"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
Special
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.
Serious Play Conference 2025
#409
Your nice hosts Lydia and Ellen are on a seriously playful adventure in beautiful Rochester, New York for the Serious Play conference! They discuss game accessibility, D&D therapy, lexical gaps, validation, and more.
2025.09.18
"From apocrypha or experience." 400th Episode Special
#400
It's a big one for your nice hosts... and your newest nice host wants to know more. Lydia takes Mark and Stephen though the history of the program, in three acts.
2025.07.31
"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
Nicest of 2024
#378
The Duluth Basement Session
#363
Once again from hilly Duluth, Minnesota! On Day 2 of a game design weekend retreat, your nice hosts tackled rules—writing rules, rewriting rules, and playtesting them.
2024.09.05
Your game has a message... did you write it?
#348
Last month, Mark gave a talk at the IGDATC Gamedev Meeting about what it might mean to take game development seriously as an artistic practice, theorizing that video games are still a very young and immature medium by that stand
with Alyssa Walles and Audi Sorlie
#343
Your nice hosts conclude their GDC 2024 coverage with a pair of interviews they conducted at the show. Mark catches a post-show cold, Stephen gets over his, and Ellen thought everything sounded great.
GDC 2024 Special (Part 2)
#342
And now, the conclusion (sorta!), as tour nice hosts recount the back half of the week at this year's GDC.
2024.04.04
GDC 2024 Special (Part 1)
#341
Some of your nice hosts, plus some nice guest hosts, traveled to San Fransisco last week for the 2024 Game Developers Conference. There was so much to see and do and it ended up being too much for just one episode...
2024.03.28
"Hundreds of questions like that." What We Did On Our Winter Break (2023-24)
#337
2024.03.07
Nicest of 2023
#336
The clubhouse continues the annual tradition of reviewing the past year. But first they need to talk about Doctor Who and new Minnesota state flag.
with Jennifer Javornik
#331
Ellen spoke with this week's guest, Filament Games' chief partnerships officer Jennifer Javornik, at the 2023 Serious Play Conference in Toronto, Canada about game-based learning, but also about commercializing serious games, growing the
Serious Play Conference 2023
#330
Earlier this autumn, Ellen visited Toronto to attend the Serious Play Conference. It's an event for people who design, develop, and study so-called "serious games" — that is, games used for education, training, therapy, and more.
2023.11.10