Art of Game Design with Jesse Schell

Nov 9, 2022

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Jesse Schell is the author of the critically acclaimed book "The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses," published in 2008. The book captured Game Developer Magazine's coveted "Front Line Award" in 2008. In 2014, he released the second edition of this book. In 2019 the tenth anniversary and third edition of the book was released.

Jesse is also the founder and CEO of Schell Games. Since starting Schell Games in 2002, Jesse has grown it into the largest and most successful game development company in Pennsylvania. Under his leadership, Schell Games has produced an amazing array of innovative, transformational and award-winning entertainment experiences, including the Disney Fairies MMO, Pixie Hollow, Toy Story Mania TV Game and some of the most popular interactive theme park attractions in the world.

Jesse also holds a faculty position as Distinguished Professor at the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) of Carnegie Mellon University. Since 2006, Professor Schell has taught the Building Virtual Worlds class, created by ETC Co-Founder and "The Last Lecture" author, Randy Pausch. Prior to starting Schell Games, Jesse was the Creative Director of the Disney Imagineering Virtual Reality Studio, where he worked and played for seven years as a designer, programmer, and manager on numerous projects for Disney theme parks and DisneyQuest.

He is perhaps most celebrated for his design of Disney's Toontown Online, the first massively multiplayer game for kids. Toontown Online won several awards, including the following:

Computer Gaming World - "2003 MMORPG Game of the Year"
Webby Awards - "2003 People's Voice Award, Kids Category"
Parents' Choice Foundation - "2003 Silver Honor"
Children's Software Review - "2003 All Star Software Award"
WiredKids - "2005 Safe Gaming Award"
2005 Webby Awards - "Webby Worthy Selection Award"

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