Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

"Half trash compactor, half empty." Composting; Overdesigning

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. 0:09:56CompostingWriting Down the BonesNatalie GoldbergBonbonWikipediaThe Croissant Express diner mentioned in the book, formerly located on the corner of the Uptown Theater building.0:36:00OverdesigningMuralMirovia. "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/

Nice Thinking: "Untitled Memory Mechanic"

Ellen’s back in the clubhouse, let’s see what she remembers… Lydia brings a Dungeons and Dragons mechanic about recovering memories to the table in something she calls, ‘Untitled Mechanic’. Stephen feels part of a club that is not nicegames.club, a D&D club. And Mark brags about playing 2nd edition in middle school. Untitled Memory Mechanic in D&DLydia's websiteLydia SymchychOneshot inspirtationZacSpeaksGiantYouTubeLydia's google docLydia Symchych

"Everyone hates Jira." QA Workflows; Designing Discovery

Your nice host return to the complex and sometimes underappreciated world of quality assurance in the game dev space, and also explore discovery as a design focus. In this episode: Lydia is still looking for recommendations while at the Serious Play Conference (answer in Discord!), Mark hates on Jira and Stephen finally catches up to the latest gaming trend a couple of months late.Chants of Sennaar -  Rundisc, Steam0:06:27QA WorkflowsWhat Is A Kanban Board? The Ultimate GuideLaura Hennigan, Cassie Bottorff, Rob WattsForbes0:50:37Designing Discovery

3D Workflows for Indie Devs (with Freya Holmér)

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 HolmérShader Forge - Freya Holmér, GitHubShapes - Freya Holmér, Unity Asset Store3D for Indie DevsGame DesignToolsUI / UXValve Hammer Editor - Valve Developer CommunityPicoCAD - Johan Peitz, itch.ioTrenchBroom - GitHubCrocotile 3DWhat’s the difference between OBJ and FBX? And when to you what - RedditFreya HolmérGuestFreya Holmér is game developer, co-founder of Neat Corporation (makers of VR stealth game Budget Cuts), and creator of developer tools including Shader Forge and Shapes. She spends a significant amount of time interacting with people on her gamedev Twitch stream.External linkFreya on TwitchFreya on Twitter @FreyaHolmerFreya on YouTubeFreya on Instagram @freya_holmerNeat Corporation's WebsiteNeat Corp on Twitter @neatcorpBudget Cuts on SteamBudget Cuts on OcculusShader Forge on GitHub

Nice Games Jam: "Head in the Clouds"

This week, your Nice Hosts have a new prompt from a new source. Lydia's husband, Ian, draws from a rainy source of inspiration and the Hosts are all-in. We brush up on the water cycle, requisition the equipment, practice our Trans-Atlantic accents, dunk on hot dogs, and puzzle over water-based cloud economies.Big Pharma - SteamLe Ballon Rouge - WikipediaWater Cycle - WikipediaLoop Hero - SteamHuman Resource Machine - SteamPromptto match the current weather - what goes on inside the clouds during a thunderstorm?Game typeDesign documentPlayer count1RulesYou control a cloud factory and manage what the cloud distributesMission-based, scenariosPlenty of fun fantasy optionsCondition optionsSunshineWaterStatic (use a balloon?)WindThe shape of your factory/cloudWater is your core resourceUse it to build the factory, use it to make the rain and complete tasks, use it to expandGain it from water vapor and such (water cycle)Your factory is also water, you can reuse itYou go through a campaignPick between a set of jobs each time, bigger jobs give more repIsometric viewLevel 1: rain on the hot dog cartHave the cloud rain over an area for a specific period of timeThe mission before you just needed to dump some waterThe player needs to collect water to have enough rain on the hot dog cartAutomation is the gameYou need to shape the cloud to fit all of the machines that you order from a catalogCatalog has a ton of options, with their own efficienciesLevel 2: rain on a hot dog festivalLevel ??: Flood the Nile