Brandon Pittser Archives - Filament Games

Why Cognitive Satiety is the New Goal for EdTech

The dopamine extraction schemes behind many popular digital products are often blamed for shrinking attention spans, especially in environments filled with constant notifications and competing stimuli. I myself have been distracted from completing this article in no less than five totally disparate ways since starting to write it. Based in part on hope for a…

April 15, 2026 // Brandon Pittser

Equipping Students for the Trades Through Game-based Learning

Career and technical education trains students to operate with precision before they have access to real equipment, real stakes, or real time in the field – a gap that has always asserted itself when the granularity of professional realities meet the abstractions of what one learns from curricula. Fortunately for us and learners everywhere, immersive…

April 13, 2026 // Brandon Pittser

The Latest Findings in AI and Learning – April 2026

Our March roundup focused on clarity, and with that clarity in hand, April is showing us where the lines start getting drawn. Educators are defining when AI belongs in the learning process and when it gets in the way. Researchers are building new ways to measure what students retain after using it. Institutions are making…

April 8, 2026 // Brandon Pittser

What’s New in Game-based Learning – April 2026

This month brought a mix of new tools, research, and notable projects that are worth a look. The NYT’s major review of language learning apps breaks down how platforms are refining short, interactive lessons with built-in feedback. A new narrative game designed with Ojibwe communities is pushing language learning into homes and families and preserving…

April 6, 2026 // Brandon Pittser

Building Data Literacy Through Game-Based Agency

Data literacy is a non-negotiable competency for the modern workforce. While our recent update on artificial intelligence and education explored how learners prompt generative models, it’s equally important to address the foundational skills required to evaluate their work. As luck would have it, game-based learning delivers the exact mechanisms needed to build true data fluency.…

April 1, 2026 // Brandon Pittser

Five Great Games for Learning on the Go

Whether you’re commuting to work, waiting for an appointment, or just kinda bored, who can resist the siren’s song of the smartphone? It’s right there, in your hand, like a little window into an endless world of entertainment and dopamine extraction schemes. I know I’m certainly not immune. This is why I’ve started using the…

March 30, 2026 // Brandon Pittser

Systems Thinking in Educational Games

10 years ago – yonks ago – in an article called Yes, You Are a Gamer, I noted that everyday existence is governed by mechanics and dynamics, meaning we all intuitively understand how to navigate complex, interactive rulesets. This is still true, and it’s getting truer. In a world suffused with complex systems, we need…

March 25, 2026 // Brandon Pittser

Why Effective Educational Games Require Friction

Best practices in digital design often prioritize seamless user experiences – intuitive interfaces, frictionless onboarding, and uninterrupted progress are the hallmarks of the modern digital interactive. Yet, a frictionless experience becomes a liability when we shift our focus from software utility to actual human cognition. Smooth, guided tutorials guarantee task completion, but they rarely ensure…

March 23, 2026 // Brandon Pittser

The TEMPO Shift: What the FDA’s New Pilot Means for Interactive Medical Technology

The intersection of digital innovation and clinical validation has long been a bottleneck for medtech entrepreneurs. Traditionally, the path to market involved a rigorous clearance-first hierarchy that made it challenging for digital therapeutics to generate the real-world data they needed to prove long-term efficacy. However, the FDA’s recently launched Technology-Enabled Meaningful Patient Outcomes (TEMPO) pilot…

March 16, 2026 // Brandon Pittser

From Novelty to Utility: Emerging Trends in Game-Based Learning

A review of current trends in game-based learning suggests that the industry is moving away from the novelty of play and toward the utility of systems and of course, impact! While that might sound like dull or perhaps even grim tidings, this sounds like good news to us. Instead of debating whether games can teach,…

March 11, 2026 // Brandon Pittser