Games That Make You Smarter

Start-up Diaries

Eventually, you have to say something. At 7 Generation Games, we’ve decided today is that day. We – like so many others in education – watched the news with great disappointment as someone with no experience in public education was selected by the thinnest of margins to lead the Department […]

For Kids Who Don’t Have a Choice and Kids Who ...

February 9, 2017 in 7GenGames / Start-up Diaries / Women in Tech by Maria Burns Ortiz

buffalo on field background — The title of this post actually came from a conversation I overheard years ago. A young professional athlete was answering a question an even younger woman asked her about balancing her personal and professional life, I cannot give you the answers that I do not have. I was thinking about […]

I cannot give you the answers I do not have

February 8, 2017 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

“Beyond this door lies the Mayan jungle.” These are the words that greet players of our game AzTech Games as they find their characters transported back in time. They felt especially fitting today as AnnMaria and I found ourselves quite literally in the middle of that very same jungle today. We were heading […]

The Belize Chronicles: Always Stop at the Zoo

January 25, 2017 in Start-up Diaries / Uncategorized by Maria Burns Ortiz

working on a plane — There is a reason I am sitting here with 3 devices. In a word – Internet. In two words – slow Internet. Maria asked how it is that I am getting so much more done this trip and swearing so much less than when we went to Rio a year […]

Being Productive in Belize

January 24, 2017 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Jessie — Brief background We are working on a game with the Circle of Life substance abuse program on the Fort Berthold Reservation that will be used to help people change problem situations in their lives. The general theory behind it is Motivational Interviewing. Since the application will be used by people […]

Analyzing your emotions with your iPhone (& jQuery)

January 14, 2017 in AnnMaria / Code Talk / Game Progress / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Dennis on a computer — I was doing an interview for an upcoming article about women and the challenges they face when it comes to getting funding, when the interviewer mentioned how investors, VCs and all around tech startup folks love to throw around the word “rock star.” They want to invest in “rock star” […]

We Are Rock Stars

January 9, 2017 in 7GenGames / Start-up Diaries / Women in Tech by Maria Burns Ortiz

Chuck Zito and AnnMaria — People often imagine life at a start-up as being more exciting than it actually is. Many hours are spent debugging code, balancing budgets or in meetings with investors. Friday, however, was one of those days that lived up to the hype. Maria and I do a sort of weekly podcast […]

Chuck Zito, Start-ups and Hells Angels

January 8, 2017 in AnnMaria / podcast / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

We’ve spent months improving the artwork, educational resources and videos in Fish Lake. We released it on Steam on Friday and had two gamers stream it on Twitch in the first four days. What do we do next? Improve it more. Watching Jessamyn and Shayna play made obvious some additional […]

What do you do after you’ve dramatically improved your game?

December 21, 2016 in AnnMaria / Game Progress / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

There are very few events that I would have left town for the week of our STEAM release, but having attended in 2015, I knew the Ed Games Expo warranted being one of the exceptions. So here I am flying back home after 36 hours in DC that saw me get […]

What a Difference a Year Makes! Ed Games Expo 2016

December 15, 2016 in 7GenGames / Start-up Diaries by Maria Burns Ortiz

AnnMaria and Dennis, who run our tech team, talk about technical debt. Which is basically when you know your code isn’t exactly the best way to do something, but it’s the quickest and you need whatever it is done now, so you take the shortcut understanding you’ll have to come […]

Let Me Tell You A Story: Making the Narrative Better ...

December 7, 2016 in 7GenGames / Start-up Diaries by Maria Burns Ortiz

Sam from Forgotten Trail — Working at 7 Generation Games has been an amazing opportunity for me and I have been enjoying every second of it. Getting to play video games for a job has been my dream, being a part of creating a game, and working with amazing people has made my experience so […]

The Intern Diaries: Devon 1 Chapter

November 26, 2016 in Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Steam is: A) The result when water is heated above 212 degrees B) An acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics C) A platform for computer games When I tell people that I have been pretty much invisible lately because I’ve been getting Fish Lake ready for Steam they […]

You think you know what Steam is, but you don’t

November 21, 2016 in AnnMaria / Game Progress / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars