Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

Your Nice Hosts are back from PodCon 2 and fresh off the Global Game Jam where Martha wrote a game for the first time! We talk all about that experience as well as celebrate Public Domain Day for the first time in 20 years. Mark guides us through the history of copyright, Stephen jams in 3D and Martha is a totally normal McElroy Fan (tmtmtmtm) Photo by GLITCH Living Computer Museum Global Game Jam games from Minnesota Writing for Games 0:15:15 Martha Megarry Narrative One Polar Night Intellectual Property and the Public Domain 0:37:57 Mark LaCroix News Production Public Domain Day 2019 (Duke University Website) “Happy Birthday” is public domain, former owner Warner/Chapell to pay $14 - Joe Mullin, Ars Technica Copyright vs Trademark vs Patent - United States Patent and Trademark Office All by Myself - Irving Berlin, Aileen Stanley Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century theme song The Patent on Loading Screen Minigames is About To Expire - Luke Plunkett, Kotaku Oracle vs Google trial Java runtime

Ellen Burns-Johnson joins us once again in the club house to discuss our work on Widget Satchel (a platformer staring an adorable ferret!) We talk all about what went well, what was challenging and what is still left to do. Show Notes: Widget Satchel stuff: Our goal is to release in April 2019 Wishlist Widget Satchel now on Steam! Code Comment on Widget Satchel Ludum Dare special video episode featuring the first prototype version

Ellen Burns-Johnson joins us once again in the club house to discuss our work on Widget Satchel (a platformer staring an adorable ferret!) We talk all about what went well, what was challenging and what is still left to do. Widget Satchel: Our goal is to release in April 2019. Wishlist Widget Satchel now on Steam! Code Comment episode about Widget Satchel Code Comment: "Widget Satchel" Ludum Dare special video episode featuring the first prototype version Nice Plays: Ludum Dare 40 games (2017) What We Did On Our Winter Break (2019) IRL Meta

Attention Sega nerds! This Nice Bonus episode is for you! During our episode on 90's consoles Mark found out there were so many obscure Sega accessories that they couldn't fit in the episode and deserved their very own spotlight. Please enjoy this Nice Bonus short episode all about them!

Attention Sega nerds! This Nice Bonus episode is for you! During our episode on 90's consoles Mark found out there were so many obscure Sega accessories that they couldn't fit in the episode and deserved their very own spotlight. Please enjoy this Nice Bonus short episode all about them! Sega Consoles Mark LaCroix Hardware

We're back with new episodes for the new year! Friend of the show Ellen Burns-Johnson joins us in the clubhouse for the annual Nice Games Club Nicest of 2018 where we talk about some games we liked that came out in 2018 - or at least that we played in 2018. Stephen is on brand with his signature fighting moves, Ellen has Unity in her sights for 2019, Martha has to think of new titles for herself, Mortho barges in to steal the show and Mark -twist- doesn't talk about a Star Trek game. Meta: Ellen is here! Podcon 2 We will be there in Seattle this weekend! You can attend the con remotely and watch live streams of the talks/live shows Global Game Jam Eventbrite January 25-27 There is a free Diversity ticket option No experience required to jam Remember a healthy game dev is a better game dev so go home and sleep, eat, drink lots of water and don’t crunch- make a smaller game! Local Releases in 2018: Video Games Claw Breaker (Team Klaw) Verdant Skies (Howling Moon Studio) Newt One (DevNAri) Joggernauts (SpaceMace) Optica (GLITCH) RJdoesVR (local OculusGo developer) Hardlight Blade (released in 2018) Asimov (early access in 2018) FireZone (coming soon) Board and Card Games Root (Leder Games) Vast: The Mysterious Manor (Leder Games) Squirmish (Steven Stwalley) Too Many Bones: Undertow (Chip Theory Games) Nicest of 2018 Martha’s Nicest: Celeste (Matt Makes Games) Nintendo Labo (Nintendo) Ellen’s Nicest: Fate: Core System (Evil Hat Studio) Pyre (Super Giant Games) Mark’s Nicest: Spiderman (Marvel/Sony) Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope) Stephen’s Nicest: Soulcalibur VI (Project Soul) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo) Girlfriend Review Most Anticipated 2019 Martha’s: Ooblets (Glumberland) In the Valley of Gods (Campo Santo) Mark’s: Dreams (Media Molecule) Luigi’s Mansion 3 (Nintendo) Yoshi’s Crafted World (Nintendo) Widget Satchel (Noble Robot) Stephen’s: Nioh 2 (Team Ninja) Smash Bros. DLC (Nintendo) Ellen’s: Baba is You (Hempuli) Alien Isolation 2 (Cold Iron Studios) Game Dev Resolutions

We're back with new episodes for the new year! Friend of the show Ellen Burns-Johnson joins us in the clubhouse for the annual Nice Games Club Nicest of 2018 where we talk about some games we liked that came out in 2018 - or at least that we played in 2018. Stephen is on brand with his signature fighting moves, Ellen has Unity in her sights for 2019, Martha has to think of new titles for herself, Mortho barges in to steal the show and Mark -twist- doesn't talk about a Star Trek game. Ellen is here! Podcon 2 We will be there in Seattle this weekend! You can attend the con remotely and watch live streams of the talks/live shows. Global Game Jam Eventbrite January 25-27, 2019 There is a free Diversity ticket option. No experience required to jam. Remember a healthy game dev is a better game dev so go home and sleep, eat, drink lots of water and don’t crunch- make a smaller game! Local Releases (2018) News Video Games Claw Breaker (Team Klaw) Verdant Skies (Howling Moon Studio) Newt One (DevNAri) Joggernauts (SpaceMace) Optica (GLITCH) RJdoesVR (local OculusGo developer) Hardlight Blade (released in 2018) Asimov (early access in 2018) FireZone (coming soon) Board and Card Games Root (Leder Games) Vast: The Mysterious Manor (Leder Games) Squirmish (Steven Stwalley) Too Many Bones: Undertow (Chip Theory Games) Martha's Nicest (2018) Martha Megarry Nicest Celeste (Matt Makes Games) Nintendo Labo (Nintendo) Ellen's Nicest (2018) Ellen Burns-Johnson Nicest Fate: Core System (Evil Hat Studio) Pyre (Super Giant Games) Mark's Nicest (2018) Mark LaCroix Nicest Spiderman (Marvel/Sony) Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope) Stephen's Nicest (2018) Stephen McGregor Nicest Soulcalibur VI (Project Soul) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo) Girlfriend Review of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Martha's Most Anticipated (for 2019) Martha Megarry Nicest Ooblets (Glumberland) In the Valley of Gods (Campo Santo) Mark's Most Anticipated (for 2019) Mark LaCroix Nicest Dreams (Media Molecule) Luigi’s Mansion 3 (Nintendo) Yoshi’s Crafted World (Nintendo) Widget Satchel (Noble Robot) Stephen's Most Anticipated (for 2019) Stephen McGregor Nicest Nioh 2 (Team Ninja) Smash Bros. DLC (Nintendo) Ellen's Most Anticipated (for 2019) Ellen Burns-Johnson Nicest Baba is You (Hempuli) Alien Isolation 2 (Cold Iron Studios)

Nice Games Club is on break until January 15th, so your nice hosts can take time to wrap up work on Widget Satchel, coming to PC and consoles in 2019! In the meantime, we picked out a few of our favorite episodes from our first two years in the clubhouse. This was our 51st episode. It was first released on October 17th, 2017. Original show notes: In this episode, Stephen fights his demons, Martha likes sports now, and Mark learns a lot about both. [0:02:41] Scope Creep Martha took a blacksmithing class! Also, her instructor told her this was a perfect forge weld. Martha brought up fighting scope creep on our Train Jam Episode. Project management is a way to combat scope creep that we’ve covered before. A core concept for your game can help focus ideas as well. We go over this in our Game Design Primer. “Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making” - Sam Kaner Our post on the r/gamedev. Special thanks to SaxPanther, ledat, GravityGamesInt, Bwob, and DustyPixel for their stories! SaxPanther created a battle royale game out of the Unity Roll-A-Ball tutorial. ledat shared a story on how one person accidentally created banking software after attempting to streamline coffee orders. [0:30:53] eSports League of Legends World Championship is happening RIGHT THE DANG NOW! Martha will be rooting for her favorite team, C9. “Player Signings, Salaries, and More in the Overwatch League™” - Blizzard Entertainment “'League of Legends' ratings top NBA Finals, World Series clinchers” - Patrick Dorsey, ESPN An example of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament casting. “The Story of DOTA” - Paul Dean, Eurogamer “The biggest Call of Duty tournament shines light on growth of esports” - Jordan Crook, TechCrunch “The Rise and Fall of StarCraft II as an eSport” - Kevin Hovdestad, IGN “How Intellectual Property Rights Are Hurting Esports Teams” - Leonard Langenscheidt, The Esports Observer There is, in fact, a Civilization VI eSports scene.

#51 "Right the dang now." Roundtable 2017.10.07 Stephen will be speaking at the November IGDA Twin Cities meeting! Details will be posted at igdatc.org soon. In this episode, Stephen fights his demons, Martha likes sports now, and Mark learns a lot about both. Scope Creep 0:02:41 Stephen McGregor Production Martha took a blacksmithing class! Also, her instructor told her this was a perfect forge weld. Martha brought up fighting scope creep on our GDC 2017 Special. GDC 2017 Special (Part 1) Project management is a way to combat scope creep that we’ve covered before, in the episode "We joke here." A core concept for your game can help focus ideas as well. We go over this in our Game Design Primer topic in our episode "That makes me retroactively nervous." Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making - Sam Kaner Our post on the r/gamedev. Special thanks to SaxPanther, ledat, GravityGamesInt, Bwob, and DustyPixel for their stories. SaxPanther created a battle royale game out of the Unity Roll-A-Ball tutorial. ledat shared a story on how one person accidentally created banking software after attempting to streamline coffee orders. eSports 0:30:53 Martha Megarry Events Gaming League of Legends League of Legends World Championship is happening RIGHT THE DANG NOW! Martha will be rooting for her favorite team, C9. Player Signings, Salaries, and More in the Overwatch League™ - Blizzard Entertainment League of Legends' ratings top NBA Finals, World Series clinchers - Patrick Dorsey, ESPN An example of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament casting. - Twitch The Story of DOTA - Paul Dean, Eurogamer The biggest Call of Duty tournament shines light on growth of esports - Jordan Crook, TechCrunch The Rise and Fall of StarCraft II as an eSport - Kevin Hovdestad, IGN How Intellectual Property Rights Are Hurting Esports Teams - Leonard Langenscheidt, The Esports Observer There is, in fact, a Civilization VI eSports scene. - Leif Johnson, Motherboard

Nice Games Club is on break until January 15th, so your nice hosts can take time to wrap up work on Widget Satchel, coming to PC and consoles in 2019! In the meantime, we picked out a few of our favorite episodes from our first two years in the clubhouse. This was our 105th episode. It was first released on September 25th, 2018. Original show notes: 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 joker and are looking for another, if someone has it they give it to you, the person losing a joker draws a card, the person gaining the joker discards a card. If you have two jokers, you can end the game early by saying “haha!” at any point. If you gain a joker you cannot discard it. The game ends if someone says “haha!” or as soon as the deck runs out (and all card passes are resolved.)

#105 Pass them Laughs (Haha!) Nice Games Jam 2018.09.25 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! Prompt a realtime card game [for PC] Game type Card game Materials 52 Card deck + two jokers Six sided die (One per Player) A stuffed trophy - we used a plush Toad! but a jesther hat would be the most appropriate Setup Each player starts with seven cards. Rules This game happens in real time. No turns! 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 TROPHY (Toad) on a roll of six. If you pick up the TROPHY (Toad), the game stops, you announce you have a joker and are looking for another, if someone has it they give it to you, the person losing a joker draws a card, the person gaining the joker discards a card. If you have two jokers, you can end the game early by saying “haha!” at any point. If you gain a joker you cannot discard it. The game ends if someone says “haha!” or as soon as the deck runs out (and all card passes are resolved.)

Nice Games Club is on break until January, so your nice hosts can take time to wrap up work on Widget Satchel, coming to PC and consoles in 2019! In the meantime, we picked out a few of our favorite episodes from our first two years in the clubhouse. One of Mark's picks, this was our 63rd episode. It was first released on January 2nd, 2018. Original show notes: This week, your nice hosts get into it. Stephen is split on everything, Mark is the bad guy, and it's all Martha's fault. Stephen and Mark talked about their Ludum Dare 40 game, Widget Satchel, which Martha played on last week’s Nice Plays episode! [0:03:58] Loot Systems “Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Players Are Tricking Amiibos To Grind For Rare Loot” - Ethan Gach, Kotaku “Nioh's latest patch fixes its most annoying flaw” - Jeffrey Matulef, Eurogamer Stephen brought up our recent episode on repetition in games. “NeuroVoider Chock-Full of Rogue-Like KillBot Twin-Stick Shooting” -  James Cunningham, Hardcore Gamer Mark alluded to a few of Bungie’s recent public apologies. [0:29:30] Loot Boxes “Loot boxes in video games will soon get a review flag from OpenCritic” - Sam Machkovech, Ars Technica ”What You Need To Know About Shadow of War's Controversial Loot Boxes” - Patricia Hernandez, Kotaku “A Guide To The Endless, Confusing Star Wars Battlefront II Controversy” - Gita Jackson, Kotaku “Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford is ‘very much against predatory monetization schemes’” - Dustin Bailey, PCGamesN “An inconvenient truth: game prices have come down with time” - Ben Kuchera, Ars Technica “I Just Got A Bunch Of Overwatch Gift Cards, And I'm Terrified To Use Them” - Nathan Grayson, Kotaku “How Luis Von Ahn Turned Countless Hours Of Mindless Activity Into Something Valuable” - Alison Griswold, Business Insider Game Designer Damion Schubert posted a thread on Twitter about how to do loot boxes ethically. Mark was not convinced.

"I have so much feelings..." Loot Systems Loot Boxes #64 This week, your nice hosts get into it. Stephen is split on everything, Mark is the bad guy, and it's all Martha's fault. show notes ► Roundtable   Your browser does not support the audio element. https://api.podcache.net/episodes/55a565cd-ae3b-47c3-bc51-ce795195f01b/stream.mp3

#63 "I have so much feelings..." Roundtable 2018.01.02 This week, your nice hosts get into it. Stephen is split on everything, Mark is the bad guy, and it's all Martha's fault. Stephen and Mark talked about their Ludum Dare 40 game, Widget Satchel, which Martha played on last week’s Nice Plays episode! Loot Systems 0:03:58 Stephen McGregor Game Design Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Players Are Tricking Amiibos To Grind For Rare Loot - Ethan Gach , Kotaku Nioh's latest patch fixes its most annoying flaw -  Jeffrey Matulef, Eurogamer Stephen brought up our recent episode on repetition in games, "Schrödinger’s Animal Crossing." NeuroVoider Chock-Full of Rogue-Like KillBot Twin-Stick Shooting - James Cunningham, Hardcore Gamer Bungie says it " betrayed" Destiny 2 fans over transparency - YouTube Loot Boxes 0:29:30 Martha Megarry Gaming Marketing Loot boxes in video games will soon get a review flag from OpenCritic - Sam Machkovech, Ars Technica What You Need To Know About Shadow of War's Controversial Loot Boxes - Patricia Hernandez, Kotaku A Guide To The Endless, Confusing Star Wars Battlefront II Controversy - Gita Jackson, Kotaku Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford is ‘very much against predatory monetization schem… -  Dustin Bailey, PCGamesN An inconvenient truth: game prices have come down with time - Ben Kuchera, Ars Technica I Just Got A Bunch Of Overwatch Gift Cards, And I'm Terrified To Use Them - Nathan Grayson, Kotaku How Luis Von Ahn Turned Countless Hours Of Mindless Activity Into Something Val… - Alison Griswold, Business Insider Game Designer Damion Schubert posted a thread on Twitter about how to do loot boxes ethically. Mark was not convinced.

Nice Games Club is on break until January, so your nice hosts can take time to wrap up work on Widget Satchel, coming to PC and consoles in 2019! In the meantime, we picked out a few of our favorite episodes from our first two years in the clubhouse. One of Stephen's picks, this was our 15th episode. It was first released on March 13th, 2017. Original show notes: In this high signal-to-noise roundtable episode, each member of the club picks a topic that they are particularly passionate about: Stephen shares his wisdom and guidance about playtesting your work early and often, Martha helps you get your act together in a practical discussion about project management, and Mark tries to explain the obligation he feels as an artist, but picks a weird hill to die on as he wrongly insists that Portal 2 isn't really about anything. We're trying to make the show even better and we need your input! Be nice and visit our feedback form to tell us what you think! Intro Ice Cold Games @zacharyjohnson Nice Games Club feedback form [0:03:27] Demoing and Playtesting [0:33:26] Project Management Trello JIRA Agile development Waterfall development Kanban development "The Blue Yarn" - 99% Invisible "NUMMI 2015" - This American Life David Megarry's Three Questions all project managers should ask: “Do you have all the resources you need?" "Do you have any roadblocks or impediments?" "Are you on schedule?” “A project manager (PM) is more of a problem solver than anything else. If you don’t have the resources, the PM finds them. If there are roadblocks, the PM helps to find a way to get around them. If not on schedule, the PM alters it or adds more resources or changes scope. Above all, the PM communicates with management as to the state of the project so they can make proper decisions and not be blindsided or surprised.” -David Megarry [0:52:56] Messages and Meanings Summerland, a novel by Michael Chabon "A Closer Look At How Three Assassin's Creed Games Have Handled Slavery" - Kotaku "For Honor’s accidental alt-right connection" - Polygon