Nicest of 2023

The clubhouse continues the annual tradition of reviewing the past year. But first they need to talk about Doctor Who and new Minnesota state flag. Ellen makes her first programming joke, and Dale learns to add comments from the editing booth.

Finally, everyone shares which games they have been playing the bees out of in 2023.

But, wait... there's more: your nice hosts also talk about what they are anticipating for 2024. 

• Doctor Who

• Donna Noble is the best companion

   - 

  Wikipedia
• Cucumber, a miniseries by Russell T Davies

   - 

  Wikipedia
• It's a Sin, a miniseries by Russell T Davies

• Minnesota State Flag

• The new Minnesota state flag

   - 

  Briana Bierschbach

  , 

  Star Tribune

0:10:30

Our accomplishments

Mark's Accomplishments:

• Glom
• Dogpile!
• IGDA Twin Cities Calendar full of events
• IGDA Twin Cities's Playtest Event
• Maintenance of Noble Engine
• Major Accomplishments in Dreamsettler
  • including securing a big third party developer for a minigame

Stephen's Accomplishments:

• Glom
• Future Club got funding to produce a vertical slice of a game
• Working on Future Club projects and pitching them (to a celebrity!)
• Survived a snake basement
   

Ellen's Accomplishments:

• Glom
• TWO custom game projects that Ellen is not allowed to talk about
• Noodle Training Arcade
• Serious Play Conference
• Got a road bike
• Moved to Duluth

Your nice hosts talked about thier work as a tabletop development team in:

The Nice Board Game Industrial Complex, a Nice Games Club Skunkworks Project

Mark gave a short presentation at the IGDATC holiday party about all the work that the group did in 2023.

Ellen talks about her experience at the serious play conference in:

Serious Play Conference Special

Mark talked about Noble Engine in:

"So, you made a game engine?"

0:29:11

Nicest of 2023

Ellen's Nicest:

• Baldur's Gate III
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• NY Times Games App Magic the Gathering
• Rival Stars Horse Racing
• Games from the Studio 'Afterburn'

Mark's Nicest:

• Super Mario Wonder
• Super Nintendo World
• Star Trek: Resurgence
• Zachtronics Solitaire Collection
• Puzzmo

Mark's Honorable Mentions:

• Spider Man 2
• Tears of the Kingdom
• Star Trek: Infinite

Stephen's Nicest:

• Spirit Island
• Forspoken
• Deceive, Inc.

Stephen's Honorable Mentions:

• Tears of the Kingdom's Ascend ability
• Baldur's Gate III

Mark mentioned what he usually calls "Super Mario Theme Park," which we talk about more in:

GDC 2023 Special

We interviewed Zach of Zachtronic's Solitaire collection in Episode 293

The Logistics of Moving On

Puzzmo is now publicly available!

1:01:08

Most Anticpated of 2024

Ellen's picks:

• Hellblade II: Henua's Saga
• Ultros
• Hyper Light Breaker
• Little Kitty, Big City
• Dustborn
• Concord

Mark's picks:

• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake
• Princess Peach: Showtime!
• More Playdate games!

Stephen's picks:

• Dragon's Dogma 2

1:16:13

2024 Gamedev Resolutions

Ellen's Resolutions:

• Make stuff
• Make stuff in Godot Engine
• Make a portfolio
• Do less work, make more stuff
• Unpack some boxes

Mark's Resolutions

• Get Dreamsettler out
• Set up future for Noble Robot office
• Set up console SDK environments again for DS and others (Metro Nexus, porting work).

Stephen's Resolutions

• Look into game engines other than Unity