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
Stephen's Most Anticipated (for 2018) Nicest Stephen McGregor 66 Nicest of 2017 0:38:35
Stephen's Most Anticipated (for 2019) Nicest Stephen McGregor 113 Nicest of 2018 n/a
Stephen's Nicest (2016) Nicest Stephen McGregor 9 Nicest of 2016 n/a
Stephen's Nicest (2018) Nicest Stephen McGregor 113 Nicest of 2018 n/a
Stephen’s Nicest (2017) Nicest Stephen McGregor 66 Nicest of 2017 0:32:33
Stephen’s Travelogue! Events Stephen McGregor 135 E3 2019 Special 0:56:03
Storytelling Game Design, Narrative Mark LaCroix 222 "The anitidote to hype." 0:10:00
Strategy Guides (revisited) Gaming Stephen McGregor 57 "This misinformation vortex." One year of Nice Games Club! 1:06:04
Strategy Guides and Wikis Gaming, Tools Martha Megarry 8 "Will you be the best with me?" 0:20:45
Support Systems IRL Stephen McGregor 276 "Always be the banker." 53:57
Taking Feedback IRL Stephen McGregor 154 "Abstracted to the point of silliness." 0:26:06
Targeting Multiple Platforms Programming Mark LaCroix 359 "Imagine it's running on a potato." 0:06:56
Taxes and Business IRL Mark LaCroix 24 "I trolled myself." 0:01:51
Teaching Gamedev to Young People Game Design, IRL Truman Simpson 263 Teaching Gamedev to Young People n/a
Teaching Gamedev to Young People, Again! Game Design, IRL Chris Totten 264 Teaching Gamedev to Young People, Again! n/a
Team Building IRL, Production Stephen McGregor 123 "Does this game mechanic spark joy?" 0:01:57
The Ethics of Engagement Game Design Ellen Burns-Johnson 284 "Shiny rocks get me every time." 0:36:22
The Future of Nice Games Club Meta 57 "This misinformation vortex." One year of Nice Games Club! 1:13:57
The Gaming Press Gaming, IRL, Marketing Ben Hanson 88 The Gaming Press n/a
The GDC That Wasn't Events, IRL 168 "GDC" 2020 Special 0:12:40
The Intersection of Puzzle and Story Game Design, Narrative, Production Ron Gilbert 354 The Intersection of Puzzle and Story n/a
The Logistics of Moving On IRL, Production Zach Barth 293 The Logistics of Moving On n/a
The MIX 2019 Events Mark LaCroix 124 GDC 2019 Special 0:49:05
The New Clubhouse IRL, Meta Mark LaCroix 235 The New Clubhouse n/a
The Psychology of Animation Art, Game Design, UI / UX Ellen Burns-Johnson 304 "Play thrice, and make thrice." 0:48:16
The State of "Dogpile!" IRL, Tabletop Mark LaCroix, Stephen McGregor, Ellen Burns-Johnson 311 The State of "Dogpile!" n/a
The Taxonomy of Horse Games Game Design, Gaming, Production Alice Ruppert 303 The Taxonomy of Horse Games n/a
Theming vs. Aesthetics Game Design Ellen Burns-Johnson 361 "The lensing effect of the window." 0:06:40
Therapeutic Games Game Design, Tabletop Adam Davis 219 Therapeutic Games n/a
Thinky Bits (Off-Screen Gameplay) Game Design Ellen Burns-Johnson 347 "A slow meat computer" 0:49:17
Time Management Misc. Beth Korth 355 "Ellen's going to be so mad!" 0:31:35
Tiny Horrors Game Design, Narrative Rosalie Vile 299 Tiny Horrors n/a
Tips for Designing Games for Learning Events, Game Design, UI / UX Ellen Burns-Johnson 203 Tips for Designing Games for Learning n/a
Tools of the Trade Tools Martha Megarry 12 "Can I tweet about this?" 0:32:33
Train Jam Events Martha Megarry 17 GDC 2017 Special (Part 1) 0:00:58
Train Jam Interviews Events Dylan Skerbitz 17 GDC 2017 Special (Part 1) 0:13:13
Transmedia IRL Felix Foster, Lane Davis 13 Co-op Recap: Transmedia n/a
Turn-Based RPGs Gaming Martha Megarry 101 "Don’t start with me." 0:52:15
Turning off the Gamedev Brain IRL Stephen McGregor 367 "Numbers go up." 0:42:39
Tutorialization with Puzzles Game Design Luke Spierewka 371 Tutorialization with Puzzles n/a
Tutorials Game Design, UI / UX Stephen McGregor 90 "Press A to jump." 0:41:51
Unions IRL Martha Megarry 111 "Game workers unite!" 0:38:53
Unit Testing Programming Martha Megarry 133 “That wasn’t the angle I was going for.” 0:41:31
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
Unlocks Game Design Stephen McGregor 163 "Please cheat, I don't care." 0:06:19
Unreal Engine Game Design, Production, Programming, Tools Zack Gilbertson 307 Unreal Engine for Indies n/a
Upcoming Games Gaming Mark LaCroix 53 "Boo!" 0:04:41
User Interfaces Game Design Mark LaCroix 19 "Pick up all the things." 0:42:26
User Interfaces Art, UI / UX Jajeev Nithiananda 145 User Interfaces n/a
Verisimilitude Art, Game Design Ellen Burns-Johnson 278 "Insert interesting car here." 0:05:23
Version Control Production, Tools Martha Megarry 26 "The Stevechievement." 0:03:58
Video Game Events Events Martha Megarry 127 “When two colors of paint really love each other…” 0:09:21
Video Game Immersion Gaming Stephen McGregor 42 "You can see the cabbage in it." 0:05:54
Video Game Juice Game Design Lane Davis 29 "I am a Juice Journeyman!" 0:35:18
Video Game Nostalgia Gaming Dylan Skerbitz 160 Evil Games Club 4! 1:01:15
Video Game Soundtracks Audio Stephen McGregor 108 "All that and a bag of chips." 0:38:30
Violence in Games Game Design Dev Jana 25 Violence in Games n/a
Virtual Reality VR / AR / XR Andrew Fladeboe 97 Virtual Reality n/a
Visual Coding Programming, Tools Alina Matson 252 Visual Coding n/a
Visual Composition Art, Game Design, UI / UX Mark LaCroix 294 "Layers and layers of hair." 0:17:12
Visual Novels Game Design, Marketing, Narrative Gloria Kim, Lane Davis 93 Visual Novels n/a
Visual Worldbuilding Art Laura Onderwater 340 Visual Worldbuilding n/a
VR Development VR / AR / XR Martha Megarry 1 "We in this." 0:55:57
VR Development (revisited) VR / AR / XR Martha Megarry 57 "This misinformation vortex." One year of Nice Games Club! 0:24:50
VR in 2022 and its Future VR / AR / XR Andrew Eiche 273 The State of VR in 2022 n/a
VR Workflows Production, VR / AR / XR Krista McCullough 109 VR Workflows n/a
Wandering into Game Development IRL Jamaal Sawyer-Dymski, Greg Borreson 305 Wandering into Game Development n/a
Watching Games Gaming, IRL Mark LaCroix 10 "Try it once." 0:01:28
Westworld as a Video Game Misc. Mark LaCroix 3 "It's against the law to stop." 0:02:00
What We Did On Our Winter Break (2019) IRL, Meta 114 What We Did On Our Winter Break n/a
What We Did On Our Winter Break (2020) IRL, Meta 162 "We are making progress toward that, then." n/a
What We Did On Our Winter Break (2021) Game Design, IRL, Meta Mark LaCroix, Stephen McGregor, Dale LaCroix, Ellen Burns-Johnson 207 "It’s March tomorrow." n/a
What We Did On Our Winter Break (2022) IRL, Meta Mark LaCroix, Stephen McGregor, Ellen Burns-Johnson 292 "Leveling out the table." n/a
What We Did On Our Winter Break (2022) IRL, Meta Mark LaCroix, Stephen McGregor, Ellen Burns-Johnson 248 "Additional things and stuff." n/a
What We Did On Our Winter Break (2023) IRL, Meta 337 "The Roboston Sessions" n/a