Nice Games Club

What does your work week look like? Are you locked into a 9-to-5 the way that Dolly Parton described it, or are you free to set your own schedule? What about your team as a whole?  In this week's episode, August Brown is back on the show to help us explore the topic of work week structure. The company where August currently works, Armor Games, has made headlines by shifting permanently to a four-day work week. We ask him how it's going, what other work-week configurations might have benefits for gamedev teams, and what he thinks about the word "truncate."The definition of truncate is “to shorten by cutting off a part; cut short”  - Dictionary.com“9 to 5” - Dolly Parton, YouTube Work Weeks ProductionArmor Games adopts four-day work week permanently - Brendan Sinclair, GamesIndustry.bizAugust’s previous employer, KongregateAugust is now doing platform relations at Armor Games

Dog lovers are in for a treat this week as we discuss ideas for games to play with your dog! Mark and Ellen enthusiastically bring many ideas to the clubhouse, while Stephen has a unique perspective on the topic. Also: Ellen beats Metroid Dread! (There are spoilers for the game in the episode.) Turns out Stephen was wrong, there are credits in the most recent build of Fingeance! Peter Yang was on previously to discuss his work on pitching tabletop games. Pitching Tabletop GamesIndie Boards and Cards Games With Your Dogs 0:10:25 Ellen Burns-JohnsonGame DesignPhysical GamesTreibball (push ball) - giant football for dogs! - Naturally Happy Dogs, YouTubeGetting started and teaching 'outside' - FluentPet, YouTube Here's a picture of Ellen's dogs!

Your nice hosts, plus Dale, traveled to California for free bagels (and other reasons) in this first part of our yearly GDC special. GDC 2022 Special (Part 1) Mark LaCroixStephen McGregorDale LaCroixEllen Burns-JohnsonEventsGames Industry GatheringYerba Buena GardensIGF Accepts Over 400 Entries for GDC 2022 - Independent Games Festival'Unpacking' and 'Inscryption' Lead in IGF 2022 Nominations - Independent Games FestivalInscryption wins the IGF Grand Prize and GDC Game Of The Year Award 2022 - Jai Singh Bains, Rock Paper Shotgun

This week your nice hosts are joined again by Alina Matson in a fun roundtable episode! Join us as we continue through Ellen's Metroid Dread journey, Stephen's newest discovery, and Mark's potential bonus side hustle. Alina was previously on the show to talk about visual coding! Visual Coding Building Assets and Plugins 0:05:33 Mark LaCroixProgrammingTools Charles was last on the show on this episode about Level Editors. Level EditorsCharles destroys his brother on the airRewired Unity Plugin - Guavaman, Unity Asset StorePlaymaker Add-ons - Hutong GamesManaged Plug-ins - Unity Ink Engine 0:37:26 Stephen McGregorNarrativeProgrammingToolsInk Engine - Inkle

This week we're joined by Alina Matson, developer of Fitment—a microworkout app designed with cozy gamers in mind. Alina talks about how she has used the popular Unity plugin Playmaker to kick-start her transition from a career in mechanical engineering to gamedev. Positive vibes abound. Plus, surprise singing! Visual Coding ProgrammingToolsPlaymaker - Hutong Games, Unity Asset StoreBolt - Unity, Unity Asset StoreBlueprint Visual Scripting - Unreal EngineProcessingScratch - MIT10 Most Nostalgic Flash Games From The Early 2000s - Samuel Williams, CBRStephen J. Guy, Director, Applied Motion Lab - University of MinnesotaZebraZapps We mentioned a previous interview episode with Freya Holmer, Self-education, et al.Alina MatsonGuest Bio External link Alina on TwitterFitment websiteFitment Disco

It's a day of celebration in the clubhouse as Ellen finally starts Metroid Dread. Meanwhile, Mark delivers, and Stephen looks it up (but isn't happy about it).André 3000 on the 10th anniversary of his ‘Class of 3000’ soundtrack - David Dennis Jr., AndscapeHint, hint... - Mike Rose, Twitter Milestone Builds 0:13:18 Mark LaCroixProductionMilestone - Wikipedia Wikis and Guides 0:46:47 Ellen Burns-JohnsonGamingHow to pause Elden Ring - Jeffrey Parkin, Polygon

For our 250th episode, your nice hosts play a few rounds of a pair of games made by the folks from Game Dev London as part of their very own Nice Games Jam! Ellen makes fun sounds, Mark counts all his Jefferies Tubes, and Stephen is reliable as the morning sun. We talked about big episode numbers in: "A Spark Plug." 200th Episode SpecialStephen's grumpy tweet.Game Dev London Safecracker!! 0:18:36 Game DesignTabletopNice Games Club's 1hr Game Jam Challenge - Part 1 - Game Dev London, YouTube Creating "Safecracker!!" in part 1 of Game Dev London's 2-part episode The Lockpicking Lawyer - YouTube Adventurer, Please

This week, your Nice Hosts talk about "games you get for free" on various gaming platforms. Also, the trio explores the relationship between "fun" and "joy"—and where does "engaging" fit in? Ellen won't tell us the grade, and Stephen is told he has to yell at Mark.Amber Waves of Games"America the Beautiful" sung by Ray Charles - YouTubeYou made it! Thanks for another unforgettable year of Global Game Jam! Games You Get for Free 15:00 Stephen McGregorGamingXbox Game Pass Ultimate tip: How to get 3 years of access to hundreds of games … - PC WorldKo-FiThe Jolly Jawbreaker Joy vs. Fun 44:00 Ellen Burns-JohnsonGame DesignThe Giver: Language and Communication - Study guide, Shmoop

Hiatus flew by this year for your nice hosts, but they're back in the newly-renovated clubhouse with their annual recounting of what they got up to while away. Ellen keeps a promise, Stephen returns a gift, and Mark sees thru' these architects eyes. Our renovated clubhouse table. These foam acoustic panels came vacuum-sealed, so they needed to be soaked in water to inflate them. Of course, once-inflated, the water-logged panels needed to be dried out, which meant an hour in the dryer. It was pretty hard to drill these holes to mount our mic stands, and about as hard to measure them out because our clubhouse table has no straight edges or corners.

#240 Sledgehammer BrideNice Thinking 2021.10.28 It's Stephen's turn at Nice Thinking, our new episode format where we brainstorm around a single concept someone brings into the clubhouse. Get ready for your first contact with the Sledgehammer Bride!Glom will be part of Wordplay 2021, November 13-14 - Hand Eye Society Sledgehammer Bride Stephen McGregorGame DesignNarrativeA Brief History of Beat ’em Up Video Games - Hero ConceptProspective Teachers Misperceive Black Children as Angry  - Bryan Goodman, American Psychological AssociationThe Brute Caricature - History on the NetExamining Game Pace: How Single-Player Levels Tick - Mark DaviesShank 2 - Klei Entertainment, SteamHow the Original Hyrule Warriors Broke The Mold for Musou Games Forever - Dale Bashir, IGN

#211 Building Blocks of DesignInterview 2021.04.08 It's back to basics this week as we welcome Osama Dorias, lead game designer on the upcoming Gotham Knights at WB Games Montréal, to talk about his multi-year journey of making games with his kids, and what it taught him about his craft. It might be our cutest episode yet! Osama, along with Fawzi Mesmar, and Rami Ismail, recently launched their own very nice gamedev podcast, The Habibis! Building Blocks of Design ArtGame DesignIRLTabletopToolsThe Game Crafter A selection of cards from "Ali and Mimi's Card Game" Osama's son trying to

#235 The New ClubhouseNice Thinking 2021.09.16 After many months of recording over Discord (or together in Mark's and Dale's apartment), Nice Games Club is finding a new place to meet. Well, "finding" isn't really the right word. Mark and Dale are making it happen. The new clubhouse is being customized as a workspace and community hub, and this week on the show, Your Nice Hosts talk about how to start things up in the new spot. The New Clubhouse Mark LaCroixIRLMetaErgonomic stools by Herman MillerThe cover image for this episode's page is from The Treehouse, an educational game published in 1991. Ellen played this game a lot when she was a kid. Learn more here: https://www.myabandonware.com/game/the-treehouse-1ag

#224 "To whom it may concern."Roundtable 2021.07.09 Holly Harrison, aka "Best Friend of the Show," is back in the clubhouse! And we recorded this episode in person again! Can you tell? It probably comes through in the goofs...There's plenty of silliness in this week's episode, even though your Nice Hosts explore some serious topics. Holly asks us what we can do to become more ethical consumers (and developers) of games. Ellen examines the dynamics of grind. Stephen finally admits to something BIG, and Mark takes a break.Join Lobby - Video Game Culture Feed - Holly Harrison, Instagram Holly joined us for episode 40... Community Managment ...and for episode 88... The Gaming Press ...and for episode 89... "A mean secret that

#210 GlomNice Games Jam 2021.03.31 This week your nice hosts have a rowdy game jam. Dale gave us a prompt: Create a matching game with a puzzle element. The puzzle must be "what matches first" and bonus points if there's cats.The goal of every Nice Games Jam is for the team to come up with a playable game by the end of the episode. Did Stephen, Mark, and Ellen make it happen, or did they end up with a pile of nonsense? Well, maybe a bit of both.The "dot game" that Ellen referenced is called Dots & Boxes - Wikipedia A three-sided die similar to the one that Eric, Ellen's partner, owns. Here's a place you can buy your own three-sided die - Nvenom8 Designs on ShapeWays Marketplace Game type Tabletop game Player count Any

#220 “My face is over here.” Special In-Person SpecialSpecial 2021.06.10 Your vaccinated hosts return to the clubhouse to record their first in-person episode in over a year. This one's for us, but you might like it, too. There was a lot of hugs before the recording. Charity EP Jam (the new album drops June 11th!) - Chel WongIndie bundle for Palestinian Aid - Alanna Linayre, itch.io Mark's "Widget Satchel II" was featured in Panic's E3-style announcement video. Special In-Person Special Mark LaCroixStephen McGregorEllen Burns-JohnsonIRLMetaMisc.South Korea’s COVID Success Stems From an Earlier Infectious

#219 Therapeutic GamesInterview 2021.06.03

#216 "They wouldn't fully respawn." Fingeance PostmortemSpecial 2021.05.06 Oh dang, Fingeance is out! In this episode, Stephen talks about finally releasing his long-in-development game that's been a big part of Nice Games Club history, too!Hear about the game's unique development history, why now was the right time to put it out into the world, and learn a bit about how you might want to to approach your own long-gestating projects.Fingeance on itch.io (download for free)!Escape Industries on Twitter Fingeance Portmortem Stephen McGregorGame DesignProduction Back in 2018, we peeked inside Fingeance for a video episode of the show: Code Comment: "Fingeance" In 2019, we

It's that season—there's snow on the ground, and it's time for the annual "year in review" episode. Your nice hosts are getting ready to take a break from recording for a few weeks while serving up some of our favorite episodes from the past year. But before we start hibernating, there's a lot to discuss! What did we accomplish this year, and how do we feel about it? What are our goals for next year? Are we taking on any fun projects during our hiatus? And what are we looking forward to playing next year (besides all the Kirby games, of course)? Nice Games Club is five years old! That's a solid handful of years. Happy birthday show, and thanks to you all for listening! The feeling is real, even if this video isn't. Local Releases (2021) 0:13:45 Mark LaCroix

Your nice hosts (Ellen, mainly) conduct a double-interview, with a consummate professional and a committed amateur, on the subject of game design though the lens of tabletop game mastering. Subjects include the dynamic between system design and session design, the balance between planning and improvisation, and how players can be encouraged to participate in the process. Designing like a Dungeon Master Game Design Narrative Tabletop Alternity - Sasquatch Game Studio MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research - Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, Robert Zubek, Northwestern University Dread, a game of horror and suspense - The Impossible Dream

Three nice hosts, plus two topics, plus three meta topics equals a good time! Listen to Stephen's secret to popcorn success, Mark bringing up the Observer effect multiple times and Ellen's branding plans for her latest game. Forever - Endless Runner Engine - Dreamteck Flavacol - Popcorn Supply The definition of Chrimbo - Lexicon Player Count 0:08:33 Mark LaCroix Game Design Hardware Developers explain why 4 is the magic multiplayer number - Cass Marshall, Polygon Multitap - Wikipedia