Filament Games

Filament Games is a Madison, Wisconsin based educational video game developer founded in 2005 by partners Daniel White, Daniel Norton, and Alexander Stone. They are a design and production studio specializing in the creation of authentic gameplay mechanics that are also accurate representations of educational content. By actively embedding learning objectives within game activities, Filament's games help players transform their play experience into real world knowledge.

Philosophy

Filament’s design philosophy is closely based on the scholarship of Kurt Squire, Constance Steinkuehler, and James Paul Gee, who pioneered much of the research about the value of games as teaching tools. Filament is also a close affiliate of the annual Games Learning and Society Conference.

History

The company received national recognition for their series of civics games launched by Sandra Day O'Connor for iCivics, her civics-education initiative. These games include Do I Have a Right?, Executive Command, and Liberty Belle's Immigration Nation. Filament has also developed games for the JASON Project at National Geographic, and is currently working with MIT’s Education Arcade to build an MMO to help high school students learn STEM subjects. In spring of 2011, Filament’s game You Make Me Sick!, in which the player acts as a virus and tries infect a host, won the developer prize in the National STEM Award Video Game Challenge.

Development History

Release Date	Game Title	Subject Matter	Principal Partner
12/1/2005	Cosmos Chaos	Language Arts - reading	PREL / Aloha Island
11/7/2008	Coaster Creator	Science - physical	JASON Project
2/8/2009	Resilient Planet	Science - life	JASON Project
8/17/2009	Do I have a Right?	Social Studies - civics	Our Courts
9/9/2009	Transform It!	Science - physical	JASON Project
1/11/2010	Argument Wars	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
1/11/2010	Energy City	Science - physical	JASON Project
5/10/2010	Eco Defenders	Science - life	JASON Project
5/24/2010	Branches of Power	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
5/24/2010	LawCraft	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
6/3/2010	Executive Command	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
6/3/2010	Landform Detectives	Science - earth	JASON Project
8/3/2010	Court Quest	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
9/24/2010	Cast Your Vote	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
9/24/2010	Master Mines	Science - earth	JASON Project
10/29/2010	Oncology	Science - life	Morgridge
11/2/2010	Activate	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
11/3/2010	Responsibility Launcher	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
12/1/2010	Immigration Nation	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
4/3/2011	Commander of the Nautilus	Science - physical	JASON Project
6/1/2011	People's Pie	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
6/1/2011	Superkids	Language Arts - reading	Rowland Reading
7/14/2011	Citizen Science	Science - earth	GLS
7/14/2011	Counties Work	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
8/1/2011	Crisis of Nations	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
9/1/2011	Win the Whitehouse	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
9/1/2011	Xenos	Language Arts - reading	LGN
9/20/2011	Cell Command	Science - life	Department of Education
9/20/2011	Crazy Plant Shop	Science - life	Department of Education
9/20/2011	You Make Me Sick!	Science - life	Department of Education
9/22/2011	Represent Me!	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
10/14/2011	Cool Choices	Environmental Studies	Cool Choices
2/3/2012	The Sports Network 2	Language Arts - writing	Classroom Inc.
3/9/2012	Drafting Board	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
3/30/2012	Pocket Law Firm	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
5/31/2012	Prep School	Language Arts - grammar	Filament Games
5/31/2012	Prisoner of Echo	Science - physical	National Science Foundation
6/29/2012	We the Jury	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
8/2/2012	The Fuzzy Chronicles	Science - physical	Vanderbilt University
2/23/2013	Simulawyer	Professional Practice	Infilaw
3/18/2013	Fossil Forensics	Science - life	Filament Games
4/19/2013	Tikiquations (Bongo Balance)	Science - physical	Filament Games
4/25/2013	Molecubes	Science - physical	Filament Games
5/1/2013	Project Unison	Other	Filament Games
5/2/2013	Planet Mechanic	Science - earth	Filament Games
5/6/2013	Reach for the Sun	Science - life	Department of Education
5/9/2013	Backyard Engineers	Science - physical	Filament Games
5/17/2013	Storm Seekers	Science - earth	Filament Games
5/23/2013	Hotel Heat	Science - physical	Filament Games
8/2/2013	Satisfraction	Math	Filament Games
11/4/2013	Shutterbugs: Wiggle and Stomp	Science	The Smithsonian Institution
12/1/2013	Word Raider	Language Arts - reading	Ballard & Tighe
2/25/2014	Radix	Science - life	MIT
6/26/2014	Dr. Guts	Science - life	Filament Games
9/17/2014	That’s Your Right	Social Studies - civics	Annenberg Classroom
9/24/2014	DB Quest	Social Studies - civics	iCivics
3/12/2015	Motion Force	Science - physical	Filament Games
09/24/2015	Morphy!	Science	Smithsonian Science Education Center
09/24/2015	Disaster Detector	Science	Smithsonian Science Education Center
09/24/2015	Bumper Ducks	Science	Smithsonian Science Education Center
09/24/2015	Showbiz Safari	Science	Smithsonian Science Education Center
2016	Inspire Science	Science Education	McGraw-Hill Education
1/11/2016	Bongo Balance	Science - physical	Filament Games

External links

• Company website