellen introduces the concept of…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Accessibility (with Dave McKee)
We invite music producer and sound designer Dave McKee into the clubhouse to talk about accessibility in games this week. Accessibility Accessibility Game…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"Imagine it's running on a potato." Targeting Multiple Platforms; Spirit Island Spirits
We face complexity head-on this episode with two topics that will get your neurons firing. Mark walks through considerations involved with publishing a game to…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Physics 101 (with Scott Lembcke)
"Pillar of the community" and creator of Chipmunk2D Scott Lembcke visits the clubhouse to talk velocity, constraints, and rigidbodies. Ellen gets the music in…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
"Gentlemen, is this where the fisticuffs occur?" Familiarity; Pacing Mechanics
In this episode, Stephen gets excited about Summer Games Done Quick, reveals some Doctor Who spoilers, and then is shocked that Flappy Dragon has more dragons…
- Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Nice Games Jam: "The Bike Boom"
In the first Nice Games Jam in a few months (and we made it a long one!), your nice hosts explore the history of bicycles to develop a racing board game. Our…