staffinsights Archives | Filament Games

FGP 10: Virtual Reality

February 16, 2016 // Kat Shanahan

Filament Games | Educational Game Developer

Welcome to Episode 10! Welcome to episode 10! In this episode we discuss the ins and outs of virtual reality and explore how VR could impact the classroom. Have a question, comment, or idea you’d like us to discuss? Get in touch with us via Facebook or Twitter and we’ll try to work it into…

Challenging Systems

April 18, 2016 // Dan White

Filament Games | Educational Game Developers

I recently delivered a talk at the National Science Teachers Association entitled “Engagement Unlocked: Using Learning Games for STEM”. I began the presentation by disavowing the title because it suggests that, up to this point, engagement has been locked up and inaccessible in schools. That’s obviously not true. Yes, I remember having to memorize the…

Game Art & Tokotas: How Wolfbears Helped My Art

July 6, 2016 // Natasha Soglin

In February, Brandon Pittser pointed out games can exist anywhere. Sometimes games are hard-coded into societal norms. Other times we try to gamify tasks we don’t want to do to make them more interesting, like folding laundry or washing the floor. But what happens when you gamify something you’re already passionate about? As an artist…

FGP2-14: The Retro Review Math Blaster

September 6, 2016 // Kat Shanahan

Join us for the last Retro Review of the season! Dan Norton, Brandon Pittser, and Matt Haselton blast some math and discuss how math education has evolved in the last few decades. Hot Topics in This Week’s Episode Retro Review: Carmen Sandiego Retro Review: Oregon Trail Math Blaster FGP2-13: Math & Learning Games

Speed Sketch! Happy Hallowbee

October 31, 2016 // Natasha Soglin

It’s my favorite time of year! The leaves are turning, cinnamon and spices are a-brewin’, and I get to break out my infinity scarves and sweaters! There’s something cozy, innocent, and nostalgic about fall, from Back-to-School all the way through Thanksgiving into winter, and Halloween is no exception. I wanted to capture that essence in…

10 Tips for Designing a Game Tutorial

March 16, 2017 // Stephen Calender

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…

How to Embrace Failure

May 17, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

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…

Art Hacks: Line Art from Pencil to Screen

June 28, 2017 // Natasha Soglin

As a 14-year-old sprouting digital artist in the mid-00s, the best way I learned how to create digital art was from my peers. Not the peers I saw daily in Ms. Taylor’s 9th grade English class, mind you; I’m talking about the ever-expanding online communities of teenagers just finding out that there’s more to life…

Learning About Learning: Dog Training

October 11, 2017 // Stephen Calender

If you have been following Filament Games you have probably met my dog Euler (named after Leonhard Euler). As you might infer, Filament has an office policy where pets are welcome at work. Euler has appeared across Filament’s media. For example, she has been featured, and photo-bombed others on our instagram. I added a second dog,…

EdTech Predictions for 2018

January 3, 2018 // Brandon Pittser

Game-based learning (particularly the digital variety) depends on the health of the EdTech industry, rising and falling with the adoption of hardware and the evolution of education policy. So as another year unfurls before us, we’re peering into our fila-palantir to see what 2018 will bring to EdTech. Check out our predictions below and be…

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