Nice Games Club

Nice Games Club is on break until February 2020, so your nice hosts can take the time to work on a relaunch of the show, including new branding, updated production, and a brand new website! In the meantime, we picked out a few of our favorite episodes from 2019 year in the clubhouse. Original show notes can be found here: https://nicegames.club/2019/07/nostalgia-and-the-lo-fi-aesthetic-with-marina-kittaka/

Nice Games Club is on break until February 2020, so your nice hosts can take the time to work on a relaunch of the show, including new branding, updated production, and a brand new website! In the meantime, we picked out a few of our favorite episodes from 2019 year in the clubhouse. Original show notes can be found here: https://nicegames.club/2018/08/100-times-nice-100th-episode-special/

Nice Games Club is on break until February 2020, so your nice hosts can take the time to work on a relaunch of the show, including new branding, updated production, and a brand new website! In the meantime, we picked out a few of our favorite episodes from 2019 year in the clubhouse. Original show notes follow: This week, Martha admits to piracy, Stephen tells Nintendo to just stop making GameCube controllers already, and Mark tells his favorite video game story which is about buttons because Mark is boring. Meta You can wishlist Widget Satchel and Claw Breaker on Steam right now! You can also add Widget Satchel and Claw Breaker to your itch.io collection! “Amazing Mario 3 Speedrun Is Full Of Setbacks And Sportsmanship” - Heather Alexandra, Kotaku [0;11;31] Language of Games When snarky players still want to give info against the GM’s wishes, you get this Tweet. “Stop, Drop, and Heal: The history of regenerating health” - Jeff Dunn, GamesRadar An article from the developers of Mirror’s Edge Ca

It's time once again for Your Nice Hosts to bring you the Nicest Games of 2019! (Or, at least the nicest games -we played- in 2019 anyway) We also talk about our game dev resolutions and games we are excited for in 2020. We also have some programming news! We are going on hiatus to work on a revamp of our website and logo until February 2020. We will be bringing you some of the nicest episodes from the past year or so to tide you over until then. Happy new decade everyone! (Photo credit for episode cover on website: Nintendo) [0:02:26] Local Releases in 2019: Widget Satchel Treasure Stack Fuse Tactics V Newt One on Switch Anodyne 2 Extreme Mining [0:08:05] Nicest of 2019  Martha’s Nicest: Destiny 2 Read Only Memories We talked about Martha’s honorable mention in “Casper the Not-So-Friendly Goose” Mark’s Nicest: Control Link’s Awakening Lot’s of cool pictures of Control and other games in Dead End Thrills 'Control taught me to love the ugliest architecture' -Polygon (

Uh oh… they’re back… it’s EVIL GAMES CLUB! +!+!+!+!+ NICE TRANSMISSION INTERRUPTED +!+!+!+!+ Evil Games Club is back! Dale, Adia and Dylan are here to correct the score and give their take on past Nice Games Club topics including Writing For Games, Re-ravel and Video Game Nostalgia. They’re at it again, being evil, that is! Meta Felix Drags Dale Through The Marvel Universe podcast Dylan thwarted Dale's attempts at taking publicity photos [00:10:03] Writing For Games The Interactive Fiction Competition NaNoRenO on Itch "The Outer Worlds has some unusual (and awesome) character-building options" -Patricia Hernandex, Polygon "The Outer Worlds Will Rattle Your Idea Of A Perfect Planet" -Gita Jackson, Kotaku "Breaking Bongo" Radiolab episode "MGSV- Quiet/Ocelot model swap - Rain scene" -Tactical Modding Operations (YouTube Video) "Heaven's Vault" game by Inkle Studios [00:35:42] Re-ravel Nice Games Jam: "Re-ravel: A Backwards Storytelling Game" Nice Games Club episode

This week on the show, your nice hosts take two very different in-depth approaches to a topic that pops up a lot on the show, the ever-present... calendar math! Remember, Widget Satchel just came out! You can pick it up on Switch, Itch, and Steam! The 20% launch discount ends soon, so grab it now! We're also making a renewed effort to ask listeners to leave a review of the show so that more people can find it. Review Nice Games Club on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, and/or wherever you listen to the show! Leave a nice one, and we might read it on the show! Meta We spoke with Jajeev on a recent episode about UI design. We had Martha's dad on an episode about board game design, where we also touched briefly on his work writing cross-compilers for 8-bit computers. [0:07:41] Calendar Math (Production Schedules) Our guest Eric Johnson went in-depth on agile development in a recent episode. Mark alluded to a pattern which graph popularity that is found in almost everything in nature, but is most f

Widget Satchel is out (Go buy it on Steam, Itch or Switch!) Your Nice Hosts celebrate by talking all about Widget Satchel related topics like Metroidvania Level Design, World Building in Platformers and, of course, Ferrets! Meta Widget Satchel is out! Buy it on PC and Switch here: Steam Itch Nintendo E-shop Widget Satchel has ferrets, unlike another recent Switch game Protospiel/Minispiel, table top prototyping events [0:10:29] Metroidvania Level Design Game Maker’s Tool Kit Boss Keys [0:24:26] Ferrets Black-footed Ferret wikipedia article Black-footed Ferret IUCN Red List Widget Satchel listed on Genuine Mustelids [0:40:38] World Building in Platformers

First, some news... IT'S OFFICIAL: Widget Satchel is coming out on November 27th, 2019! Until then, you can pre-purchase the game on the Nintendo eShop, and wishlist it on Steam! https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/widget-satchel-switch/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/890480/Widget_Satchel/ Now, on to the show notes! This week, our boyfriend Dylan gave your nice hosts a prompt to create "a narrative game where the story is told backwards." This one is a slow burn but it really cooks by the end! With Stephen still away, Dale LaCroix (she of Evil Games Club and your nice social media manager) re-enters in the clubhouse to help create this week's game. But Dale didn't just join your nice hosts for this week's jam, she also took the resulting game and made improvements once the recording stopped! Not only that, but she's going to keep working on it. It will be at Glitch's December Play/Test event if you want to play the latest version! Our original rules are presented below, and Dale's "first revised ed

Nice Games Club Social Media Manager/Evil Games Co-host Dale LaCroix joins us to discuss Localization and Navigation both in games and IRL. Is Google Translate enough for your game? Will your awesome pun work in Spanish? What do Ikea and airports have to do with level design? Stick around past the outro for more Dale Travel Tips! Meta It was Halloween! Hamburger menu costume by Cathy Bridges on Twitter Goose by Cabel on Twitter Goose by LR on Twitter Goose by Robert Joe on Twitter “Luigi’s Mansion 3 Review - Frights and Delights” -Brian Shea, Game Informer “Death Stranding review: Hideo Kojima tries to make fetch happen” -Russ Frushtick, Polygon Deadspin “What Happened to Deadspin, According to the People Who Were There” -Stefan Fatsis and Josh Levin, Slate “The Senseless Death of Deadspin” -James D. Walsh, Intelligencer/New York Magazine The “UnDeadspin” Twitter account documenting new articles written by former Deadspin staff [0:18:42] Localization Gamedev Polyglot Google S

With Mark still away, Ellen returns to in the clubhouse for another episode! This week, she invited her husband, strategy-consultant-slash-agile-coach-slash-scrum-master Eric Johnson, to discuss Agile Development and iterative workflows. Speaking of supportive spouses, this week's episode was edited by our social media manager (and Mark's wife) Dale LaCroix. Big thanks to her for stepping in while Mark was busy being crushed under the weight of prepping Widget Satchel for release later this month! Show Notes Contact Ellen with questions for Eric on Twitter: @ellenbjohnson "Don't draw diagrams of wrong practices – or: Why people still believe in the Waterfall model" - Tarmo Toikkanen "An Agile Approach to Launching the Nordstrom Sunglass Application" - Nicoli Sinclair, Temple University

This week Mark is away so Ellen Burns-Johnson joins us once again as a guest host! We get philosophical and reflective in this episode talking about Finding Fidelity and Taking Feedback. What can you abstract in your game and what needs to be realistic? How do you take negative feedback with grace? Is it the players who are wrong or are you just not asking the right questions? Meta Ellen Burns-Johnson on Twitter Widget Satchel announced!  [0:03:45] Finding Fidelity Valve Knuckles Controllers Foundry10 Portal 2 curriculum [0:26:06] Taking Feedback The Invisible Gorilla Experiment "Be more constructive with your feedback, please" (Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenocerus by Flight of the Conchords) (NSFW)

It's story time this week in the clubhouse. Updates on projects from Martha, endless family game fights with Stephen, and Mark's shady past as a rhythm game DJ (he needed the money but there was no money). Meta "Unpacking" is planned for a late 2020 release. [0:04:49] Multi-generational Gaming "Yoshi’s Crafted World dev comments on the game’s difficulty" - @NE_Brian, Nintendo Everything The single-player version of Canfield Solitaire is, according to Wikipedia, a card game with "a very low probability of winning." [0:32:44] Noble Failures I, Robot (arcade game) "Preservationists Are Racing to Save Ouya's Games Before They Disappear" - Nicole Carpenter, Vice Games Here's a video of the RBN Megamix project for Rock Band Network that Mark worked on and "DJ'ed." If you have Rock Band 4, you can still download it here for Xbox One, although it's no longer free (sadly, Mark doesn't get royalties for it).

"HONK!" It's time for another Nice Games Bulletin! We talk all about recent releases, game industry news and also Star Trek news cause we can't help it. Photo Credit House House. [0:05:51] Recent releases HONK! Untitled Goose Game is out! “Untitled Goose Game Review- The Joys Of Goosing Around” -Kimberley Wallace, Game Informer “The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is the perfect Zelda for younger fans” -Russ Frushtick, Polygon “Should Your Boyfriend Play Legend of Zelda: Link’s Untitled Goose Game?” -Girlfriend Reviews (Video) “How Gears of War changed to become Xbox Game Pass’ biggest launch” -Owen S. Good, Polygon What The Golf? “Return of the Obra Dinn docks on consoles this month” -Owen S. Good, Polygon John Wick Hex Ring Fit Adventure Luigi’s Mansion 3 [0:29:24] Star Trek News StarTrek Star Trek: Picard NYCC Trailer -CBS All Access (Video) Star Trek: Discovery - Season 3 NYCC Teaser Trailer -CBS All Access (Video) Star Trek: Short Treks Q&A Trailer -CBS All Access (

This week on the show, your nice hosts get caught up in all the game releases that gamedev Twitter was going on about in the last few weeks, then talk about how it all comes together, and revisit an old topic now that nearly three years has passed and so much has changed. Meta The latest game trailer to submit to the #StephenTest is "Reginald Does His Thang" by Gibrian Foltz. Available now on Steam and Itch! Stephen is working on a new game, the just announced Rhythm Rumble! "Apple Arcade: Game Developers Still Don’t Have Answers They Need" - Nate Swanner, Dice "Developers Cash In By Selling Their Switch Games For Pennies" - Stephen J. Bronner, Kotaku [0:20:11] Holistic Game Design [0:49:10] Work/Life Balance

It's our 150th episode! To celebrate we finally have Martha's dad David R. Megarry on the show to talk about designing board games and specifically designing the fantasy adventure board game Dungeon! We get to hear the inspiration behind some of the now iconic game mechanics, unexpected lessons he learned along the way and why community is so important to a game designer. We even hear some stories Martha didn't know before! (Photo copyright David R. Megarry) Our Nice Guest: David R. Megarry David R. Megarry Facebook page David Megarry’s Dungeon YouTube channel Secrets of Blackmoor documentary Dungeon! It's sold many places including Powell’s bookstore in Portland, OR On the Board Game Geek page for Dungeon! you can see pictures of many different editions of the game- including different iterations of the board, cards and player pieces A historically accurate version of the game made a cameo on an episode of Stranger Things! Pentantastar

This week's episode is sponsored by Codecks, the project management tool for game developers, by game developers! Sign up for free at http://codecks.io/nicegamesclub to let them know we sent you! It's another Nice Games Jam! This time, our boyfriend Dylan sent in a particularly interesting challenge, asking your nice hosts to design a game where the player's load-out impacts the game's controls. After an aborted attempt to make it into a game consisting of physical props, we came up with a very strange concept for a video game where you equip and battle a bunch of different controllers as if they were Pokémon or something! "Buttons and Triggers and Sticks, Oh My!" (Prototype) In this game, you control a "battlebot" vehicle that you configure using equipment and weapons that are auctioned off between players before the match. The twist is that your bot is a vehicle shaped like the actual controller you play the game with, and its capabilities are determined by the physical configuration of the input eleme

This week Martha just got back from the XOXO Festival and Conference in Portland! She gives a run down of all the cool video game related content and what it was like to be there. Then Stephen talks all about Randomization and how you can use it to enhance or detract from your game.

This week's episode is sponsored by Codecks, the project management tool for game developers, by game developers! Visit http://codecks.io/nicegamesclub to let them know we sent you! It's still Wednesday in the clubhouse, which means an extra-long meta section where your nice hosts discuss showing off games at the recent 2DCon convention, Martha maturing both as a person and a culture, and what it feels like to have your words translated into Japanese. Oh, and we talk about designing rumble for your game, and close out the show with a great discussion about making games designed for unique spaces, including perhaps a preview of a future Nice Games Jam. Meta Widget Satchel in being translated into Japanese! Neat! Adobe's page about Source Han Serif, one of thier open-source CJK fonts. Source Han Sans on GitHub! Martha and Mark both missed TypeCon! [0:21:27] Rumble Sony's first rumble controller was the PlayStation Dual Analog Controller (in Japan, anyway!) and nearly beat Nintendo's Rumble Pak

It's Nice Games Bulletin time! We’ve got news in all varieties- Nice News, Medium News, Bad News and Dad News! So much news! Join your Nice Hosts as we sort it all out.

This week your nice hosts are joined in the clubhouse by visual artist and games UI designer Jajeev Nithiananda. He talks the good and bad of game UI, working with demanding clients and argumentative co-workers, and explains how function and form must work together to create a good experience for the player. Our Nice Guest: Jajeev Nithiananda! Jajeev on ArtStation Jajeev on Instagram PGA TOUR Golf Shootout on Google Play and iOS App Store. Links: UI Breakdown: Metroid Prime - SYH, Medium The Long, Desperate Search To Understand Poise In 'Dark Souls 3' - Patrick Klepek, VICE Lessons Learned Creating UI for The Division - Christian Savoie, GDC 2018