The Intersection of Puzzle and Story (with Ron Gilbert)

Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

Return to Monkey Island will have a hint system because the internet exists now

46:53

Ep. 47 – Ticketing Chaos Explained: Bots, Brokers & Bold Claims with Joel Schwartz What do Donald Trump, Kid Rock, and a 200% ticket guarantee have in common? They’re all part of the chaotic, misunderstood world of live event ticketing—and veteran ticket broker, founding member of the National Association of Ticket Brokers (NATB) and attorney, Joel Schwartz is here to discuss the current executive order and how it affects ticket brokers and fans. In this high-impact episode, we sit down with one of the original voices in ticket resale to break down what’s really driving the headlines. From political theater to pricing transparency, Schwartz shares insider stories from decades in the game—starting with Lions games in the '70s and stretching all the way to Super Bowl holdbacks, Taylor Swift meltdowns, and FTC policy shifts. In this episode, you'll learn: Why bots aren’t the real problem—and who actually is How “dynamic pricing” impact fans, travel planners, and the entire resale market What the new executive orders and pricing laws could mean for concerts, sports, and festivals How fans, brokers, and platforms can navigate an increasingly complex and competitive marketplace Whether you're a travel professional, ticketing insider, or just a fan tired of hidden fees and vanishing inventory, this episode delivers clarity, context, and a dose of hard truth. Follow us at @Tix2TravelPod on all platforms and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. www.tttpod.com www.xpotravel.com…

about a year ago

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Your nice hosts welcome famed designer Ron Gilbert (Monkey Island, Thimbleweed Park) into the clubhouse to discuss the virtues of inexperience, friction for its own sake, how it's all about story, and it's puzzles all the way down.

The Intersection of Puzzle and Story

Game Design

Narrative

Production

Classic Game Postmortem: Maniac Mansion

GDC

YouTube

The phrase "confederacy of dunces" derives from a Jonathan Swift quote.

Examples of movies that feature a poorly-received genre twist include Serenity (2019), Remember Me (2010), and Safe Haven (2013).

465 episodes

#Video Games #Lifestyle #Arts #Graphic Design #Ellen, Stephen, and Mark #Fine Arts #Games and Gambling #Game Jam

Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

The Intersection of Puzzle and Story (with Ron Gilbert)

Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!

25 subscribers

published about a year ago

MP3•Episode home

Fetch error

Hmmm there seems to be a problem fetching this series right now. Last successful fetch was on August 07, 2025 15:33 (4d ago)

The Intersection of Puzzle and Story

Game Design

Narrative

Production

Return to Monkey Island will have a hint system because the internet exists now

Classic Game Postmortem: Maniac Mansion

GDC

YouTube

The phrase "confederacy of dunces" derives from a Jonathan Swift quote.

Examples of movies that feature a poorly-received genre twist include Serenity (2019), Remember Me (2010), and Safe Haven (2013).

465 episodes

#Video Games #Lifestyle #Arts #Graphic Design #Ellen, Stephen, and Mark #Fine Arts #Games and Gambling #Game Jam

All episodes

1
Revisiting Your Games (with Andy Korth)

10 days 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 / UX Verdant Skies - Howling Moon Software Previously we had Beth Korth on to talk about Narrative Design, in general and related to Verdant Skies. Narrative Design We had the whole Korth family on in this episode. Families in Games Andy and Beth were both on in a deep dive into the code of Verdant Skies in this video episode. Code Comment: "Verdant Skies" And here's the episode that started the tradition! Steam Greenlight Gamers using game controllers for PC gaming has tripled since 2018 — Steam surv… - Christopher Harper , Tom's Hardware…

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"From apocrypha or experience." 400th Episode Special

11 days 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: Jam

1
"Half trash compactor, half empty." Composting; Overdesigning

18 days 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 to figuring out how to get out of your head. 0:09:56 Composting Writing Down the Bones Natalie Goldberg Bonbon Wikipedia The Croissant Express diner mentioned in the book, formerly located on the corner of the Uptown Theater building. 0:36:00 Overdesigning Mural Miro via. "Writing at Night: Lewis Carroll, John Milton, and Me" by Mike Mason. https://www.mikemasonbooks.com/writing-at-night-lewis-carroll-john-milton-and-me/…

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Nice Thinking: "Untitled Memory Mechanic"

25 days 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 inspirtation ZacSpeaksGiant YouTube Lydia's google doc Lydia Symchych…

1
"Everyone hates Jira." QA Workflows; Designing Discovery

5 weeks 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 gaming trend a couple of months late. Chants of Sennaar - Rundisc , Steam 0:06:27 QA Workflows What Is A Kanban Board? The Ultimate Guide Laura Hennigan, Cassie Bottorff, Rob Watts Forbes 0:50:37 Designing Discovery…

1
3D Workflows for Indie Devs (with Freya Holmér)

6 weeks 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 , Unity Asset Store Shader Forge - Freya Holmér , GitHub 3D Workflows for Indie Devs Game Design Tools UI / UX Valve Hammer Editor - Valve Developer Community PicoCAD - Johan Peitz , itch.io TrenchBroom - GitHub Crocotile 3D What’s the difference between OBJ and FBX? And when to you what - Reddit…

1
Nice Games Jam: "Head in the Clouds"

7 weeks 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 - Wikipedia Water Cycle - Wikipedia Loop Hero - Steam Human Resource Machine - Steam Prompt to match the current weather - what goes on inside the clouds during a thunderstorm? Game type Design document Player count 1 Rules You control a cloud factory and manage what the cloud distributes Mission-based, scenarios Plenty of fun fantasy options Condition options Sunshine Water Static (use a balloon?) Wind The shape of your factory/cloud Water is your core resource Use it to build the factory, use it to make the rain and complete tasks, use it to expand Gain it from water vapor and such (water cycle) Your factory is also water, you can reuse it You go through a campaign Pick between a set of jobs each time, bigger jobs give more rep Isometric view Level 1: rain on the hot dog cart Have the cloud rain over an area for a specific period of time The mission before you just needed to dump some water The player needs to collect water to have enough rain on the hot dog cart Automation is the game You need to shape the cloud to fit all of the machines that you order from a catalog Catalog has a ton of options, with their own efficiencies Level 2: rain on a hot dog festival Level ??: Flood the Nile…

1
"It's about trust." Save Systems; Keeping Secrets

8 weeks 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 - ELB Learning , YouTube Webinar | Escape Room Rx: Innovating Game-Based Clinical Education - ELB Learning , YouTube Episode we interviewed Lydia on before she became a host! Digital Escape Rooms Blippo+ - Panic Blippo+ on Steam - Panic , Steam 0:09:50 Save Systems Building Cognitive Accessibility Into Your Games Game Developers Conference YouTube Password Save TV Tropes 0:33:20 Keeping Secrets…

1
"I’m intrigued by big door." Emotional Effects of Music; A New Foe Has Appeared!

9 weeks 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 does a good job editing out Lydia’s coughs. Blippo+, coming to PC and Switch this fall! You Need To See FMV Cable TV Simulator Blippo+ - Wesley LeBlanc , Game Informer Emotional Effects of Music A New Foe Has Appeared!…

1
Video Game History (with Adrian Sandoval)

10 weeks 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 Adrian's book, has been on the show Teaching Gamedev to Young People, Again! Adrian Sandoval Game Design Hardware Marketing Spacewar! - Wikipedia Adventure (Atari 2600) and its designer's easter egg - Atari Online Alex Smith, They Create Worlds - They Create Worlds Ep. 22: Remembering Atari with Howard Scott Warshaw - Robin Kunimune , Video Game History Hour Teach Me Something in 5 Minutes 2 - What Games Can Learn from Theatre w/ Adrian… - Adrian Sandoval , YouTube Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation - Blake J. Harris , Goodreads…

1
"The things that create the geometry." What Happened With Future Club; Design Surface Area

11 weeks 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 Buy will have mo… - Demi Williams , TechRadar 0:22:17 What Happened With Future Club Part-Time Hero Campaign Ending Future Club Kickstarter 0:48:57 Design Surface Area Rubber duck debugging Wikipedia…

1
Mental Health and Discrimination (with Ashley Phipps)

12 weeks 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 Gamers Spooktober 2023 Clock Out at 2 Build - itch.io Depression Quest - Zoe Quinn Adventures with Anxiety - Nicky Case Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn: How We Respond to Threats - "Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc" , Simply Psychology Good Reps for Mental Health depiction Final Fantasy XIV - SquareEnix The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood Tales of Arise - Steam…

1
"This is an impossible challenge." Friction by Design; Diversity in Scoring

13 weeks 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 0:18:21 Friction by Design Mark tries to define some terms: Good Friction - something that was designed into the game, or that could be described as a bug, or only confuses a player Bad Friction - unintentional friction 0:45:47 Diversity in Scoring Huffington Post News Triva Game Huffington Post…

1
Video Game IP Law (with Haley MacLeon)

14 weeks 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. Production The $10 Million Lawsuit That Hinges On An Oxford Comma - Anna King , NPR Video Game Publishing Agreement Market Report 2025 - Kellen Voyer & Haley MacLean , Voyer Law Corporation…

1
"Our sense of epoch." Let's Plays; Responsive Game Design

15 weeks ago