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Ellen is in the clubhouse for another week while returning guest Sam Baeseman fills in for Lydia in an episode that's a bit punchy, mostly empathetic, and a little bit educational thankfully. 0:02:12 Textures Felyx's Guide to Trim Sheets Felyx McGarry Artstation Is the world map about to change? New projections reshape how we see the world Jiang Li Global Times Physically based rendering Wikipedia Normal mapping Wikipedia 0:29:14 Frustration

We welcome returning host Ellen Burns-Johnson back into the clubhouse today for a Nice Games Jam! Lydia provides the other three veteran podcasters with a prompt and helps shape this paper prototype. The last time Ellen returned to the show was for the Serious Play Conference in 2025 Serious Play Conference 2025 Prototype Images Prompt Make me a game about geometry - the only math class I enjoyed taking! Feature at least one theorum or postulate in the mechanics. For example: the theorum of transitive properties (if a=b and b=c than a=c). Game type Tabletop game Player count 2-4 Setup Templated Library of shapes:Squares3x3 square2x2 square1x1 squareEquilateral Triangles4 wide base equilateral triangle2 wide base equilateral triangle1 wide base equilateral triangleRight Triangles3x3 right triangle2x2 right triangle1x1 right triangleParallelagrams 3x2 classic parallelagram2x3 classic parallelagramLydia-assisted rhombus Rules Start with 5 random shapes Randomly pick a criteriaMust use at least 2 new pieces in your shapeMid-round you can trade up your shapes so long as they are of equal areas (eg. two 1x1 right triangles can be traded for a 1x1 square)Whoever finishes their shape first they get the card and their shape is “stuck” on the boardWhose who did not get it can wipe their most-recent shape additions from their boardAt end of round get 2 new pieces each person, draw a new criteriaCriteria:Convex (eg. a classic pentagon is a convex polygon)Concave (eg. a star is a concave polygon)Exactly 8 sides>10 sides

It’s spooky month, so before diving into the game jam the clubhouse talks about a couple scary things. Dinosaurs (briefly) and breast cancer awareness month. Lydia shares her experience with the screening process. Editor Dale, has some things to add. Fun fact, Dale was driven to her first mammogram by Stephen and (not her husband Mark). Not-fun-fact, her sister-in-law detected her breast cancer, only because her adopted mother was diagnosed. They are both fine, but cancer is the opposite of fun. Then they talk about mummies and card games mechanics as they make their game. That is fun. Prompt Make a card game about what I have determined is Stephen's favorite monster.The monster that doesn't consume blood or brains or have claws: MUMMIES. Game type Tabletop game Player count 2 Materials Custom Cards Mummy Indicators Setup The deck consists of the following cards: Alligator  Alive: 1 space, 3 attack (Charge Attack! Can move up to 3 spaces in one direction if it can attack something on the way) Mummy: 1 space, 3 attack Egret Alive: 2 space, 2 attack (Can attack any space on the board by flying into the fray but cannot fly back) Mummy: 2 space, 2 attack Jock Alive: 2 space, 2 attack (Popular kid! Can draw 2 lackies from the draw pile) Mummy: 2 space, 2 attack Nerd Alive: 2 space, 2 attack (Wizard! Can raise the dead at will from the top of the graveyard and place it in any column of Rank 1) Mummy: 2 space, 2 attack Housecat Alive: 3 space, 1 attack (After attacking, it can jump backwards after attacking if it defeats an opponent) Mummy: 3 space, 1 attack Each player starts with a Jock card, a Nerd card, and one other random card. The playing space is a 6x6 grid Rules Each turn, each card has one action:  Jock - pulls two cards from the draw pile "attracts two from the house party" Nerd - selects one card from the graveyard pile "revises one as a mummy" Other cards: Move within there abilities Mummy cards can only move forward. Goal is to get a mummy card to the opposite player's end of the board.

Bernie Mattson enters the Clubhouse to talk about researching inspiration as part of the game development process and along the way the Nice Hosts learn a whole lot about Dada. Do you like show notes? Well, Nice Listener, is this the episode for you! Researching Inspiration Art Game Design Production Doo-Daa You can buy Doo-Daa right now on itch.io...  -  itch.io ...or wishlist it on Steam  -  Steam Process Book for Doo-Daa  -  Bernie Mattson ,  itch.io Space Funeral, a big inspiration for Doo-Daa  -  itch.io Dada, a starting point Europe After The Rain, 1970  -  YouTube DadA, 1967  -  Greta Deses ,  YouTube 1918 Dada Manifesto  -  Tristan Tzara International Dada Archives The Dada Cyborg Visions of the New Human in Weimar Berlin  -  Matthew Biro The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even  -  Wikipedia Duchamp Research Portal  -  Duchamp Archives Sophie Taeuber-Arp  -  Wikipedia

In this episode, Mark has some general notes on Europe, and walks though how he assembled the pitch deck that he brought with him to Gamescom. Meanwhile, Lydia wonders what it would be like to share responsibility on a schedule, and Stephen's clock is 10 minutes fast so we're not going to be as late to the screening of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock as he thinks. Mark on a bike in Dublin. Mark on a bike in Amsterdam. Mark on a bike in Cologne. Mark on a bike in Zurich. Mark on a bike in Paris. Mark feeding the birds underneath the Eiffel Tower. 0:20:56 Pitch Decks Slides in Mark's pitch deck: Title (with links to contact, build, video, etc)Table of ContentsFact SheetConcept summaryTeamEmbedded videoSlides covering each main topic from summary slide1-3 slides after each topic slideConcept conclusionInspiration sourcesTimelineBudgetWhy support this team?What we want from a publisherTitle (again) 1:10:13 Rotating Leadership

Mark returns with gifts from Europe! Then Lydia teaches her nice boys how to make a puzzle room: the ins and outs, the dos and don'ts, it’s an escape room special! The Sega coin that Mark stood in multiple very long lines to get. Junction Jam (Midwest US 2026)  -  itch.io Saprolige  -  LydiaSymchych, HeadlessKhan, Ally, Ice Husky, Martin_Gazelle ,  itch.io Escape Rooms 101 Lydia's first episode on the program was as a guest, where she talked about: Digital Escape Rooms Years earlier, we spoke with another Escape Room designer, for: Puzzle/Escape Rooms

Your nice hosts discuss a previously talked about topic, and also engage in something completely new (though both are an excuse to discuss work issues in reality), with a brief divergence to mention a Star Trek anniversary.  0:06:02 Replayability 0:27:34 Blue-skying

In this episode, your nice hosts welcome Heather Flowers into the clubhouse to talk about math and probability, while Heather insists they should be on Evil Games Club instead. The group reflects on art and the interpretation of art. Chance Mechanics Game Design Heather Flowers Games Unfair Flips  -  Heather Flowers ,  Steam 500 Finger Fillet  -  Heather Flowers ,  Steam Understanding Systems Suspense  -  Cat Manning, Jason Grinblat, Max Kreminski, Graeme Lennon, Alexsei Pepers, Lauren Scott ,  Polaris Game Design Retreat Other mentions Buckshot Roulette  -  Wikipedia Archane Kids Manife$to Number Gotcha  -  itch.io

Two of your nice hosts are prepping to go to Junction Jam (which already happened, you'll hear about it soon!), but before then the discussion goes over the why players can and should be invested in your game, and how to push back against crunch in the workplace. Junction Jam  -  Global Game Jam 0:06:57 Player Investment 'Cauldron of bats' and other great collective nouns Emma Cownley Jot Jot Boom 0:38:05 Crunch Culture Occupational Burnout in Games 2024: Causes, Impact, and Solutions Lis Moberly, Tim Stobo Game Developer Conference

From a floral prompt, a daring caper blossoms. This week your Nice Hosts answer the question: How many flowers to you have to eat to pull off a heist? Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure  -  Board Game Geek Clue: The Great Museum Caper  -  Board Game Geek The game board for Clue: The Great Museum Caper Our spreadsheet of Flowers, Powers, and Barriers. Prompt Create a game about flowers. The flowers may give you powers (regular or super) or may become animated when they are in full bloom. An example of a regular power is power of attorney or a driver's license and example of a superpower is invisibility. Game type Tabletop game Materials Game board Thief meeples Barrier cards Flower tokens Flower combination legend Flower box containers Ability tracker "a one-to-one scale replica of a particularly rare flower completely made of precious metals and gems" Setup Lay out the board Place the "one-to-one scale replica of a particularly rare flower completely made of precious metals and gems" in the center chamber Distribute flower tokens Shuffle flower tokens in a bagAdd flower tokens to flower boxes without looking at them Place the boxes on the marked spaces on the boardDistribute the remaining flower tokens around the flower patches marked on the boardPlace barriers Shuffle barrier cardsFor each marked space on the board, draw a barrier card and place it on the spacePlayer setup Choose a thief meepleTake a flower combination legendTake an ability tracker Rules Players are thieves after the same jeweled flower in the center of the board  Players must gather different flowers to give them the ability to get through the board/mazeGoal is to get through to the center of the maze-like building firstPlayers navigate to get the different flowers Combinations of flowers give you new abilities (either mundane or super-powered)Players may only have 3 active abilities at a time (if you get a new one, the first one gets pushed out)Could be places or a power that allows you to remove all of your powersPlayers need to get these powers to get through barriers in the game Barriers can be gotten through by various means (2 or 3, minimum 1)On the board there are places where flowers grow (distributed fairly) (tokens of a color/image) Some places have flower boxes, and they’d give you a random flowerMore of the flower boxes in the center of the boardIf someone gets to the center, they win, but the others now want to try and get them caught (so they can now win) Players create new barriers for the winning one to keep them from being able to get out

In this episode, Mark touts the virtues of commenting, Stephen dreads the topic, and Lydia wishes she could talk about marginalia. Code Comment The Critical Eye Part 2 This is part 2 to The Critical Eye in Episode 416 "I saw a Beatle."

Brian Crick is in the clubhouse to talk about how he intertwines narrative and puzzles in his game Tinselfly. We talk about character motivation, player buy-in, and where you even start with a project like this. And if you also are late to playing Myst, you'll learn you are not alone. Just... don't bring Mark the red pages... Narrative-Driven Puzzles Game Design Narrative Tinselfly  -  Steam Gorogoa  -  Steam The Longest Journey  -  Steam

Stephen is still away so Ian Peters uses that as an excuse to talk about rocks and how that relates to storytelling. Also in this episode, Mark is preparing for an exciting trip and Lydia is hype about trains for a good reason. Junction Jam gamescom 0:15:35 Geology In Games Nicolas Steno Wikipedia The potential for using video games to teach geoscience: learning about the geo… Edward G. McGowan and Lewis J. Alcott European Geosciences Union 0:36:00 Shipping Updates

This week, Ian emerges from the clubhouse vents to fill-in for Stephen as Dale gives us a bare minimum prompt with maximum implications. Prompt "Make a game called 'Triage Simulator'" Game type Design document Player count 1 Rules Triage - the verb Learn about the consequences of your actions later Papers Please-like interface   Situation/Scenario Buckets to sort in - limited space within the bucket Every level is a different situation  Level 1 - Hospital Level 2 - Pizza Day at the Elementary School Level 3 - Water Station at a Marathon Level 4 - Planning a Foot Route as a Courier Level 5 - Anubis is back from vacation and he’s backlogged ???Level 7 - In the pizza store making the pizza for the elementary school A system-based puzzle - Scheduling and ordering  Information you don’t have   How many more of each type are coming in? Information that lets you anticipate incoming situations  Events happening in the background that mean something going to come in at some point You get the case  Outside context as a bulletin on the side that is in natural language and would have some influence on the level that the player doesn’t know yet Time constraint known (5min, 90s) The Puzzle  Sorting - the simplest system possible of how much resources go where   Highest PriorityPretty ImportantMid-tierLow PriorityMehCannot rank within the bucket (eg. cannot say there is a highest priority of highest priority items) Put in buckets or stamp it with a stamp Each item gets ranked on certain variables which then designate which tier it should be assigned  No right answer - aiming for highest efficiency Walkthrough a level - Sandwich lunch orders   BIG TRIAGE MACHINE that gets plonked onto a desk  Area of the broader context of what’s happening (updated throughout the shift time) Deck of cards with variables for that level (eg. Order for 3, the order, how much it cost, extra paid to rush, for or to go) Timing element - different form per level  Punches into the card to annotate the cards (with unique shaped punches UrgencyImpactSeverityScaleConsequenceExceptional (YES/NO)Feed the punch card into a different part of the machine which crunches the punch numbers and gives a recommendation that the player can then either follow or ignore Want to be able to punch as much as you want into one card If punch 2, will average the numbers out  Or always read the lowest number? What if more than 2 punches? The machine is snarky at you? Put the card into 1-5 slots in the contraption that then stamps the thing and keeps it in its own mail slot as the final verdict (can’t get it back) with counters of how many went through each slot.   Someone picks up the tickets periodically and gives vague body language feedback on the ticket Accessibility features: Pause while reading Time scale adjustments 0.75x, 0.5x, 0.25x

In this episode Mark talks about an awesome Game Jam he is planning in association with Global Game Jam - Listeners in the Midwest or the UK (or have the ability to get there) can make a game on a train in Junction Jam. Mark rants about his new apartment, Stephen realizes that the purpose of this podcast is to rant and Lydia imagines what it would be like to have a following on YouTube, then waffles on sharing her social media TTRP in these show notes (let her know i the discord or feedback form if you want this) Mark philosophizes  about the artist's intent vs the receiver's experience. Lydia compares Slay the Spire to Slay the Spire 2. Junction Jam Junction Jam The clubhouse discussed Junction Jam in "We need more train service in this country." What We Did On Our Winter Break (2025-26) Mark's apartment Lydia rediscovers a game she made, and then she waffles on sharing it with everyone. If you want to see her materials, you can ask on the discord or the feedback form. Story Players Won't See He Won't Stop Making a Map to an Imaginary Place People Make Games YouTube Jerry's Map Polish Priorities