The Art of Game Design

Speaker
Jesse Schell
Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University

When
-

Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305 (Michael Mauldin Auditorium)

Description

In this talk, Jesse Schell will explain methods used by game designers to create excellent games. Surprisingly, these methods are broadly applicable to almost any area of design. Topics include collaboration, game balancing, playtesting, working with clients, how to integrate story into gameplay, and where to draw inspiration. Examples will be drawn from games new and old, and from many fields outside game design. Special attention will be given to HCI methods—which ones do and don’t work for game design, and why?

Speaker's Bio

Jesse Schell is on the faculty of the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University, where he teaches classes in Game Design, and leads several projects, including Hazmat: Hotzone, an anti-terror team training game for the nation’s firefighters. Jesse is also the CEO of Schell Games (an independent game studio in Pittsburgh), and the Chairman of the International Game Developers Association. In 2004, he was named one of the world’s Top 100 Young Innovators by Technology Review, MIT’s magazine of innovation. Before coming to Carnegie Mellon, he was the Creative Director of the Disney Virtual Reality Studio, where he worked on several projects for Disney theme parks and DisneyQuest, as well as on Toontown Online, the first MMORPG for kids. Before that, he worked as writer, director, performer, juggler, comedian, and circus artist for both Freihofer’s Mime Circus and the Juggler’s Guild.