"We need more train service in this country." What We Did On Our Winter Break (2025-26)
#421
Your nice hosts had an eventful time off from new episodes, but now they're back! So yeah, this is a long one...
2026.03.05
It's a gamedev podcast!
The show where nice gamedevs Lydia Symchych, Mark LaCroix, and Stephen McGregor (with friends and guests) talk gaming and game development!
with Mark DeLoura
Mark DeLoura's decades-long career in games includes roles ranging from Nintendo engineer to White House senior advisor.
2026.02.26
- Emotional Effects of Music
- A New Foe Has Appeared!
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!
2026.02.19
Nice Games Jam
The clubhouse gets Cretaceous this week; your nice hosts have been challenged to create a game about dinosaurs and their feeding habits.
2026.02.12
Nice Thinking
Stephen Business is back! And he’s attempting to make a meme into a reality. The clubhouse attempts to answer these (and other) questions:
2026.02.05
with Freya Holmér
We welcome Freya Holmér back into the clubhouse to talk about 3D game development for independent game developers.
2026.01.29
- What Happened With Future Club
- Design Surface Area
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.
2026.01.22
Nice Games Jam
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.
2026.01.15
with Haley MacLeon
Your nice hosts get a crash course on video game IP law from lawyer and MinnMax cohort, Haley MacLeon.
2026.01.08
- Composting
- Overdesigning
Ellen's back for a serendipitously in-sync pair of metacognition-rich roundtable topics.
2026.01.01
with Lydia Symchych
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.
2025.12.25
Nicest of 2025
#420
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.
- Lydia is an Artist
- Platforms and Ecosystems
#419
Part 3 of what your nice hosts are calling "Giving Lydia Therapy," we get into Lydia's thoughts on calling herself an artist and what it may mean to think of yourself in this way.
2025.12.11
- Interactivity vs. Play
- Fail States in Art
#418
Lots of thinking about thinking in this episode as the Nice Hosts attempt to define some core concepts to gameplay. What even is a game? Interactivity? Play? A failstate?!
2025.12.04
with Mark DeLoura
#417
Mark DeLoura's decades-long career in games includes roles ranging from Nintendo engineer to White House senior advisor.
2025.11.27