Nice Games Club

This week, your nice hosts cover the topics of Rogue-likes and Crowdfunding while sneaking in a third topic about E3. In this episode, Mark discusses his previous crowdfunding campaigns, Stephen discovers his new love for an old genre and Martha proposes a new E3 uniform rule. [0;00;28] E3 Here’s the official E3 recap website if you missed any news. “The Real Stories Behind E3’s Glossy Game Demos” - Patrick Klepek, Kotaku “HitRecord, Beyond Good & Evil 2 and the #nospec backlash” - Jeff Ramos, Polygon [0;29;45] Rogue-likes An article on the The Berlin Interpretation of Rogue-likes from the International Roguelike Development Conference of 2009. We covered procedural generation in a previous episode: “Mutual butt-kicking.” [0;57;47] Crowdfunding “Star Citizen, I am disappointed” - Robert Purchese, Eurogamer The Double Fine Adventure! documentary series is available on Youtube. Fig is a newer option for game developers to get funding. Mark loved WHAT THE GOLF?, already funded through Fi

 Video Link: https://youtu.be/sVFMwvHVV90 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 scamper though Widget Satchel, a mascot-based platformer Mark and Stephen are working on. We took a look at the game right in our Ludum Dare Extravaganza Nice Play episode but the team has done so much more work since then! Learn all about the cool tools Mark coded to help Stephen build levels quickly, how mischief physics works, and more! NOTE: For the first few episodes in this new video format, we’ll be looking at games that your nice hosts have a hand in, but we are looking forward to digging into projects from outside the clubhouse, too! Get in touch with us (contact@nicegames.club) if you’d like to come on the show and show us the guts of your game!

This week on Nice Games Club your nice hosts discuss Code Libraries, Tutorials and all the juicy pre-E3 news that was available at the time of this recording. Stephen debates the merits of show vs. tell in tutorials, Martha complains about the WordPress theme and plug-in search and Mark doesn't fall for Pokemon propaganda. Picture: a diagram from this Wikipedia article of the iconic World 1-1 from Super Mario Brothers which was a tutorial in disguise! [0:00:00] Meta [0:05:17] Pre-E3 News "How Close is 'Assassin's Creed: Origins' Egypt to the Real Thing?" - Justin Reeve, Waypoint [0:17:29] Code libraries Not Invented here (NIH) philosophy "Unity ratchets up its marketing to game developers - without a GDC booth" - Dean Takahashi, VentureBeat [0:41:51] Tutorials

Stephen is still in missing in Chicagoland, so we once again retained the services of guest co-host Holly Harrison for an episode featuring two topics that could not be more completely unrelated to each other. First, Holly teaches us some media relations skills that gamedevs need to know (even if they don't want to), and then, because Stephen isn't around to stop us, Mark and Martha (but mostly Mark) talk about the history of Star Trek games! [0;01;25] Media Relations Hey you, indiedev, use presskit()! “Write a better press release using the Inverted Pyramid” - Todd Versteeg Holly recommended “trying out” Buzzsumo and Buzzstream. “Artist Statement Guidelines” - Getting Your Sh*t Together Similarweb according to Wikipedia. Ask Holly your PR questions on twitter: @hollharris. [0;31;20] Star Trek games “How a Star Trek card game quietly continues, 10 years after its official end” - Cyrus Farivar, Ars Technica The unreleased sequel to the Star Trek VCR board game was called “Borg Q-Uest.” It

For an episode 18 months in the making, Ben Hanson, video producer for Game Informer and host of the excellent gaming podcast The Game Informer Show, finally enters the clubhouse for a wide-ranging discussion about which games and developers get the attention of the gaming press, developing games for modern audiences, and creative leadership in both AAA and indie teams. Stephen is away showing off his games at the Anime Central convention, so we're also joined this week by our new permanent guest host and self-proclaimed "mean old lady," Holly Harrison, who was a guest on a previous episode! Notes/Links: Here is the fabled tweet that started the long road to this episode. Subscribe to The Game Informer Show via RSS (podcast) or on YouTube. Get more of Ben's unimpeachable wisdom on Twitter! "How A Japanese Reality TV Show About Nothing Became A Global Hit" - Mia Nakaji Monnier, BuzzFeed Ben mentioned a clubhouse favorite game by a local developer, Color Jumper (on sale now!). Enjoy Martha's famo

 Video Link: https://youtu.be/lQkjzvBNfK4 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're looking at HoverboardVR, a movement prototype that uses a DDR Dance Pad for locomotion in VR, created by Martha and her brother Henry. You may have heard us talk about this project on the show before, and how you get to see it in action. NOTE: For the first few episodes in this new video format, we'll be looking at games that your nice hosts have a hand in, but we are looking forward to digging into projects from outside the clubhouse, too! Get in touch with us (contact@nicegames.club) if you'd like to come on the show and show us the guts of your game! Notes: Martha and Henry utilized the Virtual Reality Tool Kit for their prototype. Mark mentioned the Sega Activator, a failed peripheral for the Sega Genesis. Martha’s website has a description of Martha and He

This week, your nice hosts take a moment to celebrate Glitch's 8th birthday! Also: Martha doesn't like jumps, Stephen talks in a British(?) accent, and Mark calls Mega Man ugly. We talk a lot about Glitch on the show. Its HQ is where we record the show, and it's how your nice hosts met each other and became pals. If you're not familiar with the organization, here are some helpful links: Glitch's website Glitch's event calendar Glitch on Twitter, Facebook Sara Ferret's Glitch fellowship project, "Organ Temple VR" Abdiwak Yohannes' Glitch fellowship project, "Boji." [0;05;55] Platformers The 2.5D Owl game we were talking about is called Everend. We talked about how we define game genres in a previous episode. You can download an early demo of the parkour racing game Sparkour right now! The Widget Satchel team watched a lot of ferret videos. "You Say Jump, I Say How High?" - Nordic Game Conference 2016, YouTube "Super Mario Land Is Weird" - Brawl in the Family [0;48;55] Player Agency

This week we interview Aubrey Jane Scott, game developer for Monster Games, and discuss game development workflows. We go in-depth about keeping on task and making sure you're able to complete your projects. Links You can find Aubrey on her Twitter and website (currently down but up soon!). Aubrey competed in the North Star Roller Derby. Her name on the team is Glitch Please! Mark mentioned social jet lag that he’s just recently discovered. Jesse Schell is one of Aubrey’s mentors, who wrote about the Elemental Tetrad that she references in the show. Double Fine’s documentary series, Double Fine Adventure, is a good look into the game dev process. Aubrey brings up decision mapping as a good way to brainstorm.

This week your nice hosts discuss making game demos and physical games! Martha is nostalgic, Mark eats some marshmallows and Stephen can't remember his childhood. Oh, and Mortho likes sports. But you probably already knew that. Photo credit- Neat Corporation press photo of their game Budget Cuts. Have you played the demo? Meta GLITCH Bday Organ Temple VR, Sara's VR game Oneirogen, Andrew’s VR game Here is the cool print out of Mark's play-through of Oneirogen! The marshmallows Mark bought with his tax return [0;12;40] Making a Demo Budget Cuts demo Stanley Parable demo Netstorm [0;41;21] Physical Games Ships across the ocean Calvinball Cup stacking Johann Sebastian Joust

 Link: https://youtu.be/6Hl0SjQmKeg This week, your nice hosts have put together a new video format for the show, called Code Comment, where we take apart a game from our gamedev community, looking at the project, code, assets, and design to see how it's made. For this first edition, we chose Claw Breaker, a game jam game turned upcoming commercial release made by a team that included Martha and Stephen. It's how they met! For the first few episodes in this format, we'll be looking at games that your nice hosts have a hand in, but we are looking forward to digging into projects from outside the clubhouse, too! Get in touch with us (contact@nicegames.club) if you'd like to come on the show and show us the guts of your game! Notes: Claw Breaker has a website (which will be updated with release details soon!) "Celeste devs release player movement code for the tough-as-pitons platformer" - Alex Wawro, Gamasutra One of the tools we recommended in this episode was Rewired.

This week, Mark returns from San Fransisco, your nice hosts get the math wrong, and everyone agrees that Claw Breaker is worth real money. There's still time to get a $50 "Friends of Martha" discount for her talk at MinneWebCon 2018 on April 23rd! Just use the promo code friends50 at checkout! Meta We’re launching our new video format (now called “Code Comment”) next week! In the first edition, we dig into Claw Breaker! Look forward to it! And if you haven’t already, check our our Nice Plays videos. [0;06;43] Nostalgia The old PlayStation Spyro games are being re-released as a trilogy, to some mixed reception. Firmament is a VR game being made by the developers of Myst. Speaking of Myst nostalgia, Cyan just announced a 25th Anniversary re-release. Mark recently read a few of the Boss Fight Books: books about past games with interesting development stories. We talked about our game influences in a previous episode: “Schrödinger’s Animal Crossing.” [0;34;23] PC Games Market “Steam Spy ann

Mark is still in San Fransisco, so his lovely wife Dale (she of Evil Games Club) fills in and talks with Martha and Stephen about bad game design and good character design. Martha's VR talk, "Help I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up" is on April 23rd, as part of MinneWebCon 2018. You can get $50 off the price of the event by using the promo code friends50 at checkout! [0;02;48] "Bad" Game Design We put Martha though the worst Mario game ever in an episode of Nice Plays. Want some rye? "The Tetris Effect" - Wikipedia "Ubisoft Aware of Tetris Ultimate Issues" - Jason Dunning, PlayStationLifeStyle "E.T.: Walkthrough and Easter Eggs" - TrillingWonder, YouTube "A videogame for #blacklivesmatter" - Zach Budgor, Kill Screen [0;32;52] Character Design "Choosing Your Pirate In Sea Of Thieves Is Hard" - Mike Fahey, Kotaku "How to Convey Character’s Personality Through Shape, Variance and Size" - Bilyana, Graphic Mama "Making Comics" - Scott McCloud "Crumpets and Badonkadonks: Creating Tiny Tina" - A

This week Dale from Evil Games Club joins us as we call in to Mark on location in San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference! Meta: Minneapolis is the Most Bikingest MOST Bikingest! Most parklandest! “Gayest city? Magazine says it's Minneapolis” Game Developer Conference Highlights: Sony VR with Joshua Bell Budget Cuts Gorogoa postmortem Classic postmortem on Sonic the Hedgehog Game Dev Union / Games Workers Unite The Other Party GameJolt’s Bring Your Own Indie Party, where Mark showed his game for three hours before the venue got shut down by the fire department Participants in Glitch’s Power Leveling program got to tour Double Fine’s studio, among other adventures! Katie’s twitter thread of all the awesome Minnesotans at GDC!

This week on Nice Plays, the show where the Nice Games Club gamedevs play nice games, we continue a conversation from last week’s roundtable, and preview a topic from an upcoming episode. Your nice hosts talk about gamedev philosophy while Martha plays the zen-inspired game Everything, and talk about character design as Stephen wanders into Martha's ranch and makes a big ‘ol mess in the super-adorable farming game Slime Rancher. You can watch both episodes on YouTube by using the links below: Nice Plays: Everything (2017) https://youtu.be/GtfYQDgU47k Nice Plays: Slime Rancher (2017) https://youtu.be/MdS5Gy608GY EDITOR'S NOTE: Previously, our video episodes would appear in our podcast feed as well as on YouTube, but we were unsatisfied with the lower video quality when delivered in that format, and feedback from listeners tells us that you don't really enjoy watching videos in your various podcast apps, so we're now only posting our video episodes on YouTube, where the user experience is far superior.

This week, your nice hosts get a bit personal as they talk about the research that has gone into their games and the philosophies behind them, as well what exactly a Nice Game is. Also in the episode: Stephen has confusing feelings about MAR10 Day, Mark finds more reasons to reference Star Trek and Martha discusses her previously undisclosed acting talents.Perhaps it is time for the… Millenium of the Peach.We’re all excited about the upcoming games described in this Nintendo Direct. Research for Games 0:10:35 Mark LaCroixGame DesignHere are the 30 maps Mark spent a few weeks researching for.How ‘Never Alone’ turns cultural heritage into video game history - Matt Kamen, WiredHow Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice deals with psychosis - James Lloyd, Science FocusUniverse SandboxElite DangerousMark mentions this game 30 for 30 episode titled Madden’s Game. - 30 for 30, ESPN

This week Stephen made it to the clubhouse despite the Minnesota snow, Mark shares his knowledge of object oriented programming and Martha yells at the Unity docs.Photo is of Glitch HQ and is from Glitch.mnThere’s a #nicegamesclub channel on the MSPGameDev Slack now!Stephen’s interview on Tech.MNMark’s 30 Metro Nexus maps, in gif form! Game Programming 0:09:13 Mark LaCroixProgrammingGodot is a game engine similar to Unity, but with object-oriented programming a… We’ve talked about coding styles in our episode titled "Proper ones and twos."Martha went to the coding boot camp Prime Digital Academy.Learning Fluency - Sara Simon, MediumMark mentioned the book Game Programming Pattern, a resource also available for… - Robert Nystrom Work Spaces

Your nice hosts welcome instructional designer Ellen Burns-Johnson to the clubhouse, as we discuss the many ways to approach teaching using interactive games. Along the way, we talk about bugs (of the many leg variety), snow falling from buildings, and traumatizing but educational game experiences. Learning Through Games Game DesignUI / UXEllen references THOTH, a twin-stick shooter made by Carlsen Games.Much of Ellen’s work is based off of the CCAF framework.Learn about how to make fake news from the educator backed Bad News.Custom eLearning Vs. Off-The-Shelf eLearning: Which Is Right For You? - Ayesha Habeeb Omer, Ph.D, eLearning IndustryCathy Moore talks about training design ideas on her blogKentucky Fried Chicken’s Virtual Reality game The Hard Way - YouTubeAssassin’s Creed Origins’ new educational mode is a violence-free tour through … - Andrew Webster, The VergeEllen played SimAnt as a kid!Ellen Burns-Johnso

This week on Nice Plays, the show where the Nice Games Club gamedevs play nice games, we played two just-released local indie games.Martha played the life-simulation game Verdant Skies, and Stephen played the non-violent 3D platformer Newt One. We had a lot to say about both, which we loved, and not just because the developers are friends of the show.You can watch both episodes on YouTube by using the links below, or by visiting this episode's page on https://nicegames.club Video

This week, your nice hosts talk about Star Trek for longer than usual, and Mortho returns with an NGC Sports Update. Also: Stephen executes a delicious self-own in a discussion on Achievements, Mark sings a song about cities, and Martha hopes to design puzzles that even Stephen will appreciate.The Greatest Discovery podcastReport: Geguri Will Be The First Woman Signed To An Overwatch League Team - Nathan Grayson, Kotaku Achievements 0:08:10 Stephen McGregorGame DesignGamingPortal 2’s best achievement: This is the Part Where He Kills You - BuddytheRat, YouTubeAchievement Unlocked is a parody game about achievementsHUDdledLudum Dare Nice Plays specialThe Simpsons Game - AchievementBros, YouTubeAlexander Hamilton, a Federalist, probably wouldn’t have liked Achievements eit… Puzzle Design 0:39:46

This week, Martha goes into more detail about her game, Stephen gushes about all the plushies he wants and Mark reminisces about the good old days of Super Mario Bros. 3. Merch 0:07:49 Mark LaCroixMarketing Stephen's Kirby Corner The Nintendo World Store is an awesome place for sweet Nintendo swag."Blown Up Game Boy From The Gulf War" -  Vince Veneziani, TechCrunch Mark's pikman plushie watches over his demo setup Mark’s “Tails” aka Miles Prower plush! TopataCo is a nice place to host your merch at. The Space Junk team made stickers of their garbage!