Topics

Your nice hosts have covered hundreds of topics over the years, so we've categorized them here! Select a category, or browse the whole list. You can sort by topic name, episode name, or episode number.
Topic Category Host or Guest # Episode Starts at
Secrets & Easter Eggs Game Design Ellen Burns-Johnson 296 "Metroid is very serious." 0:24:43
Postmortem: "C.A.R.L." Game Design, Marketing, Production Andrew Kenady 297 Postmortem: "C.A.R.L." n/a
Skill Trees Game Design Stephen McGregor 298 "One size bigger and red." 46:38
CSS Programming Mark LaCroix 298 "One size bigger and red." 9:47
Tiny Horrors Game Design, Narrative Rosalie Vile 299 Tiny Horrors n/a
Lusory Attitude Gaming, IRL Ellen Burns-Johnson 302 "I love it when you kinda agree." 0:38:51
Endings Game Design, Narrative Mark LaCroix 302 "I love it when you kinda agree." 0:13:40
The Taxonomy of Horse Games Game Design, Gaming, Production Alice Ruppert 303 The Taxonomy of Horse Games n/a
The Psychology of Animation Art, Game Design, UI / UX Ellen Burns-Johnson 304 "Play thrice, and make thrice." 0:48:16
Stephen's "Rule of Threes" Game Design Stephen McGregor 304 "Play thrice, and make thrice." 0:17:30
Wandering into Game Development IRL Jamaal Sawyer-Dymski, Greg Borreson 305 Wandering into Game Development n/a
Unreal Engine Game Design, Production, Programming, Tools Zack Gilbertson 307 Unreal Engine for Indies n/a
Fall Damage Game Design Stephen McGregor 308 "You've probably seen them in Zelda." 56:40
Lessons from Tears of the Kingdom Game Design Mark LaCroix 308 "You've probably seen them in Zelda." 0:26:40
Nice Thinking about our future in Board Games IRL 309 The Nice Board Game Industrial Complex, a Nice Games Club Skunkworks Project 0:04:40
Nice Thinking about traveling to conferences Tabletop 309 The Nice Board Game Industrial Complex, a Nice Games Club Skunkworks Project n/a
Nice Thinking about NiceGameJam Games with Potential Game Design 309 The Nice Board Game Industrial Complex, a Nice Games Club Skunkworks Project 0:46:06
Cheating, Part 1 Gaming Ellen Burns-Johnson 310 "What's a little grand larceny?" 0:36:22
Licensing IRL, Production Mark LaCroix 310 "What's a little grand larceny?" 0:10:27
The State of "Dogpile!" IRL, Tabletop Mark LaCroix, Stephen McGregor, Ellen Burns-Johnson 311 The State of "Dogpile!" n/a
Companion Characters Game Design, Gaming Stephen McGregor 312 "Ask your friends." 0:46:22
Finding Help Production Ellen Burns-Johnson 312 "Ask your friends." 0:11:46
Player Motivations Game Design, Gaming Mark LaCroix 314 "Salt, in everything?" 0:26:57
Copying Others Art, Game Design, Narrative Stephen McGregor 314 "Salt, in everything?" n/a
Writing for Games IRL, Narrative Anna C Webster 315 Writing for Games n/a
Cheating, Part 2 Game Design, Gaming Ellen Burns-Johnson 316 Cheating, Part 2 0:16:58
Leadership IRL, Production Frani Esquenazi 317 Leadership n/a
Putting the Real World in Games Game Design, Narrative Mark LaCroix 318 "Sad or fascinating?" 0:50:22
Cheating, Part 3 Gaming, IRL, Programming Ellen Burns-Johnson 318 "Sad or fascinating?" 0:12:26
Getting Things Going IRL Rick Stemm 319 Getting Things Going n/a
Grind Game Design Ellen Burns-Johnson 320 "Stephen, explain this." 06:08
Emphasizing Uniqueness Marketing Stephen McGregor 320 "Stephen, explain this." 26:32
Working on a Bigger Team Production Julia Keren-Detar 322 Working on a Bigger Team n/a
Educating Intuition IRL, Misc. Ellen Burns-Johnson 323 "Sweet, sweet Toronto sounds." 0:52:56
Completionism Gaming Holly Harrison 323 "Sweet, sweet Toronto sounds." 0:09:09
Unity Runtime Fee and Subsequent Policy Correction IRL, Tools Mark LaCroix, Stephen McGregor, Ellen Burns-Johnson, Freya Holmér 324 Much Ado About Unity (with Freya Holmér) n/a
Horror Games 101 Game Design Samuel Guglielmo, Nikk F, Conner Rush, Schera Wyss, Henry Hoare 325 Horror Games 101 (with multiple guests) n/a
Elegance Game Design Ellen Burns-Johnson 326 "The opposing metric of jank." 0:33:00
Composition over Inheritance Programming Mark LaCroix 326 "The opposing metric of jank." 0:07:41
Horror Games 201 Game Design James Pratt, Torple Dook, Max Kunze 327 Horror Games 201 (with multiple guests) n/a
Save Scumming Game Design, Gaming Stephen McGregor 328 "Smarter, more evolved." 31:57:0
Polymorphism Programming Mark LaCroix 328 "Smarter, more evolved." 0:04:48
Megagames Game Design, Gaming, Physical Games Trenton Greyoak 329 Megagames n/a
Excerpt from a conversation with Roz Hussin Game Design, IRL, Misc. 330 Serious Play Conference Special 0:45:07
Excerpt from a conversation with Dr. David Chandross Art, Game Design, Misc., Narrative 330 Serious Play Conference Special 0:28:07
Game-based Learning Events, Game Design, Production Jennifer Javornik 331 Game-based Learning n/a
Scoping for your Project Production John Donkin, Rob Donkin 332 Scoping for Your Project n/a
Polish Production, Programming, UI / UX Ellen Burns-Johnson 333 "Am I making a joke?" 0:42:09
Debug Functionality Production, Programming, Tools Stephen McGregor 333 "Am I making a joke?" 0:42:09
Creative Career Paths Art, Game Design, IRL, Misc. Will Bredbeck 335 Creative Career Paths n/a
Our accomplishments IRL Mark LaCroix, Stephen McGregor, Ellen Burns-Johnson 336 Nicest of 2023 0:10:30
2024 Gamedev Resolutions IRL Mark LaCroix, Stephen McGregor, Ellen Burns-Johnson 336 Nicest of 2023 1:16:13
Most Anticpated of 2024 Gaming Mark LaCroix, Stephen McGregor, Ellen Burns-Johnson 336 Nicest of 2023 1:01:08
Nicest of 2023 Gaming Mark LaCroix, Stephen McGregor, Ellen Burns-Johnson 336 Nicest of 2023 0:29:11
What We Did On Our Winter Break (2023) IRL, Meta 337 "The Roboston Sessions" n/a
Control Flow Programming Mark LaCroix 339 "Things just happen, somewhere." 0:41:08
Partnering Up Production Ellen Burns-Johnson 339 "Things just happen, somewhere." n/a
Visual Worldbuilding Art Laura Onderwater 340 Visual Worldbuilding n/a
GameMaker Programming, Tools Seth Fulkerson 344 GameMaker n/a
Player Friction Game Design, Gaming Stephen McGregor 345 "Everything is everything." 1:08:31
South by Southwest 2024 Events, Misc., News Mark LaCroix 345 "Everything is everything." 0:09:52
Work Cultures Misc., Production Chris Bergman 346 Work Cultures n/a