Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

#149 Buttons and Triggers and Sticks, Oh My! Nice Games Jam 2019.09.25 This week's episode is sponsored by Codecks, the project management tool for game developers, by game developers! Sign up for free at http://codecks.io/nicegamesclub to let them know we sent you! It's another Nice Games Jam! This time, our boyfriend Dylan sent in a particularly interesting challenge, asking your nice hosts to design a game where the player's load-out impacts the game's controls. After an aborted attempt to make it into a game consisting of physical props, we came up with a very strange concept for a video game where you equip and battle a bunch of different controllers as if they were Pokémon or something! Prompt Design a game where the player's load-out impacts the game's controls. Game type Paper prototype Player count 2-4 Materials A controller of your choosing Pieces to "slot" to your controller's buttons Setup "Buttons and Triggers and Sticks, Oh My!" (Prototype) In this game, you control a "battlebot" vehicle that you configure using equipment and weapons that are auctioned off between players before the match. The twist is that your bot is a vehicle shaped like the actual controller you play the game with, and its capabilities are determined by the physical configuration of the input elements. Want a different bot, you gotta plug in a different controller! Controllers Each controller, from a knock-off Xbox 360 controller to a Nintendo Switch Joy-Con, has a list of "inventory slots" which line up with the physical controller's buttons and input elements. Items placed in these slots are "attached" to the in-game representation of the controller. Each controller also has general properties such as hull strength and overall weight, and controllers with special properties like rumble, motion controls, or expansion ports would have additional in-game potential. Additionally, wired controllers would have different properties than wireless controllers, etc. Equipment Each piece of equipment has the following characteristics: Type Movement Engines Ranged weapons Melee weapons Traps/environment Shields Bonus/special items Stats: depends on type. Engines would have speed/power stats and weapons would have damage stats, for example. Input compatibility: Which set of buttons, sticks, and/or triggers can this equipment be attached to? For example, the Z button on a Saturn controller is a face button, but it's a trigger on a Nintendo 64 controller. A machine gun might be placed on a trigger, or it could be placed on an analog stick and work as a turret! Maybe certain items can only be placed on controllers that have a "Select" button, etc. Rules Auction Players configure their loudouts from stratch before every match, at the same time, using an auction system. Pieces of equipment comes up for auction one-by-one. First, players are given vague information about the next item up for bid, and may pre-bid for it, gambling that it will be something useful to them. If no player pre-bids for the item, it is fully revealed and players bid normally for it. Certain items will be incompatible for certain controllers, but a player may wish to bid on it anyway to deny it to another player (maybe they can then "melt down" the unwanted piece of equipment for some other resource). This process continues either until all players are out of resources, or all the items (some subset of the total items in the game) have been put up for auction. Resources could be limited, meaning that high-bidding contests would result in weaker players and more tactical, less chaotic matches (since all equipment would be expensive). Alternately, resources could be plentiful, providing players with lots of options, and any left over resources could be used to power and/or upgrade equipment, providing some motivation not to overspend for equipment. Gameplay Battles would be essentially multiplayer deathmatchs, where each player operates the equipment they've equipped to thier vehicle by using the input element they've assigned it to. Battles would be heavily focused on targeting other players various equipment, in order to disable or destroy them. Play could work using a 3rd person "Mario Kart/Twisted Metal battle mode" style of skill-based play, or perhaps it could use a Fallout VATS style targeting system where players would need to assign targets in real-time but would only need to hit the other player (letting an RNG system determine how successful the hit was) The game might include other genre staples like item pickups (energy, ammo, etc). Campaign/Progression? Outside of regular matches, perhaps players could run campaigns where the results of each match would provide winnings that they can later use to upgrade their vehicle or purchase new equipment.

#118 "It's Black History Month, y'all!" Roundtable 2019.02.26 In this episode, your nice hosts make sure you know that Treasure Stack, the game Stephen "is paid to work on," is coming out Friday, March 1st! Mark then gives a primer on some audio basics that will help you understand how sound works, and works in your game. Even if you're bored by that, be sure to stick around for a discussion Stephen leads about representation in games. "Treasure Stack Reveals Launch Date With a Trailer Powered By Artisanal, Locall… - Hardcore Gamers Audio Basics 0:05:32 Mark LaCroix Audio "MP3 'died' and nobody noticed: Key patents expire on golden oldie tech" - Andrew Orlowski, The Register Digital Audio Basics: Sample Rate and Bit Depth Turns out, there is a ".2" in certain surround sound setups. Get free sounds on freesound.org! The reduction in audio dynamics in pop music is a result of the so-called Loudn… Representation in Games 0:41:57 Stephen McGregor IRL Production Key & Peele - Black Republicans "Here's a good argument for a black Batman" - Dan Neilan, AV Club "Hopi-less: How Kachina Became Donut County" - John Walker, Rock Paper Shotgun "What It's Like To Write About Race And Video Games" - Gita Jackson, Kotaku

Nice Games Club is on break until February 2020, so your nice hosts can take the time to work on a relaunch of the show, including new branding, updated production, and a brand new website! In the meantime, we picked out a few of our favorite episodes from the last year in the clubhouse. Original show notes can be found below: https://nicegames.club/2019/08/nice-games-jam-ants-of-destiny-morsels-of-the-queen/

#143 Ants of Destiny: Morsels of the Queen Nice Games Jam 2019.08.13 This week in the clubhouse, Stephen is still away in New York. Ellen is back to help out with a Nice Games Jam! Our prompt: create a JRPG-inspired game in under an hour. But like any good JRPG, it took twice as long to complete as expected... Ellen's handwritten notes are worth a look! (PDF) And here's the Wikipedia page for Weevil, which Ellen wanted you to see. Prompt What would the Nice Games Club take on a JRPG be? Do that Game type Paper prototype Player count 2 Setup A two-person pen-and-paper RPG. One player portrays the party of ants, and the other player controls all enemies and narrates the story as the GM. The Story Your queen is dying, and for unknown reasons (foreshadowing!) your colony is running out of resources. You, a young worker ant, and your party of misfits must set out from your home to collect the extra food and supplies needed to save your colony, battling foes and overcoming challenges along the way! Rules The Party Worker Ant (Player protagonist) Bite (attack): 2 Carry (inventory): 5 Exo (armor): +0 Ability: "Defend" - Once per encounter, secretly choose (and write down) a party member. The next attack against that character will automatically fail. This remains in effect until an enemy attacks the selected player, or the player uses their ability. Soldier Ant Bite (attack): 3 Carry (inventory): 4 Exo (armor): +2 Ability: "Command" - Once per encounter, use this ability to grant an automatic success on a party member's next attack. Flying Ant Bite (attack): 1 Carry (inventory): 3 Exo (armor): -1 Ability: "Fly" - Once per encounter, choose an attack target, then exit play for this round. This character cannot be attacked by a non-flying enemy until they return at the start of the next round, when the attack is executed (as long as the target is currently in play). Weevil (in disguise) Bite (attack): 1 Carry (inventory): 4 Exo (armor): +4 Ability: "Push" - Once per encounter, you can select an enemy to remove from play until the end of the round. This enemy cannot attack or be attacked. All party members have 10 hit points (HP). Party stats Move: 4 Overworld The GM prepares a map on a 20x20 grid, with multiple paths, each ending with a resource. This map is kept hidden the player. The player has their own map, which starts out blank. The GM draws new information on this map as the player uncovers it. Each path on the map has the following information/stats: Sense threshold (the number the player must roll above to detect its existence) The shape and length of the path on the map. The "peril value" representing the number added to random encounter checks (1-3). The type of resource at the end of the path (food, item, etc. During our playthough, we only used food). The amount/value of the resource at the end of the path (food: 1-3) Paths don't all have to start from the origin point of the party. Some can begin in the middle of another paths, but the party can only discover a path if they are within sensing range of the beginning (how near is that? Um, we didn't figure that out). Overworld turn sequence Sense check: Player rolls 1d10. This value is compared against the "sense threshold" of each path which is within sensing range of the party. All paths whose sense threshold is equal to or below the value of the roll is "discovered" by the player. For each path whose sensing threshold is below the value of the roll, the player rolls another 1d10. The higher the roll result, the more information is revealed about it (1-3 no info, 4-7 some info, 9-10 all info). The exact information revealed is up to the GMs discretion. Paths which are revealed as a result of the initial roll being equal to the sensing threshold are discovered but no extra roll is made and no information is revealed. Move: Player chooses a path and advances along it equal to the number of spaces of the party's "move" stat. Random encounter check: The GM rolls 1d10. The "peril value" of the current path is added to the roll. The value is checked against an encounter table. This table (which, oops, we didn't create) would have more dangerous encounters the larger the number is, while the low range of numbers (say 1-4) would have no encounter at all. Sense points During the episode, we discussed letting the player "bank" sense points. For example, a player rolls a 9 on a sense check, but only chooses to use 6 and save the other 3. The GM then treats it as if the player rolled of 6, and the player now has 3 points to add as a modifier to future rolls. Enemy Encounters At the start of each round of battle, the player and the GM roll 1d10 for initiative. The higher roll goes first. Each character has one action per round. Initiative passes between the player and the GM and the round is over when all characters and enemies have taken an action. Actions Attack: This is an opposed roll. The attacking character rolls 1d10. The defending character rolls 1d10, plus its Exo modifier. In the case of a successful attack, the defending character loses HP equal to attacker's attack stat. If the roll (including modifiers) is a tie, both players roll again with no modifiers to determine the result. Ability: The character may use their ability instead of attacking. After the player's party defeats certain opponents, its body can be converted into resources, which use up the "carry" stats of various party members, distributed as the player sees fit. Obtaining resources Once the party reaches the end of a path, the GM rolls 1d10 (in secret) to determine the state of the resources in this area. We develop a table for this during the episode, but it might go something like: 1 - 2: All resources are immediately available to collect. 3 - 5: Resources are trapped, players must attack or dismantle a barrier of some kind. The Exo value of the barrier is equal to this roll and the barrier's HP value is equal to a second 1d10 roll by the GM. 6 - 9: Resources are hidden, with this value being the threshold value the player must roll above in order to discover them one by one. 10: Resources are completely inaccessible. If resources are trapped or hidden, the player can roll 1d10 to find them or attack the barrier to release them. After each attempt, an encounter check is made, so players will have to make calculated risks. Once the player collects all resources, or declines further attempts to collect them, the party returns to the home colony, unloads thier resources, heals all their HP, and starts again on a new path. Once the player brings 30 pieces of food (or some other metric of resources) back to the colony, the colony is saved! ...OR SO IT SEEMS!! The Big Twist! This is a JRPG-inspired game, so now it's time to turn the tables, expand the world to a preposterous scale, and raise the stakes as high (or higher) than makes any sense. What the story twist is will be determined using a die roll from the GM. 1 - 3: An Evil Weevil Infiltration It turns out the weevil in your party isn't the only "ant imposter" in your colony! Via a tearful confession, your weevil friend reveals that they have had a change of heart and must tell you the truth... your queen, and much of the high guard who protects the colony, have been replaced by EVIL WEEVILS in disguise! No wonder resources have been limited: The weevils have been stealing them! It's now up to you and your party to stop the them and win back your homeland! 4 - 6: Nearby Colony Has Incredibly Advanced Technology A huge rumble shakes the ground. Suddenly, a fleet of dragonflies descends at the edge of the colony, dispensing super-soldier ants from a neighboring colony, who have somehow obtained unimaginably powerful technology. No wonder resources have been limited: the neighboring colony has developed... industry, evaporating water reserves and contaminating local food supplies! It's now up to you and your party to shut down their terrible war machine and bring peace back to the colony! 7 - 9: The Truman Show Ending Wait, what's that? A violent shake disrupts the ground below, the walls around, and the ceilings above you! It's as if the entire colony has been knocked around and then dropped from a great height. Well, that's exactly what happened! It turns out, you've all been living in a large, artificial ant farm! No wonder resources have been limited: the human who is supposed to feed and take take of you has neglected their duties. It's now up to you and your party to rescue the members of your colony from this disaster, and find a way to break free of the plastic shell that represents your entire reality! 10: Roll again!

Nice Games Club is on break until February 2020, so your nice hosts can take the time to work on a relaunch of the show, including new branding, updated production, and a brand new website! In the meantime, we picked out a few of our favorite episodes from the last year in the clubhouse. Original show notes can be found here: https://nicegames.club/2019/03/developer-publisher-relations-with-kongregates-august-brown/

#120 Developer/Publisher Relations Interview 2019.03.12 This week, August Brown (senior producer for Kongregate Publishing) enters the clubhouse to reveal the secrets of successful developer/publisher relationships! Your nice hosts learn what publishers expect from a pitch, how forming a relationship with a publisher isn't always strictly business, and that publishers also think you're not charging enough money for your game. Developer/Publisher Relations Production Kongregate Publishing Self-publish on Kartridge Martha mentioned the Sokpop Collective. August brought up The Flash Games Postmortem that his colleague John Cooney pre… August Brown Guest August is a Senior Producer at Armor Games Studios. Formerly a Senior Producer for Kongregate Publishing. External link Twitter

Nice Games Club is on break until February 2020, so your nice hosts can take the time to work on a relaunch of the show, including new branding, updated production, and a brand new website! In the meantime, we picked out a few of our favorite episodes from the last year in the clubhouse. NOTE: We talked about 2019's Global Game Jam in this episode, and hey, the 2020 Global Game Jam is coming up, Jan 31st - Feb 2nd! This year, the IGDA Twin Cities chapter is hosting our community's local site. Tickets are free, but limited. Sign up now! Original show notes can be found here: https://nicegames.club/2019/02/steal-this-episode-writing-for-games-intellectual-property-and-the-public-domain/

#115 "Steal this episode." Roundtable 2019.02.06 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

Nice Games Club is on break until February 2020, so your nice hosts can take the time to work on a relaunch of the show, including new branding, updated production, and a brand new website! In the meantime, we picked out a few of our favorite episodes from the last year in the clubhouse. Original show notes can be found here: https://nicegames.club/2019/07/nostalgia-and-the-lo-fi-aesthetic-with-marina-kittaka/

#141 Nostalgia and the Lo-fi Aesthetic Interview 2019.07.30 Wishlist/purchase Anodyne 2: Return to Dust on: Steam | Itch.io | Kartridge | GoG This week, your nice hosts are joined by Marina Kittaka, artist and co-developer on the upcoming Anodyne 2: Return to Dust. Marina made the 30-foot journey from her desk to the clubhouse in order to discuss Anodyne's theme of nostalgia, the "personal" authenticity of the game's lo-fi PS1-era aesthetics, jumping in to her first 3D project, leveraging your limitations, and more! Nostalgia and the Lo-fi Aesthetic Art Wishlist/purchase Anodyne 2: Return to Dust on: Steam | Itch.io | Kartridge | GoG Sean Han Tani (@sean_HTCH) is Marina's development partner. His solo game All Our Asias was a inspiration for their current collaboration. Analgesic Productions' previous titles: Anodyne Even the Ocean Marina Kittaka Guest Marina Kittaka is co-developer of Anodyne and upcomign Anodyne 2: Return to Dust. As well as games such as Even the Ocean, how do you Do It, and Secrets Agent. She works in illustration and comics. External link marinakittaka.com Marina on twitter @even_kei

Nice Games Club is on break until February 2020, so your nice hosts can take the time to work on a relaunch of the show, including new branding, updated production, and a brand new website! In the meantime, we picked out a few of our favorite episodes from the last year in the clubhouse. Original show notes can be found here: https://nicegames.club/2018/08/100-times-nice-100th-episode-special/

#100 "100 times nice." 100th Episode Special Special 2018.08.22 In this episode, your nice hosts celebrate 100 episodes of Nice Games! We reminisce a bit on how the podcast has been going and go behind the scenes on what it takes to release one of the episodes. Thanks for listening to us 100 times! 100th Episode Special  0:00:27 Meta Our evil counterparts, Evil Games Club, have released two episodes so far... Evil Games Club! and this one Evil Games Club 2! Martha in the recording studio aka "Clubhouse" Stephen The Microphones we use to record. The audio interface (hardware) we use to record

Nice Games Club is on break until February 2020, so your nice hosts can take the time to work on a relaunch of the show, including new branding, updated production, and a brand new website! In the meantime, we picked out a few of our favorite episodes from the last year in the clubhouse. Original show notes follow: This week, Martha admits to piracy, Stephen tells Nintendo to just stop making GameCube controllers already, and Mark tells his favorite video game story which is about buttons because Mark is boring. Meta You can wishlist Widget Satchel and Claw Breaker on Steam right now! You can also add Widget Satchel and Claw Breaker to your itch.io collection! “Amazing Mario 3 Speedrun Is Full Of Setbacks And Sportsmanship” - Heather Alexandra, Kotaku [0;11;31] Language of Games When snarky players still want to give info against the GM’s wishes, you get this Tweet. “Stop, Drop, and Heal: The history of regenerating health” - Jeff Dunn, GamesRadar An article from the developers of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst on the new Runner’s Vision. “The Sony PlayStation’s buttons get explained by their designer” - John Brownlee, Geek “The Japanese Side of the PlayStation Button Confusion” - Richard Eisenbeis, Kotaku “The passion of the checkpoint: Why gaming's most frustrating failure is so hard to fix” - Ben Kuchera, Polygon We played the convention-defying game OneShot on our very first Nice Plays episode. Rami Ismail documented his mother’s playing through new games on Twitter. [1;07;25] Sequels “The MIT Dropouts Who Created Ms. Pac-Man: A 35th-Anniversary Oral History” - Benj Edwards, Fast Company TV Tropes has a list of spiritual successors in video games.

#94 "Somebody's first episode." Roundtable 2018.07.10 You can wishlist Widget Satchel and Claw Breaker on Steam right now! You can also add Widget Satchel and Claw Breaker to your itch.io collection! This week, Martha admits to piracy, Stephen tells Nintendo to just stop making GameCube controllers already, and Mark tells his favorite video game story which is about buttons because Mark is boring. Amazing Mario 3 Speedrun Is Full Of Setbacks And Sportsmanship - Heather Alexandra, Kotaku Language of Games 0:11:31 Martha Megarry Game Design When snarky players still want to give info against the GM’s wishes, you get th… - @SeiWot, Twitter Stop, Drop, and Heal: The history of regenerating health” - Jeff Dunn, GamesRadar An article from the developers of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst on the new Runner’s Vi… - EA The Sony PlayStation’s buttons get explained by their designer  - John Brownlee, Geek.com The Japanese Side of the PlayStation Button Confusion -  Richard Eisenbeis, Kotaku The passion of the checkpoint: Why gaming's most frustrating failure is so hard… - Ben Kuchera, Polygon We played the convention-defying game OneShot on our very first Nice Plays episode. Nice Plays: OneShot (2016) Rami Ismail documented his mother’s playing through new games on Twitter. - @tha_rami, Twitter Sequels 1:07:25 Mark LaCroix Misc. The MIT Dropouts Who Created Ms. Pac-Man: A 35th-Anniversary Oral History - Benj Edwards , Fast Company TV Tropes has a list of spiritual successors in video games. - TV Tropes

It's time once again for Your Nice Hosts to bring you the Nicest Games of 2019! (Or, at least the nicest games -we played- in 2019 anyway) We also talk about our game dev resolutions and games we are excited for in 2020. We also have some programming news! We are going on hiatus to work on a revamp of our website and logo until February 2020. We will be bringing you some of the nicest episodes from the past year or so to tide you over until then. Happy new decade everyone! (Photo credit for episode cover on website: Nintendo) [0:02:26] Local Releases in 2019: Widget Satchel Treasure Stack Fuse Tactics V Newt One on Switch Anodyne 2 Extreme Mining [0:08:05] Nicest of 2019  Martha’s Nicest: Destiny 2 Read Only Memories We talked about Martha’s honorable mention in “Casper the Not-So-Friendly Goose” Mark’s Nicest: Control Link’s Awakening Lot’s of cool pictures of Control and other games in Dead End Thrills 'Control taught me to love the ugliest architecture' -Polygon (YouTube Video) Stephen’s Nicest:  Stephen technically doesn’t have any this year! [0:25:39] Most Anticipated 2020 Martha’s: Ooblets Animal Crossing SkateBIRD Ollie Oop (MN Local!) Mark’s: Playstation 5 Project Scarlett (Xbox) 12 Minutes Spiritfarer Stephen’s: Nioh 2 The Last of Us Part 2 Spiritfarer Fingeance [0:36:07]Game Dev Resolutions