Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

This week on Nice Games Club we interview VR Developer Andrew Fladeboe about his dream-like VR experience/thesis project Oneirogen! We explore the infinite and paradigm changing possibilities of VR, learn how Andrew brought his virtual experience into the real world as an installation and get his advice for creating change- make more weird art!Picture is a screenshot of Oneirogen by Andrew FladeboeVirtual RealityVR / AR / XROneirogen on SteamAlchemists - WikipediaJoseph Campbell - WikipediaCarl JungCave of Forgotten Dreams film by Werner Herzog

This week on Nice Games Club your nice hosts discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of Level Design and Heads Up Displays. Mark has opinions about Sonic, Stephen picks his hill to die on and Martha brings in a pinch hitter.Picture from this Reddit thread on MMO HUDs0:14:19Level DesignTen Principles of Good Level Design (Part 1)Dan TaylorGame DeveloperMark and Stephen rant about Sonic the Hedgehog’s level design, but here’s a def…Satchell DrakesYouTubeKoichi Hayashida is the Level Design Director for Mario Galaxy/Director of Mario 3D Land (and lots and lots of other Marios) that Mark mentioned.The Structure of Fun: Learning from Super Mario 3D Land’s Director Christian NuttGame DeveloperBug! gameWikipedia0:53:49HUDsDiegetic HUDs and UITV TropesThe Moon Fields by local dev Lunarsignals

This week’s episode is another edition of Code Comment, where your nice hosts look at the project, code, assets, and design of an indie game in development to see how it’s made.This week, we look at our first non-Unity project (!!!) as Mark walks us though the ActionScript codebase of Metro Nexus, his in-development homage to the classic(?) arcade-era game City Connection. We also look at the art asset workflow Mark designed for the game.Video

This week, Martha admits to piracy, Stephen tells Nintendo to just stop making GameCube controllers already, and Mark tells his favorite video game story which is about buttons because Mark is boring.Amazing Mario 3 Speedrun Is Full Of Setbacks And Sportsmanship - Heather Alexandra, Kotaku0:11:31Language of GamesWhen snarky players still want to give info against the GM’s wishes, you get th…@SeiWotTwitterStop, Drop, and Heal: The history of regenerating health”Jeff DunnGamesRadarAn article from the developers of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst on the new Runner’s Vi…EAThe Sony PlayStation’s buttons get explained by their designer John BrownleeGeek.comThe Japanese Side of the PlayStation Button Confusion Richard EisenbeisKotakuThe passion of the checkpoint: Why gaming's most frustrating failure is so hard…Ben KucheraPolygonWe played the convention-defying game OneShot on our very first Nice Plays episode.Nice Plays: OneShot (2016)Rami Ismail documented his mother’s playing through new games on Twitter.@tha_ramiTwitter1:07:25SequelsThe MIT Dropouts Who Created Ms. Pac-Man: A 35th-Anniversary Oral HistoryBenj Edwards Fast CompanyTV Tropes has a list of spiritual successors in video games.TV Tropes

The clubhouse welcomes back Lane Davis and new guest Gloria Kim to discuss developing and releasing a visual novel in 2018. We talk through the process of creating their visual novel, Ruler by Default, as well as hear their insights about being successful in the genre.Visual NovelsGame DesignMarketingNarrativeTake a look at "Ruler by Default'"'s funded Kickstarter campaign.Buy "Ruler by Default" on Steam now - Steam

This week, your nice hosts cover the topics of Rogue-likes and Crowdfunding while sneaking in a third topic about E3.In this episode, Mark discusses his previous crowdfunding campaigns, Stephen discovers his new love for an old genre and Martha proposes a new E3 uniform rule.[0:00:28] E3Here’s the official E3 recap website if you missed any news.The Real Stories Behind E3’s Glossy Game Demos - Patrick Klepek, KotakuHitRecord, Beyond Good & Evil 2 and the #nospec backlash - Jeff Ramos, Polygon0:29:45RoguelikesAn article on the The Berlin Interpretation of Roguelikes from the Internationa…Game Set WatchWe covered procedural generation in a previous episode: "Mutual butt-kicking." 0:57:47CrowdfundingStar Citizen, I am disappointedRobert PurcheseEurogamerThe Double Fine Adventure! documentary series is available on Youtube.Fig is a newer option for game developers to get funding.Mark loved WHAT THE GOLF?, already funded through Fig!We talked about Steam Greenlight with the Korth family in their interview episode.Steam GreenlightHatchfund has helped many artists become successfully funded as well.

This week’s episode is another edition of Code Comment, where your nice hosts look at the project, code, assets, and design of an indie game in development to see how it’s made.This week, we scamper though Widget Satchel, a mascot-based platformer Mark and Stephen are working on. We took a look at the game right in our Ludum Dare Extravaganza Nice Play episode but the team has done so much more work since then! Learn all about the cool tools Mark coded to help Stephen build levels quickly, how mischief physics works, and more!We took a look at the game right in our Ludum Dare Extravaganza Nice Play episode but the team has done so much more work since then!Nice Plays: Ludum Dare 40 games (2017)Video

This week on Nice Games Club your nice hosts discuss Code Libraries, Tutorials and all the juicy pre-E3 news that was available at the time of this recording. Stephen debates the merits of show vs. tell in tutorials, Martha complains about the WordPress theme and plug-in search and Mark doesn't fall for Pokemon propaganda.Picture: a diagram from this Wikipedia article of the iconic World 1-1 from Super Mario Brothers which was a tutorial in disguise![0:05:17] Pre-E3 NewsHow Close is 'Assassin's Creed: Origins' Egypt to the Real Thing? - Justin Reeve, Waypoint0:17:29Code LibrariesNot Invented here (NIH) philosophyTechopediaUnity ratchets up its marketing to game developers - without a GDC boothDean TakahashiVentureBeat0:41:51Tutorials

Stephen is still in missing in Chicagoland, so we once again retained the services of guest co-host Holly Harrison for an episode featuring two topics that could not be more completely unrelated to each other.First, Holly teaches us some media relations skills that gamedevs need to know (even if they don't want to), and then, because Stephen isn't around to stop us, Mark and Martha (but mostly Mark) talk about the history of Star Trek games!0:01:25Media RelationsHey you, indiedev, use presskit()!Write a better press release using the Inverted PyramidTodd VersteegSignature StyleHolly recommended “trying out” Buzzsumo and Buzzstream.Artist Statement GuidelinesGetting Your Sh*t TogetherSimilarwebWikipediaAsk Holly your PR questions on twitter: @hollharris.0:31:20Star Trek Games“How a Star Trek card game quietly continues, 10 years after its official end”Cyrus FarivarArs TechnicaThe unreleased sequel to the Star Trek VCR board game was called “Borg Q-Uest.”…The "Q the Referee" CCG card that features a still taken from that game's unused footage.The fictional VCR board game from Community we mentioned was called “Pile of Bu…Mark talked about the end of the 90s-era Star Trek action figure line. That sto…“Looking At The Star Trek: TNG Interactive Technical Manual From 1994”Will StapeTreknews“The inside story of Apple's forgotten project: Quicktime VR”Kif LeswingBusiness InsiderYou can actually play “Star Trek: Klingon” on YouTube!“Language App Duolingo Finally Added Klingon”David MurphyLifehacker“The best Star Trek games”Richard CobbettPC Gamer“Jeff Bezos announces Amazon is picking up 'The Expanse'”Richard LawlerEngadget“Retrohistories: Secret of Vulcan Fury: Trek's Lost Adventure”Chris ChapmanYouTube“The Game Archaeologist: Perpetual's Star Trek Online”Justin OlivettiEngadgetUbisoft teased on Twitter that DS9’s USS Defiant will appear in Bridge Crew.Mark praised Star Trek: Ascendancy on a previous episode of the program.Nicest of 2016“Hogwarts Mystery Players Upset With Use of Microtransactions”Shabana ArifIGN

For an episode 18 months in the making, Ben Hanson, video producer for Game Informer and host of the excellent gaming podcast The Game Informer Show, finally enters the clubhouse for a wide-ranging discussion about which games and developers get the attention of the gaming press, developing games for modern audiences, and creative leadership in both AAA and indie teams.The Gaming PressGamingIRLMarketingHere is the fabled tweet that started the long road to this episode.Subscribe to The Game Informer Show via RSS (podcast) or on YouTube.Get more of Ben's unimpeachable wisdom on Twitter!How A Japanese Reality TV Show About Nothing Became A Global Hit - Mia Nakaji Monnier, BuzzfeedBen mentioned a clubhouse favorite game by a local developer, Color Jumper (on …Enjoy Martha's famous crab dance!Where the Water Tastes Like Wine Postmortem - Johnnemann Nordhagen, MediumBen mentioned the Easy Allies podcastAlan Alda's Experiment: Helping Scientists Learn To Talk To The Rest Of Us - Lulu Garcia-Navarro, NPR