gamebasedlearning Archives - Page 68 of 78

My Time at the iCivics ELL Convening

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with a special ELL convening hosted by iCivics in DC to talk about some new things coming down the pike for Do I Have a Right?. Currently in development is a Spanish-language translation of the game, as well as new accessibility features for the English edition to accommodate ELL…

May 18, 2017 // Dan Norton

Filament Games | Educational Game Developer

How to Embrace Failure

Dan White wants to talk about failure. Specifically, the way we view failure within the context of education. Many of our educator allies have spoken to us about their sense that sometimes, K-12 education is gripped by a culture of fear that’s driven by standards-based testing regimes and a hierarchy of institutional accountability that can create…

May 17, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

Filament Games Podcast Season Three

We’re back – welcome to season three of the Filament Games Podcast! We have exciting things in store for you including interviews with Matthew Farber, Greg Toppo, Aaron San Flippo, and administrators from the Sun Prairie Area School District. We’re also thrilled to bring back The Retro Review and our on-air Game Design Challenge! We hope…

May 16, 2017 // Kat Shanahan

How to Add Value to Your Reader’s Experience with Augmented and Virtual Reality

If you are a traditional educational book publisher, you have most likely asked yourself if adding an Augmented or Virtual Reality component to your books is a wise investment. You’ve seen some impressive demos of characters coming to life in 3D from a page and you think “that’s cool!” But then you ask yourself, “what’s…

May 15, 2017 // Jennifer Javornik

Art Hacks: Shading Made Easy

Over the years when I introduce myself to new people and tell them I’m an artist, their response is typical: “Oh, like painting?” I have to stop myself from saying ‘yes’ because my version of painting is distinctly removed from their idea of ‘painting.’ I’m no master with acrylics or oils, but I have done…

May 11, 2017 // Natasha Soglin

Alpha, Beta, Gold: A Commitment to High-quality Game Development

When I talk to prospective clients, I always try to KIJF (keep it jargon free). That being said, there are a few terms that are just helpful to know. In this post, we’ll look at each of the three release phases that make up a typical game development project with us: Alpha, Beta, and Gold…

May 10, 2017 // Jennifer Javornik

Sennett Middle School’s Gaming Club – Creating Game Art!

At a recent game development club we hosted at Sennett Middle School, the Filament Games team introduced students to video game art, which is an important component of any video game’s development. There are many different artistic styles developers can choose from, but we chose a style that’s both iconic and easy to learn: pixel…

April 27, 2017 // Elle Jacobson

Designing Games for Toys and Young Learners

I recently had the privilege of working with Square Panda to create learning games for youngsters to help teach them letters. They use a physical tray and a series of plastic letters that players can manipulate in real life to interact with the digital game on a tablet. It looks like this: Photo credit: Square Panda…

April 26, 2017 // Abby Friesen

Real-Time vs. Turn-Based Mechanics in Learning Games

Hello there! Recently here at Filament Games I was working on a game pitch and the question of “real-time” versus “turn-based” was raised. As per usual, I had strong opinions without any justification, so I thought I would take some time to unpack my feelings about it and share the results with you, the gentle…

April 20, 2017 // Dan Norton

iCivics Suite Updates: How The Art Evolved

Filament Games and iCivics.org have shared a long and prosperous relationship over the years, during which they have created nineteen learning games together. These games have been played in all 50 states by students and educators alike, teaching a wide variety of civics topics from basic American rights and judicial processes to the fundamental structure of…

April 3, 2017 // Natasha Soglin

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