Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

Mar 06 2025 443 ep. 662

Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast! artwork

The podcast where nice gamedevs talk gaming and game development. Nice!

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"More Ellen in the future." What We Did On Our Winter Break (2024-25)

NEWS! New episodes now come out a week early on Patreon!! Sign up to listen to next week's episode now! We talk about why, and the silly reason why now, in this episode, along with another, much bigger piece of NEWS.And of course, your nice hosts continue the show's annual tradition of recounting what they did during hiatus.SO. MUCH. NEWS.Nice Games Club on PatreonWhat We Did On Ou

Puzzle Systems (with Arvi "Hempuli" Teikari) [Nice Replay]

#373Puzzle SystemsInterview2024.11.15Releasing 2019's "Baba is You" after more than a decade of making puzzle games was a milestone for this week's guest, but it was also just the beginning of his design journey. Arvi "Hempuli" Teikari talks to your nice hosts about the balance between giving players freedom and constraining their expression, the pacing and sequencing of indiv

“That’s way too many pawns.” Communicating Difficulty; Remixed Play Modes [Nice Replay]

#368“That’s way too many pawns.”Roundtable2024.10.11This week, Ellen kicks things off with a chat about how games tell players, “This might be tough!” and how to make that fun and fair. Stephen and Mark jump in with their takes on what makes difficulty settings shine. Then, Mark thinks about the practice taking familiar game mechanics and twisting them into something fres

Optimization (with Jarryd Huntley) [Nice Replay]

#366OptimizationInterview2024.09.26Entering the clubhouse this week is our the third Owl (employee of Owlchemy Labs) and first Peabody Award winner (as lead developer for We Are OFK), to talk about the "dos," "don'ts," and "good enoughs" of optimization.Cleveland video game designer Jarryd Huntley wins Peabody Award for ‘We Are OFK’ - Joey Morona, cleveland.comWe

Nice Thinking: "Dialogue Through Goals" [Nice Replay]

#349Dialogue Through GoalsNice Thinking2024.05.29Stephen brings a half-baked thought into the clubhouse for this Nice Thinking episode: how can we improve dialogue systems? He's got some opinions, which Mark and Ellen immediately debunk, but it leads to some engaging conversation.Dialogue Through GoalsStephen McGregorGame DesignNarrative

"The lensing effect of the window." Theming vs. Aesthetics; Parries [Nice Replay]

#361"The lensing effect of the window."Roundtable2024.08.22It’s hot in the clubhouse and hot in Ellen’s greenhouse this week, so your hosts are eager to crunch through some discussion. Ellen introduces the concept of the MDA framework, and the differences between Theming and Aesthetics, and Stephen comes to a major conclusion about parrying.Theming vs. Aesthetics0:06:

Tutorialization with Puzzles (with Luke Spierewka) [Nice Replay]

#371Tutorialization with PuzzlesInterview2024.11.01"Tutorials shouldn’t feel like tutorials!" Like most aspects of game design, it's an easy concept to summarize but a difficult one to pull off. Luke Spierewka and the team at Afterburn Games have mastered it, using their charming approach in successful titles like Golf Peaks and Railbound. Come learn the arcan

"A slow meat computer" King Making; Thinky Bits (Off-Screen Gameplay) [Nice Replay]

#347"A slow meat computer"Roundtable2024.05.16In the episode, Mark, Ellen, and Stephen talk local events, including (don’t worry everyone’s fine) a fire in the clubhouse’s building, construction, and the games they are playing, so if you are just here for the topics, go ahead and skip to minute 23. Ellen learns about King Making, Stephen humble brags about being goo

Nice Games Jam: "Eddies" [Nice Replay]

#338EddiesNice Games Jam2024.03.11The clubhouse is caffeinated and ready to jam, game jam that is.The clubhouse is giving a prompt where air movement is the main mechanism of action and they create a physical game for a tabletop (in the style of 'Hungry Hungry Hippos'). The notoriously unpredictable 'Eddies' of air movement gives this game it's name. The main challenge for the team

The Intersection of Puzzle and Story (with Ron Gilbert) [Nice Replay]

#354The Intersection of Puzzle and StoryInterview2024.07.05Narrative designer and pal of the program Beth Korth fills in for Ellen as guest host this week and next!Your nice hosts welcome famed designer Ron Gilbert (Monkey Island, Thimbleweed Park) into the clubhouse to discuss the virtues of inexperience, friction for its own sake, how it's all about story, and it's puzzles all th