Yale University

Jesse N Schell

Roles:
  • CEO, Schell Games
Contact:

Biography:

Jesse Schell is the founder and CEO of Schell Games. Since starting Schell Games in 2002, Jesse has grown it into the largest full-service educational and entertainment game development company in the United States. Under his leadership, Schell Games has produced an amazing array of innovative and award-winning educational and entertainment experiences, including the I Expect You To Die, Happy Atoms, SuperChem VR, and some of the most popular interactive theme park attractions in the world.

He is the author of the critically acclaimed book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. The book captured Game Developer magazine’s coveted “Front Line Award” for 2008. A second edition of the book was published in November 2014.

Jesse also serves as Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Entertainment Technology at 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.

Jesse has worked on a wide variety of innovative game and simulation projects for both entertainment and education, but he is also known for his predictions about the future of gaming technology. 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 designer, programmer, and manager on numerous projects for Disney theme parks and DisneyQuest. He is a previous chair of the International Game Developers Association.