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Visit with a Veep- Harley Baldwin

Harley Baldwin is the vice president of design for Schell Games. Harley is responsible for mentoring, managing and cultivating the design culture, collaborating with clients and guiding the vision for exciting, pioneering experiences for players and guests.

How did you start your path to getting a job in the video game industry?

I went to University of New Mexico and when I was starting my senior year, I discovered that there were people making video games for a living. I decided that’s what I wanted to do. Keep in mind that this was over 25 years ago, and there was no such thing as a degree in video game design or anything like that, so I had to make it up as I went along.

You mentioned you had a couple of jobs before college and prior to your start in game design. What kind of jobs did you have?

One summer, I washed dogs for a living, so every day I would come home just soaked, and smelling of dogs.The job is more intense than you’d think. The washer has to find and pick the ticks off the dog, and...things like that. It gave me appreciation for people who take on the less pleasant parts of life. 

While I was in college, I worked in the library as a shelver. When I was supposed to be shelving books, I’d find and read books that were interesting to me in a corner somewhere. It was very luxurious and naughty.

Very cool.

Yes! I also worked retail for a long time, mostly as a cashier. I was good at the money aspect of retail, not so much the stacking and the folding.

Out of those experiences, were there any takeaways or lessons learned that still affect you today?

Sure, I can immediately think of two. I am one of the few people I know who can properly bathe a cat. You’re laughing, but it is a lot harder than it sounds. I can do it in a way that both the cat and the person stay safe. But that’s not really what you asked…

No, but that’s hilarious.

You asked me what I learned about work, or about craft, from those experiences. I learned that we have a mental hierarchy in our society about what type of work we think is important. That mental hierarchy doesn’t value the effort people put forth in doing the work. That concept has very much stuck with me. I learned how fast our society would crumble if what we thought of as “service jobs” would stop. Our society would just stop working. I don’t think a lot of people are aware of that. Also, the amount of care that you bring to your work- no matter what it is that you’re doing- has an enormous effect on the outcome. It can be hard to care about something; not everything is fun. Not everything in game design is fun. If you can find a way to bring your best skill, mindset, and craft to the task, the outcome is going to improve. And it doesn’t matter if you’re designing systems, or folding towels.

From college, how did you get into the games industry?

 At UNM I was a photography major, and I had all this expensive photography equipment. If I wasn’t playing games, I was spending the rest of my time walking around and taking pictures. The idea was for me to graduate and move to New York City to be a high-end photo printer for fashion photographers and others. I wanted to print advertising collateral. The summer before my senior year my apartment was broken into and they stole all my photography equipment. Even now, the amount of equipment they stole would be difficult to replace. But back then, as a college student on work-study and Pell grants, it was devastating.

Absolutely!

There was no way I could finish the senior thesis I had planned. So, I had to quickly scramble to see what exactly I was going to do. A friend of mine said that she was going to interview at this software development company with a guy who attended our high school. She heard my plight and told me to come along. I went, and it turns out the job was making video games. I got really excited. Then I got the idea that I was going to earn as much money as I could, so by the end of summer I would have the money to buy whatever equipment I needed for my senior thesis. But by the end of summer, I didn’t care about photography anymore. I was completely into game development. Thankfully the lessons I learned from photography were applicable to game design in some ways. I had trained my eye to see, if you will. I decided to stay with the company and build games. 

Very nice.

The first game I worked on was called Mad Dog McCree. It was a western where the player had to only shoot the people in the black hats, not any bystanders, or people wearing white hats. I sat there watching each frame of the video and drew boxes around the people, indicating whether or not this was a person who should be shot. Throughout that time, I started asking questions like, ‘couldn’t we write a script for this to happen?’ ‘Could we make these tools easier to use?’ For the first couple of years I was a technical artist, asking a lot of the questions about improving the process of making the game. I liked the idea of rapid iteration of the content we were creating. Then I started asking questions like, ‘what should the player be doing?’ and ‘how does the player know what to do?’ and I found myself becoming a designer pretty quickly.

Cool. What do you like about Schell Games?

I’ve spent over twenty years on the west coast in the AAA console, shooter, sometimes adventure world. I think of it as a very heady time. We were working with big budgets, working on $20 million dollar games with a $20 million dollar marketing budget, and it was very exciting. The trade-off was that we were actually a lot more creatively-constrained.

How so?

There are a couple of reasons. With that kind of budget, it is important to ameliorate risk as much as possible. The number one way of ameliorating risk is to make sure that the game is something that people will like and buy. That means it is really hard to innovate. There are times that the AAAs would take one #1 hit, and try to mash it up with another #1 hit, in order to create something new. Other times, we had conversations ending with “we can’t do that because we don’t know if people will like it.” And that may sound surprising to some in the industry because they think the AAAs are pushing the envelope, but really that part of the industry is polishing what is already known to work.

So what I like about Schell Games is that we have enormous creative freedom. Not just with our internal IP, but the type of clients we attract are looking for a studio that is not afraid to innovate, to look at things with a different lens, or try new technology to see what it can do.That is super valuable to me. 

Also we put a high value on the quality of life of our people. Our people are our value. If they are grinding themselves into dust, we know that it doesn’t help them stay, do their best work, or cooperate in a team to solve the hard problems of innovation and new technologies. We spend a lot of time and energy making sure that their quality of life is good. I like that very much.

I also love the emphasis on continuous improvement we have in the studio. We take continuous looks at our processes, the way we do projects- just everything- and try to figure out ways to improve them. There is much less of the “that’s just the way we do it here” culture. That sense of looking to optimize everything is what drew me into the industry, whether it’s creativity, technology or whatever issue we’re trying to tackle.

Where do you see the video games industry in five years?

What the hardware manufacturers want to do is to find the ‘killer app’ for VR/AR/MR. Somebody is going to figure out a way for a player to stay in VR to a point that it feels totally worth the value of the hardware. Once that happens, everything will flow from there. From playing a lot of games and watching the industry, seeing how our teams are solving these problems, I am starting to see glimmers of that. I’m trying to figure it out myself.

It will change everything in the way free-to-play games changed mobile gaming. The industry is still trying to figure out what kind of VR experience consumers will want to spend money- and time- on.

True.

If you go on Reddit, you’ll see that people think that the VR industry right now is just a sea of demos. We know that isn’t really the case, but that’s what people think. VR content is super expensive to make, and publishers have to be convinced to throw money behind it. The “gadget” industry is getting saturated, so the VR/AR space is really exciting, because it is new and different.

What’s unique about being on a leadership team in a game studio?

Never in my career thus far, have I had more opportunity to affect how much risk we take on. There’s a fine line when it comes to risk. I believe that in order to be creative and innovative, there is some risk involved. But taking on too much risk has its own issues. In the place we’re at, we can have good conversations about the opportunities in front of us, and the risks associated. It’s something that we think about a lot.

The kind of relationships that you get to make with the amazing developers we have here, and some of the clients we have here, is really unique for me. Getting a chance to work with people from companies that I deeply admire and asking them about creative projects that they’d like to see happen is awesome and satisfying for me.

As vice president of design for Schell Games, you get very busy. How do you stay on top of your craft and discipline?

I try to do it in several ways. In the studio, I play every single game we’ve made on a regular cadence. I play the game with the project teams, and we discuss exactly what it is they are trying to do. In a lot of cases, I am an early playtester for the teams to see if they are succeeding or not in what they’re trying to do. I tell them what experiences I liked in the game, and what I thought was challenging. I try to use those opportunities to connect teams who have solved similar problems or challenges, and to make sure that whatever insight they need is what we talk about.

In terms of staying on top of ‘game design’ as a craft, the main thing is to try to play a variety of different games frequently. It isn’t possible anymore with the size of the industry and number of releases to play every big game that comes out. Right now, since we as a studio have been focusing on VR, I’ve been focusing on playing VR games. I write up a “5 minute critique” of each game I play as a way to keep my thoughts organized. I write down my overall thoughts about the game, how it addressed certain design aspects (i.e. in VR, embodiment and presence) and what we, as a design team, can learn from that experience.

How does that process translate to your leadership of the design team?

I get the chance to have conversations about what the team is interested in making, what games are out there that they think are interesting, and what ground-breaking concept they think we can tackle. Playing all these games and having these conversations gives me more context on what I’d like to explore.

With Schell Games having such a large design team, there must be quite a spectrum of what individual team members like or think is interesting.

Absolutely. We do say that ‘diversity makes us strong’ when it comes to hiring, to the clients we work with, and to the type of work we do, and it is also true when it comes to the interests that our teams have. When I’m looking at a potential new team member, I try to see if this person is bringing a new perspective, background, or skill, different from our other designers.

What advice would you give to a person trying to get into the game industry?

I think Schell Games is a little different than other full-service game studios because we prioritize the ability to collaborate and work well with others. Flexibility is also a huge factor. We do so many different projects that it is necessary for you to be flexible. We also like it if you have multiple areas of expertise, so you can serve your teams in multiple ways if the project demands it. But that’s particular to Schell Games. For design, having expertise in different backgrounds or coming from a different industry puts you in a position to inform. It places you at an advantage.

(For more about the hiring characteristics for Schell Games, read the interview with general counsel Chris Arnold.)

For the games industry in general, for many years we have said that it is important for you to make games and to show that you have made games. So we encouraged people to go to game jams, and learn game engines, and things like that. And it is still important. But I do not think it is the single point of breaking into the industry anymore. I think games are an increasingly sophisticated medium. As the games industry matures, we need people who can evaluate content and the experiences provided in the medium, and speak clearly and succinctly about what they can improve, and how they would do that. Developing a standard or a habit for critique is very valuable. Games are not created in a vacuum- games have budgets, timelines, teams- so having a strategy or process is important.

Interesting.

Also, learn to code. An understanding of what computers are good at and what they are not will make working with you much more attractive.  

Where do you see Schell Games in five years?

I think we will have shifted more of our work to our internal IP (original games). By then, we will have launched a very successful game, and I think that we will be working on the second phase of it, whatever that may look like. We will have grown, not extensively, but bigger than we are now. I do see us being a major player and influencer at the intersection of VR and learning, along with new technology.

(Internal IP: I Expect You To Die, Happy Atoms, and SuperChem VR)

What is one thing about leadership that you have learned on the job?

The hardest and most important one was learning to trust my team. When I was first promoted to a design lead, I was leading ten designers. I was conducting a brainstorm session, but trying to control the brainstorm to lead them to conclusions that I thought we should make. I was afraid that the team wouldn’t get to the right answers unless I led them. During one of the days of the brainstorm, I got so sick - to the point that I shouldn’t have gone to work - and I asked someone else to lead the brainstorm. I sat in the back room and watched my team. For the first 45 minutes, I was terrified. But they ended up designing something really cool, and came up with really good questions to continue answering. I knew and trusted them as good designers, but I had to learn to put my money where my mouth was, and trust them more with some of the high-level design questions. I needed to have them steer me, not me steering them. When I follow that lesson, I see my teams create and represent ideas and concepts on a much bigger scale than what I can do on my own. The best ideas come from teams that were given the opportunity and responsibility to build them from the start.

What’s your favorite video game?

Oh, how funny you ask. When I’m interviewing a candidate, and after I ask all the hard and scary questions and the candidate is about to walk out the door, I ask them what they think the best game of all time is.

Really?

Yes! And you would not believe how many people choke on that question. They think there is a right or wrong answer, or that the game they think is the best will be deemed a bad game by other people. When I ask that question, I’m not looking for a particular game, I want to see how the candidate reasons why they think it’s the best game of all time. Is there an emotional connection? Did the game make you feel smart? What did the experience do for you that made it the best game?

For me right now, my favorite game is Portal 2, specifically with the co-op mode. I love how important communication is in the game, and how smart the game is. Before Portal 2 I liked Portal, and before that I really enjoyed Quake II.

What in your opinion, makes the leadership team at Schell Games click?

We work together often, and we trust each other to do what we all do well. It is something that Jesse [Schell] has consciously built into the team and the studio. He is always looking for ways for us to communicate better; whether it is among us, or across disciplines, or studio-wide. He actively encourages us to communicate forthrightly and sensitively. There’s really no politics in the leadership team. We try to be accountable to one another.

Given unlimited resources, no timeline, and an unlimited budget, what type of experience would you like to see Schell Games create?

Two things I’ve always had a soft spot for are imaginary worlds and emergent systems. With those kinds of resources, I’d want to make a fantastical imaginary VR world - - like those gorgeous science fiction / fantasy book covers -- with lots of emergent systems -- and of course, complex social interactions as well. Imagine if the kinds of emergent systems that illuminate Skyrim and Breath of the Wild worked in social interactions with real players. And or course, I also would want to slay - or ride - or breed - dragons.

But also! After thinking about this question for much longer than I should have, I want to say that I think it’s an unfair question. First, designers never work with unlimited anything, and even if they did, we’d have limited player attention to vie for. Secondly, if this thing really existed, the game would never be made - because there’s always more polish you can add, more features, a better on-ramping experience, a new take of a voice-over, an obscure bug that makes you re-think your assumptions… it’s a recipe for an endless ouroboros of game development. People would get disheartened and leave, new ones would take their place, re-think core game concepts, and off they’d go, tilting at another impossibly perfect windmill. Real game design isn’t the process of adding cool things until the game is this behemoth experience. It’s the process of testing and refining your assumptions, of cutting and then polishing until what you have is nigh perfect, and that’s not possible without limits to push against. I don’t want to claim that it’s a capital “A” Art (some of it is) but we can learn from the greats -- when someone asked Michelangelo how to sculpt a horse he said “Take away everything that isn’t a horse.” That’s a contemporary lesson for Game Design.

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Event Re-Cap: 2017 Games For Change Festival

Schell Games

We had the pleasure of attending and exhibiting at the 2017 Games for Change (G4C) Festival that was held at the Parsons School of Design in New York City. Game designers, developers, educators, researchers, and more attended this event to see and hear the best practices of developing games that can make the world a better place. Close to one thousand professionals attended the three-day festival.

Speaking Engagements

Schell Games is a proud member of the Games for Change Industry Circle, a group of companies that believe in G4C’s mission and have contributed significantly to the community G4C serves. As a member of the Industry Circle, Schell Games’ CEO Jesse Schell was invited to participate in the Industry Circle Town Hall, and a segment called ‘Meet the Experts,’ where attendees were able to schedule meetings with Industry Circle members and talk 1-on-1 with them.

Jesse (far left) with other members of the Industry Circle

VR in the Classroom

Jesse also participated on a panel about using virtual reality (VR) in the classroom. During the panel, Jesse mentioned a few of the VR/AR games the studio has created and the implications of adding them as resources in the classroom. He talked about Happy Atoms, our physical and digital chemistry modeling set; Water Bears VR; and SuperChem VR, our VR chemistry lab.

Top picture: the introduction of the panel. Bottom left: Jesse talking about Happy Atoms. Bottom right: Jesse introducing SuperChem VR.

The Secret Process of Making Games That Matter

In his last talk of the festival, Jesse was joined by Barbara Chamberlin, a professor at New Mexico State University and director of its Learning Games Lab. The two are co-authoring a book about designing games that matter and used Games for Change as an avenue to present some of their lessons.

Slides from Barbara and Jesse’s talk at Games For Change.

Pre-Production Frameworks

Schell Games Principal Designer Sabrina Culyba and Dr. Kimberly Hieftje of the Yale Center for Health and Learning Games presented on how teams can create tools and processes that evaluate games for change. This talk focused on the framework for transformational games that Sabrina, Jesse, and other members of the studio have been working and iterating on throughout the years. These two spoke about some of the projects Schell Games and Yale’s play2PREVENT Labs have worked on together, notably the PlayForward series. Near the end of the presentation, Sabrina revealed that she is finishing a book about her transformational framework, and how Jesse and Barbara are wrapping up their book as well.

Slides from Sabrina and Kimberly’s talk, including the announcements of Sabrina’s and Jesse’s books.

Exhibiting SuperChem VR

Several team members joined in participating in the Games for Change Festival by exhibiting our virtual reality chemistry lab, SuperChem VR. The team exhibited the experience in the G4C Marketplace for two days, and then moved to the VR Arcade during the last day- the inaugural VR for Change Summit.

The setup for SuperChem VR at the VR Arcade during VR For Change

The response we received for SuperChem VR was overwhelmingly positive. At times it got to the point where we had to create time limits for interacting in the lab.

“This is definitely something my teachers would be interested in,” said an instructional technology coordinator from a school district in Brooklyn Heights, NY. “To be able to learn how to act in a lab without worrying about resources is fantastic.”

People during Games for Change 2017 playing SuperChem VR on the HTC Vive

The team exhibiting SuperChem VR also received a special treat! Anjali Bhimani, an actress who does the voice of Symmetra in the game Overwatch (as well as the voice of Nisha in Fallout 4) came by and played! She said that SuperChem VR was pretty cool. We have a video of her playing it on our Facebook Page.

The Schell Games team with Anjali Bhimani at Games For Change.

The team was very happy about the buzz SuperChem VR generated. Several press outlets and media personnel visited our booth to learn more about SuperChem VR and Schell Games. Below is a video from a local news outlet in New York.

Advanced Engineer Henry Braun talked briefly about SuperChem VR.

Classcraft, a fellow member of the G4C Industry Circle, produced a video of educator’s favorite experiences in the G4C Marketplace, and SuperChem VR made the list.

Conclusion

We have been hearing a lot of positive news about SuperChem VR and the Games for Change festival overall. It was an interesting observation from an educator from Washington D.C. who said that it was energizing to be at a conference filled with “positive vibes,” meaning being surrounded by people eagerly trying to change the world for the better. We are humbled to be considered in this group of wonderfully talented people and organizations.

In the next couple of months, members of the Industry Circle will be hosting webinars and talking about some best practices or lessons learned while creating games and experiences. Be sure to tune in for the Schell Games webinar in the next round.

The 2017 Games For Change Festival was fun, energetic, and definitely worthwhile. Looking forward to the next one!

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DiGRA Wrap-Up

Alexandra To is a PhD Student at the Carnegie Mellon University Human-Computer Interaction Institute currently working as a Design Intern at Schell Games.

This summer, I attended the 10th Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) Conference in Melbourne, Australia. DiGRA is an international, multidisciplinary conference for games research. While there I presented research at two workshops, presented a full paper publication, and volunteered for the conference.

Our Design Model of Curiosity

My research focuses on encouraging curiosity and curiosity-related actions for middle school-aged students through transformational games. Curiosity is linked to both science-related skills and player engagement and motivation in games, making this work relevant to researchers as well as game designers interested in curiosity .

In this most recent work published at DiGRA, my research group and I presented a design model of curiosity. The model looks at the cyclical relationship between curiosity (which we define as the desire to find and fill information gaps) and uncertainty (a set of game design principles/techniques).

We explored the model further by instantiating question-asking and repeated opportunities for failure in the design of a cooperative tabletop game, Outbreak. In the paper we share our playtesting findings and the following design takeaways:

“In designing for comfort with failure we find that (1) risk can be more frightening than failure and affective responses to failure can be modified by (2) aesthetic decisions as well as (3) group norms.

In designing for comfort with questions we find that (1) empowering quieter players supports the entire group, (2) flexibility in enforcing rules fosters curiosity, and (3) questions can serve multiple simultaneous roles.”

What I Presented

Modeling and Designing for Key Elements of Curiosity: Risking Failure, Valuing Questions [Full Paper, Game Design Session 2] Co-Authors: Jarrek Holmes, Elaine Fath, Eda Zhang, Geoff Kaufman, Jessica Hammer

In this paper, we present a design model of curiosity that articulates the relationship between uncertainty and curiosity. This model further defines the role of failure and question-asking within that relationship. (See more below).

Character Diversity in Digital and Non-Digital Games [Workshop Paper, Gaming the Systems: Towards a More Inclusive DiGRA Workshop] Co-Authors: Jessica Hammer, Geoff Kaufman

In this paper, we present work exploring how aspects of diverse identities are represented in both digital and non-digital games, looking specifically at opportunities for understanding and representing diversity more richly. We look at identity beyond surface-level visual or static features, including but not limited to: race, gender, culture, generation, ability, religion, language, etc. This work was presented as a preliminary step before submission as a full paper for the ToDiGRA journal.

Scaffolding Conversations through the Design and Implementation of Board Games [Workshop Paper, Boardgame Studies Round Table Workshop] Co-Authors: Geoff Kaufman, Jessica Hammer

In this paper, we present work describing how tabletop games naturally support various social interactions and positing that both game designers and researchers can use these natural affordances to scaffold conversation. We argue that conversations can be viewed as the natural fun of a tabletop game experience (from both in-game analysis to out-of-game context social conversation).

Researchers can then leverage these conversations both as opportunities to embed transformational goals or interventions, as well as an opportunity for data collection in a natural context. 

Environment and Overall Impressions

DiGRA is a very research-heavy venue (as compared to something industry-heavy like the Game Developers Conference (GDC)) and very interdisciplinary (as compared to something like the Foundation of Digital Games Conference (FDG) which is computer-science focused). Despite the word “digital” in the name, DiGRA is extremely accepting of both digital games (e.g., mobile games, VR experiences, etc.) and non-digital games (e.g., tabletop games, escape rooms, etc.) research work.

There was a wide range of topics presented and discussed at the conference. The full program can be found here. A major overarching theme was understanding and designing for diverse audiences in every sense of the word – diversity from in-game content to player identities to game creators. There were two sessions on “Diversity in Games” as well as sessions on “Gamer Identities,” “Diversifying Games,” “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Games,” “Child’s Play,” and “Regionality in Games” to name a few.

Besides workshops and seminars, there were social events organized every evening - many specifically geared at welcoming new members to the DiGRA community. 

My particular favorite was Monday board game night where I got to play an old favorite Mysterium, and a new one New York Slice, which has the most charmingly hilarious pizza box.

Conclusion

As a newcomer, I had an incredible time at DiGRA! I thought the research was innovative and rigorous (both very important metrics for good research) and the community was incredibly positive and welcoming. 

At the end of the summer I will be returning for my third year at the CMU and will be continuing to work on getting my PhD in Human-Computer Interaction. My research team and I will be working on using our model of curiosity in the design of our other games and in the design of a digital version of Outbreak.

We will also be compiling a list of case study games for our work on character diversity and hope to submit a paper on the topic to a special edition of the ToDiGRA journal.

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Visit with a Veep- Chris Arnold

Chris Arnold is the general counsel for Schell Games and oversees legal affairs and human resources. He is also responsible for developing relationships with clients, handling dispute resolutions, licensing intellectual property, and managing corporate governance. 

What brought you to the video game industry?

I really didn’t know that people could make games for a living. I played games, I enjoyed games, but working in the video game industry was never a goal of mine or on my radar. My background and education is pretty diverse. My undergraduate degree is in biology.

Is it really?

Yes. I wanted to be a doctor. I found out that it was not in the cards however; becoming a doctor is tough if you don’t like being in a lab or seeing blood. But I graduated with a degree in biology because it took me a while to come to that realization, and I quickly found myself looking for other opportunities. In the meantime, I ended up doing a bunch of odd jobs.

Like what?

First, I tried to be a writer. And when you’re 22 years old, you really don’t have that much to write about. I discovered I was not going to be the next Hemingway or Vonnegut, so I began searching for my next venture. I moved from Beaver Falls to Pittsburgh, and I got a job as a personal assistant to the CEO and CFO of Mellon Financial.

I worked for Martin McGuinn and Steven Elliott, pillars of the Pittsburgh community. I was hired to get them coffee, make sure their reports were printed on the right paper, and other administrative tasks.

Okay, then what?

Well, one thing I always try to do, and did back then, is to keep my eyes open and learn things. In doing that job, I gained a pretty unique perspective on how corporations operate. It really changed my thinking. How opportunities could be created- or in the case of the bank- how the bank gave companies the opportunity to create, was fascinating. It was a powerful experience for me. I developed a relationship with their general counsel, a former partner of ReedSmith and we talked a lot. Part of my job was to record the minutes and notes from Board of Directors meetings, so I had a chance to read them. I became very interested. I asked the counsel questions and he, thankfully, liked when people asked questions so he answered me. He encouraged me to apply to law school. I had never considered the law as a career before. I applied to law school and was accepted. I always wanted to help people in some way- back to the idea of becoming a doctor- and I was beginning to think that law could be a different way to do it.

What aspect(s) of law interested you?

While I was taking classes, the idea of intellectual property was really fascinating. I discovered that my talent is suited to defending and helping individuals with creative ability to relate to the larger world.

Okay, interesting.

Learning on how to protect ideas and creativity, and to use them to create wealth were topics of interest to me. From there, I got a job at law firm Fox Rothschild in Pittsburgh. I wasn’t doing intellectual property law at that time, but I learned really great lessons on how to be an attorney and how to treat clients well. I learned from incredible professionals, who took time to train me, to answer my questions, and to make sure I was a fundamentally sound, good advocate for my clients. While there, I was representing doctors and physicians, and helping to create companies.

Later, one of my former professors at Pitt asked if I wanted to join his law firm, Buchanan Ingersoll, one of the bigger law firms in the city of Pittsburgh, to work in their tech transactions group. That’s when I got started in intellectual property as the centerpiece of value in different company transactions. After that experience, I decided that intellectual property law was something I wanted to do. Later I worked on the client-side in intellectual property, and that’s where I first met Jake Witherell [COO of Schell Games].

What did you do next?

Working as the general counsel for that company, I started exploring ways to best leverage intellectual property. And somehow, I inherited the responsibilities of human resources (HR). I had no idea about working in HR. But it became clear to me very quickly that regardless what business you’re in, you’re in the people business. You need to respect how privileged you are to have contact with people who need your help and that you have the opportunity to help them. I like learning, so I started reading about best practices and policies that made sense. One of the things I’ve always been mindful of is to never let the goals of a HR department get swallowed by procedure, and I think that it can happen very easily. From there, I went to Mylan, a pharmaceuticals company, and spent my time exclusively on intellectual property.

While at Mylan, Jake, with whom I’d worked for only a short period of time, contacted me and asked if I wanted to join him at his current employer. I knew from meeting Jake that he was someone I wanted to work with; he’s brilliant, humble, and by far the most genuine person I have ever met.

Very Cool.

I was like, “Let’s do this.” I came to Schell Games and I met Jesse for the first time. I had no idea who he was, what this industry was, or anything. I was cautiously curious about this opportunity, but Jake assured me that I should look into the studio and Jesse himself. 

How did you get started looking into Schell Games?

I went on YouTube and researched Jesse. I listened to his concepts, and learned what he believed. I was impressed with his message and the fact that he was taking big swings on big issues. When I met Jesse, I found out that not only is he brilliant but he’s one of the more generous, caring individuals I’ve ever met. Since that time, it has been my personal and professional privilege to represent him and the studio. It’s been a joy heading up HR, trying to create a culture and environment where people can be their best selves; where people can grow and work on amazing things with amazing people.

(The principles and mission statement for Schell Games)

When people apply to work at Schell Games, they often want to know what the benefits are. Sometimes it means health care plans, vacation plans, and those things are important. But in the grand scheme of things, those things are insignificant compared to an organization’s commitment everyday to make the big and small decisions with the best interest of the employees. What I mean by that is: 1) do not over regulate things, 2) understand what is important to people and makes them happy, and 3) try to deliver as consistently as possible. Running a business is messy, and full of compromise. But one thing Jesse has never compromised is his commitment to making this place amazing and sustainable for the people here. That takes courage and personal sacrifice. It’s been a lot of fun to be a part of it. 

Since you oversee legal and HR, there’s a lot on your plate. How do you stay on the top of your disciplines?

First, you need to have some humility. You will not stay on top of everything. You need to establish a network, and it can be a mix of internal and external people and resources. For me, I take one piece at a time. For the legal aspect, I need to be the point person for contractual relationships, employment relations- the things that govern all the people in the studio- all the time. When issues arise that require a nuanced approach to the current state of the law, I make sure I build relationships with those experts in those relative fields.

Do you have an example of that?

Sure. For instance, 2016 and 2017 have been extraordinarily turbulent times for our foreign national employees. There have been many real and rumored changes to the current immigration system. Making sure that our employees not only get information- but expert information- in a timely manner is very important. We have established a network which enables me to deliver that information in a way that is actionable to them, so they can continue planning their lives.

(See Chris and other legal experts in Pittsburgh respond to the February 2017 announcement about the ‘travel ban’)

In other aspects, there are projects like Happy Atoms. We applied for a U.S. patent for the modeling set. I am an intellectual property attorney, but not a patent attorney. In order to obtain the protection and go through the application process, we retained other attorneys. Also, in my group of friends we talk, and I get information from them to make sure that I am properly fulfilling my responsibilities in the best way possible.

(Happy Atoms, a physical and digital chemistry modeling set)

Okay, good deal. Now what about the HR side?

For HR, I am incredibly lucky to have Lauren Reed, our HR manager. Lauren is a ravenous consumer of information. She is very connected on all national trends relating to our industry and to companies in general. It is important to make sure that you are following best practices for your employees. We are actually exceeding a number of those ‘best practices,’ The way we look at it, the ‘best practice’ is our floor. Anything else, anything that might be more flexible, or more difficult to administer, we’re on it. We’re in the solving business. We’re not in the business to make HR easy. It takes work. It doesn’t matter if it’s hard for us;  we want to make sure the policies and practices we adopt work for the people who work here. The trap that many HR departments fall into is trying to avoid the hard stuff. It’s easy to do that. They may think “how can we make this process more efficient?” but efficient and effective are different words for very good reasons. They don’t always mean the same thing.

(HR Manager Lauren Reed speaking to a group about attracting and retaining a diverse workforce)

That’s very true.

We aim to be effective. It’s a balancing act, but we try to do right by our people with the resources we have. When we do something, you have to understand that people may not see the whole picture. It doesn’t change people’s expectations. And you have to make peace with that reality. If you don’t, you’re going to be miserable. You can’t have the mindset “I can’t believe all these people want me to do all this..”, because yes, they do. Of course they do! Should they really understand that we’re a small company, not a FORTUNE 500, and we can’t do a lot of things those companies can do all at once, without the benefit of that kind of capital? No, but we do the best we can, and we make sure that when we do something that it’s consistent with the type of place Jesse wants to create. Whenever there is a new or changed policy, it’s not disconnected. It makes our teams better. It makes our place more fun and playful. It hopefully creates an environment where people feel free to grow. I think those are the things that we look for when we try to manage all the expectations of our people and the duties and responsibilities we have.

From a hiring perspective, what characteristics do you look for in a potential hire that other companies or other industries might overlook or ignore?

The thing that separates our industry from other custom software companies- especially those that I have worked with- is our lack of ego. If you’re going to work at Schell Games, you have to check your ego at the door. I like the way that Jesse puts it, “this is not the place for talented jerks.” You cannot be a diva, and you cannot think your ideas are precious, because the only thing that matters is the experience the team is building. It’s important because our scale for success is different. 

How do you think it is different?

For traditional software companies, or custom software developers, those companies are creating products that solve problems the user has. Look at TurboTax, for example. It has to make sure that the user’s tax return is right, while also delivering an easy customer experience. So for TurboTax, getting a 10 out of 10 for customer satisfaction is important. But our scale is a 15 out of 10. We have to do everything that TurboTax et. al. do, but we also have to garner the “holy crap this stuff is magic” response. We have to create experiences that people would rather do instead of watch TV, listen to music, or other leisure activities you can imagine. We are battling for the discretionary time of the consumer when they come across any of our products. Discretionary time is the most precious resource in the world. No government is going to require you to play a video game, or go to an amusement park.

(Screenshot of the awesome art in mobile VR game Frostbound, a Schell Games original game)

I see what you mean. How does Schell Games create that type of experience?

For us to get to that ‘15 out of 10,’ our products require an inordinate amount of iteration. Trying different things, playtesting again and again, and at every step there are ideas that have to change. There will be ideas that you as a developer thought were brilliant, but end up being flaming disasters. Not only do you have to be okay with that, but you have to want to know that your idea or design might not work. To do that, you have to be humble, and be willing to seek out information in a way that is typically pretty foreign to people not in this industry. When people come to interview here, I tell them that being able to collaborate with passion and humility is crucial. Our process of rapid iteration demands that people communicate clearly and give their best selves at all times.

To put it simply, the people who do the best in our studio are those who can give good feedback and work well with others, while being incredibly technologically savvy.

What makes the Schell Games leadership team click?

Everyone has the same goals. No one is working off some different agenda. Everyone wants to make great, meaningful games and experiences together. When weighing the opportunity of a new project or policy, the leadership always thinks about all the factors that could affect the studio. While there may be differences in opinion, there are never differences in the over-arching goal.

What advice would you give to those trying to get into the video game industry?

Demonstrate your passion. People apply to Schell Games, and say that they “want to be in game development.” That’s the wrong approach. I want to see people who are already designing and developing. Show me the things that you’ve been doing. I want to see the ugly prototype that you made by yourself. Tell me why it looks bad, or why it doesn’t work. I want to see your thought process; how you jumped from concept to concept in your portfolio. Why did you make the changes, and what was the intention? What was your vision? Anyone can say that they “want” to do something. I want to see what you’re doing, and that you have the ability and willingness to grow and learn. No one is entering the industry as a finished product. You may be just starting your career. Show aptitude of your skill, potential of growth, and most importantly, put your stuff out there. I know that the prototype you made by yourself isn’t going to look like World of Warcraft. I understand that. Show me what you’ve made. Tell me you’re going to game jams. Search out opportunities so you have a story to tell.

[sglabs]

Visit with a Veep- Matt Mahon

Matt Mahon is the vice president of engineering for Schell Games. His responsibilities include managing the project programming teams, establishing workflow process, and overseeing the technical design of the projects.

What was your weirdest job before you started on the path that got you where you are today?

Sure. So, during the summer between my sophomore and junior years of college, I got a job - clearing power lines. I’d have to get up at ungodly times, like 4:30 a.m., go into the office, and drive to some power lines somewhere. And then we’d strap these enormous devices onto our backs that had tanks filled with herbicides. I don’t even know what we were spraying. They had a gas blowers on them, too.

Seriously?

Yes. If you’re driving down the highway and see those power lines that look like they are shooting off into the sunset, I was clearing those kind of lines. So yes, it was by far the weirdest job I ever had.

Wow. From that experience, do you have any takeaways from it? Any lessons learned that you may have adopted?

I think the argument could be made about building a kind of camaraderie with the people you are working with. Especially since that job wasn’t exactly fun. We showed up, we knew we had a job to do, and we powered through it.

Interesting. So what brought you into the video game industry?

Well, I have always liked video games. I originally had an Atari, and later I talked my parents into getting me a Commodore 64. One of the caveats from my parents was- since it was relatively expensive- that I needed to learn and do more stuff with it than just play games. And that meant learning programming.

Oh cool.

They were excited at how I was able to manipulate data and code, and get objects to appear on the screen. Then in college, I knew that I wanted to do programming of some sort. I graduated college with a double major in computer science and math from Assumption College. But then it was ’how do I get into games?’ Keep in mind, this was the early 90’s, and there weren’t the type of game programs that there are now. I mean, I took zero classes specific to game programming. I did a lot of the learning on my own, taking information from different books and magazines. The career of a ‘game programmer’ was really abstract. I knew that people could do it, but I didn’t know how. I ended up answering an ad in a newspaper for an entertainment company called Humongous Entertainment.

No way?

Yes. They called me back and I got the job. I had other job applications out there, but this was the offer that came back. I was doing tax software at the time, so I was able to make the jump from programming tax software to making video games.

It was a nice change.

Yes, I bet! Game design and engineering sounds a little more interesting. From there, what brought you to Schell Games?

We were thinking about moving back to the east coast from Seattle to be closer to family. During that time, I found out that my brother-in-law in Pittsburgh was working at Carnegie Mellon. He got me into contact with Jesse [Schell]. We exchanged a couple of emails, had a call, and later, when I was in Pittsburgh on a family visit [my wife is from Pittsburgh], I stopped by to see the studio, had an interview and it went well. Everything lined up, so we packed up from Seattle, and moved out.

Good deal. With your experience being in the video game industry for a while, you see that it is changing pretty rapidly. From where the video game industry is now, at this moment, where do you see it going in the next five or so years?

Now that is a super hard question, and I wish I had a smart answer for it. In reality, I don’t know. It is all changing so fast. If you would have asked me five years ago if I thought Schell Games would be so focused on VR (virtual reality), I would have thought you were crazy. To me, it is less about where I think the industry is going, and more about staying open to opportunities as the industry moves along. 

Okay, that makes a lot of sense.

That’s the great thing about Schell Games. We don’t get married to one single technology, one single style of game or platform, and we’re willing to try a lot of different things. We’ve built a reputation that people would say, “Well, that’s a weird idea” or “That’s a weird piece of technology. Let’s see what Schell Games can do with it.” It has served us well, because we are able to jump on whatever new exciting technologies crop up.

Since I started at Schell Games, we’ve transition ourselves three or four times. One of my first projects was Pixie Hollow, a flash-based, MMO for kids. At the time, flash-based and MMOs were super hot. We probably did three or four of those projects. Then as flash development cooled down, we started using the Unity platform, went hard into tablet games like Lexica, and we did a few more mobile games. Now, though we still dabble in mobile games, we’re very focused on VR. I’m not even talking about the work we do with theme parks and other location-based games.

As for our VR development, we worked on I Expect You To Die for about two years. And even before that, we had some experiments on the DK1 VR headset, when it was on Kickstarter. So our ability to experiment with things like VR and other technologies is pretty cool.

Cool. Have any experiments helped Schell Games recently?

Absolutely. We’ve been playing with the HoloLens, and have been discussing what type of experiences could be done well for that technology. Tango is also a good example. We sent a couple of devs to Google’s campus for a tech/game jam-type of workshop. On Tango, we experimented with creating a Jenga game, and Google loved it. They had us go back, clean it up a little bit for CES, and that experiment led directly to our Domino World game.

What do you like about working for an indie studio in general, and Schell Games specifically?

We have a great group of people here and it means a lot. I like the fact that we do a lot of different things. We’re not on an assembly line, making the same game over and over again. Although, don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have a hit franchise.

Of course.

There is something very compelling about the variety of tasks and challenges here. As far as an indie studio, it is kind of the same thing. We’re a ‘big’ small company. It’s a tough industry though. You see other studios laying off staff, and studios going out of business and closing down. For Schell Games, we’ve been able to keep this thing going for nearly 15 years.

That’s a real feat.

The fact that we’ve been able to make it this long, without any major layoffs or big ‘scale-downs,’ is atypical for our industry. And it goes back to Jesse, because he really cares about the people. He’ll make choices that will defend the people of Schell Games, not just defending the business of Schell Games. And sometimes it’s a hard balance, because there are cases where those goals don’t align. Sometimes it would be easier to lay people off, but we try to get the best group of people, grow them, and keep them.

You mentioned that with the diversity of projects and things that you are working on, there are challenges. How do you stay on top of your craft and your discipline while managing your team?

Yes, it is really hard to maintain excellence in your craft when you are a full-time manager. I would like to say that I program all the time on my own. In reality, I do a little bit, but it’s not enough to keep up with the people who are doing it full-time. For me, it’s about reading, going to conferences, and learning and absorbing as much as I can. I need to be aware of what’s out there; to understand concepts rather than implementations; to know what things are trending; and to learn what people have tried, succeeded and failed at. The most important thing for me now is to be able to recognize talent. It’s much more important that I can identify a good programmer than be a good programmer. I have to put people in the right spots. That’s my job. If I can assemble teams that work well together and build great content, I’ve succeeded.

Right. Makes sense.

You want to be able to hire people smarter than you. Hire smart people and put them in the right place to succeed. If you do that, everything gets easier.

Excellent. When you got onto the management track, what concepts or lessons did you have to learn on the job? Or were there things about leadership you didn’t know before you got into a leadership position?

Yes, there are a lot of lessons. I have been in leadership positions for quite a while, from project direction to studio leadership. Going back to one of the studios I was at before Schell Games, I had a very good engineering manager. I thought she was interesting because she was not a programmer. I had her as a manager and she was incredibly transparent, saying, “look, programming is not my thing, but I’m here to help manage the department.” She would focus on team interactions, professional development and career paths, and she would solicit feedback from others to understand if a person was a good engineer, or not.  

Very interesting.

It is something that I have always taken with me. The person managing you on a project should not be the one managing your career. Project goals and career goals often don’t align. If someone said “hey, I want to learn this new thing” or “I’m a little tired of database stuff, I want to do something different,” career-wise, it makes sense. If your project manager had to make that choice, it is a much harder sell because that manager is looking at the health of the project, not the health of your career.

That’s a good point.

Normally that tension is going to be there. Being able to manage it is something that I picked up.

Early on, when I was starting as a Technical Lead, I was often the best programmer on the team. The first thing I had to learn was, it doesn’t matter how good a programmer you are, you’re not going to be doing more programming work than the five people underneath you. It’s not important that I’m busy programming, it is important that *they* are busy programming, and then I fill in where I can.

You have to set them up for success, and let them leverage your knowledge to make them more efficient. It is more important than me pounding out code.

(Matt describing the engineering department during the 2017 Spring Open House)

Yes, I see that.

As responsibilities increase, being open and honest with people becomes very important. You learn that hiding from a difficult conversation isn’t going to help. Have those conversations. Be very forthright. You get your credibility from how you follow through on things. If I say “okay, I’ll take that up with the VP group,” close the loop. Even if the answer is no, I could close the loop by saying, “Hey, we tried to get the extra staff, but we can’t do it for ‘x,y,z reason.’ I realize the project is difficult, here’s why we’re doing it this way and why this supports the studio. I will work with you to get through this issue.” 

If you don’t follow through, close those loops, and do what you said you were going to do, you lose that credibility.

All very good points. Where do you think Schell Games is going to be in five years?

It’s hard to say. As a manager, I go through all the scenarios, right? The worst case, the best case, nothing is out of the range of possibilities. So, for the sake of argument, the worst case scenario is that we stay ‘as is,’ which wouldn’t be a very bad case for us. We keep some level of work, a level of internal projects, and level out. But I can easily see us doubling in size in five years. We put ourselves in the position where we have one of the top titles in VR in I Expect You To Die. If somebody mentions VR games, our game comes up. It’s a good place to be.

It’s definitely in the upper-echelon, for sure.

Right. Thinking back to when CD-Rom games were new, sales for these games started very slowly, and then took off. Myst was a huge beneficiary of that trend. The place where we want to be is the “Myst of VR.” 7th Guest was a step down from Myst, but still a hugely successful game. We can be at that same level with I Expect You To Die. It would really do a lot for us.

When you are thinking about the future, what do you think is unique being a part of a leadership team like the one at Schell Games?

I’m not sure if it’s unique, but I feel we spend a lot of time thinking proactively about company processes, and how they relate to the games we’re trying to build. We’ve grown from 12 employees to over 100 since I’ve been here. While not perfect, I feel we’ve avoided a lot of pitfalls along the way. As a result, the teams have been able to focus on making great games.

(Happy Atoms, a digital and physical chemistry modeling set, is one of the many projects the studio developed in 2016)

What’s your favorite video game? (that you’ve played, or admire for its design, art, etc.)

I’m going to go with The World Ends With You. It was a DS title, and was a weird, little game about collecting and battling with pins. It had a cool mechanic and an interesting story. I played it for a looooong time trying to get 100% complete. I think I still have one pin to get.

What advice do you have for people trying to get into the video game industry?

First, make stuff. Either with friends or solo. Your early stuff will be bad, and that’s okay. Focus on the learning. Try and build something you can show. Secondly, learn some code. Even if you don’t intend to be an engineer, knowing a little code will give you a lot of freedom.

Last question: What, in your opinion, makes the leadership team at Schell Games, click?

We’ve been together for a long time. With the battles we’ve faced as a team, we’ve built a sense of trust amongst each other. Keeping this company going is a lot of work. We have open communication with each other and are not afraid to talk to each other. Longevity and stability have served us well.

[sglabs]

Event Recap: Augmented World Expo 2017

Schell Games

We sent a team to the 8th annual Augmented World Expo (AWE 2017) last week in Santa Clara, CA. AWE 2017 is widely recognized as the largest augmented reality (AR) conference in the world. The team was excited to attend! Not only was CEO Jesse Schell speaking, but we were exhibiting three of our experiences; one of which was nominated for an award!

Jesse’s Talk

Jesse spoke a few days into AWE about the growth and adoption of AR technology. His talk was called, “Updates From The Future.” You can see it below. Click here to access his slides.

Jesse sees the potential of AR, but his talk highlighted how the adoption of it will be slower than many people had anticipated. 

Our Exhibitions

The team was at AWE 2017 showing three different experiences- Happy Atoms, Domino World, and SuperChem VR. Happy Atoms, our digital and physical chemistry modeling set, was the experience up for an Auggie Award in the category Best Game or Toy. (spoiler alert: big news at the end!)

The team had a large booth and plenty of room to show all the experiences.

“It seemed like we were the cool kids on the block,” says team member and game designer Ryan Hall. “All the experiences showed really well. We had visitors come back to our booth to show others what we were exhibiting. Even one attendee said ‘I haven’t seen AR/VR for education done like this before.’”

The exhibit hall, Ryan says, was full of designers and developers from all over the world.

 Ryan continues, “People really gravitated to Happy Atoms, but Domino World and SuperChem VR drew crowds as well.”

(pictures of the booth with SuperChem VR, Happy Atoms, and Domino World)

The 8th Annual Auggie Awards

The Auggie Awards was the recognition AWE gave to those experiences and projects that excelled in particular categories. First, each category was subject to a public online voting. Once that phase was done, the awards committee picked the top 8-10 of each category as finalists. Happy Atoms made the finalist phase in the Best Game or Toy category.

At the award ceremony, there was a mixture of excitement, anxiety, and confidence among the team members. But, the hard work paid off- Happy Atoms won!

Here’s a video to see the rest of the Auggie Awards ceremony (The Best Toy or Game category starts around 18:08).

Overall Experience

Team member and general counsel Chris Arnold said that he had a great time. Chris loved talking to the people in the booth and was excited to see how people loved playing Domino World. Ryan said, “this is something I would definitely do again. I was glad that Schell Games was a part of this. The event was well organized, and it was cool to see how passionate people are around AR/VR development.” 

According to the team, there were a lot of cool projects and experiences around AR developing around the world. Companies from Ireland, Belgium, Denmark and dozens more were in attendance. AWE attracted over 212 exhibitors, 200 speakers and over 5,000 attendees. From AR in Enterprise and training, to experiences that are tied to different movements, people are trying to see how AR will work on our everyday lives. 

Until next time!

[sglabs]

Getting Started With Happy Atoms

Schell Games

Happy Atoms is our physical and digital chemistry modeling set that has the goal to make learning chemistry fun and engaging. The project is a brainchild of Schell Games CEO, Jesse Schell.

If you are an educator, a parent, or a student and want to learn how to use Happy Atoms, we have several resources for you.

Video: Getting started with Happy Atoms

This video provides the basic instructions in using Happy Atoms. But how can Happy Atoms be used in a classroom?

Happy Atoms Classroom Resources

Funding for Happy Atoms came from a grant provided by IES/SBIR programs, and the goal was to make sure the project could align with standards that chemistry and science teachers are required to reach. With that in mind, we worked with WestEd, a nonprofit research and development service agency, to create lesson plans for teachers to use in the classroom.

You can find the lesson plans here.

More On the Way

We have been thrilled to see how well Happy Atoms has been received so far. We are working on the Android version for the app, and are looking for ways to make Happy Atoms even better for chemistry lovers.

[sglabs]

So, You Want to Codesign?

by Elaine Fath, game designer

Hey, game dev’s! How do these phrases strike you?

“I just couldn’t grok that part.” “The playtest is next Wednesday.” “The rigging on that part’s really messed up.” “The FTUE is really coming along nicely.” “That level is totally unbalanced right now.”

How about these? “We need to set up a way to measure the proximal outcomes.” “I’m really concerned about what kind of far transfer this experience will have.” “We’re wondering about the overall journey map of this experience.”

Chances are, if you’re involved in game development, there was at least one phrase in the first set you were familiar with. That second set? Maybe not so much, depending on your field. These are actual quotes from actual teammates whose field of expertise is something other than making games. Those examples alone are taken from the past three months of collaboration on a health app with experts in Smoking Cessation and Weight Management. If you felt lost and confused, join the club: we were all speaking English, but none of us spoke the same language!

Not all games are made by a traditional game design team. A lot of games need experts outside of our wheelhouse: scientists, UX designers, parents, children, educators, researchers, professors...depending on your experience, it could be anything. If you’re not careful, all of those experts, including you, can get into a room, think they have a productive conversation... and then leave with totally different ideas of what is about to get made.

Enter codesign. Codesign is a field meant to help cross-discipline teams collaborate effectively and quickly. Codesign is a concept taken from UX research and design, and also the more-generalized field of “Design Thinking.” One major tenant of codesign is that meetings are artifact-based: together, always be making something concrete. For an overview of the idea of Design Thinking, I recommend Stanford’s D.School website!

I’ve run codesign sessions before, but running three to five sessions a week for three months in a game-specific context was all new to me. Over the course of the past three months, I learned a lot about what to do and not to do. I want to share some of those takeaways.

WHAT I LEARNED TO DO:

1. Keep a standard lesson plan format so that you don't go crazy every time you need to plan one.

When you’re running regular meetings in which you have to prep supplies, materials, and activities, you run into a common problem for beginner K12 teachers. Picture this: you’ve planned five separate lessons for the day (reading, math, social studies, science, and an essay project). You show up and realize that you’ve forgotten at least four supplies across the five subjects and the lesson plan for the fifth. That’s a recipe for a ruined day. How are you supposed to run the lessons as well as account for the supplies and gauge how everyone is doing?

Having to prepare so many fully-facilitated experiences and then showing up prepared can be a tremendous cognitive load. Especially since you’ll need the extra brain space to get creative during both planning and also during the facilitation. Try to keep a standard format for writing up what you’re doing and what you need and use it to track prep as well as look back on later for time estimates and activity ideas. Otherwise, it will feel like you’re reinventing the wheel every time.

2. Look to Design Thinking and codesign methods for activity-based, generative-focused meetings. Luma Institute's guide for action-based activities is a good introduction.

Often, you’ll have a goal in a meeting--”we need to prioritize these features,” “we need to see what everyone has in their heads about what this idea could look like,” “we need to generate as many ideas as possible,” “we need to narrow down to one idea,” “we need to understand what our goal is here”--but you won’t know how to get there. Starting to develop a sense of what activities exist out there for what goals was something I was grateful for doing, because they served as recipes that I could adjust as necessary rather than having to invent activities all the time.

3. Use the Transformational Framework topics. Write down your answers, then have your experts edit them.

I found that writing down my assumptions and then having the subject matter experts correct me where I was wrong with the workbook pages in front of them was a fast way to get something down early.  For example, I discovered my assumption of the audience as 20-to-30 something gamers was completely incorrect. I also discovered that the way I was prioritizing our goals was totally wrong. But if I hadn’t tried to write them down, I wouldn’t have known.

4. Try to take risks by getting things in writing or concrete artifacts as much as possible, even if you think your take is wrong.

Most people can't articulate on a blank page, but can totally tell you where you messed up. A blank whiteboard can feel intimidating to non-designers. It can feel scary for your ego, but take one for the team. Type up the doc. Write an example of what you want to walk out of the meeting or the week with--if it’s a 6-page design doc, write a dummy doc with lorem ipsum in some places and show it to the team at the start of the week. Draw a picture of what you think the flow of the app will be and have others correct it. Bring materials for people to change it. Call out that it’s a draft, make it look sketchy and piecemeal so that people don’t feel bad marking it up or correcting it.

5. Use research papers in your transformation subject area to start developing a shared language between disciplines.

You’ll want to be able to have some shared vocabulary when making things together. A team I worked with published a paper about how to do this last year. The paper is about how to get a team of experts in different fields “speaking the same language” through a mix of reading the same papers, making things together using writing and simple paper supplies, and talking about what’s working using those prototypes.

6. Love & trust your teammates to be experts

Across disciplines, there can be a lot of mistrust that comes from not understanding their work. Here is an excellent GDC talk that includes our CPO Chuck Hoover that discusses tips for how to do this effectively. See: Production is Working at the Heart of the Team

7. Teach them about game techniques using a "video lit review"

If you’ve played a lot of games, it’s easier to “picture” an idea and how it will work in its final form. Something that you imagine with glitter, sparkles, pizzaz, and a universe of context might come across as flat or insane to an expert colleague who has never played Mario Kart. When you're talking about game design terms, it can help to do a 3 minute video of examples of that mechanic in practice in other places--that way, your team has seen examples before and can now talk about them, too. Encourage your other experts to do the same with their field. Maybe they have a talk or PowerPoint they always share, or a paper they wrote that sums up their expertise or what they want for the game.

8. When you’re behind, be brutally honest but don’t place blame.

Teams learning to design together move slowly at the start. It can be tempting to lay blame on people arriving late to meetings or those who don’t seem as checked in, or whatever seems to be happening from your frame of reference. Instead, I took a step back and just conveyed the facts: I had everyone collaboratively estimate how many hours of work remained and cross-reference it with the number of hours we had left together. Then, I asked: what can we do about the discrepancy? And we brainstormed ideas to try. I learned two things. One, there was a ton happening that had nothing to do with my frame of reference of the problem. Two, we picked three solutions to try as a team, and people were far more committed to trying them because nobody felt blamed. We made up the difference and hit the original deadline.

WHAT I LEARNED TO DON’T

1. Don't put off making a visual roadmap of where you're going and WHY you're doing these sessions--people don't read the written outline as "big picture."

I’ve used everything from a post-it wall to sketches to Photoshop to google slides to make this. The format or structure matters less than the fact that it exists and that people understand it. Here are some examples, but generally all you need are dates, what you’re making on that date, and what you’re trying to accomplish/have at the end. I have a hunch that making it in front of everyone and then updating it/moving the “you are here” marker every meeting in a visible place is probably a good idea.

Courtesy of majorindependence.com

Courtesy of template.net

This was a major mistake I made: I got so deep into planning and prepping that I really never shared the big, long-term “why’s” with my clients, and they didn’t have a sense of progress as a result. I thought sharing a dummy outline of what we’d have at the end would be enough, and it just wasn’t. Every meeting, take two minutes to describe where you’ve been, what you’re doing that day, and how it fits into the larger plan.

2. Don't forget to schedule/budget time for open-ended question/discussion breaks at the end of meetings.

Or people will leave confused and feeling like they don't have enough wiggle room to discuss what matters to them. This process is unfamiliar and often people need to feel heard at the start and end of meetings in order to feel comfortable trying something new.

3. Don't forget to frame design as messy, generative, uncertain, full of bad ideas, and not about sitting on it until you get the "right" answer (Stanford's Design resources do a good job of this).

Again, so many disciplines are not steeped in the exact kind of uncertainty that design is, and many clients come from a work culture where you sit on an idea until it feels polished. This is very bad for the creative process because you don’t fully explore the possibilities! But on the other hand, people naturally have a fear of appearing stupid in meetings if they feel like they’re not coming up with “good” ideas or thinking on their feet well. Frame design as messy and be open about your own less-than-polished ideas. I totally forgot to frame the process as rough and changeable, and I had a lot of stressed-out clients for the first two meetings as I continuously pushed them to produce outside of their comfort zone. All I needed was to message that I, too, get heartbroken when we throw away stuff after pre-production, and so does everyone else! But it’s a necessary mess. Lean into it.

4. Don't forget to "test" meeting activities with your internal team when you haven't run something similar before.

We playtest games for all of the reasons it’s a good idea to playtest making activities.

5. Don't forget to give people choices about how to contribute --and if they have a suggestion for changing an activity, try to roll with it, at least sometimes.

I was good about this at the beginning, but when we got new teammates it was easy to forget to check in with them and allow them choice. People will be more creative if they feel like you aren’t steamrolling them with a plan.

6. Don't participate in all of the generative activities unless the content touches on your expertise.

One, because the cognitive load of facilitating means you probably won’t be very creative. Two, you may not have the know-how to generate good concepts until you learn more about the subject matter. Consider coming prepared with a couple examples at the beginning of each activity, or participating for the first minute or two, to level-set what the concepts or artifacts should look like.

Happy codesigning!

Elaine

[sglabs]

Adopting Virtual Reality for English Langauge Arts (ELA)

Schell Games

We had the opportunity to attend the “Virtual Reality for English Language Arts (ELA)” workshop this May. The event was hosted by the TransformED arm of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (aiu3).We were there with education consultants, technology coaches and directors, and middle school/high school English teachers from across Allegheny County.

The event began with everyone introducing themselves, what organization they were representing, and most importantly, what concerns these educators had when it came to virtual reality (VR).

The most common reasons for attending the session were:

Researching VR in their classroom

Recently got VR in their school and wanted use it effectively

Curiosity about how VR could help special populations within their school

Curiosity about if VR could help dyslexic readers

Wanting to understand what virtual reality was capable of

Brand new to VR, and want to learn more about it

Fear that educators would be wasting money on this new technology if they were not well-trained in using it

As one could see, people were across the board as to why they were there, but not a single person came with negative thoughts about augmented or virtual reality. It was a very positive group.

The SAMR Model

To get the educators thinking about how exactly to adopt VR for the classroom, Tyler Samstag, the Director of Instructional Innovation for aiu3, introduced the SAMR model. The SAMR model is often used when educational institutions are figuring out how to implement technology into instruction.

The educators were encouraged to think beyond the ‘enhancement’ plane (Substitution, Augmentation) and use the day to see how virtual reality can transform the way they teach. 

(See Sabrina’s article about the transformational framework we use to design a transformational game.)

The VR Landscape

Once the SAMR model was discussed, Tyler presented an overview of the different types of virtual reality platforms available today, from Google Cardboard all the way to the ‘Big 3′ : PlayStation VR, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

Most of the day focused on how teachers could use Google Cardboard; it’s certainly the cheapest of the bunch, and schools should be able to get a classroom set (or partial set for students to pair up) faster than requesting funds for a high-end computer (or PS4) and one of the Big 3 VR headsets.

(We did a VR Primer update in late 2016. You can see it here).

Chris Milk- VR as an Art Form

Before we jumped into VR, the group was primed further by watching this TED talk by music video and filmmaker Chris Milk.

While we watched, we were charged to write down phrases that stuck out to us, what excited us, piqued our curiosity, and so on.

Phrases people liked included:

Empathy Machine

Suspension Gap

Taste the Lightning

VR makes ‘anywhere’ feel local

The ‘what if’ of virtual reality

It was interesting that this video triggered these ELA teachers to wonder how they could use VR to help their students be more empathetic with the characters they study. They also wondered if VR could truly be the “lightning” that could give students a special sensation while learning.

Dive #1: 360° Video Content

Using a mobile VR cardboard-like viewer, the group first explored 360° video content. 360° video content is when videos are recorded in every direction at the same time. Then, viewers are able to control their viewing direction, being able to see everything around them.

App used: With.in App also suggested: Jaunt

Videos in With.in teachers liked: 1) Invasion 2) Waves of Grace 3) Displaced 4) The Possible- Speed Machine

Ways to Integrate in an ELA Classroom: For Invasion, it was suggested that the students could write a prequel to it, allowing them to create and add their own narrative. Another teacher suggested using the video as an incentive to write on humanistic topics.

For Displaced, due to the topic being explored, it would have to be handled by a high school ELA classroom. But teachers liked it because it opens a discussion about empathy and perspective.

A teacher who liked Speed Machine imagined their students writing sensory details, and getting more out of descriptive writing if they used this tool in the classroom.

App used: Google Expeditions

Expeditions the teachers liked: 1) Historic New York 2) Monuments of Washington D.C. 3) TV Studios and Sets (Resource: Public List of Google Expeditions)

Ways to Integrate in an ELA Classroom: The teachers really enjoyed how they could visit the places that are settings in many of the books they’re reading. One teacher found an expedition that takes you to a castle in Denmark; similar to the one in Hamlet. They thought it could add more to the story if the students were actually able to see and visualize where these stories took place.

Dive #2 HTC Vive- Night Cafe and Google Earth VR

Since the overwhelming majority of the educators had never tried virtual reality until this workshop, they really didn’t know what to expect when they tried the HTC Vive. Some of them were even a little nervous; a plurality of teachers got a little nauseous using the Cardboard.

Nerves aside, they tried it- and people were very impressed. It is always fun watching people who are trying VR for the very first time. They liked it so much that several stayed after the workshop to jump into Tiltbrush, another VR experience Google created. 

Are Teachers Climbing the SAMR Ladder Now?

Absolutely. We sat next to an eighth grade English teacher, and she is doing incredibly engaging projects with her students. She often uses Aurasama, an app that uses augmented reality (AR), and assigns her students projects that deal with presenting book reports or plot summaries and requiring several AR components.

Along with Aurasma, her students are using video editing tools like Touchcast, and the AR coloring app Quiver 3D. As if that wasn’t enough, she occasionally places her students in teams and they create a virtual reality world based on a scene in a book they’ve read recently by using Cospaces.

Conclusion

Overall, it was a positive and informative experience for the educators and trainers. Many of them left with the resolve to continue gathering information about VR and AR tools, and thinking of ways to implement them into the classroom. After talking with a number of them, some concerns were raised about fully adopting and implementing VR in the classroom.

Some were:

For the tethered VR experiences, would schools with Apple labs and computers be able to access this technology?

How can we prevent germs from spreading if the students share the equipment?

The research on the effects of VR on children is still new and inconclusive. Should students under 13 be warned before using it? How should it be communicated to parents?

Each of these concerns is valid and need to be discussed when a classroom, school, or school district is thinking about investing in virtual reality. 

Tyler ended the session by giving the group a link to all the information he’s been gathering about implementing virtual reality in the classroom. You can access that information here. 

[sglabs]

Visit with a Veep- Reagan Heller

Reagan Heller is the vice president of art for Schell Games. Reagan manages and oversees the Art team as well as assists with general studio staffing.

To start things off, I like to begin well before your current leadership position. What is the weirdest job you’ve had?

One experience that sticks out is when I worked at a dollar movie theater.  It wasn’t necessarily a weird ‘job’ more so than a weird ‘place.’ Odd things would happen. Instead of focusing on selling popcorn and tickets, I would be given a broom [by management] to chase people out of the theater who were trying to sleep in it. They also would try and sleep in the photo booth. Another time we found illicit drugs in the theater and had to dispose of them. Overall, it was a very weird and interesting place to work.

Wow. What type of lessons did you take away from having that experience?

I certainly learned how to deal with interesting situations. I mean, if you are chasing a person out from trying to sleep in the theater, you learn how to be tactful. I wasn’t going to chase the person out by hitting them with the broom. Instead, I would try sweeping around them and approach them like, “hey, the movie is over and it’s time to leave, you can’t sleep here.”

That’s quite the experience! So from there, how did you end up in the video game industry?

My path was a little unusual. I didn’t know that you could have a job as an artist or a graphic designer in the video game industry. I went to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) for graphic design with the intention of going into the advertising industry. I knew I wanted to do something digital and use art to communicate and sell products and ideas to people. That sounded awesome to me, so I aspired to be an advertising designer.

But, I was also always into geeky stuff, so a lot of my friends weren’t in the design department, but in the computer science department in CMU. A number of them told me about this class called “Building Virtual Worlds” and that I could work with computer programmers, and make games, and things like that. Though I didn’t have much experience programming, my friends encouraged me to apply for the class (at this time candidates still had to apply to the class to Randy Pausch). Dr. Pausch looked through my sketchbook and said “this is some really cool stuff.” I was honest and told him that I didn’t know much about computer programming, but he said that if I was willing to work hard, he’d let me in. And man, I worked really freaking hard.

Very cool.

It was! I fell in love with it. The ability and opportunity to work with people of different disciplines and using the skills of color theory and design that I had learned came into play in a way I thought was really awesome. When I saw people play the experiences we were creating [in class] I just found that really fulfilling. After finishing my undergrad, I applied to the ETC school for my graduate degree.

You’re right, that is an interesting path.

Yes, my parents were like “what are you doing?” because no one knew if you could make a living making video games.

What is, in your opinion, unique about being on a leadership team for a video game studio, and specifically with Schell Games?

When networking and talking to other studio leaders at conferences like GDC, I have noticed that we strive to be very collaborative in a cross-discipline way. And we are very open and not hierarchical. People can go to talk to Jesse, or talk to Jake or any of the veeps. When studios increase in size, some of them lose that kind of touch. We try really hard to have real conversations, work with teams so they understand how we can best support the projects they are working on.  It was easy for us to have those open conversations when we were smaller, but we’ve made it a point to still have an open communication channel. I’ve heard of studios not having open communication, so the project teams think they’re working on a project with goals “decreed from on High.”  That feels really bad for those teams.

As VP of Art, you’re touching a lot of things in the studio. On top of that, there’s that management capacity too. How do you stay on top of your craft and discipline, while managing the art team?

I know I am by far, not the best artist in the studio, and I think that’s important to realize. I don’t think that your best artist should be your vp of art because you do spend a lot of time managing people, and helping people with their careers and you simply are not able to be on a critical path for certain projects anymore. I still stay involved in pitches, and stay relevant in order to communicate clearly. When I am trying to discuss something with an art director I want to make sure that I can still “talk the language” and know the same techniques and theories that they are using. But it is tough. A way to stay on top is to be involved with the teams and understanding the processes and pipelines and why they are going for a certain look. The joy [in this job] is from elevating the people around you and making sure they are doing the most high-quality work for the studio they possibly can.

When I walk around the studio, I’m always impressed by the art being created here.

All those people out there are amazing. I’m really proud of the art team we have here at Schell Games. We are completely on the top of our game, which is good. I’m inspired a lot by the people I work with on the art team.

(screenshot from Schell Games’ mobile VR game, Frostbound)

What do you think are the benefits of working at an indie studio?

That’s funny, because I never really think of us as an ‘indie’ studio, for some reason.

Really? Why?

When I hear ‘indie’ I think of small groups of developers solely working on their own, creating their own IP. I really like the position that we’re in, because it gives us a balance and a variety of work and it allows us to be stable and grow at a rate we like. When a studio goes 100% into its own IP, that is a really big risk. A lot of indie studios that have tried that, have folded in on themselves. We do a great job balancing between our own IP and interesting client work.

What do you mean by ‘interesting?’

We’re in the position to work with different new technologies, transformational challenges, and even educational challenges that are interesting to us. Our diversity and balance [between client and IP] work has kept us stable. It has kept us pushing toward the newest thing and we haven’t gotten caught in the rut that other studios have found themselves in. Also, we haven’t gone the route of making a ton of IP games that could gamble the studio’s livelihood.

True. Schell Games has worked with some good companies.

I do like that we get a chance to do client work with some great companies, trusting us to do some unique and new things.

Where do you see Schell Games in 5 years?

Oh man, if you asked me that 5 years ago I wouldn’t have known. I’m not entirely sure, but I do think that we’ll have some amount of growth. I am very interested to see where virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) go; there are some interesting things going on with mobile VR that I’m excited about. I think that as soon as you untether people, and make the headsets more mobile and lightweight, the more apt people will be to try it. I feel like AR has a lot potential, especially with children. With VR, it is very personal to you, unless there are others in a headset with you. For AR, you can bring people in the experience with you. I think for children and parents, that can be a powerful experience that encourages more parent-child interaction. I’m hoping that AR takes off once platforms like Google Tango are on more devices.

Also, I think theme parks are doing more interactive experiences, and I am hoping that we’ve created enough of a name for ourselves to work on more of that, because it’s a lot of fun to do. Those are some of my favorite projects to work on.

What is one thing about ‘leadership’ that you learned on the job?

You’re always learning, and that is a question I feel could have a number of answers. One of the major lessons for me was how valuable soft skills are, and how important it is that in difficult conversations, the other person in the conversation feels heard. It is really easy to be ‘bull-headed’ about it, but there can be an underlying problem in a team, a project, that is very important to that person. It is very important to be an active listener. Sometimes it’s also important to help them see from different perspectives, helping ‘pull themselves out’ of the situation. 

Being able to give feedback, critically and constructively, in a positive way, is also an art. And for artists especially, allowing them the freedom to find their way to the goal we’ve set out is very important. If they have a process or a set of tools they want to use that can get us there, then by all means. I don’t think there is anyone completely ready to be a leader. Those who think they are, typically have the hardest time adapting to what it really takes.

Are you playing any really cool games right now, or do you have a favorite all-time game?

I have many terrible answers for this. I am well-known for the fact that I like terrible things- bad movies, etc.; I like seeing the raw-edges on things. For example: in a movie, you see a boom-mic slowly fall from the ceiling, things like that. (I do like good movies too, and I do appreciate them, I swear). But I tend to like things where I can see how they pieced things together. I also like things that are a little unusual, different, and break the mold a little bit. For video games, I’ve played some really good- really beautiful- games; but if I had to just pick, I really liked Godzilla NES when I was a kid. First because I liked Godzilla, and second because it put three genres together- it was a tabletop strategy game, a side-scrolling action game, and a fighting game because you were fighting other monsters. As a kid, I thought this was the greatest game ever. In reality, it is really clunky and not that great.

More recently-a few years ago- I played this game created by a game designer named Swery, and he makes very weird games that follow his passion. He developed this game called Deadly Premonition, which was this out-of-control...game. You could see all the seams, it was a mess. It was made for the Xbox One, but they didn’t have a grasp on the type of textures and polys the engine could push, and so you can see the bad texturing, models that had been awkwardly optimized, animations that were so bizarre, and the whole thing is just trying to cram a bunch of stuff into one perplexing experience. I don’t know why I liked it so much, maybe because it reminded me of Twin Peaks. But that’s a stand-out fun game experience I recently remember. In terms of good games I’ve played, I liked Dragon Age, Mario Galaxy, The Order: 1886- I like good games too, I mean, you can’t only play games that are complete disasters.

Given unlimited resources, unlimited time, no restrictions, what type of game or experience would you like to see Schell Games create?

I have always said that one day in my career, I would like to participate in creating a survival horror game. I’m not sure what it would look like, or how to be innovative with it since much of it has been done to death. But I still think it would be awesome.

What makes the leadership team at Schell Games ‘tick’?

We talk to each other. I think in the same way we encourage others to be cross-discipline, we make an example of that. It’s the same expectations I have for a team: we try to be very open with each other in the same way. We try to identify concerns in pipeline, processes and try to fix them together. We’re not siloed as some other departments may be. We’re not a ‘hand-off’ process; we try to be examples in collaboration.

What advice do you have for people trying to get into the video game industry?

Work in teams! Understand that it's about collaboration, teamsmanship, and getting a team together on a vision. Also, be excellent- really study the game art in games that inspire you. Work outside of your school assignments to push those skills that will make you stand out as a potential game artist in your preferred discipline. There is a wealth of resources online- tutorials, free tools, game art forums, etc. Look at the portfolio of successful industry artists and set a high bar for yourself.

[sglabs]

The Definitive Guide to Playtest Questions

By Shawn Patton, Senior Designer

The goal of post-playtest questions is to get unadulterated feelings from the person. You do not want to lead them in any way, but you want to find out what they thought. Try these questions: 

What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played?

What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played?

Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t?

If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be?

What were you doing in the experience?

How would you describe this game to your friends and family?

The easy to remember (though ridiculous) mnemonic is ffwwdd: 

Frustrating Favorite Wanted Wand Doing Describe

The order is on purpose. And yes, you may get some of the same responses, but often you don’t, and those subtle differences can be telling. Someone might say X was the most frustrating but then what they wanted has nothing to do with it, or their wand changes something else. All are good ways of getting input, which then you will have to decide what to do with the information- but at least you’ll have it.

And number 6, ‘describe’, is very interesting. If they describe your game as a puzzle game and you thought you were making a story game- where is the disconnect?

Always keep in mind that your goal is to analyze the results and determine what actions to take. Not all problems need a fix, but if you note obscure issues and then you start to see them, or variants, more often, you’ll be able to piece together trends that may need addressing.

When in doubt, during or after a playtest, if they ask a question, you can always just ask it back to get them thinking:

Tester: "What should I do with this laser?" Me: "What do you think you should do with that laser?"

Below are some answers to playtest related questions I have given over the years:

1. What form(s) of feedback do you collect from playtesters? (e.g. survey, focus group, 1-on-1 interview, playtesters voice thoughts while playing, etc.) If you collect multiple forms, which form do you think gives you the most useful information?

I have used all those forms in the past. Sometimes the effectiveness depends on the stage of the project and the feedback you need the most.

Surveys are good for base information and comparing a bunch of answers to simpler questions. 

Focus groups are good at early stages when you want broad opinions on your project.

1-on-1 interviews are the best (and, ideally, required) after a playthrough of the experience.

Voice thoughts and (even better) video while playing are super useful for team members who can't be there or for reviewing after a survey or a 1-on-1 has dug up a few outliers.

The most useful (in my opinion) is the 1-on-1 interview.

2. If you have playtesters fill out surveys, do you prefer open-ended questions or close-ended (e.g. likert scale)? How come?

Again, it depends on the data you want to get. If you're comparing different parts of a game, ratings may be fine. However, we mostly use open-ended questions.

3. If you have playtesters fill out surveys, do you have them fill out any questions before playtesting so that you can assess changes in variables like mood, energy level, etc.?

Mainly the pre-playtest questions are getting used to the process and being comfortable. Generic things like age, current play habits, current games, etc. are captured.

4. If you have playtesters participate in a focus group, do you have any strategies for reducing the degree to which an individual’s response biases the responses of the other focus group participants?

If we do a focus group it's always at the end after any playthroughs, surveys, or 1-on-1 interviews.

5. If you have playtesters participate in a focus group or 1-on-1 interviews, what are, in your opinion, the most important questions to ask?

See FFWWDD above. :-)

6. If you have playtesters voice their thoughts while playing, how do you ensure that their playing experience doesn’t feel too artificial or contrived since usually they wouldn’t be narrating their own experience?

I encourage them to speak stream of conscious style. Most peter off and just focus on playing. That in itself is telling of course ( “ooh, your game is interesting enough!” ) Some keep it up the whole time, but either way I just let them play.

7. What specifically are you looking for during playtest sessions?

Always go into a playtest session with a primary goal. 

Does this tutorial teach what it needs to? 

Is this weapon overpowered? 

Did they find their way through the level?

But always be ready and willing to take notes about whatever comes up. You never know what you'll learn!

8. In your opinion, what are a few common ‘do’s and don’ts’  that people who run playtesting sessions should be aware of?

Do: Put the playtester at ease. Let the player know that they are helping you. If something breaks or is confusing, it's your fault, not theirs.

Don’t: Help them through tough parts, or if they get stuck and ask. Tell them ahead of time that asking questions is great! But you probably won't answer them; you're interested in seeing how they respond and play. You're not trying to be rude, you just want to see how they play unaided. If they do get really stuck and it's because of something you know you'll fix or change, note where it happens and exactly what you said as a hint or prodding. Keep that phrasing and timing throughout those playtests so your data is useful and so you have a good idea of how to fix it for the next build.

Do: Always make it clear at the beginning that they can play for as long or as short as they'd like. (If they want to quit out, that's great data! Keep a record of where and when it happened!)

Don't: Ask leading or too-specific questions! You want to see what they thought or remembered:

Example 1- The Puzzle

Bad: "Did you not understand the tree hint?" Better: "Was there anything special about the tree puzzle?" Best: "What could have helped you solve the tree puzzle?"

Example 2- A Trap

Bad: "You died a lot at the 3rd trap, what's up with that?" Better: "Was the 3rd trap too hard?" Best: "What did you think of the 3rd trap?"

Example 3- Powering Up

Bad: "What gave you speed boost?" Better: "What did the red power-up do?" Best: "What power-ups do you remember? What did they do?"

Keep On Playtesting!

Following FFWWDD will help you and your team design post-playtest questions that will get unbiased feelings and thoughts from the playtester.

Need more? Download this free playtesting checklist.

[sglabs]

Schell Games: Not Your Typical Games Studio

We are happy to announce and release our new studio video- “Schell Games: Not Your Typical Games Studio.”

Watch it below.

Highlights:

1)  Jesse speaks about how Schell Games is the largest entertainment and education game development company in the United States.

2) The video shows the awesome partners we’ve worked with like Osmo, PBSKids, Google and Legendary.

3) Jesse mentions all the different technologies the studio has been creating for: location-based, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mobile VR/AR, and more.

Visit our games page to learn more about what we’re doing.

[sglabs]

Visit with a Veep- Ed Saxton

Ed Saxton is the vice president of production for Schell Games. His responsibilities include supervising the production team and setting the tone for the production style for the company.

I’d like to know how your road got started, before reaching this leadership position. What’s been your weirdest job?

I grew up in the theme park industry, so I have had all types of weird jobs and responsibilities. One job that sticks out is when I worked for a theme park that had a big-top circus and was responsible for helping to choose the acts for the circus.

No way?

Yes. I received VHS tapes and DVDs of circus acts, saw trapeze artists, ‘wheel of doom’ acts, jugglers and more. During that job, I learned more about hula-hoop acts than I thought I’d ever know. I saw a bunch of weird acts.

After a while, I actually came to enjoy it. There are a lot of crazy talented performers out there.

From the theme park industry, and rising the ranks there, how did you jump into the video game industry, and Schell Games?

While I was in the theme park industry, I had the opportunity to manage and lead a lot of different projects, especially capital projects. During that time, I heard about Schell Games. I was intrigued with the diversity of its projects like Water Bears, I Expect You To Die, Happy Atoms, and location based experiences as well. Joining a studio that provides opportunities to manage and produce a wide variety of projects was very interesting to me.

While being involved in a wide variety of projects, where do you see the video game industry going?

To me, it looks like the video game industry is pushing faster towards immersiveness in both story and on platforms, with virtual reality (VR) being a platform generating a lot of interest.

As a manager, your attention shifts from being in the ‘trenches’ so to speak, to a more bird’s eye level. How do you stay on top of your discipline?

One thing I’ve realized about production is the emphasis on “soft [people] skills.” With that being said, I dedicate time reading and listening to audio books (they help make my commute productive) that cover those topics.

Which ones have you finished recently?

The last one I finished was called Thanks for the Feedback by Sheila Heen. Before that I finished Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland. And an interesting one about teamwork was called The Boys in the Boat, a true story about a U.S. rowing team and their trials in forming a team and competing in the 1936 Olympics.

So what are your takeaways from reading those books?

I try to focus on team-building practices and different aspects of leadership. When interacting with my team, I constantly try to remember that I’m a part of the team too. We all try to overcome mistakes, and I try to implement the lessons I’ve learned to have those tough conversations when they come up.

Okay, so you take in a lot of experts in leadership and your discipline. That’s cool. But what’s been one aspect about leadership you’ve learned ‘on the job?’

There are different ways we can learn good leadership- we can learn practices that we want to emulate, or we could see poor leadership in action and decide not to model that practice. One experience I had falls in the latter category. At a different company, I had a leader in that organization who I really looked up to and respected. One day while I was in their office, an Team Member came in and had a request. The leader told the Team Member exactly what they wanted to hear, and left the office. Later, a second Team Member came in with a request, and again, the leader told this second employee exactly what they wanted to hear.

The thing was, these two requests were in direct conflict of each other and resulted in a larger conflict between those two Team Members. Instead of having a tough conversation with one of the Team Members, this leader- a person whom I respected- decided to put their Team Members on a collision course.

Well, that’s not cool.

Not at all. From that experience, I learned that I can’t always look to be the person everyone likes. Sometimes you have to have difficult questions. You have to think about ‘what’s the best decision for the betterment of the team?’

How is it being on the leadership team of an indie studio like Schell Games?

I love the company culture and the pillars of our mission statement. Being on an involved leadership team, I get to see the culture and adherence to our pillars (amazing team, amazing fun, amazing transformation) on a daily basis and it’s inspiring. Being an indie studio, we get a chance to build an eclectic team and make sure we create a “proud to work here” environment. It is rewarding to see team members being comfortable going to anyone for help or if they have a question about something.

The talent in the studio is definitely something.

Yeah. We have such a diverse group of people who can blow your mind on the projects and achievements.

Culture isn’t just the company, but also where the company is located. What are your thoughts about Pittsburgh?

I am born and raised in greater Pittsburgh (Latrobe), and I share the same hometown as Fred Rogers, Arnold Palmer, so I have nothing but great things to say about this city. I grew up loving Mister Rogers Neighborhood, and a proud alum of the same high school as him.

Pittsburgh has done some changing right? Calling it the “Steel City” is really an ode to its past.

True, it is cool to see how [Pittsburgh] has transformed itself into a tech center. It is really trying to reinvent itself. I like it because it isn’t very big, but it has enough resources to make it feel big. I also like how the different neighborhoods of Pittsburgh have their own personality. Also, having three major rivers converge downtown is pretty neat.

Did you play video games when you were growing up in Latrobe?

A specific video game has a special place in my heart. When I was growing up, my parents owned a video store and slowly brought in video games as part of their offerings. Well one day, my mom showed me that they got a copy  of Super Mario Brothers 3. Now, this was one of the first games that I was actively seeking out. I ended up taking the game home but forgetting to take the box off of the shelf at the store.  Sadly, Mario 3 was never available to rent for the other kids in the neighborhood.

Nice. What did your parents do?

I didn’t really bring it up, but I figured that my parents knew I had it. Maybe one year for Christmas I will get them a copy to make up for it.

Any games in particular that you are seeking out now?

I’m a huge fan of interactive experiences that makes the user “forget” -even if for a moment- exactly where you are. Being a father of three young boys I often lose the controller or keyboard when I start to play games nowadays. It is fun to see them get excited about games and coach each other on how to get better.

Back to studio leadership. What, in your opinion, makes the Schell Games’ leadership team tick?

The fact that the entire leadership team believes in amazing fun, team, and transformation and our mission to make good games for people and companies we like to make the world a better place. The leadership team is here to support all the teams in the studio and help them achieve more. We try hard to adopt a ‘servant leadership’ philosophy and want to ensure the project teams are happy and enjoy coming to work.

Almost done. What advice do you have for people trying to get into the video game industry?

Make games! Make anything!  Find a group of people and work together to make something. People don't make great things by themselves, they make them together. Getting really good at working as a part of a team is important. For production specifically, there are a lot of great resources on Team Building, Leadership, and Production processes out there. Be a sponge. Absorb them all.

(Read Max’s post about things he learned about getting in the video game industry.)

Last question: if you had unlimited resources, time, and no restrictions, what type of project or experience would you like to see come out of the studio?

I am all for making games or experiences the teams here are excited about. When a team is really passionate about a project it is amazing to see what they make.  We have super creative, smart and passionate people here, so being able to support every project someone is passionate about would be fun to see.

[sglabs]

Building a Transformational Game

Sabrina, our principal designer at Schell Games, shared some valuable content about the Transformational Game Framework our studio uses to make sure they stay on track, and create the right kind of experience.

Here is the webinar Sabrina did as part of Games for Change’s Industry Circle series.

Along with the video, Sabrina shared some great content about the Transformational Framework; including several documents that will be part of a future publication about this type of game design.

Transformational Framework

The Transformational Framework, as the document and video above highlights, is the eight-step process the team goes through to make sure the project is truly a transformational experience.

As one looks through the framework, it’s clear that roles have to be created and defined in order for the framework’s process to run smoothly. For example, Sabrina and the team broke down the “Subject Matter Expert” (SME) title into several roles, with those roles ranging from limited to significant responsibility:

Did you like the video and the content presented? Sign up to be on the mailing list to be the first to know about updates on the upcoming book about transformational games.

[sglabs]

Schell Games and Unity

This is a re-post of a case study Schell Games and Unity did in May 2016.

A Transformational experience

A 10-year-old boy appears to be on a seemingly ordinary school trip to a museum. Actually though, he’s on a secret mission. The child touches his wrist to a drab grey set of pipes in the corner of the museum, and suddenly, the pipes light up in an intricate pattern. In order to move on to the next stage of his mission, the boy must solve a puzzle using his interactive wristlet to manipulate the lights in a certain way. This is no ordinary school trip. It is a project developed by Schell Games for the Children’s Museum of Houston using the Unity game engine. It is a transformational experience.

Most of what Schell Games produces fits into the transformational category, a term they’ve coined to refer to games or experiences that inspire change. This covers everything from educational experiences used in museums and school curriculums to entertaining and challenging VR titles, like their latest success, I Expect You To Die, a fun spy game, which requires plenty of brainpower to navigate.

The challenge: No one said it was going to be easy

Developing transformational games and experiences demands a lot of creative juice on the part of Schell Games programmers, artists and other game developers. As CEO and Founder, Jesse Schell, once expressed it: “Teaching is really hard. Making an entertaining game is really hard. And now we’re proposing that we’re going to do both of them simultaneously. It’s like doing stunt riding on a motorcycle and juggling, and now I’m going to do them at the same time. But when you do it right, it’s frickin’ amazing!” 

Despite the inherent difficulty of developing titles that are both entertaining and enriching, creating one transformational experience after the other was something that Schell Games was focused on from the very start of their existence in 2002.

 In order to get it right, Schell Games transitioned to Unity in 2011, which they currently use to develop around 90 percent of their projects. Unity’s ease of use and strong market presence has meant that they haven’t had to worry about getting tangled up in hardware integration and other technology issues. They know Unity will clear the way for them, so they can focus on pursuing their innovative and creative goals.

Prior to 2011, Schell Games had been working mostly in Flash. When they decided to move to a game engine, they chose Unity. Unity’s market traction indicated to them that the company would be around for a long time to come, general support and answers would be readily available, and multiplatform integration would be smooth. In addition, it has been easy for Schell Games to extend Unity to their own needs, and Unity has been easy to learn and to use.

Highly extendable editor 

The C# language was appealing to Schell Games’ developers, and it was easy for them to extend the editor. For example, they built their own framework on top of the editor and created scripts to support animators and other designers in accessing the system. 

“The whole team switched over in a matter of months,” says Matt Mahon, VP of Engineering at Schell Games. “Even back in 2011, there were tutorials to help you get started,” he says. “Since then, any time Unity comes out with any new system, there are always lots of great video tutorials. Plus, there’s the super-useful community resources with things like forums, where Unity developers are really responsive.” 

Got a problem? Just give support a nudge 

On top of the game engine itself and the support they find in the community, Schell Games has the added insurance of a custom support package. So if a ship date is approaching fast and they have a bug, they can count on a quick solution or workaround. 

“We just nudge our Unity contact person, and our whole Unity support team is very responsive. With Unity, we can just focus on creating games,” Mahon says.

The results: Virtual splendors and challenging mind-benders

Unity’s inherent flexibility has enabled Schell Games to focus on the creative side of things, which has resulted in a full catalog of award-winning games. Their engineers concentrate on developing games rather than learning the system or adapting to the intended hardware. 

“The short learning curve allows us to bring a new hire on board fast, or borrow developers moving them from one project to another wherever they’re needed. And we don’t have to worry about integration to hardware because we know that Unity is going to take care of that for us,” Mahon says. 

Any platform or technology 

The ability to move from platform to platform rapidly has made it easier for Schell Games to launch wherever it made most sense. In one case, it even allowed them to change the intended platform in the middle of development. Water Bears, an award-winning 3D puzzle game, which challenges children’s spatial reasoning began as a PC game, was later developed as an iPad title, and after a successful pitch to Valve, was converted to a room-scale VR experience. 

The strong support of Unity for emerging technologies was what enabled them to start their experimentation with VR in the first place. Their first VR title, Orion Trail, a science fiction space adventure game, was actually borne out of their internal company jam week and funded on Kickstarter. 

I Expect You To Die 

The experimentation with VR then led to their current award-winning Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR game with the droll title, I Expect You To Die. This fun, brain-teasing game lets you step into the world of an elite secret agent to attempt to survive a series of deadly situations. The result was yet another critically acclaimed, popular title. Among other honors, I Expect You To Die won the Vision Inspire award at Vision Summit 2016, Best Overall VR Experience at the Proto Awards and recently nominated for “Outstanding Achievement in Game Design”, “Immersive Reality Game of The Year” and “Immersive Reality Technical Achievement” D.I.C.E. Awards. 

Mahon credits the Unity engine as an important foundation for such innovative development. 

“Unity lowers the risk of experimentation considerably because it limits the number of technical challenges we face and makes everything so efficient,” he says. “We were able to create a working demo of I Expect You To Die with a team of around six people in under four months. Unity has helped us focus on what’s important, the game, not the technology.”

[sglabs]

Five Things to Know About Getting Into the Video Game Industry

by Max Golden, Game Engineer

One of the first video game experiences I can remember playing was Chex Quest with a neighbor on a very advanced computer running Windows 98. For those of you not familiar Chex Quest, it was a reskin of the old Doom game featuring cereals and fruits battling against green slimes to save breakfast. My neighbor would handle moving with the arrow keys, I would shoot with the space bar, and together we made it all the way through the game to defeat the Flemoids and the Icon of Slime.

From that point forward, video games have been a large part of my life. I kept playing games and I grew increasingly certain that I wanted to make video games for a living. But my road into the industry was not a straight line, and there are a lot of things that people don’t tell you unless you ask. Except for me. I’ll tell you them, right here, right now. Because I care.

Having ideas for games is not the same thing as making games

This is gonna sting a bit, but it’s best to rip this band-aid off now: Nobody has ever gotten a job in the video game industry based on the strength of their ideas alone. Making video games is fun, but it’s also a lot of work, and you need to show you are willing and able to take that work on.

It’s one thing to say “I want to make a game like Pokémon in space with MOBA-like gameplay,” but it’s a different thing entirely to write out a game design document outlining major systems, mechanics, and aesthetics for the project. And that’s less work still than turning that document into a working prototype. Which is not the same thing as working on a project for a year, iterating on design, tech, and art along the way to deliver a polished project.

If you want to sit back in your chair and ruminate on what you would have done better in the new Final Fantasy game, more power to you. But don’t mistake your intellectual exercise for making games, and if you truly want to make games for a living, you will need to do much, much more.

You will start not knowing anything about anything. But everybody else starts there too.

Once you have decided to make the jump from wanting to make games to making games, you will soon face the unpleasant truth that you have no idea what you are doing. You don’t know how to create and tune tight gameplay systems. You don’t know how to implement a camera and render a scene. You don’t know how to model a character, bone a rig, and make a reload animation.

I taught myself how to program in high school, had an internship at a huge Seattle tech company, and got my bachelor's degree in Computer Science at university. I thought moving to programming games would be a snap. But it wasn’t. Because making games is not like making anything else. I knew how to implement a linked list, but I didn’t know how to pool objects to prevent memory allocation. I knew how to calculate the trajectory of a cannonball, but not how to distill that motion into an update loop so the game could show the ball travelling across a scene.

These are not things that get taught in standard high school and college courses. Making video games requires a lot of specialized knowledge about how to merge the axes of art, technology, and design to create a fun, engaging experience. Don’t expect to be able to jump in straight away and make your dream game. I wish it were that easy, but part of making games is learning that you are constrained by what is possible and by what you know how to do.

Luckily, there are a lot of people who will help you figure out what you’re doing

Making games is hard, but if you’re dedicated, it’s easy to find resources to help. Full, professional video game engines are available to you, right now, for free. Unity, Unreal, GameMaker, and a plethora of smaller tools can be found with a simple web search, and most won’t charge you one slim dime to start developing.

Along with these tools, there is a vast trove of tutorials to help you get started using them. YouTube tutorials, quick start guides, and blog posts about individual problems are all at your fingertips. There are also in-depth guides like the Handmade Hero series to help an aspiring game creator get their bearings and start creating simple content. If you are dedicated, you can find a description of how to do just about anything you’ve ever seen in a game you’ve played.

Beyond these static resources, I’ve found a number of game creators are very open to discussing their work with an enthusiastic amateur. I am almost certain I wouldn’t have a job in the industry today if I hadn’t repeatedly reached out over Steam to a AAA dev I met playing Dota, or if I hadn’t sent an email with my portfolio to a game designer I follow on Twitter asking for feedback. Your mileage may vary, but it is exponentially easier to build up your skill-set if you can talk to somebody who has already made the journey.

You will be judged on what you have done, so do something

This may seem like a catch-22: to get a job in the video game industry, you must have already made video games. It’s hard, but the truth is that anybody looking to hire a new employee wants to know what they are capable of. If you can’t show anything off, the message is that you aren’t capable of doing anything.

But there are ways around this barrier. Many game companies look at mods to judge a junior candidate, so if you make Halo maps or Skyrim mods or Civilization scenarios, take screenshots, preserve source files for download, and slap them on a portfolio. If you’re an artist, make unique, imaginative scenes and characters, and build up a demo reel. Even if your work is garbage, put it together to show you can do something and keep working to replace your early trash with newer, better content.

If you can find a team of people to start making simple games, even better. Very few people are capable of executing every part of a game concept as well as they like, so if you’re a programmer and you know an artist, team up and start making bubble bobble clones until you have better ideas.

I cannot stress this enough: having nothing to show for yourself except a dream and a degree is much, much worse than having a portfolio full of small, simple mods/art/games that you’ve seen through to completion.

Games are made by teams, so learn how to be a team player

Almost nothing you’ve ever played was made completely by a single person. World-class programmers, artists, and designers know where their strengths lie and know how to find people whose strengths complement their own. If you want to make a game you are proud of, you are going to need to work with other people, and they’re going to need to want to work with you.

Be humble. Be kind. Listen when others bring up their own ideas and concerns, and be considerate of them. Contribute your own ideas, but don’t become so attached to them you tear a rift in your team. Not every game you make is going to be your dream game, and some of them might not be games you would even play. But if you’re constantly negative about the work, people will notice and they won’t want to work with you.

And always give your best work. Every game you work on is an opportunity to hone your craft, to learn new techniques and methodologies, and to create something you can be proud to say you worked on. There will be times where you won’t be able to make something as good as you would like it to be, but there is never an excuse to deliver lazy or sloppy work, even if you can get away with it.

Your path into the industry may be simple and quick, or it may be a rocky mountain road full of cruel twists and dark tunnels. But if you’re truly devoted, keep working and learning and developing as a person and you’ll find yourself making the games you love.