Recently, our CEO Dan White had the pleasure of joining Elecia White and Christopher White (no relation!) on their engineering podcast, Embedded.fm. This podcast features insights from engineers, artists, educators, and makers with a passion for science, technology, engineering, art, and math. In this episode, Dan discusses Filament’s approach to game design, our upcoming sandbox robotics game, RoboCo, and much more! Tune in below to learn how Dan defines “fun,” why STEM and learning games are a natural pairing, and everything else you want to know about Filament Games.
Episode outline:
[0:00-1:47] Introduction
[1:48-3:50] Lightning Round questions
[3:50-5:56] Dan’s advice for aspiring game designers
[5:56-7:21] Filament’s approach to educational game design for a variety of clients
[7:21-8:47] The skills that are best learned through games
[8:47-10:41] How Filament designs games for hard and soft skills
[10:41- 13:09] The differences between a game and an activity
[13:09-15:20] What is fun?
[15:20-19:21] How pedagogy/education theory and game-based learning interact
[19:21-21:45] Designing games for different gaming platforms
[21:45-22:21] How clients typically approach Filament
[22:21-27:24] RoboCo and RoboCo Sports League
[27:24-33:13] STE(A)M learning and educational games
[33:13-38:01] Learning games for assessment
[38:01-41:18] Turning learning objectives into gameplay mechanics
[41:18-45:17] The limits of games as educational tools and how games can introduce players to abstract concepts
[45:17-46:37] Low-cost, low-stakes ways that instructors can make learning more fun for their students
[46:49-49:34] Can a game be good without being fun?
[49:34-54:51] Dan’s dream learning game
[54:51- 58:03] Learning games and technology advancements
[58:03-1:01:47] Are there topics or content that should not be made into games?
[1:01:47-1:05:40] Closing thoughts and outro
We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Embedded.fm podcast featuring Dan White! If the googly eyes and top hats piqued your interest, you can keep up with all things RoboCo by signing up for the RoboCo newsletter and adding RoboCo to your wishlist on Steam.
Looking to create an educational game and need help from an educational game developer? We have 17 years of experience and we’re ready to help you bring your project to life!
More podcast episodes featuring Filament Games: