Brandon Pittser Archives | Page 3 of 12

Highlights from a Decade of Learning Games

What does a decade of learning games look like? Filament Games has been around making learning games and taking names since 2005, which was so long ago that smartphones weren’t even a thing at the time. A lot has changed about the world since then, and correspondingly, a lot has changed about how we design…

July 31, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

Filament Games | Educational Game Developer

Walden and ELA Games for Learning

With Games for Change awarding Most Significant Impact and Game of the Year to Walden, a Game, there’s a lot of attention right now on the type of game that Walden represents – that is, narrative games, which fall more broadly into the category of English Language Arts (ELA) games. As a game named after a…

August 3, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

Unity for Education – An Interview with Jessica Lindl

The Filament Games blog team recently sat down to talk with Jessica Lindl, Global Head of Education at Unity, to talk through their plans and aspirations around the education industry. Here’s what she had to say: Tell us about yourself. What’s your professional background? I’ve spent my entire career in Education. From the beginning, I’ve…

September 6, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

Game-Based Learning Research Roundup 2017

As game-based learning finds its way into the mainstream of teaching modalities, questions about efficacy will naturally start to surface. Fortunately, there’s a significant amount of research available to help drive this conversation in a positive direction, and more research gets generated and highlighted every year. To help you sort through it all, we’ve assembled…

September 11, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

Augmented Reality and Training

We’ve been talking a lot about VR lately, but the world of XR content and experiences is wide and inclusive of mixed reality (MR), augmented reality (AR), and more, each with its own set of strengths and applications. MR is a broad term that describes content situated “anywhere between the extrema of the virtuality continuum”[1].…

September 18, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

Making Games that Learn

There’s a lot we can learn playing games – from Newtonian physics to object-oriented coding, games can make us more capable and more informed. But here’s a thought that might sound a little ridiculous: what can games learn from us? According to today’s article from Fast Company, Unity Technologies is looking to answer that very question. Yesterday…

September 20, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

Filament Games | Educational Game Developers

Video Games and The Scientific Method

The Mario Method Form a question, create a hypothesis, predict the outcome, test your theory. Sound familiar? You probably recognize these steps as the foundational structure of the scientific method. Human beings have used this simple yet profound process to structure scientific inquiry for hundreds of years, and based on the fact that I’m typing…

October 4, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

Project Highlight: Aquation from the Smithsonian Institute

Learning games are powerful tools for delivering information – whether you’re teaching basic spelling or object-oriented code, learning games are potent experience engines that immerse and engage the learner. There are even some cases where that immersion can be quite literal. Take, for instance, Aquation, the new Freshwater Access Game from the Smithsonian Institute that’s designed to…

October 2, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

ESA Heartland Series: An Interview with Dan White

Note: This interview first appeared in the Entertainment Software Association blog. Showcasing the geographic diversity of the video game industry, the Heartland Series features interviews with video game publishers, developers, and innovators from across America, highlighting the groundbreaking work and innovation they bring to every corner of the nation. This month, ESA asked Dan White,…

October 9, 2017 // Brandon Pittser

Meet the Expert: Virtual Reality Artist Adam Blumenthal

We recently connected with Adam Blumenthal, a veteran of the virtual reality space, to discuss the history and future of Virtual Reality. As Brown University’s Virtual Reality Artist-in-Residence and Virtual Reality Professor of Practice, Adam provides a unique and comprehensive perspective on Virtual Reality as a medium. Tell us about yourself. What’s your background? I’ve…

October 25, 2017 // Brandon Pittser