The podcast where nice gamedevs talk gaming and game development. Nice!
Attention Sega nerds! This Nice Bonus episode is for you!
During our episode on 90's consoles Mark found out there were so many obscure Sega accessories that they couldn't fit in the episode and deserved their very own spotlight. Please enjoy this Nice Bonus short episode all about them!
In this episode Ellen usurps the normal process for a nice game jam prompt to explore her own idea on tabletop mechanics. Who would have thought the scoring system for this game would be 'Points for the Future War'?
Discussion during development
Board - 5x5 grid where tiles can be placed
5 racer sleds
Racer weights
Tiles with different friction coefficients (terrain tiles)
Mission from HQ Cards
Special Objective Cards
Setup1) Racer sleds and racer weights are randomly distributed to the racetrack row. 2) Each racer sled gets the name of a racer. Each racer name should be silly, like Jenny Too-fast or Billy Tumble.
3) Each player draws two Mission from HQ cards and picks one to be their secret objective.
Players are given each a set amount of time-travel credits.
On their turn, each player uses a time-travel credit to either replace or swap terrain tiles.
When each all players have spent their time travel credits, the race is on! All racer sleds are released from their starting box, and the results of the race are observed.
Each completed mission results in the number of 'Points for the Future' on the mission from HQ card awarded to that player. The number of points is based on the difficulty of the mission.
After the weekend derby is complete (15 rounds), the player with the most point for the future war is declared the winner, but not for 20-30 years.
"Tutorials shouldn’t feel like tutorials!" Like most aspects of game design, it's an easy concept to summarize but a difficult one to pull off. Luke Spierewka and the team at Afterburn Games have mastered it, using their charming approach in successful titles like Golf Peaks and Railbound. Come learn the arcane secrets of the puzzle game tutorial! Also featuring some great room sound.
Luke is a game designer, programmer, and jack of all trades. He makes games, organizes events, gives talks (and interviews) and does "lots of other stuff." He's worked on many titles, including Railbound, Golf Peaks, Gwent, and SUPERHOT. Learn more about Luke at http://spierek.net/
This week, your nice hosts talk a little bit about our civic duty before getting into two very on-brand topics. Make a plan to vote on (or before!) November 5th. Information at https://vote.org/
We welcome Timothy Staton-Davis into the clubhouse to talk both the broad strokes and the nitty-gritty of combat design.
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. Then, Mark thinks about the practice taking familiar game mechanics and twisting them into something fresh. Think pacifist runs or limited equipment modes. Why limit yourself to one way to play when you can remix the whole game? As always, there are some goofs in here, too.
This week, learn about what Ellen was like as a student. Stephen wonders if he’s made a huge mistake, Ellen does some work research, and Mark insists that there is no such thing as magic.
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.
There are now episodes of Nice Games Club for each new day of the year! When you get to the last day of that year, you'll hear about Audio Middleware and Psychic Distance from us in the clubhouse.
0:17:06In this episode the boys are back in Minneapolis, but they are still thinking about their time with Ellen in Duluth, or Roboluth ;) s
So they are using this episode to talk about instructions, again, but this time though the lens of the different types of "user personas" who will be reading it.
What is Roboston?
Roboston is a tabletop game that the the Nice Games Club came up with during an podcast Game Jam Episode. For anyone new to the podcast, we recommend starting two episodes back (at 362), for some background on the game. For those of you who wish for a full memory restoration, here is the full episode list:The original Nice Game Jam where Roboston was concievedRoboston! (Live at 2D Con 2020)A follow up episode 197 continues the devlopment because they were so excited about RobostonRoboston! (part 2)The club worked on the game over winter break in 2020-21, episode 207 summarizes what they worked on."It’s March tomorrow."We again visited Roboston over our 2023-24 winter break, and talk about in in episode 337"The Roboston Sessions"Mark and Steven visit Ellen in Duluth where they play a bunch of Roboston"Apply your context, thusly."Rulebook is
More than a script for “the teach”Verbal and visual (and, increasingly, multimedia)Define your PlayersSteve BromleyGame User ResearchDefine your Players
User persona is the UX term, Player persona is used in gamesThings to add to the FAQs
Does the value affected by the repeater also get multiplied if you’re adding a part? Does the value for a new part always have to come from the torso? Can you send the robot without having arms/legs/heads? How many dice should I try to go for in this check?1. Roboston new players
Box inventory list Anatomical diagram of a robot Game setup diagram (game as a whole, what’s in your hand) Reference cards (player actions, game phases, etc.)2. Roboston experienced players
Table of contents Stats for nerds Index (?) FAQ section3. Inexperienced tabletop game players
Invitation to play, sense of fun Build trust with the player as the rulebook progresses4. Experienced tabletop game players
Resource, reference Allow them to get right to the core, fastOnce 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. It was a long day, culminating with a family playtest of Roboston, featuring a newly written rulebook. How did it go? Well, there's more work to be done, but we learned a lot. Your hosts discuss this and more in today's episode, recorded on Day 3 of Mark's and Stephen's trip to Duluth.
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