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/

Ellen’s back in the clubhouse, let’s see what she remembers. Lydia brings a Dungeons and Dragons mechanic about recovering memories called 'Untitled Mechanic,' Stephen feels part of a club that is not Nice Games Club, and Mark brags about playing 2nd Edition in middle school.

Untitled Memory MechanicLydia's websiteLydia SymchychOneshot inspirtationZacSpeaksGiantYouTubeLydia's google docLydia Symchych

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, Steam

0:06:27QA WorkflowsWhat Is A Kanban Board? The Ultimate GuideLaura Hennigan, Cassie Bottorff, Rob WattsForbes0:50:37Designing Discovery

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 Holmér
• Shapes - Freya Holmér, Unity Asset Store
• Shader Forge - Freya Holmér, GitHub

3D 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

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 - Steam
• Le Ballon Rouge - Wikipedia
• Water Cycle - Wikipedia
• Loop Hero - Steam
• Human Resource Machine - Steam

Promptto match the current weather - what goes on inside the clouds during a thunderstorm?Game typeDesign documentPlayer count1Rules

• You control a cloud factory and manage what the cloud distributes
• Mission-based, scenarios
  • Plenty of fun fantasy options
• Condition options
  • Sunshine
  • Water
  • Static (use a balloon?)
  • Wind
  • The shape of your factory/cloud
• Water is your core resource
  • Use it to build the factory, use it to make the rain and complete tasks, use it to expand
  • Gain it from water vapor and such (water cycle)
  • Your factory is also water, you can reuse it
• You go through a campaign
  • Pick between a set of jobs each time, bigger jobs give more rep
• Isometric view
• Level 1: rain on the hot dog cart
  • Have the cloud rain over an area for a specific period of time
  • The mission before you just needed to dump some water
  • The player needs to collect water to have enough rain on the hot dog cart
  • Automation is the game
  • You need to shape the cloud to fit all of the machines that you order from a catalog
    • Catalog has a ton of options, with their own efficiencies
• Level 2: rain on a hot dog festival
• Level ??: Flood the Nile 

Your nice hosts talk about saving both your position in a game and saving your secrets from being spread around. Also in this episode: Stephen's birthday is coming up, Lydia's been presenting in webinars for a while, and Mark's got a new game coming soon!

• Category Quest - ELB Learning
• Webinar | Let’s Play! Category Quest: ELB Learning’s Newest Game - ELB Learning, YouTube
• Webinar | Escape Room Rx: Innovating Game-Based Clinical Education - ELB Learning, YouTube
• Episode we interviewed Lydia on before she became a host!Digital Escape Rooms
• Blippo+ - Panic
• Blippo+ on Steam - Panic, Steam

0:09:50Save SystemsBuilding Cognitive Accessibility Into Your GamesGame Developers ConferenceYouTubePassword SaveTV Tropes0:33:20Keeping Secrets

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 Informer

Emotional Effects of MusicA New Foe Has Appeared!

This week in the club house Adrian Sandoval describes how video games are speed running art history. Your nice hosts have their minds blown many times and Steven discovers he might actually like history!? Stay tuned to find out where the 90 day return policy came from.

• Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends - Team Nemo
• Chris Totten, co-author of Adrian's book, has been on the showTeaching Gamedev to Young People, Again!

Adrian SandovalGame DesignHardwareMarketingSpacewar! - WikipediaAdventure (Atari 2600) and its designer's easter egg - Atari OnlineAlex Smith, They Create Worlds - They Create WorldsEp. 22: Remembering Atari with Howard Scott Warshaw - Robin Kunimune, Video Game History HourTeach Me Something in 5 Minutes 2 - What Games Can Learn from Theatre w/ Adrian… - Adrian Sandoval, YouTubeConsole Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation - Blake J. Harris, Goodreads

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 - Wikipedia
• Nintendo Switch 2 preorders were a total mess — at first - Jay Peters, The Verge
• Missed out on a Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order? GameStop and Best Buy will have mo… - Demi Williams, TechRadar

0:22:17What Happened With Future ClubPart-Time Hero Campaign EndingFuture ClubKickstarter0:48:57Design Surface AreaRubber duck debuggingWikipedia

The clubhouse welcomes Ashley Phipps, producer for the game Clock Out at 2, to discuss the topic of mental health and discrimination.

Mental Health and DiscriminationGame DesignGamingNarrativeClock Out at 2 Demo -  Borderless Studios, SteamWhat to know about microaggressions - Anna Smith Haghighi, Medical News TodayQueerty Gamers - Queerty GamersSpooktober 2023 Clock Out at 2 Build - itch.ioDepression Quest - Zoe QuinnAdventures with Anxiety - Nicky CaseFight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn: How We Respond to Threats - "Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc", Simply Psychology

Good Reps for Mental Health depiction

Final Fantasy XIV - SquareEnixThe Cosmic Wheel SisterhoodTales of Arise - Steam