Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

This week, the clubhouse becomes the birdhouse; we're talking pigeons! Dale created a prompt inspired by Ellen's activities as a child and she bombards your nice hosts with a TON of pigeon facts! We somehow designed a game out of it!As a note, Ellen's was still recording remotely but the first 5 minutes she was recording on the wrong mic! We corrected it after those 5 minutes. Breeds of Pigeons across the Globe. - Layne Gardner, The American Pigeon Museum and LibraryRacing Pigeon Training 25 mile - Hoosier Outdoors, YouTubeRacing Pigeons VS. Falcon (Pt.1) - "One Wing" - @Pigeonmaniacom, YouTubeAmazing video of a hawk chasing a homing pigeon -  Their own world, YouTubeA Rare Appreciation of the New York Pigeon - Alexandra Wolfe, The Wall Street JournalEllen's pictures of pigeons she posted in the Miro boardPromptCreate a game where you breed and raise pigeonsGame typeDesign documentSetupNone yet! It's a game design doc.RulesControl a group of pigeonsReal time strategy racing gameManage each bird by going to each bird, checking statuses and causing communication so pigeons can help each other get to the goalPlayers can give stats bonuses to each individual birdYou as the player don’t know where the pigeons are going, you have to figure out where the pigeons’ goal isCan be multiplayerSwapping between each pigeon gives you information about that pigeons’ statusPlayers have a very vague idea of where to go at the startWhen a predator appears, the player needs to outsmart the predator to escape and keep racingThen the player is off course and needs to find their way backSome races can be longer, where you need to find a place to rest for the night and have enough foodGame loopYou get a random selection of pigeonsCompete in a raceStart in a random place on the mapPigeons know where they need to go but the player does notPlayers need to deduce where the pigeons are going and make sure to lead all of them in the right directionPlayers control each pigeon individually, moving a pigeon will influence the other pigeons but will not move fully in that direction. Players need to guide each pigeon to their goal as a group, but control them individually.Control of pigeons is in third-person perspective, players need to jump between pigeons to see the whole view of the flockThere are areas on the map that the player will know about that can have more risk involved (like areas where predators will often be)There can be some collectables around that the player can pick up with birds to get bonuses (more points? movespeed?)When you complete the race, you can remove a pigeon from the racing group and add a new pigeon from a set of 3 randomly generated pigeons

Your nice hosts start this episode with some personal updates, and (spoiler) it does not "go quick" as planned, then take on two really fascinating production topics. Ellen puts both drawings on the fridge, Mark recommends a modern Polish masterpiece, and Stephen is a changed man.BONUS: This week's outtakes were much too long to include at the end of the show, so we put them on Patreon! It's 10+ minutes of behind-the-scenes outtakes that go a littler further than usual in revealing how your nice hosts assemble the program. Plus, bonus-bonus: an explanation of Mark's "Wandelprober." Any monthly donation amount will get you access to this and a bunch of other bonus content, as well as an ad-free episode feed. Join now!Noble Engine - Noble Robot, GitHubM+Dev: A Midwest Gamedev Conference - Wisconsin Games AllianceToppers Pizza Rolls Out Vegan Menu Across All Locations - VegWorld MagazineGreen Border is Agnieszka Holland’s Triumphant Stand Against Polish Corruption - Lena Wilson, The Film StageAgnieszka Holland’s ‘Green Border’ Acquired for the U.S. and U.K. by Kino Lorbe… - Elsa Keslassy, Variety0:42:09Debug FunctionalityThe debug menu Mark made for Widget Satchel.Explaining the "Probes" of TheatreChris PetersonOnStage Blog0:42:09PolishThe Art Of Game Polish: Developers SpeakJ. Matthew ZossGame Developer

In this episode the brothers Rob and John Donkin of BadViking join the hosts in the clubhouse for a frank discussion on goals and expectations, scoping, and setting milestone timelines, and making feedback useful.Scoping for your ProjectProductionBad Viking talks about Strange Horticulture, their most recent gameBest Best review for Strange Horticulture - Alice Bell, Rock Paper ShotgunPC Gamer Review - Christopher Livingston, PC Gamer

Ellen spoke with this week's guest, Filament Games' chief partnerships officer Jennifer Javornik, at the 2023 Serious Play Conference in Toronto, Canada about game-based learning, but also about commercializing serious games, growing the game development industry in the midwest US, and a whole lot more.Game-based LearningEventsGame DesignProductionSerious Play ConferenceWisconsin Games AllianceFilament Games

Earlier this autumn, Ellen visited Toronto to attend the Serious Play Conference. It's an event for people who design, develop, and study so-called "serious games" — that is, games used for education, training, therapy, and more. Ellen reports on her experiences in the city and at the conference, and shares some clips from conversations she had with some speakers at Serious Play. Also, Stephen and Mark talk about the weather.(Note: There were some audio issues with the recordings taken on-site at the conference. We've done our best, but it's not great. Our apologies!)Page One CafeMelanistic squirrels in TorontoSerious Play Conference - Main SitexAPIFilament Games (Madison, Wisconsin)The Red Bull Gaming Hub at TMUGeoffrey Lachapelle - LinkedIn0:28:07Excerpt from a conversation with Dr. David ChandrossDr. David Chandross at TMUMaslow's Hierarchy of NeedsWikipediaJohn Dewey (educational psychologist)Kurt Vonnegut on the 8 “shapes” of storiesBig ThinkBloom's Cognitive TaxonomyUniversity of Central Florida0:45:07Excerpt from a conversation with Roz HussinRoz HussinLinkedInAbout MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)edXRoutineFlow AppWalkr App

We welcome Trenton Greyoak into the clubhouse to talk about the vast topic of megagames! Trenton provides a huge amount of insight into the development and play of these games in this slightly more mega-sized than normal episode.MegagamesGame DesignGamingPhysical GamesMegagame - WikipediaModel United Nations - United NationsWatch the Skies! - South West MegagamesOrigins of Megagames - Jim Wallman, No Game SurvivesMegagame Makers - Megagame Makers UKSU&SD PLAY… A GODDAMN MEGAGAME - Shut Up & Sit DownVery Large Huge Games - Very Large Huge GamesCan Horses Climb Stairs? Can Horses Go Up & Down Stairs? - Katie Plakson, Horse Bonding SuccessDread - Erik Schmidt, Unpossible JourneysDen of Wolves - South West MegagamesMansa Musa - WikipediaThe National Security Decision Making Game - Rex Brynen, PAXsimsMegagame Coalition - Megagame CoalitionMegagame Assembly - Megagame AssemblyAssets and Images of Deephaven and other megagames

In this week's episode, Mark teaches us to cast polymorph, a 4th level transmutation spell. Just kidding! But Mark does put his high INT score to work helping us understand polymorphism, a useful feature of object-oriented programming. Later on, Stephen talks about the pattern of "save scumming" and considers how it might influence how designers create games. Ellen noodles on things.Noodle demo game - Ellen Burns-Johnson, The Training Arcade0:04:48Polymorphism31:57:0Save ScummingShepard. Wrex. Grunt.YouTube

Nice Games Club continues to celebrate the Spooky Season with the second-ever “Nice Games Panel”. Our panelists include creators known for their work on horror games: James Pratt, TorpalDork, and Max Kunze. We discuss the using humor and using nostalgia in horror games and if clowns have ever not been scary.Horror Games 201Game Design

The hosts dive into the woes of Unity and the elegance found in game design. They discuss the innovative word puzzle game Noodle and the challenges of composition over inheritance in coding. With humor, they compare programming practices in Unity and Godot. The conversation shifts to how elegance is perceived across different fields, using amusing anecdotes. They also explore the balance between simplicity and complexity in games, advocating for the appreciation of 'jank' as a valuable design aspect.

It's the first-ever "Nice Games Panel," in which we invite multiple guests on the show to discuss something interesting! Our panelists today include multiple creators who are known for their work on horror games: Schera Wyss, Conner Rush, Henry Hoare, Samuel Guglielmo, and Nick F. We discuss the fundamental nature of horror as a genre (or maybe a theme or an "orientation"), and what devs should consider if they're looking to make horror games that haunt players long after the end credits roll.Photo credit - Andrea Piacquadio, PexelsHorror Games 101Game DesignDreadXP SCP Foundation: Secure, Contain, Protect - collaborative fiction, Wikidot