Filament Games Blog

Girl Scouts Activate Their Game Design Skills

For the second year in a row, we were invited to participate in the Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Badgerland Activate! event. We love seeing young girls (and, sometimes, their brothers) get excited about STEM concepts. In an effort to get the Girl Scouts as excited about game design as we are, Game Designer, Abby Friesen, created a…

December 9, 2015 // Kat Shanahan

Filament Games | Educational Game Developer

How to Make a Video Game for Learning: Costs and Considerations

Game creation is more complicated than portrayed in Game Dev Story. I’m going to explain just how complicated it can be, but I have a few caveats: I can’t walk through every possible game feature (there are many and we make new ones all the time). I can’t provide a standard menu of features either,…

November 9, 2015 // Stephen Calender

Getting the Most out of HTML5

Quality matters. Your audience does not care about the technology you used to develop your game. The big questions for consumers are: how do I get it, will it run on my device, and is it as good as any other experience I could have on this device. The tough problem for HTML5 is meeting…

October 14, 2015 // Stephen Calender

Why Build Learning Games?

If you could create any game, what would you make? Would it be a chaotic universe where anyone can be a superhero, an epic intergalactic adventure, or a medieval fantasy world with wizards and dragons? After several years in the games industry, my answer is creating learning games. Though it may not seem obvious at…

September 18, 2015 // Stephen Calender

The Balancing Act: Including Others in Your Designs

Designers, we are not the only ones with ideas and solutions. There is a careful balance we must maintain between designing features by ourselves and gathering the developer’s ideas and feedback. A game is a bajillion times better when it’s the combination of everyone’s creativity. It’s the kind of thing that’s obvious in theory but…

September 11, 2015 // Abby Friesen

Quality Assurance and Learning Games

One of the challenges the QA team at Filament faces is that our players are often children and our team is made up of adults. That isn’t a problem when testing a crash or a missing art asset, but it can be when we test the user experience. Here are three things I try to keep…

September 2, 2015 // Peter Rambo

A Case For Learning Games: Measurable Results Seen Playing Backyard Engineers

Together with physical classroom activities, learning games afford students a more comprehensive view of classroom materials and a more dynamic classroom experience. Learning games can teach students about dynamic content in ways textbooks cannot. Using Filament Games, students can explore organ systems, travel through the body as a cell, and watch plants grow and bloom…

August 24, 2015 // Kat Shanahan

A-Games Study: How Teachers Use Digital Learning Games

Game-based learning is rich with opportunities that enhance the student experience while helping teachers solve classroom challenges. A recent study by the A-Games project (Analyzing Games for Assessment in Math, ELA/ Social Studies, and Science) shed light on game usage in the classroom – including how teachers are using games as formative assessment tools. More than…

July 29, 2015 // Kat Shanahan

Cool Choices: Game-Based Learning Benefits Adults

Classrooms around the country use game-based learning to improve academic achievement, enhance curriculum, and foster self-guided learning. Numerous recent studies have reinforced the efficacy of game-based learning and the positive impacts it has on the today’s students. What may not be as apparent are the benefits of game-based learning for adults. Keeping in mind that…

July 16, 2015 // Kat Shanahan

Filament Games Team Inspires Girl Scouts to Code

Check out our working avatar creator here! We have a soft spot in our hearts for kids who are interested in learning about programming and game development, and we make it a part of our mission to look for opportunities to give back to our community. In December, Filament Games was invited to participate in…

January 16, 2015 // Elle Jacobson

A Look Back at our 2023 Releases

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

Resource Roundup: 2023 at Filament Games