Nice Games Club

Happy birthday, Nice Games Club! Your nice hosts celebrate two years of publishing a new episode every single week by announcing a break from new episodes for the next couple of weeks! Why break the streak now? Well, take a listen to this week's episode and find out! No worries, we'll be back with new episodes in January, and starting next week you'll hear "Nice Replays" of some of our personal favorite episodes, pulled from our first two years in the clubhouse. Meta Widget Satchel is coming to PC and consoles! TASCAM stands for "Teac Audio Systems Corporation America." [0:04:53] Optimization "Avoiding Unity Update Loops" - Brad Keys Mark put his Timer class on GitHub. "The power of OnValidate" - CJF inc Static Constructors (C# Programming Guide) "Use constants instead of string literals" - rc3.org "Widget Satchel" Code Comment episode - YouTube McDonalds! McDonalds! McDonalds! "Verdant Skies" Code Comment episode - YouTube "ExecuteInEditMode will run your script in edit mode" - Th

This week on Nice Games Club we talk all about the labor of love that is making games for a living: how it can be great, how it can be not-so-great and how it could get better. Mark reports back from a conference, Martha gets on her soap box and Stephen realizes this podcast has been about documenting his career journey this entire time. Meta Joggernauts by local developer Space Mace is on Steam and Switch! Joggernauts soundtrack by Robert Frost III Adobe MAX [0:11:44] Game Dev as a Day Job Stephen works at Gamesmart! Glitch Jobs Board Gamasutra Jobs Board [0:38:53] Unions Twin Cities Labor Chorus "Telltale hit with class-action lawsuit for breaking labor laws" -Samit Sarkar, Polygon "Inside Rockstar Games’ Culture of Crunch" -Jason Schreier, Kotaku Vox Media Union Game Workers Unite "Its Time for Game Developers to Unionize" -Jason Schreier, Kotaku "Opinion: Now is the Time to Unionize the Game Industry" -Katherine Cross, Gamasutra Myles Horton, 20th century union organizer

Freya Holmér, co-founder of Neat Corporation (makers of VR stealth game Budget Cuts) and creator of Shader Forge, joins the clubhouse remotely from Sweden, while your nice hosts join Freya on her regular gamedev Twitch stream. Freya outlines her theory of gamedev self-education, touching on themes from her Glitchcon 2018 keynote presentation, but wait, there's more! It's an episode that ends half-way though its running time but keeps going anyway, as we branch off into a wide range of topics,  including (but not limited to): the social habits of American vs. Swedish game developers, the difference between "duck" and "crouch," accidentally building a LGBT community, and the evolutionary advantage of believing in ghosts. You can also find the livestream of the podcast on Freya's Twitch here! Our nice guest: Freya on Twitch Freya on Twitter Freya on YouTube Freya on Instagram Neat Corporation website Neat Corporation on Twitter Budget Cuts on Steam Budget Cuts on Oculus Shader Forge on GitH

On this week's episode, your nice hosts talk with local artist/developer and VR Creative at Pixel Farm, Krista McCullough, about VR workflows and a lot more! Our Nice Guest: On Twitter: @knm_xyz On Instagram: @knm_xyz Notes: Pixel Farm VR Joyce Minions on Twitter Udemy game development courses Sculptris (free 3D sculpting software) Mike Blackney's exploration of spline-based modelling

This week your Nice Hosts turn the Club House into a time machine to discuss 90s consoles and listen to some wicked video game soundtracks. Mark teaches us about LaserDisc, Martha is an 8-bit jukebox and Stephen ignores sick burns on jazz. Radical! Meta 90s Slang [0:06:35] 90s Consoles Solving the Zelda Timeline in 15 Minutes - Polygon BBC Domesday project [0:38:30] Video Game Soundtracks Kingdom Hearts Insider Portal (jump pad song) Video Louie Zhong’s Bandcamp Polygon Sims jazz piano video

Video Link: https://youtu.be/KJK2LmwR_EI This week’s episode is another edition of Code Comment, where your nice hosts look at the project, code, assets, and design of an indie game to see how it’s made. This week we are joined by Farzan Fatemi of Sleepy Macaw to show us behind the scenes of his abstract puzzle game Adjacency, which is available now on Steam and Itch! Martha steals Mark's line, Stephen and Mark discuss the idiosyncrasies of Unity and at the end of the episode Farzan reveals some surprising opinions about puzzle games. Buy Adjacency now on Steam and Itch! Follow Sleepy Macaw on Twitter

This week, Stephen promises he can stop whenever he wants, Martha gets there eventually, and Mark earns 100%. Meta If you like The Good Place, check out The Good Place: The Podcast! [0:06:18] Space Exploration games "Elite: the game that changed the world" - Adam Lusher, The Telegraph "BBC releases computer history archive" - BBC "‘Fuel Rats’ pull off their biggest rescue ever, from beyond the galaxy’s edge" - Owen S. Good, Polygon "New Book Chronicles The Continuing History Of EVE Online" - Lee Yancy, Kotaku "Warring EVE Online Factions Declare Peace, For Money" - Lee Yancy, Kotaku "Star Citizen’s $27,000 bundle raises eyebrows" - Charlie Hall, Polygon [0:46:05] Gaming Habits The Surrounding Game, a recent documentary about American players of Go. "Develop 2015 Highlights Rami Ismail, Indie Keynote" - YouTube

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! Pass them Laughs (Haha!) Rules: Materials: standard 52 card deck, one six sided die per player, Toad! (or some other stuffed trophy in the middle, a jester hat would be the most appropriate.) This game happens in real time. No turns! Each player starts with seven cards. Goal is to have highest poker hand. Roll the die. If you roll a six, draw a card, then pass one card of your choice to someone else. If you roll any other number, roll again! 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 Toad on a roll of six. If you pick up the Toad, the game stops, you announce you have a joke

This week on the program, Mark starts playing Spider-Man, Stephen ignores your narrative, and Martha is very smart. Meta: Optica is out now! Buy it, buy it, buy it! You can get it on iOS and Android. And while you're at it, pick up its spiritual antecedent, Strata, on iOS or Steam. "The 'Spider-Man' Puddle Controversy Is One Of Gaming's Dumbest" - Dave Thier, Forbes [0:09:09] Hub Worlds and Safe Houses "Destiny 2 Will Let You Play 'Fully Scored Soccer'" - Alex Walker, Kotaku "Gearbox and Claptrap honor late Borderlands fan with eulogy, NPC in sequel" - Jessica Conditt, Engadget "Sea of Thieves is fun until you meet other pirates" - Fraser Brown, Rock Paper Shotgun [0:38:20] Environmental Storytelling Here's an image of some of the narrative-assisting collectables in Widget Satchel: Mark talks about the subtext of Metro Nexus' overworld maps in our episode on research for games.

This week on Nice Games Club your nice hosts talk all about Modding and Self-Publishing Must-Haves. Stephen explains different viewpoints on mod-ownership, Martha goes fishing on easier mode and Mark makes too many gifs. Meta Claw Breaker is out on Steam and Itch.io - Go buy it, it is fun! Join us over on the Glitch Discord channel to talk about the episodes. [0:05:00] Modding Who owns the mods? - Yonnie Ming Kow and Bonnie Nardi, First Monday. The Requiem mod team tells its community about the delays to their update here. Nexus Mods is a great place to find community created mods. Wrye Musings is a blog from a famous Elder Scrolls modder who writes about various topics in modding. [0:44:30] Self-publishing Must-haves You can find good examples of gifs on the Widget Satchel Steam page. Learn more about how to make a good website on our Website episode. “How we Used Discord to build a dream community for our game Descenders” -Mike Rose (No More Robots), Discord Blog. We have had frien

 Video Link: https://youtu.be/YrY12zHkI9M This week’s episode is another edition of Code Comment, where your nice hosts look at the project, code, assets, and design of an indie game to see how it’s made. This week, we look at Verdant Skies, the sci-fi life-simluation game from Howling Moon Software, available now on Steam, Itch, and Humble Bundle! We're joined by two of the game's developers, Andy and Beth Korth, as well as their little one, Gabe. All three are making their second appearances in the clubhouse, as they were the program's very first guests back in our second episode (exactly 100 episodes ago)! We've already booked them for episode 202!  

This week, Mark doesn’t respect your secrets (but will keep them), Martha tells us where D&D really comes from, and Stephen reveals that he will play a Kirby RPG if someone makes one for him. Meta Claw Breaker is out! Buy it on Steam or Itch! More info on the official website. [0:05:11] Pitching to Consoles PlayStation Information is on the PlayStation Partners site. Your first step is to fill out their company registration page. Xbox Information is on the ID@Xbox site. Before submitting your game, your first step will be to apply to the program with basic information about your company. Nintendo For Wii U and 3DS development, registration is open to all developers on their developer portal. For Switch development, just send them an email! ThirdPartyPublisher@noa.nintendo.com. We talked about starting a business for your game studio in a previous episode. “Not-for-profit game developer faces major obstacles” - Colin Campbell, Polygon [0:52:15] Turn-Based RPGs “How to choos

In this episode, your nice hosts celebrate 100 episodes of Nice Games! We reminisce a bit on how the podcast has been going and go behind the scenes on what it takes to release one of the episodes. Thanks for listening to us 100 times! [0:00:27] 100th Episode Special  Our evil counterparts, Evil Games Club, have released two episode specials... so far. Here are some pictures of Martha and Stephen in the Clubhouse. We use these microphones and audio interface to record episodes. It's been working for us so far!

 Video Link: https://youtu.be/kHdCkFvxo4o This week’s episode is another edition of Code Comment, where your nice hosts look at the project, code, assets, and design of an indie game in development to see how it’s made. This week, we are joined by Lane Davis, Charles McGregor and our co-host Stephen McGregor to take a look behind the scenes of their cooperative shoot-em-up Fingeance! Lane shows us how he and Stephen design levels for different difficulties, Stephen explains how they use 'Object Pooling' to spawn bullets and Charles breaks down his music tracks to show us how he sets the emotion for each level. It's the episode that is definitely three three three! Escape Industries' Website Escape Industries' Twitter Stephen's Twitter Charles's Twitter

This week, a listener gives Martha a great topic, Mark establishes a Do-ocracy, and Stephen has trouble with transitions. Submit a topic for a future episode of Nice Games Club by sending us an email (contact@nicegames.club) or by contacting us on Twitter (@NiceGamesClub). [0:05:48] Developing Ideas The book Martha recommended is "If You Want to Write" by Brenda Ueland. It has been described as "the best book ever written about how to write" but its advice applies equally well to all types of creative work. [0:36:10] Game Dev Success

This week on Nice Games Club we interview VR Developer Andrew Fladeboe about his dream-like VR experience/thesis project Oneirogen! We explore the infinite and paradigm changing possibilities of VR, learn how Andrew brought his virtual experience into the real world as an installation and get his advice for creating change- make more weird art! Picture is a screenshot of Oneirogen by Andrew Fladeboe Our Nice Guest: Buy Oneirogen on Steam Early Access here! Follow Andrew on Twitter and Instagram. Andrew has a VR company called Wolf and Bear which you can find on Facebook and on his website. Show Notes: Alchemists Joseph Campbell Carl Jung Cave of Forgotten Dreams film by Werner Herzog

This week on Nice Games Club your nice hosts discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of Level Design and Heads Up Displays. Mark has opinions about Sonic, Stephen picks his hill to die on and Martha brings in a pinch hitter. Picture from this Reddit thread on MMO HUDs  Meta Mark’s wife Dale and friend of the show Felix have a new podcast- It is called Felix drags Dale through the Marvel Universe and it comes out on July 30th! [0:14:19] Level Design “Ten Principles of Good Level Design (Part 1)” - Dan Taylor, Gamasutra Mark and Stephen rant about Sonic the Hedgehog’s level design, but here’s a defence of Sonic & Knuckles on Satchbag’s Goods. Koichi Hayashida is the Level Design Director for Mario Galaxy/Director of Mario 3D Land (and lots and lots of other Marios) that Mark mentioned. The Structure of Fun: Learning from Super Mario 3D Land’s Director - Christian Nutt, Gamasutra Bug! game [0:53:49] HUDs Diegetic HUDs and UI The Moon Fields by local dev Lunarsignals

 Video Link: https://youtu.be/n--dAC-aW8Q This week’s episode is another edition of Code Comment, where your nice hosts look at the project, code, assets, and design of an indie game in development to see how it’s made. This week, we look at our first non-Unity project (!!!) as Mark walks us though the ActionScript codebase of Metro Nexus, his in-development homage to the classic(?) arcade-era game City Connection. We also look at the art asset workflow Mark designed for the game.

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 Catalyst on the new Runner’s Vision. “The Sony PlayStation’s buttons get explained by their designer” - John Brownlee, Geek “The Japanese Side of the PlayStation Button Confusion” - Richard Eisenbeis, Kotaku “The passion of the checkpoint: Why gaming's most frustrating failure is so hard to fix” - Ben Kuchera

The clubhouse welcomes back Lane Davis and new guest Gloria Kim to discuss developing and releasing a visual novel in 2018. We talk through the process of creating their visual novel, Ruler by Default, as well as hear their insights about being successful in the genre. Notes/Links: You can find Ruler by Default on Steam! Also take a look at its funded Kickstarter campaign. Lane and Gloria are part of Pistachi Studios, which is on Facebook and Twitter.