Filament Games Blog

Introducing unity3d-pixi

In education, technology moves more slowly than in the consumer world. Institutions must eke all of the value out of their existing hardware, and even when they do make new hardware purchases, the hardware is still not requisitioned with games in mind. This means that when we are charged with building software that is accessible…

March 23, 2017 // Alex Stone

Filament Games | Educational Game Developer

Speed Sketch! Spring Sunflowers

It’s officially Spring here in Wisconsin and we’re celebrating with a brand new Speed Sketch! In our latest video, Game Art Team Lead Natasha Soglin creates a beautiful work of art inspired by our plant structures and processes learning game Reach for the Sun. Check out the below video and let us know what you think on…

March 22, 2017 // Kat Shanahan

Major League Hacking

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of serving as a judge for MadHacks, the Madison, WI chapter of Major League Hacking (MLH). MLH bills itself as the official student hackathon league, and rightly so! This event was serious business. MLH works with thousands of students on an annual basis, holding over 200 weekend-long invention…

March 20, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

10 Tips for Designing a Game Tutorial

Every game teaches you how to play. Plants vs. Zombies is an interesting case study because it made “hardcore” strategy content accessible to casual and non-gamers. Before Plants vs. Zombies the game industry had falsely concluded that the casual market just wasn’t interested in certain game genres. In addition to appealing to casual gamers, it…

March 16, 2017 // Stephen Calender

Gamification vs. Game-Based Learning

When we talk to people about the work we do, the topic of “gamification” comes up quite a bit. To some folks, it’s synonymous with game-based learning, and to others, it’s presented as the inverse. Brandon and I hashed out a decent working definition on the podcast, but we realized we don’t have a matching…

March 13, 2017 // Dan Norton

Sennett Middle School’s Gaming Club – Learn About Game Design!

We recently adopted Sennett Middle School and some of their students wanted to know, What do you need to do to be a game designer? Myself along with fellow Filamentarian and game designer extraordinaire Abby Friesen set out to show them what it takes… Our first order of business was introducing the concept of game design to…

March 9, 2017 // Sarah Conn

How to Make a Simple Project Shine

We make games! You already knew that because you’re reading our blog, but what you may not know is that we’ve partnered with a variety of organizations to design elegant platforms to house their games, apps, and other digital content. These projects have brought to light a number of design concepts that we wanted to…

March 8, 2017 // Madeline Folz

Augmented Reality Learning Environments

Holy cow, have you guys checked out quadcopters?! We live in interesting times, where a convergence of technologies, spurred by mobile phone development has led to a ton of very powerful things getting embedded into very small devices. This includes a wide variety of different kinds of sensors, and ever improving video/transmitting capabilities. Stuff’s getting…

February 22, 2017 // Dan Norton

The Importance of Feedback

I’ve previously quoted Sid Meier who believes one way to think about game design is “a series of interesting decisions“. Besides game designers, there are a few other professions that obsess over human behavior with a particular focus on the choices we make; namely, psychologists and economists. They study phenomenon that expose flaws in how we…

February 16, 2017 // Stephen Calender

Speed Sketch! Opposites Attract

Newton’s Laws got nothin’ on the laws of attraction! Watch as Game Art Team Lead Natasha Soglin paints a special Valentine’s Day portrait for these two Motion Force characters. Have questions for Natasha? Get in touch via Facebook or Twitter! In the mood for more Speed Sketches? Check these out! Winter Wonderland Happy Thanksgiving from Filament Games Happy Hallowbee Landscape…

February 13, 2017 // Kat Shanahan

A Look Back at our 2023 Releases

What We Mean When We Say AI: Understanding Types of AI

Resource Roundup: 2023 at Filament Games