Filament Games Podcast

In this special new season of the Filament Games Podcast, you have a first-class ticket to travel with Jennifer Javornik, our Chief Partnerships Officer. Listen in as she attends influential events and interviews insightful thought leaders who are making an impact through technology and video games! In this episode, Jennifer sat down with Julian Fitzgerald Robinson, a dedicated social impact leade...

In this episode, Brandon and Dan interview former Filament Games designer Lydia Symchych about the JumpStart series, specifically JumpStart 3rd Grade Mystery Mountain. JumpStart was a learning game franchise that began in 1994 and closed in 2023. To learn more about the ins and outs of these games, and why JumpStart 3rd Grade Mystery Mountain is so significant to Lydia, you’ll have to tune in to t...

In this episode, your hosts Brandon and Dan have a conversation with Carrie Ray-Hill, the Senior Director of Digital Learning at iCivics. If you’ve been keeping up with Filament Games since the beginning, you’ll know our work and friendship with the folks at iCivics goes way back! Listen on to learn how the pandemic and recent trends in civics learning have informed iCivics’ approach, the strategy...

In this episode of the Filament Games podcast, your hosts Brandon and Dan had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Rake, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at FIRST. Brandon, Dan, and Chris discuss Filament’s work with FIRST on RoboCo and RoboCo Sports League, the ethos and values of FIRST, the impact on FIRST participants, and much more.

In this episode, your illustrious hosts Brandon and Dan interview Filament Game Designer Colin Skinner about his experiences working as lead designer on RoboCo Sports League. What is RoboCo Sports League? In short, it’s a RoboCo-inspired experience Filament Games is creating specifically for the Roblox platform. If you’ve been dreaming of a multiplayer version of RoboCo, we’re happy to report that...

In this episode, Brandon and Dan, along with guest Lydia Symchych, a former Filament game designer, tackle pervasive game-based learning myths. Like the revered Mythbusters themselves, Brandon, Dan, and Lydia dive into common misconceptions and destroy them from the inside out!* *Figuratively, of course. No pyrotechnics were used in the making of this episode.

Welcome back to the Filament Games Podcast! To commemorate the November 3rd launch of RoboCo for Steam Early Access, we invited our CEO Dan White onto the podcast to chat with Brandon and Dan all about how RoboCo came to be, our partnership with FIRST, and what launch day was like (spoiler alert, Dan White’s adrenal glands were in peril). From the game’s humble beginnings to its roadblocks to its...

Welcome back to the Filament Games Podcast! If you read our blog, you may know we are working with our friends at the University of Wisconsin - Madison to create an educational cow-handling game. If you didn’t know, now you do! The project is aptly called Mooving Cows, and it is a game-based learning experience that teaches players how to interact properly with cattle in a risk-free virtual enviro...

The Filament Games Podcast is back! That’s right, after a, ahem, brief four-year hiatus, season four of your favorite game-based learning podcast is here. The original hosts of the podcast, VP of Marketing Brandon Pittser and CCO Dan Norton, are back with even more game-based learning insights, incredible guest interviews, and enough antics to keep you informed and entertained all at once. Season...

Abby and Matt make their triumphant return in another head-knocking, blood-pumping Game Design Challenge.

Brandon and Dan are joined by Matt Haselton for another vintage learning game adventure, this time embarking on the inimitable Logical Journey of the Zoombinis.

Brandon and Dan are joined by Ethan for a discussion of practical audio techniques for game development!

In this episode, we’re joined by two incredible educator pioneers who are leading the way towards using VR for learning. Hear from Maria Galanis, Instructional Coach at Shepard Middle School and Andrea Trudeau, Library Information Specialist for Deerfield District 109, as they discuss their best practices for using VR in classrooms.

Get to know the Sun Prairie School District! Nate and Annie stop by for a visit and chat about their district's game-based learning program.

The first Retro Review of the season brings an exciting foray into retro learning game Manhole. Matt Haselton joins us in the studio to talk about a VR version of the game and what students actually learn through gameplay.

Author and gamification aficionado Matthew Farber joins us this week to talk about his new book and what he's learned through teaching with games. We also discuss the growth of the game-based learning community and revisit empathy in games.

In our third episode of the season we sit down with Aaron San Flippo, co-founder of FlippFly, to discuss getting started as an Indie Dev and his advice for aspiring developers. Dan also shares which song he would like played at his funeral and provides us with a "bonus ramble round" on Mario Kart for the Nintendo Switch.

This week we welcome USA Today K12 education writer Greg Toppo into the studio to discuss the differences between education and learning, along with his book - The Game Believes in You. We also dive into the stigma around games being "addictive" and try out some new Filament Games marketing slogans.

Welcome to Season III of the Filament Games Podcast! To kick off the season, we chatted with Game Art Team Lead Natasha Soglin about her work at Filament Games and her passion for an ARPG that includes horse-sized rideable wolfbears called Tokotas.

In the season two finale we meet Dan's alter ego, Kat Shanahan, recap our favorite moments from season two, and look ahead to the future of the Filament Games Podcast. We also finally reveal our thoughts on No Man's Sky, listen in on Dan's World of Warcraft Confessional, and experience the ultimate Fact or Fabrication showdown.

Join us for the last Retro Review of the season! Dan Norton, Brandon Pittser, and Matt Haselton blast some math and discuss how math education has evolved in the last two decades.

In episode thirteen of the Filament Games Podcast, we sit down with the newly "doctored" Caro Williams-Pierce to learn about the intersection of math and games. We also talk about math in other dimensions, surfing atop a flying kite, and the intricacies of being a brain in a jar.

This week on the Filament Games Podcast, Dr. Krista-Lee Malone joins us to discuss her work in Taiwan on a language learning MMORPG and her new research on gender and tabletop RPGs. We also revisit our discussion about modified cats and turn the tables in Fact or Fabrication.

Welcome to episode 11. This week, Engineering Director Arthur Low joins us in the studio to discuss the relationship between Virtual Reality and Identity. We also try to decide on a name for a "VR room" and find out if Brandon can make a comeback in Fact or Fabrication.

Grab your almanac, Gumshoe. Carmen's crew has performed another caper and only you can stop her. Join us for the second episode of The Retro Review as we play through the most successful learning game of all time, Carmen Sandiego. Don't forget to check out our bonus video for a full playthrough of the game.