Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

Lydia, Stephen, and Mark
  • 4.7 (42)
  • Video Games
  • Updated Weekly

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

  1. 5d ago

    Nice Games Jam: "Mummies from the Graveyard"

    It’s spooky month, so before diving into the game jam the clubhouse talks about a couple scary things. Dinosaurs (briefly) and breast cancer awareness month. Lydia shares her experience with the screening process. Editor Dale, has some things to add. Fun fact, Dale was driven to her first mammogram by Stephen and (not her husband Mark). Not-fun-fact, her sister-in-law detected her breast cancer, only because her adopted mother was diagnosed. They are both fine, but cancer is the opposite of fun. Then they talk about mummies and card games mechanics as they make their game. That is fun. Prompt Make a card game about what I have determined is Stephen's favorite monster.The monster that doesn't consume blood or brains or have claws: MUMMIES. Game type Tabletop game Player count 2 Materials Custom Cards Mummy Indicators Setup The deck consists of the following cards: Alligator  Alive: 1 space, 3 attack (Charge Attack! Can move up to 3 spaces in one direction if it can attack something on the way) Mummy: 1 space, 3 attack Egret Alive: 2 space, 2 attack (Can attack any space on the board by flying into the fray but cannot fly back) Mummy: 2 space, 2 attack Jock Alive: 2 space, 2 attack (Popular kid! Can draw 2 lackies from the draw pile) Mummy: 2 space, 2 attack Nerd Alive: 2 space, 2 attack (Wizard! Can raise the dead at will from the top of the graveyard and place it in any column of Rank 1) Mummy: 2 space, 2 attack Housecat Alive: 3 space, 1 attack (After attacking, it can jump backwards after attacking if it defeats an opponent) Mummy: 3 space, 1 attack Each player starts with a Jock card, a Nerd card, and one other random card. The playing space is a 6x6 grid Rules Each turn, each card has one action:  Jock - pulls two cards from the draw pile "attracts two from the house party" Nerd - selects one card from the graveyard pile "revises one as a mummy" Other cards: Move within there abilities Mummy cards can only move forward. Goal is to get a mummy card to the opposite player's end of the board.

  2. Oct 1

    Researching Inspiration (with Bernie Mattson)

    Bernie Mattson enters the Clubhouse to talk about researching inspiration as part of the game development process and along the way the Nice Hosts learn a whole lot about Dada. Do you like show notes? Well, Nice Listener, is this the episode for you! Researching Inspiration Art Game Design Production Doo-Daa You can buy Doo-Daa right now on itch.io...  -  itch.io ...or wishlist it on Steam  -  Steam Process Book for Doo-Daa  -  Bernie Mattson ,  itch.io Space Funeral, a big inspiration for Doo-Daa  -  itch.io Dada, a starting point Europe After The Rain, 1970  -  YouTube DadA, 1967  -  Greta Deses ,  YouTube 1918 Dada Manifesto  -  Tristan Tzara International Dada Archives The Dada Cyborg Visions of the New Human in Weimar Berlin  -  Matthew Biro The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even  -  Wikipedia Duchamp Research Portal  -  Duchamp Archives Sophie Taeuber-Arp  -  Wikipedia

  3. Sep 24

    "More soda thoughts." Pitch Decks; Rotating Leadership

    In this episode, Mark has some general notes on Europe, and walks though how he assembled the pitch deck that he brought with him to Gamescom. Meanwhile, Lydia wonders what it would be like to share responsibility on a schedule, and Stephen's clock is 10 minutes fast so we're not going to be as late to the screening of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock as he thinks. Mark on a bike in Dublin. Mark on a bike in Amsterdam. Mark on a bike in Cologne. Mark on a bike in Zurich. Mark on a bike in Paris. Mark feeding the birds underneath the Eiffel Tower. 0:20:56 Pitch Decks Slides in Mark's pitch deck: Title (with links to contact, build, video, etc)Table of ContentsFact SheetConcept summaryTeamEmbedded videoSlides covering each main topic from summary slide1-3 slides after each topic slideConcept conclusionInspiration sourcesTimelineBudgetWhy support this team?What we want from a publisherTitle (again) 1:10:13 Rotating Leadership

  4. Sep 17

    Escape Rooms 101

    Mark returns with gifts from Europe! Then Lydia teaches her nice boys how to make a puzzle room: the ins and outs, the dos and don'ts, it’s an escape room special! The Sega coin that Mark stood in multiple very long lines to get. Junction Jam (Midwest US 2026)  -  itch.io Saprolige  -  LydiaSymchych, HeadlessKhan, Ally, Ice Husky, Martin_Gazelle ,  itch.io Escape Rooms 101 Lydia's first episode on the program was as a guest, where she talked about: Digital Escape Rooms Years earlier, we spoke with another Escape Room designer, for: Puzzle/Escape Rooms

  5. Sep 10

    "It’s annoying because, like, I’m annoying." Replayability; Blue-skying

    Your nice hosts discuss a previously talked about topic, and also engage in something completely new (though both are an excuse to discuss work issues in reality), with a brief divergence to mention a Star Trek anniversary.  0:06:02 Replayability 0:27:34 Blue-skying

  6. Sep 3

    Chance Mechanics (with Heather Flowers)

    In this episode, your nice hosts welcome Heather Flowers into the clubhouse to talk about math and probability, while Heather insists they should be on Evil Games Club instead. The group reflects on art and the interpretation of art. Chance Mechanics Game Design Heather Flowers Games Unfair Flips  -  Heather Flowers ,  Steam 500 Finger Fillet  -  Heather Flowers ,  Steam Understanding Systems Suspense  -  Cat Manning, Jason Grinblat, Max Kreminski, Graeme Lennon, Alexsei Pepers, Lauren Scott ,  Polaris Game Design Retreat Other mentions Buckshot Roulette  -  Wikipedia Archane Kids Manife$to Number Gotcha  -  itch.io

  7. Aug 27

    "Praise be to the bureaucrats." Player Investment; Crunch Culture

    Two of your nice hosts are prepping to go to Junction Jam (which already happened, you'll hear about it soon!), but before then the discussion goes over the why players can and should be invested in your game, and how to push back against crunch in the workplace. Junction Jam  -  Global Game Jam 0:06:57 Player Investment 'Cauldron of bats' and other great collective nouns Emma Cownley Jot Jot Boom 0:38:05 Crunch Culture Occupational Burnout in Games 2024: Causes, Impact, and Solutions Lis Moberly, Tim Stobo Game Developer Conference

  8. Aug 20

    Nice Games Jam: "The Great Floral Heist"

    From a floral prompt, a daring caper blossoms. This week your Nice Hosts answer the question: How many flowers to you have to eat to pull off a heist? Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure  -  Board Game Geek Clue: The Great Museum Caper  -  Board Game Geek The game board for Clue: The Great Museum Caper Our spreadsheet of Flowers, Powers, and Barriers. Prompt Create a game about flowers. The flowers may give you powers (regular or super) or may become animated when they are in full bloom. An example of a regular power is power of attorney or a driver's license and example of a superpower is invisibility. Game type Tabletop game Materials Game board Thief meeples Barrier cards Flower tokens Flower combination legend Flower box containers Ability tracker "a one-to-one scale replica of a particularly rare flower completely made of precious metals and gems" Setup Lay out the board Place the "one-to-one scale replica of a particularly rare flower completely made of precious metals and gems" in the center chamber Distribute flower tokens Shuffle flower tokens in a bagAdd flower tokens to flower boxes without looking at them Place the boxes on the marked spaces on the boardDistribute the remaining flower tokens around the flower patches marked on the boardPlace barriers Shuffle barrier cardsFor each marked space on the board, draw a barrier card and place it on the spacePlayer setup Choose a thief meepleTake a flower combination legendTake an ability tracker Rules Players are thieves after the same jeweled flower in the center of the board  Players must gather different flowers to give them the ability to get through the board/mazeGoal is to get through to the center of the maze-like building firstPlayers navigate to get the different flowers Combinations of flowers give you new abilities (either mundane or super-powered)Players may only have 3 active abilities at a time (if you get a new one, the first one gets pushed out)Could be places or a power that allows you to remove all of your powersPlayers need to get these powers to get through barriers in the game Barriers can be gotten through by various means (2 or 3, minimum 1)On the board there are places where flowers grow (distributed fairly) (tokens of a color/image) Some places have flower boxes, and they’d give you a random flowerMore of the flower boxes in the center of the boardIf someone gets to the center, they win, but the others now want to try and get them caught (so they can now win) Players create new barriers for the winning one to keep them from being able to get out

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4.7
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The podcast where nice gamedevs talk gaming and game development. Nice!

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