Best Jam Dev Podcasts (2025)

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From Disney’s “Where’s My Water?” to Solo Indie Dev Success: How Creativity and Persistence Built a Game Career, with Tim “Walaber” FitzRandolph 1:21:34

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3d ago1:21:34

1:21:34

In this episode, we dive deep into Tim’s creative journey behind Disney’s hit mobile game Where’s My Water? and what it really takes to break into and succeed in the game industry. From starting out in QA testing to leading creative teams at Disney, and later becoming a successful solo indie developer, Tim’s conversation is packed with insights, st…

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"Okay, I need to learn buttons." microStudio; Min-Maxing

4d ago

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It is a joyous day for pancake lovers everywhere, and a joyous week in the Clubhouse for Lydia who successfully made a thing using code! WOW! She shares her experience learning how to make buttons (and everything else) in microStudio. Then the Nice Hosts get real about their experiences with min-maxing in games. You know it's a good topic when it p…

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Concept Art Workflows (with Laura Onderwater)

11d ago

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Returning "favorite" Laura Onderwater re-enters the clubhouse to talk about task tracking, naming conventions, and paper trails of various kinds in an engaging discussion on concept art workflows. Even if you’re not part of an art team, there’s a lot to take away from this one! We spoke with Laura previously in an episode on Visual Worldbuilding Co…

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Nice Games Jam: "Repair-ent"

18d ago

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As promised, the three Korths, Andy, Beth and Gabe, join us in the clubhouse for our hundred and two or so episode tradition! The clubhouse was too crowded to fit Mark in, but having five hosts makes up for it. Your nice hosts design a game about fixing the messes your child makes and then returning the favor as you age. Andy had brought up a chaot…

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Revisiting Your Games (with Andy Korth)

25d ago

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As is tradition, a couple of episodes after a hundredth we invite one or more of our pals the Korths into the clubhouse. This time we were lucky enough to have all of the family Korths (coming soon), and a bonus interview with Andy Korth! We talk with him about his recent work updating Verdant Skies. Revisiting Your Games Game Design Production UI …

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"From apocrypha or experience." 400th Episode Special

1M ago

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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. 0:02:04 Act I: Interview 0:57:38 Act II: Quiz 1:12:47 Act III: JamBy Lydia, Stephen, and Mark

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"Half trash compactor, half empty." Composting; Overdesigning

1M ago

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Ellen's back for a serendipitously in-sync pair of metacognition-rich roundtable topics. In this episode, Lydia shares a chapter from one of her favorite books and tries to explain ganache while Stephen laments how easy it is to duct tape on features instead of solving problems. Together they discover four brains are better than one when it comes t…

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038 — Extensions of Me 11:16

2M ago11:16

11:16

The OpenGraphs browser extensions are live! Well, at least some/most of them!! I share the latest updates on what I am working on for https://www.opengraphs.com, along with some browser extension inconsistencies. You can find the OpenGraph Browser Extensions here: Chrome - https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/opengraphs/kiifpjdcadbbbhoocoobahko…

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Nice Thinking: "Untitled Memory Mechanic"

2M ago

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Ellen’s back in the clubhouse, let’s see what she remembers. Lydia brings a Dungeons and Dragons mechanic about recovering memories called 'Untitled Mechanic,' Stephen feels part of a club that is not Nice Games Club, and Mark brags about playing 2nd Edition in middle school. Untitled Memory Mechanic Lydia's website Lydia Symchych Oneshot inspirtat…

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"Everyone hates Jira." QA Workflows; Designing Discovery

2M ago

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Your nice host return to the complex and sometimes underappreciated world of quality assurance in the game dev space, and also explore discovery as a design focus. In this episode: Lydia is still looking for recommendations while at the Serious Play Conference (answer in Discord!), Mark hates on Jira and Stephen finally catches up to the latest gam…

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3D Workflows for Indie Devs (with Freya Holmér)

2M ago

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We welcome Freya Holmér back into the clubhouse to talk about 3D game development for independent game developers. We get into the specifics of the tools available for devs and why they work and don't work for different teams, but it's mostly an excuse to talk about Freya's new 3D modeling software. Half-Edge - Freya Holmér Shapes - Freya Holmér , …

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037 — No Waves 13:20

2M ago13:20

13:20

Or, you can watch the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/iU2PMrYUNIQ After attempting and failing to get an episode out the last couple of weeks, I am happy to say that I finally recorded one, and I am getting it out early this week. A lot of stuff has happened over the last 2.5 weeks, so here’s a quick run down, along with links: Optimizations wer…

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Laughs, Games & Career Turns: Mike Drucker’s Path from SNL, Nintendo to Tonight Show and New Memoir 1:01:45

2M ago1:01:45

1:01:45

In this episode of Game Dev Advice, writer and comedian Mike Drucker shares his journey across the worlds of television, video games, and comedy. Starting as an assistant and researcher at Saturday Night Live, Mike moved into game localization at Nintendo—where he even played basketball with Reggie Fils-Aimé—before joining The Tonight Show Starring…

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Nice Games Jam: "Head in the Clouds"

2M ago

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This week, your Nice Hosts have a new prompt from a new source. Lydia's husband, Ian, draws from a rainy source of inspiration and the Hosts are all-in. We brush up on the water cycle, requisition the equipment, practice our Trans-Atlantic accents, dunk on hot dogs, and puzzle over water-based cloud economies. Big Pharma - Steam Le Ballon Rouge - W…

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"It's about trust." Save Systems; Keeping Secrets

2M ago

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Your nice hosts talk about saving both your position in a game and saving your secrets from being spread around. Also in this episode: Stephen's birthday is coming up, Lydia's been presenting in webinars for a while, and Mark's got a new game coming soon! Category Quest - ELB Learning Webinar | Let’s Play! Category Quest: ELB Learning’s Newest Game…

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036 — Pedal to the Metal 13:24

3M ago13:24

13:24

Watch the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/rLRNnlzIOQM I connected with Vercel this past week to discuss how I could both optimize and try to control the costs that https://www.starterpacks.net was accumulating. I did walk away with some techniques that I will try on the next site I launch on Vercel where I need to try to maintain a consistent bi…

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"I’m intrigued by big door." Emotional Effects of Music; A New Foe Has Appeared!

3M ago

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Mark rushes through the introduction to talk about his two rush projects, one of which, Blippo+, was announced on Sunday during the PC Gaming Show! You'll hear more about that next week, but until then, Lydia talks about feeling seen in Anime, Stephen laments that his filmmaking class has not only ruined movies for him, but also music, and Dale doe…

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035 — $800 Gorilla in the Room 10:20

3M ago10:20

10:20

Unfortunately I missed my milestone of getting an early release of https://www.skylounge.social deployed during Release Day. But, it wasn’t for a lack of trying. It’s kind of hard to run when it feels like you have a knife in your stomach and you don’t know how to stop the bleeding. I dig into what attempts I made to optimize the NextJS App for htt…

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Video Game History (with Adrian Sandoval)

3M ago

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This week in the club house Adrian Sandoval describes how video games are speed running art history. Your nice hosts have their minds blown many times and Steven discovers he might actually like history!? Stay tuned to find out where the 90 day return policy came from. Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends - Team Nemo Chris Totten, co-author of Adri…

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"The things that create the geometry." What Happened With Future Club; Design Surface Area

3M ago

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Your nice hosts all secured a Switch 2 pre-order... from a certain point of view. Then, Stephen examines the body, Mark attempts a vocabulary, and Lydia has recommendations. Chants of Sennaar - Wikipedia Nintendo Switch 2 preorders were a total mess — at first - Jay Peters , The Verge Missed out on a Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order? GameStop and Best B…

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Mental Health and Discrimination (with Ashley Phipps)

3M ago

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The clubhouse welcomes Ashley Phipps, producer for the game Clock Out at 2, to discuss the topic of mental health and discrimination. Mental Health and Discrimination Game Design Gaming Narrative Clock Out at 2 Demo - Borderless Studios , Steam What to know about microaggressions - Anna Smith Haghighi , Medical News Today Queerty Gamers - Queerty G…

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034 — Who’s ready to Jam!? 8:34

3M ago8:34

8:34

A quick update on this glorious hump day, just in time before I head out to the Atlanta PHP meetup (https://phpxatl.com). Tomorrow, May 21st at 11:30am EDT I’ll be chatting with Brian Casel (https://briancasel.com) about his recent launch of Instrumental Components (https://instrumental.dev). Join us in the stream and if you have any questions for …

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033 — Just Oil the Chair 5:31

4M ago5:31

5:31

I listened to a podcast episode back on January 30, 2025, and there are 3 little words that have been bouncing around in the back of my head ever since whenever I turn on the mic to stream or record, "oil your chair". The podcast episode was from Justin Jackson (https://justinjackson.ca) and Jeremy Enns (https://jeremyenns.com) on their Podcasting …

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"This is an impossible challenge." Friction by Design; Diversity in Scoring

4M ago

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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. Lydia shows us how to make scoring sound way more academic. Civilization VII Age of Mythology Retold Blue Prince 0…

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032 — Streaming Developments: Breaking ground on skylounge.social 12:53

4M ago12:53

12:53

Some quick updates on the status of https://www.starterpacks.net and announcing the new project that I am working on! Since the last update, the crawlers have been crawling—HEAVILY—accessing the site over 24M 👀 times. Needless to say, my Vercel bill is going to be a little higher this month, but 🤞 it will be worth it. Since the last update where th…

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Video Game IP Law (with Haley MacLeon)

4M ago

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Your nice hosts get a crash course on video game IP law from lawyer and MinnMax cohort, Haley MacLeon. We learn about incorporating, publishing agreements, the difference between a lot of commonly used terms like "copyright", and the joys of contract templates. MinnMax - MinnMax Game Informer Revival - Game Informer Video Game IP Law Marketing Misc…

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Stuart Maine on 28 Years in Game Development: Starting a Studio, Building Great Teams, Career Advice & Lessons for Aspiring Devs & His New Books 50:23

4M ago50:23

50:23

In this interview, veteran game designer Stuart Maine shares his 28-year journey in the gaming industry, detailing his humble beginnings in a cyber café to becoming a senior designer at Two Desperados, a mobile games company in Serbia. Stuart recounts his early days at Bullfrog and his time at renowned companies like Acclaim and Blitz, working on n…

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"Our sense of epoch." Let's Plays; Responsive Game Design

4M ago

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A new Nintendo is on the way, and your nice hosts talk about both it and the world it's being born into. It kicks off a longer than usual episode where Lydia just wants a way to experience horror games, Mark has an unpopular opinion, and Stephen thinks players have too much agency already. 0:31:57 Let's Plays Endoparasitic miziziziz itch.io Let’s P…

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031 — Appeasing the SEO Gods 10:19

4M ago10:19

10:19

You can also watch the video on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/ENFM-pQK5iM A quick update about some recent updates I pushed out on https://www.starterpacks.net. In the last episode, I announced the addition of the Quick Starter Pack Editor to the site. Since then, I have rolled out a few tweaks to make it nicer, like preventing duplicate entries t…

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Nice Games Jam: "The Intergalactic Dining Consortium"

4M ago

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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. Prompt Create a game with one of my favorite things, food! It cannot be about/or have mechanics that are cooking. Think: growing food, pairing foods, making an international food court, menu design, us…

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030 — New Starter Packs Features 12:14

5M ago12:14

12:14

After a few weeks away I am back with some fresh updates that have been deployed to Starter Packs (https://www.starterpacks.net). The first—and best feature, imho—is the Quick Starter Pack Editor. This feature makes it easy to add people to your existing Bluesky Starter Packs in as little as 3 clicks (maybe more if you want to add them to multiple …

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"You shouldn't pet the wolf." The art of Saying No; Tiny Interactions

5M ago

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Mark is still out sick, so Dale takes his place in the clubhouse and brings a topic! The club makes a prediction that by the time that this episode comes out, Mark will still be sick, and if you are listening on Patreon, that is absolutely true. If you aren't listening on Patreon, you probably should be. The group talks about how often and when to …

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Nice Games Jam: "Time Traveler Estate Sale"

5M ago

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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. Costcodle - Zak Kermitz , Costcodle Timeline Inventions - Zygomatic , Zygomatic Hypodermic Needles - Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine , Maximum Fun Prompt "Come u…

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"Nice Games Club cannot solve all of your problems." Begging for Money; Quality of Life

5M ago

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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. Part-Time Hero: I'm Broke But I Have To Save The World! - Future Club , Kickstarter Dreamsettler - Tendershoot , Patreon 0:06:40 Begging for Money 0:52:09 Quality of Life Quality of Life Micha…

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Nice Thinking: "Nice Games Alliance Workshops"

5M ago

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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. And how they can provide unique experiences and services that the gamedev community can't get elsewhere. They also emphasize the imp…

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"A Paragraph Signing" Incremental Learning ; Making Science Fiction Worlds

6M ago

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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. Lydia brings to the table the question of how she can learn more games, and how tutorials don't work for her. Stephen regrets not being able to fully develop t…

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029 — Wrestling with SaaS Pricing: Building Value to Justify Prices 12:22

6M ago12:22

12:22

Watch the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WNmupzrWcAA What goes into setting and justifying your SaaS (Software as a Service) pricing? I had the goal of getting subscription plans setup for https://www.starterpacks.net before a queued job I had running to backfill data that I needed to support those plans was done processing. I ultimately did ge…

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Nice Games Jam: "Dinosaurs of North Dakota"

6M ago

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The clubhouse gets Cretaceous this week; your nice hosts have been challenged to create a game about dinosaurs and their feeding habits. Prompt Make a game about the feeding habits of dinosaurs or of paleontologists, bonus points if all the dinosaurs are from the same era. Game type Design document Player count 1 Rules Cretaceous period Flowering p…

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"More Ellen in the future." What We Did On Our Winter Break (2024-25)

6M ago

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NEWS! New episodes now come out a week early on Patreon!! Sign up to listen to next week's episode now! We talk about why, and the silly reason why now, in this episode, along with another, much bigger piece of NEWS. And of course, your nice hosts continue the show's annual tradition of recounting what they did during hiatus. SO. MUCH. NEWS. Nice G…

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Building a Successful Indie Studio with No Industry Experience, Betting on Steam, Game Jams, Finishing Crashlands 2, Recording 500+ Podcasts, Stacking the Dice, and Storefront Featuring—Adam Coster, CEO ... 1:19:45

6M ago1:19:45

1:19:45

In this episode, Adam Coster, CEO of Butterscotch Shenanigans, shares his unique journey of joining and growing the indie studio with his brothers Sam and Seth. Adam discusses their beginnings in 2012, the steep challenges they faced, and how a personal family crisis redefined their mission to bring joy through games. He then shares insights into t…

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Puzzle Systems (with Arvi "Hempuli" Teikari) [Nice Replay]

6M ago

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#373 Puzzle Systems Interview 2024.11.15 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. Arvi "Hempuli" Teikari talks to your nice hosts about the balance between giving players freedom and constraining their expression, t…

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“That’s way too many pawns.” Communicating Difficulty; Remixed Play Modes [Nice Replay]

6M ago

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#368 “That’s way too many pawns.” Roundtable 2024.10.11 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 twist…

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One last party 1:15:53

7M ago1:15:53

1:15:53

Jerod is joined by KBall, Nick & Amy to throw one last JS Party! We review last year’s predictions, discuss the state of the web dev world, opine on coding AIs (of course) & divulge what comes next for the JS Party crew. Thank you for partying with us all these years! 💚 Join the discussion Changelog++ members save 8 minutes on this episode because …

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Optimization (with Jarryd Huntley) [Nice Replay]

7M ago

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#366 Optimization Interview 2024.09.26 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. Cleveland video game designer Jarryd Huntley wins Peabody Award for ‘We Are OFK’ - Joey Mor…

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028 — Racing the Queues 15:06

7M ago15:06

15:06

The queues are up and running on Starter Packs and I have roughly 2 days before they are done, so my goal is to get all the pricing and subscriptions integrated into the site before they are done. I also dig into some background on getting the queues working in the NestJS app, and how I had to tune them to get them running efficiently—and fast! Wat…

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Nice Thinking: "Dialogue Through Goals" [Nice Replay]

7M ago

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#349 Dialogue Through Goals Nice Thinking 2024.05.29 Stephen brings a half-baked thought into the clubhouse for this Nice Thinking episode: how can we improve dialogue systems? He's got some opinions, which Mark and Ellen immediately debunk, but it leads to some engaging conversation. Dialogue Through Goals Stephen McGregor Game Design Narrative…

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Navigating Game Industry Challenges, Job Hunting After a Layoff, the Rise of Consulting Firms, Celebrity Stories, and Starting a New Company—Adam Boyes, Founder of Vivrato 1:01:25

7M ago1:01:25

1:01:25

In this episode, industry veteran Adam Boyes discusses the complexities of the video games industry, from the challenges of sustaining AAA games to navigating market dynamics and the impact of large-scale layoffs. He shares insights from his journey founding Vivrato and highlights the importance of innovation and thoughtful leadership. The conversa…

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027 — Overcoming Obstacles 12:07

7M ago12:07

12:07

While I was working on some updates for Starter Packs, I ran into an authentication bug that I wanted to fix. As I was working through the bug, and deploying the updates, all of a sudden my feature branch on Vercel stopped loading pages properly, but not all pages. In this episode, I dig into facing and overcoming obstacles that get in the way of m…

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"The lensing effect of the window." Theming vs. Aesthetics; Parries [Nice Replay]

7M ago

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#361 "The lensing effect of the window." Roundtable 2024.08.22 It’s hot in the clubhouse and hot in Ellen’s greenhouse this week, so your hosts are eager to crunch through some discussion. Ellen introduces the concept of the MDA framework, and the differences between Theming and Aesthetics, and Stephen comes to a major conclusion about parrying. Th…

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026 — Starter Packs Updates 16:06

7M ago16:06

16:06

After last week’s Jam Session with Brian Casel, I was on the fence on which project I wanted to commit to in 2025. After that conversation, and a little reflection, I realized that I wanted to see Starter Packs through to the original vision for the project. Also, the amount of effort to get it there—I think—will be less than I had originally thoug…