Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast‪!‬ Ellen, Stephen, and Mark

This episode recounts each guests' recent project - Stephen is developing a new spirit for Spirit Island, Ellen is getting into music, and Mark talks at length about his car. The club helps Ellen process a recent pivot her company had to make. And Mark reveals some simple insights from his life: urgent vs. high priority, he has an irritating existence, that he's very restless, that he's skeptical of his satisfaction, somethings that I know very well, being married to him. The episode ends with a pitch build an emotional support group on nicegames.club/discord, by asking everyone to share how they structure their time.
Stephen and Spirit Island


Spirit Island
 - 
Board Game Geek

Ellen gets into music


Mark's SmartCar


Thomas Jefferson was born in Virgina
 - 
Wikipedia

Mark changes out his car panels
 - 
Mark LaCroix
, 
Threads

Please support us financially and emotionally through the following:

patreon.com/nicegamesclub

nicegames.club/discord

0:11:20
Pivoting

Tango Gameworks of Hi-Fi Rush was closed






0:40:27
Working on Multiple Projects

The Eisenhower Matrix task managment matrix
Asana



The days in the lives of creative work from Mason Curry



in a circle chart
deMilked



in an infographic
Open Culture



in an article
The Marginalian

As MEMODEMO, Kobe Anthony creates music for video games and inspired by video games. In this episode, we learn about Kobe's creative process for composing music. He also shares a bit about how he uses his DAW (digital audio workstation) to capture sounds and convert them into melody and beats. Also featured in this episode: memes, rhythm games, and three seconds of terrible beatboxing.
Creative Process & Workflow for Music
Audio


Izotope RX 11 (audio repair toolkit)


XO by XLN Audio


2 Mello


Not in the Groove (game)


Sideshow Bob Stepping On Rakes Compilation
 - 
Cartoon Vids
, 
YouTube


Rolling Sampler


777
 - 
RoughSketch
, 
YouTube


"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
 - 
Hanlon's razor
, 
Wikipedia



Kobe Anthony (aka MEMODEMO)
Guest

Kobe is on Bandcamp, YouTube, Soundcloud, Ko-Fi & more. Here's his Linktree!
From a student spotlight piece by the University of Oregon:
Kobe came from a musical home, so his love for making music started when he was very young. “My first memory of noticing music in video games was when I played Sonic Heroes for the first time as a three-year-old. I remember hearing the theme song and it was, quite literally, life changing,” Kobe explains. From there, he started playing with GarageBand and, eventually, as he got older, started making original music on a much more advanced system MIDI. Kobe published his first song at eight years old called “Chaos Angel Error Emerald,” a remix of the theme song to Zone 7 of Sonic Advance 3, “Chaos Angel.”
Under the pseudonym MEMODEMO, Anthony has over 5,200 monthly listeners on Spotify, over 4,500 followers on Soundcloud, and over 370,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Stephen 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 Goals

Last month, Mark gave a talk at the IGDATC Gamedev Meeting about what it might mean to take game development seriously as an artistic practice, theorizing that video games are still a very young and immature medium by that standard. It's "sorta-Socratic" seminar, a set of three case studies, and a string of stone cold bummers that ends on a hopeful note.
Your game has a message... did you write it?

In 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 good at Smash Brothers, and Dale plays kingmaker in naming the second topic!
News


Masu Fire
 - 
Paul Walsh
, 
Star Tribune

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
 - 
Jared Brey
, 
Governing

What We are Playing


Dragon's Dogma 2
 - 
Wikipedia

Princess Peach Showtime NPR Review
 - 
Rakiesha Chase-Jackson
, 
NPR

0:23:00
King Making

Stephen has been QA testing Harvest Kingdom
Ben Hunder
Discord



The YouTube video that Stephen references
Distraction Makers
YouTube



Kingmaking in Root (Leder Games) video
Cole Wehrle
GDC



Smallworld
Board Game Geek






0:49:17
Thinky Bits (Off-Screen Gameplay)

Games discussed



Return of the Obra Din



Spirit Island
Board Game Geek



Death Drives a Bus
itch.io

Most of our favorite games aren't created by solo devs; they're created by groups of people. And, when you get a bunch of people together in a group, culture happens. So, what makes for a good working culture in a game development team? How do you establish such a thing and maintain it? When we say someone doesn't "fit the culture" of a team, what does that mean—and what should the team do about it? Chris Bergman, CEO of Gylee Games, joins us for an enlightening discussion about how he thinks about work culture, and he didn’t swear even one time!
Work Cultures
Misc.
Production


Gylee Games


Ra Ra Boom!
 - 
Steam


Gylee and Friends Podcast


Ask A Manager Blog



Chris Bergman
Guest

Chris is the founder of Gylee and creator of Ra Ra Boom. Gylee is named after his kids, Guy and Lee. Chris is a longtime serial entrepreneur who is passionate about creating entertainment that is uplifting and enlightening. He's also an imposter DJ and has been rollerblading since 1994.


External link
Chris on Instagram
Chris on Twitter (X)