with Ashley Phipps
#390
The clubhouse welcomes Ashley Phipps, producer for the game Clock Out at 2, to discuss the topic of mental health and discrimination.
2025.05.22
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!
- Friction by Design
- Diversity in Scoring
#389
In this episode the club house talks about the games that they have been playing. Mark attempts to define the terms good friction and bad friction, declares his distaste of rouge-likes, and talks about friction in his current projects.
2025.05.15
with Haley MacLeon
#388
Your nice hosts get a crash course on video game IP law from lawyer and MinnMax cohort, Haley MacLeon.
2025.05.08
- Let's Plays
- Responsive Game Design
#387
A new Nintendo is on the way, and your nice hosts talk about both it and the world it's being born into.
2025.05.01
Nice Games Jam
#386
Your nice hosts settle their differences in opinions when it comes to food to serve up a fresh game design document in a new Nice Games Jam episode.
2025.04.23
- The art of Saying No
- Tiny Interactions
#385
2025.04.17
Nice Games Jam
#384
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.
2025.04.10
- Begging for Money
- Quality of Life
#383
Beth leads Mark and Stephen through a therapy session. Stephen talks Kickstarter, Mark talks Patreon, and everyone agrees Beth's game Verdant Skies is great.
2025.04.03
Nice Thinking
#382
Beth Korth, board member of Nice Games Alliance, enters the clubhouse to talk about the purpose of the NGA and how to best fulfill that mission. They discuss how workshops, talks, and conferences fit into their plans.
2025.03.27
- Incremental Learning
- Making Science Fiction Worlds
#379
Lydia joins the clubhouse for her first regular episode as a host (it's calendar math)! The clubhouse discusses the release of Civilization VII and how it is taking up all of Stephen's time.
2025.03.20
Nice Games Jam
#381
The clubhouse gets Cretaceous this week; your nice hosts have been challenged to create a game about dinosaurs and their feeding habits.
2025.03.13
"More Ellen in the future." What We Did On Our Winter Break (2024-25)
#380
NEWS! New episodes now come out a week early on Patreon!! Sign up to listen to next week's episode now!
2025.03.06
with Arvi "Hempuli" Teikari
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.
2025.02.27
- Communicating Difficulty
- Remixed Play Modes
This week, Ellen kicks things off with a chat about how games tell players, “This might be tough!” and how to make that fun and fair. Stephen and Mark jump in with their takes on what makes difficulty settings shine.
2025.02.20
with Jarryd Huntley
Entering the clubhouse this week is our the third Owl (employee of Owlchemy Labs) and first Peabody Award winner (as lead developer for We Are OFK), to talk about the "dos," "don'ts," and "good enoughs" of optimization.
2025.02.13