#393"I’m intrigued by big door."Roundtable2025.06.12

Mark rushes through the introduction to talk about his two rush projects, one of which, Blippo+, was announced on Sunday during the PC Gaming Show! You'll hear more about that next week, but until then, Lydia talks about feeling seen in Anime, Stephen laments that his filmmaking class has not only ruined movies for him, but also music, and Dale does a good job editing out Lydia’s coughs.

Blippo+, coming to PC and Switch this fall!You Need To See FMV Cable TV Simulator Blippo+ - Wesley LeBlanc, Game InformerEmotional Effects of MusicStephen McGregorAudioA New Foe Has Appeared!Lydia SymchychMisc.

#381Dinosaurs of North DakotaNice Games Jam2025.03.13

The clubhouse gets Cretaceous this week; your nice hosts have been challenged to create a game about dinosaurs and their feeding habits.

PromptMake a game about the feeding habits of dinosaurs or of paleontologists, bonus points if all the dinosaurs are from the same era.Game typeDesign documentPlayer count1Rules

• Cretaceous period
  • Flowering plants evolved here
  • Early mammals here too
  • Velociraptors too!
• Different sized dinosaurs
• Name: Dinosaurs of North Dakota
  • Play as big (T-rex), small (dog-sized) and medium (triceratops)
  • Survive a day as each of these creatures
  • Order of play
    • Medium first (herbivore)
    • Big next (T-rex)
    • Small last (scavenger)
    • Then Paleontologist discovers (eats chicken with a PLASTIC fork)
  • Where you die determines how preserved the bones are during the paleontology phase
    • If you want more preserved bones you have to choose to not live as long (due to how the preservation works)
  • Gameplay
    • Play as the different creatures, the player chooses when that phase of the game ends
      • Can also end after a certain time played
    • Then you swap to a new creature and play as them, choosing when to end
    • When you get back to a creature, time has passed and things are different in the world (partly due to player influence from other creatures)
      • Player knocking down trees might be knocked down in future scenes, eating a lot of plants may make the area sparse in the future
    • Keep playing as the different creature until enough time has passed
    • Afterwards, play as a paleontologist and rediscover what you’ve done
    • Record what you’ve done with the knowledge the paleontologist has (and not the player), so it won’t actually be accurate to the player’s playthrough
    • Based on what the player’s done, it can affect what things the paleontologist will be able to say about the state of things after

#405Fishing Minigame CollectionNice Thinking2025.09.04

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! - SteamFishingStephen McGregorGamingLydia kicked of this topic with a comment an episode, maybe this one?Revisiting Your GamesFishing Minigame Meme - RedditLydia learned about noodling from this youtube channel - Bon Appetit, YouTubeFeeding time at a Fish Hatchery is bonkers! - YouTube

Lydia's nice list of games with fishing minigames

Tales of Arise

Pokemon

Animal Crossing

Stardew ValleyLegend of Zelda (many)

SkyrimKirby The Forgotten Land

Verdant Skies

Spiritfarer

Red Dead Redemption 2

Final Fantasy (many)

Sonic Frontiers

Far Cry 5Hades

#3963D Workflows for Indie DevsInterview2025.07.03

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 HolmérShapes - Freya Holmér, Unity Asset StoreShader Forge - Freya Holmér, GitHub3D Workflows 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 - Reddit

#391"The things that create the geometry."Roundtable2025.05.29

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 - WikipediaNintendo Switch 2 preorders were a total mess — at first - Jay Peters, The VergeMissed out on a Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order? GameStop and Best Buy will have mo… - Demi Williams, TechRadarWhat Happened With Future Club0:22:17Stephen McGregorIRLProductionPart-Time Hero Campaign Ending - Future Club, KickstarterDesign Surface Area0:48:57Mark LaCroixGame DesignRubber duck debugging - Wikipedia

#384Time Traveler Estate SaleNice Games Jam2025.04.10

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, CostcodleTimeline Inventions - Zygomatic, ZygomaticHypodermic Needles - Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine, Maximum FunPrompt"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 typeTabletop gamePlayer count2-8Materials

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 round
• While the timer runs, players place chips on items to bid on them
• When 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 round
• Items that are earned get their times revealed, player closest to the chosen year/event wins
• Play repeats for three rounds, player with the most round wins wins the game

#388Video Game IP LawInterview2025.05.08

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 - MinnMaxGame Informer Revival - Game InformerVideo Game IP LawMarketingMisc.ProductionThe $10 Million Lawsuit That Hinges On An Oxford Comma - Anna King, NPRVideo Game Publishing Agreement Market Report 2025 - Kellen Voyer & Haley MacLean, Voyer Law Corporation

#399"Half trash compactor, half empty."Roundtable2025.07.24

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. 

Composting0:09:56Lydia SymchychMisc.Writing Down the Bones - Natalie GoldbergBonbon - WikipediaThe Croissant Express diner mentioned in the book, formerly located on the corner of the Uptown Theater building.Overdesigning0:36:00Stephen McGregorGame DesignMuralMirovia. "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/

#375Digital Escape RoomsInterview2024.11.28

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 RoomsGame DesignArticulate Storyline 360HyperCard - WikipediaExhibit Design - WikipediaEscape Room Races with the Lads - Northernlion, YouTubeEscaping a Room of Terrors - GameGrumps, YouTube

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.

0:03:002025 Accomplishments

Mark

Blippo+Nice Games AllianceGDC 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!0:18:002025 "Nicest" Games

Lydia

Word PlayGame Maker's ToolkitSteamMy SimsWikipediaAge of Mythology: RetoldWikipedia(Honorable Mention) PeakWikipedia(Honorable Mention) Axolotl with a GunBright Bard Gamesitch.io

Mark

Mario Kart WorldNintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour(Honorable Mention) Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2

Stephen

Kirby Air Riders Blue Prince(Honorable Mention) Root (Honorable Mention) 2XKO0:36:402026 Most Anticipated Games

Lydia

Slay The Spire 2Steam(hopeful) Tales of the Abyss RemakeWikipedia(hopeful) Persona 6Reddit

Mark

Big WalkWikipediaSuper Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park …NintendoMark 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 gameNioh 30:47:222026 ResolutionsHear 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.