staffinsights Archives | Page 18 of 42

Exploring the Future of Digital Curriculum with Explorabl.es

Remember Arne Duncan? I do. He was the Education Secretary under the Obama administration, and in 2012 he (somewhat controversially) declared that “Over the next few years, textbooks should be obsolete.” From our 2018 vantage point, this statement seems a little silly. Textbooks are still relevant to today’s schools, but I can sympathize with the…

February 28, 2018 // Brandon Pittser

Filament Games | Educational Game Developer

Video Game Side Effects

A 2015 report from the Entertainment Software Association states that more than 150 million Americans have been affected by video games, with 4 in 5 households receiving regular exposure. As this global epidemic continues to spread, one question remains at the forefront of everyone’s minds – what are the true side effects of repeated exposure…

March 7, 2018 // James LaPierre

Community Outreach & Collaboration: Spring Edition

Here at Filament Games, we’re extremely proud of our Wisconsin roots – meaning we’re constantly looking for new ways to volunteer, engage with, and give back to our local community. But here’s the thing about engaging with your local community: it often requires that you get out of the office! So as the weather warms up…

March 14, 2018 // James LaPierre

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

Blockchain, Self-Care, and Low Poly Animals: Highlights from GDC 2018

If you were in San Francisco, California last week, you may have noticed an extra 30,000+ people wandering around the downtown area (myself included). These folks were most likely there to attend the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC), a revered professional game industry event for developers, publishers, and academics alike. A little more context for…

March 28, 2018 // Sarah Spiers

Event Recap: Madison’s 1st Annual Spring Break Gaming & Coding Day

Our team was recently invited to participate in Madison’s 1st annual Spring Break Gaming and Coding Day, hosted by My Brother’s Keeper Madison. A free event open to middle and high school youth, students were invited to partake in a variety of coding and gaming-centric workshops led by local organizations Gear Learning, MadMarker Studios, Acme…

April 2, 2018 // James LaPierre

Abstraction in Learning Games

I was asked to write about abstraction in games for the Filament blog, which is a topic near and dear to my heart. Let me start by offering some hippy dippy nonsense that you will probably roll your eyes at, because you’ve already seen The Matrix. I think it’s useful though just to give you…

April 9, 2018 // Dan Norton

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

VR Unplugged: A Look at the Oculus Go

Expensive hardware costs have historically been cited as a factor behind VR’s slow but steady adoption among U.S. consumers – and this trend seems set to continue into the near future, with HTC recently unveiling their new professional-grade Vive Pro headset alongside its professional-grade price point: $799. While HTC attempts to corner the high-end, premium VR market,…

April 16, 2018 // James LaPierre

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