Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

#15 "We are artists and we should be artists." Roundtable 2017.03.13 A day late but worth the wait! 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! Ice Cold Games @zacharyjohnson NIce Games Club Feedback Form Demoing and Playtesting 0:03:27 Stephen McGregor Production Project Management 0:33:26 Martha Megarry Production Tools trello Agile Development - Wikipedia Waterfall Development - Wikipedia Kanban Development - Wikipedia The Blue Yarn - 99% Invisible - The Blue Yarn, 99% Invisible NUMMI (2015) - NUMMI, 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 Messages and Meanings 0:52:56 Mark LaCroix Game Design Summerland - Michael Chabon, Novel A Closer Look at How Three Assassin's Creed Games Have Handled Slavery - Evan Narcisse, Kotaku For Honor's accidental alt-right connection - Allegra Frank, Polygon

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 Martha's picks, this was our 42nd episode (don't panic!). It was first released on August 30th, 2017. Original show notes: It's a slightly experimental show this week, as we try to see what a two-topic episode looks like. Also, Martha defends her love of coleslaw, Stephen still doesn't really like VR, and Mark has almost completely lost his voice. [0:05:54] Video Game Immersion Our pal and VR innovator Andrew Fladeboe. “Representation and Embodiment in Virtual Reality” - Jorge Albor, PopMatters Bioshock (remastered) opening scene “Would You Kindly Read This Article on Gaming’s Greatest Plot Twist?” - Mike Diver, Vice Our recent episode of Nice Plays: OneShot “Enhancing VR Immersion with the CPU in Star Trek: Bridge Crew” - Cristiano F, Intel “Cognitive Flow: The Psychology of Great Game Design” - Sean Baron “Why Sonic the Hedgehog is awful, and always has been” - Ryan Brown, The Mirror Requiem, a “roleplaying” mod for The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Mark is up to 118 shrines in Breath of the Wild. Stephen is not happy. [0:39:27] Main Menus and First Impressions “Why do console games require a button press before showing the main menu?” - StackExchange “Game Design: Splash Screen” - Jesse Freeman “The Ten Commandments Of Video Game Menus” - Kirk Hamilton, Kotaku We didn’t get a chance to talk about it in the episode, but here is a cool breakdown of the main menu in Brutal Legend, which uses video compositing and some other fun tricks.

#42 "You can see the cabbage in it." Roundtable 2017.08.30 It's a slightly experimental show this week, as we try to see what a two-topic episode looks like. Also, Martha defends her love of coleslaw, Stephen still doesn't really like VR, and Mark has almost completely lost his voice. Discuss this week's episode on Reddit in r/gamedev here. Video Game Immersion 0:05:54 Stephen McGregor Gaming Our pal and VR innovator Andrew Fladeboe. Representation and Embodiment in Virtual Reality - Jorge Albor, PopMatters Would You Kindly Read This Article on Gaming’s Greatest Plot Twist? - Mike Diver, Vice Our recent episode of Nice Plays: OneShot - Nice Games Club, YouTube Enhancing VR Immersion with the CPU in Star Trek: Bridge Crew - Cristiano F, Intel Developers Cognitive Flow: The Psychology of Great Game Design - Sean Baron, Game Developer Why Sonic the Hedgehog is awful, and always has been - Ryan Brown, MIrror Requiem, a “roleplaying” mod for The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Mark is up to 118 shrines in Breath of the Wild. Stephen is not happy. Main Menus and First Impressions 0:39:27 Mark LaCroix UI / UX Why do console games require a button press before showing the main menu? - StackExchange Game Design: Splash Screen - Jesse Freeman, Medium The Ten Commandments Of Video Game Menus - Kirk Hamilton, Kotaku We didn’t get a chance to talk about it in the episode, but here is a cool brea… - Mike Fahey, Kotaku

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 88th episode. It was first released on May 29th, 2018. Original show notes: 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 famous crab dance! "Where the Water Tastes Like Wine Postmortem" - Johnnemann Nordhagen Ben mentioned the Easy Allies podcast. "Alan Alda's Experiment: Helping Scientists Learn To Talk To The Rest Of Us" - Lulu Garcia-Navarro, NPR

#88 The Gaming Press Interview 2018.05.29 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! 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. The Gaming Press Gaming IRL Marketing 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 … Enjoy Martha's famous crab dance! Where the Water Tastes Like Wine Postmortem - Johnnemann Nordhagen, Medium Ben mentioned the Easy Allies podcast Alan Alda's Experiment: Helping Scientists Learn To Talk To The Rest Of Us - Lulu Garcia-Navarro, NPR Ben Hanson Guest Ben is a founder of MinnMax, former video producer for Game Informer, and overall fun enthusiast. External link Twitter MinnMax

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 10th episode. It was first released on January 30th, 2017. Original show notes: Our 10th(!!!) episode has your nice hosts teetering on the edge of not-so-niceness as they each describe something they just don't get (or don't quite like) in gaming, and hope the other two can bring them around. [01:28] Watching Games EVO Fighting Game Tournament "The Controversial Dichotomy Between Sports and eSports" - Huffington Post Achievement Hunter - Rooster Teeth Defend the House ("gaming Mythbusters") - YouTube Contradiction: Spot the Liar! - Giant Bomb Her Story "On Let's Plays" - That Dragon, Cancer [13:00] Narrative in Games "Ludonarrative Dissonance in Bioshock" - Click Nothing Batman: Arkham Knight - lockup scene Portal 2 - funniest quotes The Stanley Parable Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - ending (Let's Play) [29:27] Board Games Dungeon! (created by Martha's dad, David Megarry) Animal Town Games: Save the Whales, Dam Builders, Nectar Collector Evolution Star Trek: Ascendancy Puerto Rico Pandemic Flashpoint

#10 "Try it once." Roundtable 2017.01.30 Our 10th(!!!) episode has your nice hosts teetering on the edge of not-so-niceness as they each describe something they just don't get (or don't quite like) in gaming, and hope the other two can bring them around. Watching Games 0:01:28 Mark LaCroix Gaming IRL EVO Fighting Game Tournament The Controversial Dichotomy Between Sports and eSports - Jesse Aaron, Huffington Post Achievement Hunter - Rooster Teeth The Best of Modern Warfare Mythbusters - Defend teh House, YouTube Contradiction: Spot the Liar! - Giant Bomb Her Story "On Let's Plays" - That Dragon, Cancer Narrative in Games 0:13:00 Stephen McGregor Narrative Ludonarrative Dissonance in Bioshock - Click Nothing How many times can you enter the cell? - Batman: Arkham Knight - YouTube Portal 2 - funniest quotes - ultrasoftcore, YouTube The Stanley Parable Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - Ending - Epilogue - YouTube Board Games 0:29:27 Martha Megarry Tabletop Dungeon! (created by Martha's dad, David Megarry) Animal Town Games: Save the Whales, Dam Builders, Nectar Collector Evolution Star Trek: Ascendancy Puerto Rico Pandemic Flashpoint

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 Martha's picks, this was our 8th episode. It was first released on January 23rd, 2017. Original show notes: Some firsts in this episode: Our first iTunes review (thanks, Abdiwak!), our first episode of interconnected topics, and our first big ideological disagreement (ooo, drama!). [01:33] Gaming Mastery Gamer Motivation Profile quiz [20:45] Strategy Guides and Wikis (Martha) Pokemon Crystal guide (Stephen) Donkey Kong Country 2 guide (Mark) Nintendo Power's Dragon Warrior giveaway [38:30] Designing Party Games Ultimate Chicken Horse We Didn’t Playtest This At All! Spaceteam Jackbox Party Pack Save the Whales Sushi Go! Overcooked

#8 "Will you be the best with me?" Roundtable 2017.01.23 Some firsts in this episode: Our first iTunes review (thanks, Abdiwak!), our first episode of interconnected topics, and our first big ideological disagreement (ooo, drama!). Gaming Mastery 0:01:33 Gamer Motivation Profile quiz - Quantic Foundry Strategy Guides and Wikis 0:20:45 Martha Megarry Gaming Tools (Martha) Pokemon Crystal guide - Nintendo Power (Stephen) Donkey Kong Country 2 guide Nintendo Power's Dragon Warrior giveaway - Press the Buttons Designing Party Games 0:38:30 Mark LaCroix Game Design Ultimate Chicken Horse We Didn’t Playtest This At All! Spaceteam Jackbox Party Pack Save the Whales Sushi Go! Overcooked

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" - The Knights of Unity Mark was able to quickly find this animated GIF in his archives. He made this 3D model of a lizard creature in the Summer of 1998 (it pre-dates Pokémon's arrival in the US!) using a Windows 95 program called Micrografx Simply 3D. "Renaming Serialized Fields" - Leonardo Carneiro, Unity Blog TexturePacker - Code + Web Software [0:54:18] Pokémon Pokémon dual-type charts. "Pokémon Y Nuzlocke Challenge" - Polygon, YouTube "Pokémon Snap was ahead of its time" - Jenna Stoeber, Polygon Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine  23 Of The Weirdest Pokémon - Kyle Hilliard, Game Informer  

In this week's episode, Mark tackles optimization and Martha attempts to Catch 'em all. Widget Satchel is coming to PC and consoles! TASCAM stands for "Teac Audio Systems Corporation America." Optimization 0:04:53 Mark LaCroix Programming Avoiding Unity Update Loops - Brad Keys Mark put his Timer class on GitHub - GitHub Unity editor Extensions -The power of OnValidate - CJF inc Static Constructors (C# Programming Guide) We talked about the Widget Satchel in a Code Comment Episode Code Comment: "Widget Satchel" McDonalds! McDonalds! McDonalds! - @mcclure111, Twitter Verdent Skies Code Comment Code Comment: "Verdant Skies" ExecuteInEditMode will run your script in edit mode - The Knights of Unity Mark was able to quickly find this animated GIF in his archives. He made this 3D model of a lizard creature in the Summer of 1998 (it pre-dates Pokémon's arrival in the US!) using a Windows 95 program called Micrografx Simply 3D. Renaming Serialized Fields - Leonardo Carneiro, Unity TexturePacker - Code + Web Software - Code and Web Pokémon 0:54:18 Martha Megarry Gaming Pokémon dual-type charts. Pokémon Y Nuzlocke Challenge -  Polygon, YouTube Pokémon Snap was ahead of its time - Jenna Stoeber, Polygon Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine - Wikipedia 23 Of The Weirdest Pokémon  - Kyle Hilliard, Game Informer

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 "Unions Must Address Racism"  -Ian Haney Lopez, AFL-CIO Blog

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. Joggernauts by local developer Space Mace is on Steam and Switch! Joggernauts soundtrack by Robert Frost III Adobe MAX Game Dev as a Day Job 0:11:44 Stephen McGregor IRL Stephen works at Gamesmart! Glitch Jobs Board Gamasutra Jobs Board - Game Developer Unions 0:38:53 Martha Megarry IRL 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 Union Game Workers Unite It's Time For Game Developers To Unionize - Jason Schreier, Kotaku Opinion: Now is the time to unionize the game industry - Katherine Cross, Game Developer Myles Horton - 20th Century Union Organizer - Wikipedia Unions Must Address Racism - Ian Haney Lopez, AFL-CIO Blog

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 GitHub

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. Self-education, et al. IRL Misc. You can also find the livestream of the podcast on Freya’s Twitch here! Freya Holmer Guest Freya Holmér is game developer and co-founder of Neat Corporation (makers of VR stealth game Budget Cuts) and creator of Shader Forge. She spends signifiant time interacting with people on her gamedev Twitch stream.  External link Freya on Twitch Freya on Twitter @FreyaHolmer Freya on YouTube Freya on Instagram @freya_holmer Neat Corporation's Website Neat Corp on Twitter @neatcorp Budget Cuts on Steam Buget Cuts on Occulus Shader Forge on GitHub