As 2017 comes to a close, we want to highlight the insight pieces from 2017 that resonated the most with our readers. Below are the most read insight pieces from 2017, in no particular order.
Visit with a Veep- Chris Arnold
In this piece from the "Visit with a Veep" series, we interviewed our general counsel, Chris Arnold. Growing up in Pittsburgh, Chris gave us an inside look on moving from Greater Pittsburgh to downtown, the benefits of hard work, and the value of networking. He also provided insight on what the HR team at Schell Games looks for when it is hiring.
Building a Transformational Game
How does one build a game with a goal of changing the user's behavior? Is there a process out there for working with subject matter experts? Sabrina, one of our principal designers, describes the studio's Transformational Game Framework, and provides some best practices that we've learned along the way.
In this piece, game designer Elaine takes us along her journey of codesigning. She provides some insightful "do's and don'ts" when it comes to codesign.
Virtual Reality in English Language Arts (ELA) Education
Schools and educational organizations are under incredible pressure to provide 21st Century skills to their learning populations. From online classrooms, 'flipped' curricula, to new technologies, it can be overwhelming for educators to pick what's right for their classroom. In this article, we describe the seminar we attended where the local Intermediate Unit (IU) showed ELA teachers how they could use virtual reality (VR) in the classroom.
VR Laboratory: Lessons from Virtual Reality R&D
We do a lot of research and development inside Schell Games. In this piece, Marlena talks about what she learned when researching ways to use virtual reality.
The Definitive Guide to Playtest Questions
You recognize the need to playtest- but how? Principal Designer Shawn goes through his infamous 'FFWWDD' method of playtesting, and provides some free resources for your playtesting efforts.
This article was re-purposed from a case study we did with Unity Technologies. It highlights what the studio was looking for in a game engine, and how Unity helped us create awesome experiences, like I Expect You To Die.
Game Architecture with Scriptable Objects
Principal Engineer Ryan spoke at Unite Austin 2017 about using ScriptableObjects in Unity. His talk was one of the highlights of the conference. Read the article and watch the talk as well.