art&design Archives | Filament Games

Speed Sketch: Unattended Smorgasbord

Felines. 😸 Pies. 🥧 And Natasha Soglin’s award-winning artistry. 🎨 Need we say more!? Feast your eyes on our annual fall speed sketch – a splendid holiday feast fit for a feline (or two!) With the holiday season just around the corner, Natasha was inspired to illustrate these frisky cats alongside a slew of seasonal…

November 21, 2018 // James LaPierre

Filament Games | Educational Game Developer

Speed Sketch! Halloween 2.0

Happy Halloween everyone! For this year’s Halloween Speed Sketch, Game Art Lead Natasha Soglin takes us on a hike through a colorful autumn forest scene. Natasha used both Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint for this sketch, so pay close attention to see if you can spot when she switches. It won’t be long until the…

October 30, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

How to Get Hired at a Game Studio: Art Edition

As the Game Art Team Lead, one of my key responsibilities is hiring and onboarding new game artists when open positions become available. I am often the first person to review incoming job applications, tasked with sifting through portfolio after portfolio in order to determine which candidates are most qualified to move forward in the…

December 13, 2017 // Natasha Soglin

Speed Sketch! Character Redesign Challenge

Art RPGs can create some weird critters. The below creature is called an ‘Esk,’ created by artist Witherlings over at DeviantArt. Their relatively new ARPG “Those Who Went Missing” has skyrocketed in popularity, garnering over 1,000 new members in a mere nine months. Esk are furry creatures with four legs, long flowing tails, and a distinct…

February 19, 2018 // Natasha Soglin

Speed Sketch! Plants

When developing custom learning games for clients, artists like myself are sometimes given the direction to make art that “looks like all the other Filament games.” While some of our past games share similar styles and visual characteristics, the truth is there is no one “Filament style” that is common across all our previous games…

March 21, 2018 // Roma Jenson

Resource Roundup: How to Get Hired at a Game Studio

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) reports that the US video game industry generated $36 billion in revenue in 2017, a growth of 18% from the prior year. With 2,000+ video game developers and publishers directly employing over 65,000 individuals across all 50 U.S. states (seriously, find out who’s near you using this handy interactive map),…

March 26, 2018 // James LaPierre

How to Get Hired at a Game Studio: UX Designer Edition

The Role of a Visual Interaction Designer at Filament A number of months ago I received an email inquiry seeking advice on how to become a Visual Interaction Designer (otherwise referred to as a User Experience Designer, or UX for short) at Filament Games. This request came from Brandon Korth, who has since become a…

April 11, 2018 // Alex Yaeger

Demystifying UX

Over the past decade, the term “UX” has become ubiquitous across many industries. I find myself uttering those two letters at an alarming rate on any given day. My inbox contains no shortage of emails from sources like Linkedin begging and pleading for applicants to fill a variety of UX positions. But what is UX…

April 23, 2018 // Alex Yaeger

Bucky on Parade Recap: bucky.exe

A summerlong public art event hosted by the Madison Area Sports Commission, Bucky on Parade is a citywide exhibition of 85 life-sized Bucky Badger statues designed and created by talented local artists. On display from May 7 – September 12, 2018, you can find where all of the statues are located using this handy interactive map…including our…

May 7, 2018 // James LaPierre

Game Development 101: An Introduction to Wireframes

Communication is a critical aspect of any collaborative enterprise, and game development is no exception to that rule. There are any number of tools to facilitate communication, from something as obvious as email, to something slightly more esoteric and specialized to its industry – like wireframes for instance, which just so happen to be the…

July 16, 2018 // Brandon Korth

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