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

We’re joined this week by Laura Onderwater, friend of the show! Laura is an experienced concept artist currently working with Greensky Games. In this interview, she shares a bit about her workflow and how she thinks about worldbuilding from an artistic perspective. Plus, your hosts learn when to cry into a pillow, and Stephen repeatedly asks for THE limit.
Greensky Games

SWARM - "The Epic Arcade Shooter Built for VR"
 - 
Greensky Games

Visual Worldbuilding
Art


Meow Wolf - Immersive Experiences


Wrist and forearm stretches for the workplace
 - 
Mayo Clinic


The Art of Psychonauts 2
 - 
Ashley Esqueda
, 
Double Fine Productions



Laura Onderwater
Guest

Laura is a passionate concept artist with years of experience in creating art for games. Laura is always excited to work on new projects, and to bring ideas and worlds to life.
External link
Laura on LinkedIn
Laura on Artstation

Your nice hosts conclude their GDC 2024 coverage with a pair of interviews they conducted at the show. Mark catches a post-show cold, Stephen gets over his, and Ellen thought everything sounded great.
Midwest Games / Carbon Engine

Midwest Games



Midwest Games


Chris Klimecky
 - 
LinkedIn


Midwest Games - Work with us


Carbon Engine



Carbon Engine
 - 
Limited Run


Shantae Advance
 - 
Shantae Wiki


Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore



Alyssa Walles
Guest

Alyssa Walles is Midwest Games' Chief Operating Officer, as well as the Executive Director of the IGDA Foundation.
External link
LinkedIn
Midwest Games Leadership Announcement




Audi Sorlie
Guest

Producer at Limited Run Games and Member of Digital Foundry.
External link
LinkedIn

And now, the conclusion (sorta!), as tour nice hosts recount the back half of the week at this year's GDC. It's a long one, but there's somehow even more on our Patreon.
GDC 2024 Special (Part 2)

ReSpec: Accountability Support



How Nintendo made Super Mario Bros. Wonder so weird
Andrew Webster
The Verge



Jack Foley (sound effects artist)
Wikipedia



The return of 1ReasonToBe and why we still need it
Marie Dealessandri
GamesIndustry.biz



Panic says two pallets of Playdates worth $400,000 have vanished in Vegas
Chris Kerr
Game Developer



A frequently-cited "good first episode" of Nice Games Club is one where we interview August Brown:
Developer/Publisher Relations


We had Monica on the show to help create a Nice Game Jam game in:
Blame the Cat! (with Monica Fan)

Some of your nice hosts, plus some nice guest hosts, traveled to San Fransisco last week for the 2024 Game Developers Conference. There was so much to see and do and it ended up being too much for just one episode... actually, it was too much for just two episodes!
So, how much GDC 2024 content is there exactly? Well, plans changed and it's too complex to summarize here, so be nice and have a listen to find out!
(SPOILER: There's 2+ hours of extra GDC content on our Patreon page!)
Musée Mécanique

GDC 2024 (Part 1)




Unity 6 and beyond: A roadmap of Unity Engine and services


We discussed the first "Flash Games Postmortem" in:
GDC 2017 Special (Part 2)

It's our first roundtable of the year! And did you know that Minneapolis is "partnered up" with Saint Paul? Stephen's not sure what either of these topics have to do with game development, but don't worry—we get there. Ellen kicks off a conversation about how the people we work with have a huge influence on what we create, and the experience of creating it. Mark tries to explain "control flow" in programming, and pretty much everyone gets it. You probably will, too.
Cover image by RF Studio
 - 
Pexels

Partnering Up

Click: The Magic of Instant Connection
by Ori Brafman, Ron Brafman
Goodreads






0:41:08
Control Flow

Control flow
Wikipedia

The 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 - a more sanitary air blower mechanism than drinking straws: a tiny bellows, small whoopie cushions, slide whistles, or party noisemakers?
Prompt
"Create a game where the main mechanics are fans and or leaf blowers."

Game type
Tabletop game

Player count
2 - 8

Materials
Blowing mechanisms - one per player (drinking straw in playtest)

A bunch of small peices of junk

A container for the small peices of junk

Playing feild (box, 8 sided)

Rule Card Deck



Setup
This is a game about some young teenagers who find some leaf blowers in their (octagonal) cul-du-sac and make a game with them.
Each player will select a side of the playing field (the box) as their home territory. The goal of the game is to have the least amount of junk (points-wise) fall off of your side of the field.
Rule Cards:
Separate the Rule cards into the three categories: Puff Variants, Point Variants, and Zone Variants. Shuffle the cards from each category, and pull three of each category to start each of the three rounds.Cards rule examples
Puff: Each player has 3 puffs per turnPoint: Each black item is worth +1 point, all other items are worth -1 pointZone: The windy end of your blowing mechanism may not be placed within zones 1+2 of the playing fieldShuffle the remaining rules cards from three categories together.From the combined deck, deal 4 cards to each player.The player may look at their hand of cardsPlace Junk (perform at the start of each round):
Gather some junk and place it in a container. Typically dice and pieces from other games will make up the majority of the junk, but this may also be dodads from your junk drawer like golf pencils, nails and screws, magnets etc.At the beginning of each round a different player will grab a handful of junk from the container and place it in the center of the 8-sided playing area.The junk placer may not arrange the junk when placing it down. Any junk that falls off of the playing field will be returned to the container of junk.



Rules
After the junk is placed the rule for each category is revealed, by flipping over the top rule card from each of the three piles: Puff, Point, and Zone. The displayed rules are now in effect.
The player who placed the junk will go first.
Each player turn has three phases:
1. The play may put a rule card from their hand into play by stacking it on top of the exsisting rule for the category which it belongs to (puff, point, or zone). That rule is now in effect and the rule that was covered up is no longer in effect.
2. The player uses their "leaf blower" to puff the objects in on the playing field the number of times indicated by the Puff rule. They must follow any Zone rules in effect.
3. The player's turn is scored according to the rule cards in effect. The player draws back up to 4 cards in their hand.
The round ends when each player has had 5 turns.
New junk is placed in the center of the playing field, new rule cards are revealed and the next round starts.
The object of the game is to have the least scoring junk blown off your edge of the playing field. Highest scoring player (usually player closest to 0 wins), as most junk is worth negative points.