Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

Lydia, Stephen, and Mark
  • 4.7 (41)
  • VIDEO GAMES
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

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

  1. 3D AGO

    Nice Thinking: "Fishing Minigame Collection" [Nice Replay]

    #405 Fishing Minigame Collection Nice Thinking 2025.09.04 Stephen Business is back! And he’s attempting to make a meme into a reality. The clubhouse attempts to answer these (and other) questions: How many fishing minigames is too many fishing minigames?Is it okay to shoot fish with lasers?Who are those teenagers with emo hair in the Bentley?Should Stephen make something on the Playdate?Why do people go fishing?Does anyone actually like fishing? You can wishlist 'Blippo+' on Steam!  -  Steam Fishing Stephen McGregor Gaming Lydia kicked of this topic with a comment an episode, maybe this one? Revisiting Your Games Fishing Minigame Meme  -  Reddit Lydia learned about noodling from this youtube channel  -  Bon Appetit ,  YouTube Feeding time at a Fish Hatchery is bonkers!  -  YouTube Lydia's nice list of games with fishing minigames Tales of Arise Pokemon Animal Crossing Stardew Valley Legend of Zelda (many) Skyrim Kirby The Forgotten Land Verdant Skies Spiritfarer Red Dead Redemption 2 Final Fantasy (many) Sonic Frontiers Far Cry 5 Hades

  2. JAN 29

    3D Workflows for Indie Devs (with Freya Holmér) [Nice Replay]

    #396 3D Workflows for Indie Devs Interview 2025.07.03 We welcome Freya Holmér back into the clubhouse to talk about 3D game development for independent game developers. We get into the specifics of the tools available for devs and why they work and don't work for different teams, but it's mostly an excuse to talk about Freya's new 3D modeling software. Half-Edge  -  Freya Holmér Shapes  -  Freya Holmér ,  Unity Asset Store Shader Forge  -  Freya Holmér ,  GitHub 3D Workflows for Indie Devs Game Design Tools UI / UX Valve Hammer Editor  -  Valve Developer Community PicoCAD  -  Johan Peitz ,  itch.io TrenchBroom  -  GitHub Crocotile 3D What’s the difference between OBJ and FBX? And when to you what  -  Reddit

  3. JAN 22

    "The things that create the geometry." What Happened With Future Club; Design Surface Area [Nice Replay]

    #391 "The things that create the geometry." Roundtable 2025.05.29 Your nice hosts all secured a Switch 2 pre-order... from a certain point of view. Then, Stephen examines the body, Mark attempts a vocabulary, and Lydia has recommendations. Chants of Sennaar  -  Wikipedia Nintendo Switch 2 preorders were a total mess — at first  -  Jay Peters ,  The Verge Missed out on a Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order? GameStop and Best Buy will have mo…  -  Demi Williams ,  TechRadar What Happened With Future Club 0:22:17 Stephen McGregor IRL Production Part-Time Hero Campaign Ending  -  Future Club ,  Kickstarter Design Surface Area 0:48:57 Mark LaCroix Game Design Rubber duck debugging  -  Wikipedia

  4. JAN 15

    Nice Games Jam: "Time Traveler Estate Sale" [Nice Replay]

    #384 Time Traveler Estate Sale Nice Games Jam 2025.04.10 Roles reverse as Dale joins Stephen and Lydia for a Nice Game Jam prompted by Mark. The results are an antiques-fueled jaunt through time, and an unexpected win for Stephen. Costcodle  -  Zak Kermitz ,  Costcodle Timeline Inventions  -  Zygomatic ,  Zygomatic Hypodermic Needles  -  Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine ,  Maximum Fun Prompt "Come up with a game where the winner is the player who gets (or gets closest to) a certain amount of points, but that amount changes from round to round. Hard mode variant: the players don’t always know what the amount is." Game type Tabletop game Player count 2-8 Materials Set of item cards from various years 10 chips for each player Set of years/events Timer Setup Place 8 item cards on the table easily accessible for all players. Pick a random year/event. Set timer for 1 minute. Rules Start the timer to start the roundWhile the timer runs, players place chips on items to bid on themWhen the timer runs out, the player with the most chips on an item gets that item. In a tie, no one gets an item and it gets added to the pool during the next roundItems that are earned get their times revealed, player closest to the chosen year/event winsPlay repeats for three rounds, player with the most round wins wins the game

  5. JAN 8

    Video Game IP Law (with Haley MacLeon) [Nice Replay]

    #388 Video Game IP Law Interview 2025.05.08 Your nice hosts get a crash course on video game IP law from lawyer and MinnMax cohort, Haley MacLeon. We learn about incorporating, publishing agreements, the difference between a lot of commonly used terms like "copyright", and the joys of contract templates.  MinnMax  -  MinnMax Game Informer Revival  -  Game Informer Video Game IP Law Marketing Misc. Production The $10 Million Lawsuit That Hinges On An Oxford Comma  -  Anna King ,  NPR Video Game Publishing Agreement Market Report 2025  -  Kellen Voyer & Haley MacLean ,  Voyer Law Corporation

  6. JAN 1

    "Half trash compactor, half empty." Composting; Overdesigning [Nice Replay]

    #399 "Half trash compactor, half empty." Roundtable 2025.07.24 Ellen's back for a serendipitously in-sync pair of metacognition-rich roundtable topics. In this episode, Lydia shares a chapter from one of her favorite books and tries to explain ganache while Stephen laments how easy it is to duct tape on features instead of solving problems. Together they discover four brains are better than one when it comes to figuring out how to get out of your head.  Composting 0:09:56 Lydia Symchych Misc. Writing Down the Bones  -  Natalie Goldberg Bonbon  -  Wikipedia The Croissant Express diner mentioned in the book, formerly located on the corner of the Uptown Theater building. Overdesigning 0:36:00 Stephen McGregor Game Design Mural Miro via. "Writing at Night: Lewis Carroll, John Milton, and Me" by Mike Mason. https://www.mikemasonbooks.com/writing-at-night-lewis-carroll-john-milton-and-me/

  7. 12/25/2025

    Digital Escape Rooms (with Lydia Symchych) [Nice Replay]

    #375 Digital Escape Rooms Interview 2024.11.28 All of your hosts are together in the Clubhouse for a special interview! Lydia Symchych is an impact game designer who has been working with Ellen over the last year. Today, she shares her experience of making an escape room that needed to be rendered in both "physical" and and digital environments. Also, sound effects and pillows. In the USA, November 28th is Thanksgiving Day, and November 29th is National Native American Heritage Day. Happy holidays, if you're in the USA—and if you're not, we hope you have something to be thankful for. 💖 Digital Escape Rooms Game Design Articulate Storyline 360 HyperCard  -  Wikipedia Exhibit Design  -  Wikipedia Escape Room Races with the Lads  -  Northernlion ,  YouTube Escaping a Room of Terrors  -  GameGrumps ,  YouTube

  8. 12/18/2025

    Nicest of 2025

    In this end-of-year tradition, your nice hosts talk about the games they played and the things that they accomplished in 2025, as well as the games they're excited to play and the things they hope to do in 2026. Stephen and Mark both had an up and down year and both picked predictable nicests (if you know anything about them), while Lydia realizes that she missed the show's orientation day. For 2025, Lydia made a Bingo card instead of making resolutions. 0:03:00 2025 Accomplishments Mark Blippo+ Nice Games Alliance GDC 2026 Speakers - Mark LaCroix Stephen Stephen successfully helped run an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign, which he detailed in: "The things that create the geometry." Melanated Game Kitchen Lydia Lydia joined the podcast this year! Her first episode as a permanent host was in the ironically titled "More Ellen in the future." What We Did On Our Winter Break (2024-25) Lydia went from a contractor to a full-time employee! 0:18:00 2025 "Nicest" Games Lydia Word Play Game Maker's Toolkit Steam My Sims Wikipedia Age of Mythology: Retold Wikipedia (Honorable Mention) Peak Wikipedia (Honorable Mention) Axolotl with a Gun Bright Bard Games itch.io Mark Mario Kart World Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour (Honorable Mention) Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 Stephen Kirby Air Riders Blue Prince (Honorable Mention) Root (Honorable Mention) 2XKO 0:36:40 2026 Most Anticipated Games Lydia Slay The Spire 2 Steam (hopeful) Tales of the Abyss Remake Wikipedia (hopeful) Persona 6 Reddit Mark Big Walk Wikipedia Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park … Nintendo Mark is hopeful, but not expecting, that Super Mario Galaxy 3 might be announced for Super Mario Bros.' 40th anniversary. Stephen Stephen is always wishing for another Kirby game Nioh 3 0:47:22 2026 Resolutions Hear more on last year's resolutions in: Nicest of 2024 Stephen Make stuff and be creative.Go to GDC.Get a job or work towards getting projects in Melanated Game Kitchen that are equivalent to a full time job.Get or make progress on his degree. We interviewed a developer from Melanated Game Kitchen in: Mental Health and Discrimination Mark Finish playing Chants of Senaar.Get out of post-release rut.Release something in 2026, such as Operators, Noble Tools, or anything else.Keep working for/on Nice Games Alliance and get grant funding.Organize a large indie developer community project or event.Maybe bring Blippo+ to other consoles.Bring a project to pitch at GDC. Lydia Go to GDC.Work on her website.Developer another escape room project.Make a game that features environmental storytelling.Play more games.

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

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