At Schell Games, we concentrate a good deal on our game engineers, artists, designers and producers.

But who are the people that make sure they get what they need?

We've spent a good amount of time talking to the talented people who create the games we know and love, but who are the people who support them? Well, let's meet one of them!

Below is an interview with Ali Giglio, one of the studio's administrative assistants, and we asked her a couple of questions about how the operations team keeps the studio going.

What activities do you take on to ensure the rest of the studio can concentrate on their day-to-day workload?

My daily activities to help the team here complete their work is pretty simple, but necessary. Between office supplies, like pens and paper, to providing coffee to get one through a long work day, I make sure all those items are available to anyone who needs them. I also perform tidying up conference rooms for meetings and work space for employees here. I sometimes provide lunch/food options in the studio so that if a team is really under the gun with finishing things in a timely manner, at least they can eat in the studio and not have to leave to retrieve lunch for an hour.

When supporting a games studio, what do you believe are good characteristics to have?

Supporting a game studio, I think a good characteristic to have is being technologically advanced. It’s important to know the latest game consoles, computer functions and brands and cellphone applications. I think that using the internet and social media is really great to show off Schell Games’ work and demos and if you don’t know much about technology and devices, you could be really lost on what’s happening here at the studio and how. I think that people-skills and friendliness is really important while working in a studio like Schell Games. Our work spaces are all very open and everyone really works together on almost every project. You have to be a good team player and know your role in groups so you can work successfully with others in a setting like ours.

What are some things you do that many people in the outside world wouldn’t think that a games studio would need done?

The amount of “event planning” and “meeting” set-up I perform is pretty crazy! I feel like my job is sometimes to feed people and make a party/event for something in the studio happen is part of my main job/duty. It has made me really enjoy party-like work and planning parties/meetings for clients and people in the studio.

Schell Games Open House in October 2016

If you could, provide three things the operations team at Schell Games does very well to make sure the entire studio is clicking.

The three things the ops team does well are: communicating, working together as a team, and meeting a lot. I think that our communication with the studio is consistent and done really well. I feel like we are all really personable and we are friendly with everyone in the studio. I think we work together well; we are a smaller group of operations so I feel we know each other well in a good way. We meet a lot. We discuss issues, and studio-wide things a lot. We are in constant contact and always in the loop with each other on almost everything studio-wide which helps keep us in the know. I like that we’re pretty tight-knit.

You were here when Schell Games moved out of its earlier location, to a bigger, more open-spaced location where it is now. What was tough about helping move the studio?

I think working with outside vendors was really time-consuming and challenging. We met and interviewed a LOT of moving companies to get us all packed and moved. We had to rent a dumpster and CLEAN the old space. Operations also had to spend a lot of time traveling from location A to location B to work on logistics of where employees would go and HOW to best set everyone up in the new space. Lots of research and time was spent on desk-separators, furniture, my new desk, paint colors. Planning the work to actually complete the new space was really time consuming and crazy busy!

Old Office Space on East Carson St.

(Related: Read the Pittsburgh Business Times article with Schell Games COO Jake Witherell talking about looking for office space)

Was there anything you needed to learn in order to continue contributing positively and effectively on the operations team?

I think communication is and STILL is something I am working on and learning to effectively work with the group of operations, here. This is my first job in an office-like setting and my first job in operations. I am still really thankful to be learning how to best communicate with managers and employees/peers in the studio. I think miscommunication happens enough in any work environment and having the skills to perfect communication is key to being successful.

Thank you Ali and the Schell Games Ops Team on all your hard work. Go Team!

New Office Space in Station Square