Article Archives - Page 39 of 44

Clip Studio Paint Review

In a previous blog post The Game Artist’s Arsenal, I covered our game artists’ most-used programs: Paint Tool SAI, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Animate (Flash.) Listed were each of the softwares’ pros and cons, along with general prices to help inform prospective artists. The feedback was largely positive and I gave myself a small pat on…

August 24, 2016 // Natasha Soglin

Filament Games | Educational Game Developer

Building Creative Practices: Strategies for Communication

Welcome back to Building Creative Practices! In my last semi-regular installment, I discussed strategies for creating Psychological Safety in the workplace, which at a high level is simply a way to get your team to operate in such a way that no one on the team is scared to speak their minds. I talked about effective…

August 22, 2016 // Brandon Pittser

SBIR Funding: Dreadfully Wonderful

So, you have a brilliant product idea and you think Uncle Sam should fund it. I can’t blame you. Compared to VC money, SBIR funding comes with relatively few strings attached. Most importantly: you don’t have to give up any equity. So what’s the catch? I’m glad you asked! One, the funding rate is low (typically…

August 17, 2016 // Dan White

Get to Know a Sound Designer: An Interview with Josh Bartels

The great thing about Filament Games is that you have the opportunity to interact with amazingly talented people everyday. Our studio is made up of highly creative people that contribute to every aspect of the game design process. Because of our exceptionally talented team members, we’re able to take a game from conception to completion…

August 4, 2016 // Kat Shanahan

Prisoner of Echo Classroom Activity

Looking for ways to get your students excited about sound? The activity below is included in our free game-based learning curriculum and can be used in conjunction with sound and amplitude learning game Prisoner of Echo. Try out this fun classroom activity with your students and view more sound and amplitude curriculum activities here! Lab: Sound…

August 3, 2016 // Kat Shanahan

Game Art Live Stream Recap

I had the pleasure of joining Game Art Team Lead Natasha Soglin in the studio today as she live streamed her design process and answered viewers’ questions about game art. To give you a behind-the-scenes looks at her drawing process, Natasha re-created two game art characters from our chemical equations balancing game, Bongo Balance. Watch…

July 28, 2016 // Kat Shanahan

HTML5 and WebGL

WebGL, like HTML5, is an agreed upon standard that browser software will support. It is based on OpenGL, which is the most widely adopted graphics standard in computing. This means that instead of relying on plug-ins, modern browsers can support rich content and advanced features without installing additional software. Specifically, WebGL allows for hardware accelerated graphics…

July 13, 2016 // Stephen Calender

Pulling Back the Veil: Using Games to Let Students Explore the Impossible

Dave Ropa is an avid game-based learning supporter. In our recent eBook release, Dave shared how he uses games in the classroom to help students understand complex material and apply that learning in meaningful ways. Dave uses games for three specific content areas in his seventh grade science class – instruction of ecology & environmental sciences,…

July 11, 2016 // Filament Teacher Fellow

Game Art & Tokotas: How Wolfbears Helped My Art

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…

July 6, 2016 // Natasha Soglin

How to Design A Student Game Design Competition

Our community of educators continually tells us that students are eager to learn about game design and coding. One way to provide students with game design experience outside of the classroom is to host a game design competition. The competition doesn’t have to be large in order for students to get an in-depth look at…

June 30, 2016 // Jennifer Javornik