This week, your nice hosts talk about code that isn't yours and ask about the natural conclusion of the narrative. Mark is handy, Ellen kinda wants to add a note, and Stephen is grounded.

We didn't mention it in the episode for some reason, but our "Metroidvania-lite" game Widget Satchel had no deaths, game overs, or failure states.

It's a cheery and bright episode to get you through the dark cold days of winter! ☃️ Your hosts (plus guest Joanna May) wrap up 2024 with a readout of their nicest things from the year—nicest games, nicest accomplishments, and nicest procrastinations. Plus, plans and projects for 2025, some soft resolutions, and a review of some exciting upcoming titles you're likely to see hit various storefronts in the next calendar year. A happy year's end to all!

• Cover image credit goes to Animal Crossing World.

  This year's selection of Nice Replays start next week. See you in 2025!

Mark

• Founded a 501(c)(3) organization, Nice Games Alliance.
• Got a new job, on a still unannounced game.
• Renewed the lease on the Noble Robot office

Stephen

• I made two movies! (Or at least I will have by the end of the year)
• Immense progress on Future Club game

Ellen

• My RSV game won multiple industry awards <3 
• Hired Lydia
• Running out of plant room

Joanna

• Solved generalized serialization
• Palette generation too
• Lots of iterative things that were worked on last year
  

This is not a “best of 2024” or even a definitive list of our favorites. It’s just a few games we want to be nice to.

• Ellen

• We Were Here series
• Bonza

• Astro Bot

• Dragon's Dogma II
• UFO 50
• Puzzmo

• Helldivers II
• Breath of the Wild 

• Ellen

• Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
• Winter Burrow
• FragPunk
• Borderlands 4
• Rift of the Necrodancer...???
• Lunar: Remastered Collection (for Eric)

• Civilization VII
• Star Trek Ascendancy: The Final Frontier (the Gorn!)
• The Switch 2

• Dragon Dogma II DLC (I’m cheating I know)
• Civilization VII
• Honestly probably Switch 2 stuff, too

• Paralives
  

• Ellen: Finally put together a portfolio site!
• Mark:

• Dreamsettler, again!
• Unannounced project
• Release Operators!
• Get Nice Games Alliance some sponsors/donations!

We invite Joanna May into the clubhouse to discuss serialization. We get ever so slightly closer to discovering what serialization even is with Joanna's help! We also have a little time to throw a little shade at Stephen's commenting style and brackets on their own line.

• Chickensoft
• Tibo, artist of the Chickensoft mascot.
• Eating your own dog food (Dogfooding) - Wikipedia
• Logic Blocks - Wikipedia

In this episode Lydia is back to discuss join the clubhouse in both a discussion of her first job, and making a game about set job. But, because the club can't choose, it is also about Ellen's job at her parents' pet store. 

• When introducing Lydia to the concept of a nice games jam, the stages of the nice game jam are referenced. Here are the stages:

VHS tape

Mall map

• Takes place in a mall, in a starbase
  • Theater, retail, pet store, cafeteria
  • Pen and paper RPG, players need to figure out what’s going on outside without leaving the mall/their jobs
  • Communication is limited somehow
  • Nosy kids?
  • Point where we’re in too deep?
  • It’s now a VHS tape/DVD game.
  • Each character has unique roles and abilities based on their job
    • Cafeteria unboxer person, sees recycling bins, can make things out of trash
    • Retail, interacts with customers regularly
    • Pet store, young kid who does mischief things
    • Theater, technical expertise, interacts with other staff of theater
  • Mall wide announcements (security, mall, etc.)
  • Different locations have a stack of cards containing information, they have unique ability to access these different decks. Info from cards cannot be talked about, you need to move to another player to give them that information.
  • NPCs move on a track separately, they move during the “computer” turn, the mall is a separate turn/entity
  • NPCs control how much players can move (they may have customers they need to deal with)
  • Each round the players have certain actions, different actions if there are customers in the store
  • Some cards are gossip (from customers), some cards are evidence (physical things you find)
  • Some of the gossip is false, good/juicy information is rare
  • Narrative
    • Three acts
      • Act 1: Something’s going on! 
        • Busier than normal, more security, longer shifts than normal because everyone needs to be in the mall, the management wants to keep everyone there
        • A lot of the rumors are about not being able to do their regular jobs outside of the mall
      • Act 2: It’s one of three things
      • Act 3: Did we figure out what’s going on?
  • You have to figure out what the threat is, afterwards pick some number of ways to deal with it, depending on the response you have a list of tasks to complete to fulfill. If the tasks you did relate to the actual threat, you get points.

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. 💖

Your nice hosts chew over a concept Stephen brings into the clubhouse: a series of "game jams" where participants iterate on one specific idea in each session.

• Playdate Update - Fall 2024 - Panic, YouTube
• Noble Engine - Noble Robot
• IGDATC Events - igdatc

Releasing 2019's "Baba is You" after more than a decade of making puzzle games was a milestone for this week's guest, but it was also just the beginning of his design journey. Arvi "Hempuli" Teikari talks to your nice hosts about the balance between giving players freedom and constraining their expression, the pacing and sequencing of individual puzzles, what happens when a "cool" design annoys players, and more.

• Arvi's cats make a spirited apperance in the back half of the episode. Here they are basking in the Finnish sun.

In this episode Ellen usurps the normal process for a nice game jam prompt to explore her own idea on tabletop mechanics. Who would have thought the scoring system for this game would be 'Points for the Future War'?

• Stephen's One-Minute Movie - Stephen McGregor's Group, YouTube

• Discussion during development

• Subbuteo
• Soapboxderby.org
• Bullet Bill Soapbox Derby Car - Lou Whitmire, Mansfield News Joural

Board - 5x5 grid where tiles can be placed

5 racer sleds

Racer weights

Tiles with different friction coefficients (terrain tiles)

Mission from HQ Cards

Special Objective Cards

1) Racer sleds and racer weights are randomly distributed to the racetrack row. 2) Each racer sled gets the name of a racer. Each racer name should be silly, like Jenny Too-fast or Billy Tumble.

Players are given each a set amount of time-travel credits.

On their turn, each player uses a time-travel credit to either replace or swap terrain tiles.

When each all players have spent their time travel credits, the race is on! All racer sleds are released from their starting box, and the results of the race are observed. 

Each completed mission results in the number of 'Points for the Future' on the mission from HQ card awarded to that player. The number of points is based on the difficulty of the mission.

After the weekend derby is complete (15 rounds), the player with the most point for the future war is declared the winner, but not for 20-30 years.

"Tutorials shouldn’t feel like tutorials!" Like most aspects of game design, it's an easy concept to summarize but a difficult one to pull off. Luke Spierewka and the team at Afterburn Games have mastered it, using their charming approach in successful titles like Golf Peaks and Railbound. Come learn the arcane secrets of the puzzle game tutorial! Also featuring some great room sound.

• Afterburn Games (studio)

Luke is a game designer, programmer, and jack of all trades. He makes games, organizes events, gives talks (and interviews) and does "lots of other stuff." He's worked on many titles, including Railbound, Golf Peaks, Gwent, and SUPERHOT. Learn more about Luke at http://spierek.net/

This week, your nice hosts talk a little bit about our civic duty before getting into two very on-brand topics. Make a plan to vote on (or before!) November 5th. Information at https://vote.org/

• Everything You Need to Vote - Vote.org
• What States Allow Same Day Voter Registration and When? - Rock the Vote
• The Only Patriotic Choice for President - The New York Times
• These are the Republicans endorsing Harris over Trump - Niha Masih, The Washington Post
• Donald Trump Is Unfit to Lead - The New York Times
• Donald Trump’s First Term Is a Warning - New York Times Opinion, The New York Times