Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

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 stays in this room." ...and for episode 201... "Not like Beauty and the Beast." ...and for episode 202! Business Speak Ellen's new laptop: Alienware M15R4 Gris (a game, not a musical) - Steam Noble Engine - Mark LaCroix Here's episode 217, in which we discussed open source. Open Source Software Photo by Helmi Lutvyandi from Pexels Ethical Consumption 0:13:06 Holly Harrison Gaming Misc. Conflict minerals: Which gaming companies may have funded human rights abuses i… - Rebekah Valentine, GamesIndustry.biz Is There Really Such a Thing as “Ethical Consumerism”? - Maya Singer, Vogue Summary of sexual and non-sexual allegations (megathread) - Reddit Grind 0:47:59 Ellen Burns-Johnson Game Design Gaming r/truegaming: For those who like talking about games as much as playing them. - Reddit Ellen’s take on grind: “Going through the same content multiple times as a means to progress towards an in-game goal that doesn’t pertain to the player’s skill.”

Back in March, Mark created a game engine in an unfamiliar programming language for an unreleased console... and in June he explained himself in a presentation at IGDATC's Gamedev Meeting. The full video presentation of Mark's talk "So, you made a game engine?" Mark LaCroix Hardware Programming Noble Engine, a li'l game engine for Playdate - Noble Robot, GitHub Noble Engine Project Template - Noble Robot, GitHub Playdate console Playdate developer portal

Starting an indie studio is hard, starting a worker-owned cooperative is harder. This week your nice hosts interview longtime friend of the show Reese Valentine and their fellow co-founder Mackenzie Denker, both of Amelore. It's co-ops 101, which happens to be exactly the info Stephen needs right now! Amelore Coop website Amelore on Twitter Reese previously visited the clubhouse for one of our earliest episodes, in early 2017: Games Education Co-op Studios IRL Production The 7 Cooperative Principles - The National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International Mission Statements - Adam Schwartz, The Cooperative Way Co-ops in Spain’s Basque Region Soften Capitalism’s Rough Edges - Peter S. Goodman, The New York Times Embracing the Co-Op Studio Model in Indie Games - Scott Benson, Ted Anderson, Steve Filby, Ian Thomas, Bethany Hockenberry, GDC Reese Valentine Guest Co-founder of Amelore co-op, a worker-owned game studio. Former President of the Game Design Club at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. External link https://twitter.com/AReeseOfCake Mackenzie Denker Guest Co-founder of Amelore co-op, a worker-owned game studio. External link https://twitter.com/denker_m

This week, Mark talks about Star Trek, Stephen wants to talk more about Star Trek, and Ellen hypes the website. We made the papers! Dreams: Awake - Charity EP Jam, Bandcamp Itch.io Palestinian Aid bundle raises over $900,000 - Danielle Partis, GamesIndustry.biz Serious Play Conference Storytelling 0:10:00 Mark LaCroix Game Design Narrative The Game Debate: Video Games as Innovative Storytelling - Melissa Somerdin, The Oswald Review The Importance Of Video Game Narrative - Adeyemi Thompson, Sliced Bread Animation The Unique Storytelling Power of Video Games - Anthony Jondreau, Medium 3 approaches to storytelling in games - Simon K Jones, Medium Exploits 0:36:36 Stephen McGregor Gaming IRL Wavedashing in Super Smash Bros Melee - pahlz, Instructables 8 of the Most Notorious Video Game Exploits of All Time - Brandin Tyrrel, IGN What's the biggest game exploit you'll admit to using? - PC Gamer

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 Wong Indie 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 LaCroix Stephen McGregor Ellen Burns-Johnson IRL Meta Misc. South Korea’s COVID Success Stems From an Earlier Infectious Disease Failure -  Jiyeon Kim and Neil Richards, Slate

Can games be used for therapeutic purposes? Absolutely! In this episode we talk with Adam Davis, therapeutic Game Master, and a co-founder and executive director of Game to Grow, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The organization is focused on "the use of games of all kinds for therapeutic, educational, and community growth." Adam shares his experiences from over a decade in therapeutic play—how Game to Grow began, how he thinks about games as part of therapeutic experiences, and how he once managed SEVEN tabletop RPG campaigns simultaneously. We hope you enjoy our inspiring conversation with this really cool guy! Helmet nachos! Source: Target Field Eats on Twitter https://twitter.com/tfeats/status/1039672499892576256 Therapeutic Games Game Design Tabletop Game to Grow blog Critical Core on Kickstarter Drama Therapy - North American Drama Therapy Association Wheelhouse Workshop Individualized Education Plan (IEP) - Understood.com Collaboration vs. cooperation: What's the difference? - The Ripple Team, Ripple Intranet Game to Grow Keynote at the 2018 Washington Therapy Conference  - Adam Davis No Thank You, Evil: The Award-Winning Game of Make-believe for Creative Kids an… Adam Davis Guest Adam D. Davis, MA Ed, earned his Master’s degree in Education with a focus in drama therapy from Antioch University Seattle, and is a recognized member of the North American Drama Therapy Association. Adam is a contributing author to three publications: Integrating Geek Culture into Therapeutic Practice; Game Play, 3rd Edition; and The Walking Dead Psychology. In addition to his work with Game to Grow, Adam developed the CoRe Gaming program at the Atlantic Street Center utilizing video games to teach Dialectical Behavioral Therapy skills, served as an educator at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, and taught fourth-grade literacy for Seattle Public Schools. External link Game to Grow website Game to Grow on Twitter

This week in the clubhouse, your nice hosts discuss the not so-intuitive nature of novelty, and the novel method of using intuition in games. Featured in the episode: Ellen reveals secrets of her home, Stephen relates a topic to fighting games for the 218th time, and Mark brings up the best parts of the Mass Effect trilogy. Matias Ergo Pro Keyboard Ellen mentioned screen burnout, a topic we've covered in this episode. "Empty the bucket." Tweet on writing 'structure' Novelty 12:27 Stephen McGregor Game Design Intuition 45:19 Ellen Burns-Johnson Game Design Educating Intuition - The University of Chicago Press Jason Silva on Intuition - Brain Games, National Geographic Intuition, Expectations and Culture: Learning from Psychology to Build Better G… - Ara Shirinian, Game Developer Numerical Intuition - Brain Games, National Geographic The unique power of games in building intuition - Bryan Braun

There's a second Mark in the clubhouse! This week we're joined by Mark Mandel, who is involved in many things worth mentioning! Mark is a Developer Advocate at Google Cloud for Games, leading the Developer Relations team; he founded Agones, a game server hosting platform; he has a dog. What else? Listen to find out. During this episode, Mark talks about open source software in the gamedev scene—why it's important, what developers can gain from supporting open source, tips for participating in open source projects, and more.  Open Source Software Programming Tools Open Source Definition Demo video of Veloren, an Open Source MMORPG - Open Source Games, YouTube Zero D, an open source game "Standards" (#927) - xkcd Embark Studios Adobe Brackets Awesome Open Source To Do Group Free Open Source Compliance Course for Developers - The Linux Foundation Code Covenant Rust Programming Language Bevy, a "refreshingly simple data-driven game engine built in Rust" Mark Mandel Guest Mark specializes in the backend systems of games. His current role (May 2021) is at Google, where he advocates for developers who use the Google Cloud platform. One of his main projects is Agones, a platform that allows developers to host, run and scale dedicated game servers on Kubernetes. He also has an adorable dog named Sukie and a super-cool Twitter handle. External link Mark on Twitter @Neurotic Sukie the Dog on Twitter @SukieTweets Google Cloud for Gaming Agones Agones on Twitter @AgonesDev Mark's YouTube channel Mark on Twitch

This week, we talk about the core interactions that games are made of with Allan Rust, creative director of The Game Agency. We've been wanting to have Allan on the program for a long time, and it was worth the wait! Ellen and Mark's Ludum Dare 48 game, Sonder (a story) can now be played in a web browser from its Itch.io page! Stephen (and company)'s game Fingeance is still hot off the presses. Go download it and reclaim the sea! Gameful UX Game Design UI / UX The Training Arcade "Jeopardy!" TV Challenge Demo An 'Overjoyed' LeVar Burton Welcomes Chance To Guest-Host 'Jeopardy!' - Bill Chappell, NPR What is a Lottie? Howler.js What is middleware? Adobe XD Allan Rust Guest Allan is the creative director of the The Game Agency, which creates custom game-based solutions and learning experiences. With a background in multiple creative arts, Allan is also a long-time member of the Minneapolis-based band and vocal quartet The Blenders. External link The Game Agency Allen on Linkedin The Blenders

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 McGregor Game Design Production Back in 2018, we peeked inside Fingeance for a video episode of the show: Code Comment: "Fingeance" In 2019, we did a postmortem-ish episode for Widget Satchel: "Space ferrets lift off!" Widget Satchel Special

Sound the alarm, it's the second half of Evil Games Club's latest nefarious reign over the clubhouse! This time, Adia, Dylan and Dale take their misdeeds to new heights with an "Evil Games Jam." Can they invent a playable game and test it in a single episode? What maddening mechanics will be unleashed from these malevolent minds? Take shelter under your headphones and listen if you dare! The Interactive Fiction Competition Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction Ludum Dare 48 NaNoReNO Jam OST Jam Prompt Create a game you might find in a casino, where the house always wins. Game type Card game Player count 3 Materials Standard deck of 52 playing cards Setup In this game, the Patrons and the Dealer oppose each other. In the spirit of the prompt, the idea is that the Dealer needs to win against the Patrons, but keep them interested enough to keep playing. The Dealer wants to win against the Patrons. The Patrons will work with each other to make more matches than the Dealer—while having fun! Setting up the game: Decide who will be The Dealer.  The Dealer shuffles the deck and deals each player 5 cards, face down. The Dealer deals themselves 5 cards, face down. Play starts with the person to the Dealer's left and proceeds clockwise. Rules GOAL Patrons want to create more sets of matching 4 cards than the Dealer before the deck runs out. A set = 4 cards of the same number. Heads up! Here are some important notes: The Dealer's rules are slightly different than the Players' rules. The differences are noted below in line with the regular rules. The discard pool is not the same thing as the discard pile. A discard pool is created during each round and then merged into the discard pile at the start of the Dealer's turn each round. PLAYER TURNS On each player's turn, they will take the following steps in order: Draw cards Switch cards Discard (Dealer only) Before you draw cards, move the cards in the discard pool from that round into the discard pile. 1: DRAW CARDS On their turn, each player takes one of the following actions: Draw up to 2 cards from the deck and place it face up in front of them  Draw up to 2 cards from the discard pool and place it face up in front of them  (Dealer only) If the player is the Dealer, they can pick up to 2 cards from any of the Patrons' hands and put them face up on the table OR put them directly into their hand 2: SWITCH CARDS  The player may then swap cards from their hand for cards they just drew, maintaining a hand of 5 cards. Patrons can only switch "like for like"—cards of the same color or number. Examples: Swap the Queen of Spades for the Five of Clubs Swap the Four of Diamonds for the Four of Spades The Dealer doesn't have to follow the "like for like" rule. They can switch whatever cards they want. Unfair? Yep! That's the point. 3: DISCARD The player should now have 5 cards in their hand and 2 cards leftover—either ones that were switched out, or ones that were drawn and not switched. The player must do one of the following before the end of their turn: Discard the leftover 2 cards into the discard pool. (Dealer only) Hand the leftover 2 cards to the Patron from which you drew your cards in step 1 of this turn. MAKING A SET A set is created when a single player holds 4 cards of the same number in their hand. When a player creates a set, they place all four cards on the table, then draws back up to a 5 card hand.  PLAYING TO WIN Players take turns, clockwise, until the deck is expended. If the Dealer has made the most 4-card sets by the end of the game, the Dealer wins. If the Patrons have more 4-card sets than the Dealer, the Patrons win! SHARING INFORMATION Patrons can share information about their hands with each other by placing their hands face-up on the table. If you do this, know that the Dealer will get to see what's in your hand, too! That's all the rules that we're allowed to talk about. If you try out the game, let us know what you think!

Uh oh! The evils are back again for the first of a two-episode residency in the clubhouse, where Dale takes a hair census, Adia is "air-quoting heavily," and Dylan is a child of the Internet... literally. Playing Outside Your Genre / Difficulty 0:05:21 Adia Alderson Dylan Skerbitz Accessibility Game Design Expert Tips Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night Doesn't Tell You - Justin Clark, SVG How the Video Game Industry Quietly Powered Through a Pandemic - Trilby Beresford, The Hollywood Reporter Cheating 0:34:48 Dale LaCroix Game Design Gaming Here’s how ‘Hades’ makes going back to hell feel fresh - Gene Park, The Washington Post 9 out of 10 people played Mass Effect as Paragon - Brett Makedonski, Destructoid Your Nice Hosts talked about Strategy Guides way back in episode 8: "Will you be the best with me?"

This week, your nice hosts get smart. Stephen approaches a major milestone, Ellen's planning her first PC build, and Mark does a book report. Plus, there's a new feedback form for you to sample and enjoy!  Aged. Learned. It's Nice Games Club. Fingeance trailer - Escape Industries, YouTube Fingeance main site - Escape Industries Buy Fingeance on Itch.io! Razer Kishi controller Amazon Luna controller Ellen's PC Build - The Journey Begins 0:20:04 Ellen Burns-Johnson Hardware US favorite video game devices 2020 - J. Clement, Statista Gaming - Statistics and Facts - Statista Video Game Industry Statistics In 2020 PC Part Picker ELEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS Press Reset by Jason Schreier 0:41:00 Mark LaCroix Misc. Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry - Jason Schreier, Amazon

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 Art Game Design IRL Tabletop Tools The Game Crafter A selection of cards from "Ali and Mimi's Card Game" Osama's son trying to look professional while presenting "City Game I Love This." Osama's daughter beaming with pride at her creation, "05Q7654321 0." Osama's kids' first video game. Osama Dorias Guest Osama works at WB Games Montréal, where he is the lead game designer on Gotham Knights. He is a co-founder of the Montreal Independent Game Awards, a professor at Dawson College, and a co-host of The Habibis podcast. He loves hugs and poutine. External link Osama on Twitter Gotham Knights Montreal Independent Game Awards The Habibis

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 Materials Paper, pencil or pen Setup Each player should have: Paper (or someplace to compose sentences) Something to write with (typing on a screen is fine) Some way of indicating points passed to other players (chips, coins, etc.) -- in the rules below, these will be referred to as "chips" The game requires three decks. As of this airing, each deck has three cards: Prompts deck "Nice to meet you." "Where is the bathroom?" "Can I pet your cat?" Constraints deck No letter Es (this is incredibly difficult) Exactly 4 words Only single-syllable words Scoring deck Most words Most letters Longest word in the sentence Rules The goal of the game is to acquire the most points out of all the players. Players acquire points by writing sentences that adhere to the Prompt, Constraint, and Scoring card drawn for each round. Setup Shuffle all three decks. Distribute chips evenly amongst all players. Starting a Round Draw a single card from each deck. Place all three face-down on the table. Set the timer for the desired duration: 1 minute, 2 minutes (default) or 3 minutes. Flip all three cards face-up and start the timer. All players then attempt to compose a sentence that meets the criteria of all three cards (Prompt, Constraint, and Scoring) within the time limit. Share Your Sentences Each player speaks their sentence aloud. (If you're playing online, you can also enter your sentence into the text chat.) The sequence in which players share their sentences doesn't matter—just be nice about it. Round Scoring Players can’t use any of the words in the phrase on the Prompt card. There’s a penalty (-1 point) for each word used. Exception: You can use the same spelling of a word if it’s another type of word (noun vs. verb) Alternate rule for extra challenge and silliness: Remove the exception to the above rule. The player whose sentence meets the conditions on that round's Scoring card wins 3 points. Players pass one of their chips to the person who had, in the player's opinion, the coolest sentence. This is a subjective judgment and has nothing to do with the rules. Each chip received counts as 1 point for the receiving player. Disputes During Round Scoring, any player can raise an argument about how the rules apply to another player's sentence. If you bring an argument, you have to propose a resolution, and people will vote on the proposal. (For example, you can propose a change to someone's point total that round, or suggest a change to a person's sentence to bring it within the rules.) If the vote passes, the solution goes through. Continue Play and End the Game For each subsequent round of play, draw a new set of cards. Play and score according to the above rules. The game ends when all Prompt cards have been used. Shuffle Constraints and Scoring cards back into their respective decks as needed. The player with the most points wins!