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Prior to starting Schell Games in 2004, 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 several projects for Disney theme parks and DisneyQuest,
as well as on Toontown Online, the first massively multiplayer game
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.
Jesse is also on the faculty of the Entertainment Technology Center
at Carnegie Mellon University where he teaches classes in Game
Design and serves as advisor on several innovative projects. Formerly
the Chairman of the International Game Developers Association, he
is also the author of the award winning book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses.
In 2004, he was named one of the world's Top 100 Young Innovators by
Technology Review, MIT's magazine of innovation. His primary responsibility
at Schell Games is to make sure everyone is having fun and creating beautiful things. |
Jake acts as the COO of Schell Games, keeping
everyone happy and snagging the best and brightest projects for the studio.
Jake brings 15 years of experience to the Schell Games team, having worked
with founding, managing, advising, and investing companies, not the least
of these being M Park (which he co-founded), Netspoke, Inc., and iMeet, Inc., among others.
Jake holds a BA in Economics from Tufts University and an MBA from the
Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. When not managing
Schell Games, Jake enjoys spending time with his family, including his
three young children.
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Corey has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the
University of Pittsburgh. He's a longtime UNIX jockey who first
started using Linux when there were still less than 6 distributions,
and believes if something's worth doing twice it's worth automating
with a shell script. When he gets free time he enjoys recording music
in his home studio, studying machine learning, thinking about social
media and cultural zeitgeists, and studying foreign languages.
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Before coming to Schell Games Terri worked as an administrative guru for over 15 years in the legal and real estate industries. Loving the culture shock of making and playing games to earn a living, she now works as a multi-tasker and scheduler, mostly found feverishly typing, corresponding and scheduling the CEO's day. Terri coordinates office events and keeps everyone at Schell Games supplied and organized for the day's work. |
Patrick holds a Bachelor of Architecture and a Masters degree in Entertainment Technology, both from Carnegie Mellon University. Between those, he was co-founder and President of 3Data, a 3D graphics and web development company, and later the Creative Director of Mind Matrix, a technology startup. He has produced next generation arcade games for the experimental Jam-O-Drum platform, interactive 3D environments for X-Arcade, and has also worked as a consultant to international museums to create virtual archeological reconstructions of various sites around the world. In his spare time, he taught 3D graphics courses at Carnegie Mellon for six years. At Schell Games, he wrangles the schedules on many projects, manages the day-to-day operations, and somehow finds time to design and model. |
Kwamé joined the team in early 2007 after receiving a Bachelor of Science in Game Art and Design from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He enjoys being a very well-rounded artist and loves a good challenge to overcome within any artistic endeavor. His tasks at Schell Games range from creating pre-production concept art to unwrapping low and high polygon models, but he's most passionate about creating texture maps. When he's got any free time, Kwamé can usually be found hanging out with his family, enjoying some gaming time, playing his electric guitar, or working on his many art projects. |
Ben graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a BFA in Sequential Art (illustration, concept art, storyboarding, and visual storytelling). After graduation, he paid his dues working as a QA Game Tester in order to better understand the gaming industry. During this time, he worked in the QA departments of both Redstorm Entertainment and Epic Games. His primary duties at Schell Games include 2-dimensional concept illustration/painting, texture art, and multitudes of other "make art" requests. |
Zach left his small town in Ohio to graduate from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, where he concentrated in illustration, multi-media and graphics. Since then, besides working as Graphic Designer and Production Artist for several companies in the local Pittsburgh area, his freelance work included creating custom designs and illustrations for T-shirts, as well as concept art for a twice Grammy-nominated band. His advice to all those thinking about seriously pursuing a career in art? Never give up and don't forget to eat! |
With a background in character modeling, rigging, and animation,
John was the supervising character TD and character animation lead
for Toy Story Mania.
He developed the project's real-time and pre-rendered character
pipeline, supervised a team of 4 animators, and coordinated the
animation process on a daily basis with Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Imagineering.
John is currently a character modeler and animator on various
Schell Games projects. His portfolio can be seen on his personal website.
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Justin is an extraordinarily talented gentleman who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Media Arts and Animation from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He has been known to tackle everything from modeling to texturing to rigging but focuses on animation. Most recently, he has been enjoying trying his hand at game design. A long history of interest in more traditional art forms, coupled with his intensely creative mind, provides him with an eye for great design in all his endeavors. |
Brian has a degree in History and prelaw from NYU, where he learned two important things: He did not actually want to be a lawyer, and animation is super-cool. He loaded up on all the animation electives he could and interned for Oscar-nominated animator/director Michael Sporn before going on to Carnegie-Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center. He enjoys silent films, playing the ukulele, and doing things the hard way. |
Reagan began her foray into the world of entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University through her undergraduate years being involved with ETC projects. This led to working with Randy Pausch's ALICE team at the Carnegie Mellon Human Computer Interaction department, and prompted her to pursue her graduate degree with the ETC after receiving her undergraduate in Communications Design and minoring in Fine Art with digital concentration. From there she was able to work on various team graduate projects scoping edutainment to social experimentation games. After an internship with Walt Disney Imagineering's VR Studio group- she returned to finish her Masters degree and decided to stay in the Pittsburgh area to help found Schell Games. |
Kyle has a BS degree in Media Arts and Animation from The Art Institute of Phoenix. While in school, Kyle had the opportunity to work on a number of projects including; What the Bleep!?: Down the Rabbit Hole, two award winning NASA PSA's, and a traditionally animated short film (via internship at Fat Cat Animation). When it comes to animation, Kyle's always very passionate and loves bringing characters to life. |
After graduating with a degree in Game Art and Design from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh Nick joined the Schell Games team. Here he is a jack of all trades doing both 2D and 3D art. When he is not creating art for Schell games he freelances in the comic industry or is killin' Zombies/Nazis. |
Gabe is a modeler, animator, illustrator, and web designer. He has a BFA in Industrial Design and a Masters of Entertainment Technology degree both from Carnegie Mellon University. He has worked on projects of all shapes, sizes, and colors, ranging from Omnimax experiences for the Carnegie Museums to developing interactive media for web and portable devices. You can see a lot of his early work in the Battlefield franchise from EA Games, and in his spare time he teaches courses at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. At Schell Games, he spends his time making sure everything looks awesome. |
A Phoenix Arizona transplant, and second generation illustrator, Ryan started digital painting in high school, then attended at The Art Institute of Phoenix, where he studied Media Arts and Animation and gained an appreciation for game concept art. He has had work published in instructional art books, comics, as well as online competitions. In his free time you may find him life drawing at a various coffee houses, Dr. Sketchies events, or at the zoo. At Schell Games Ryan works as a concept artist and 3d texture artist, contributing to the various styles that Schell Games continues to create. |
Sabrina earned her Computer Science degree at Carnegie Mellon and her Masters of Entertainment Technology at the ETC. Her most interesting prior development experiences include building collaborative projection based games for the Jam-O-Drum, creating software for interactive robots (Interbots), designing a Japanese language learning game (Kotodama), and working on Disney's PhotoPass system. At Schell Games, Sabrina is plotting towards the day when the shared social experiences of video games will bring about mutual understanding and world peace. |
Rich has a bachelor's degree in Theater and Political Science from Westminster College and a Masters of Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon University. He has worked on many different kinds of projects - turning hallways into spaceships, developing technology and games for non-profit groups, developing games and applications for the iPhone and creating card games. Rich enjoys board games, Christopher Guest films and expressing himself through quotes. |
Shawn has a BS degree in Computer Science (and a minor in film) from Rutgers University, and a Masters of Entertainment Technology degree from Carnegie Mellon. He has worked on everything from virtual puppets to interactive museum exhibits to a collaborative game that brings Elvis back from the dead. He spent a summer interning at Walt Disney Imagineering's VR Studio where he first met Jesse Schell. After graduation he spent a year using Java (the language not the drink) to fight cancer and pollution in New Jersey, then returned to Pittsburgh to design and program innovative content for Schell Games.
Since then he's built a Nina Warrior Course in his backyard. |
After earning his BS in Computer Science, Carlos spent two years working as a programmer/designer in a mobile games company while trying to make it big in professional theater. Seeking to combine his talent for programming and storytelling, Carlos moved to Pittsburgh to complete a Masters in Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University. Since then, he has had experience working on large sandbox games and online virtual worlds. |
Sheri Graner Ray started in the game industry in 1989 as a writer/designer at Origin Systems on the Ultima series of games. Since then she has worked for many companies in a variety of roles from designer to head of product development. Her titles credits cover a variety of genres from the classic Ultimas to Star Wars Galaxies to the Mad Dog McCree stand-up arcade machine. She is author of the book, “Gender Inclusive Game Design-Expanding the Market” and in 2005 received the IGDA’s Game Developer’s Choice award for her work in gender and games. In 2004 she co-founded Women in Games International and is currently serving as Executive Chair for that organization. |
Chuck holds a Masters of Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon University in addition to a Bachelors degree from the college of Architecture at Virginia Tech. Prior to joining the team at SG, Chuck was one of the lead designers for the Virginia Tech Solar Decathlon house, a producer for EA's the Sims2 Pets, as well as the Producer and 3D artist for the sporadic massively multiplayer online game, Skyrates (www.skyrates.net). At Schell Games Chuck filled the roll of producer on Toy Story Mania and continues to do so on various new projects as he keeps track of milestones, workload, and communication among the team. |
Andy earned his BA in Philosophy and Music Technology from CMU and his MET (Masters in Entertainment Technology) from the Entertainment Technology Center, also from CMU. During his time at the ETC, he worked on numerous projects and was a Teaching Assistant for the Building Virtual Worlds and Game Design classes. Andy was a producer intern at EA: Los Angeles on Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 before working at Schell Games. |
Jeff holds a BA from Penn State and an AA from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
Starting as an environment artist in 1998 for console games, Jeff worked his way
through all areas of art production, from concept work to animation, before going
into production. His work has taken him from Pittsburgh to Florida to Australia and
now back to Pittsburgh with Schell Games. Having worked with several different
production methods, he has become an advocate of Scrum for its near full coverage
in all areas of production.
Apart from production, Jeff still works as an illustrator, and has been featured
in several gallery shows while overseas. He still enjoys drawing after all these years.
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Bryan received a BA in Computer Science from Rice University, and a Masters of Entertainment Technology degree from Carnegie-Mellon University. He has worked on an interactive tour of USS Requin for the Carnegie Science Center, and Skyrates (a casually-played sky-pirate MMO). His interests include theatre, raising carnivorous plants, and his favorite game is Planescape: Torment. |
Craig received a BS degree in Computer Science (and minors in math and physics) from Texas A&M University. After 2 years of research in AI at University of Texas in Dallas, Craig left academia with a Masters in Computer Science, to attend the Guildhall at Southern Methodist University After the Guildhall Craig worked at KingsIsle on an unannounced MMO project before joining Schell Games Austin. |
Henry has fancied himself a game maker since he was very young. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2005 with a Computer Science and Math degree and while fun, it didn't really teach a lot about making games. Luckily, Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center did, where he graduated with a masters degree in 2007. Now at Schell he gets some good use out of that CS degree. And because there's no such thing as too many games, Henry maintains Skyrates on the side. |
Matt received Bachelor of Science degree in Game Art and Design from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He can create 3d models and animations as well as concept; however, after several quarters of wanting to be a 3D modeler, Matt suddenly fell in love with game programming. This affair began shortly after working with Flash and GameMaker at AIP and intensified while interning at Sim Op Studios in Pittsburgh as a part of their WildPockets project. He now fervently works to learn as much as he can about game design and programming. Matt uses his own unique perspective and flair to program and design games at Schell Games. |
About a year away from graduating with a BS in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University, Rob realized he might enjoy making video games for a living. To that end he started learning how to program and was allowed to play with motion capture and the Quake engine on the Wireless VR project. From there he moved on to Carnegie Mellon for a Master of Entertainment Technology. He was an intern at Demiurge Studios, working on the Clone Bandits mod for Unreal Tournament 2004. He then became Schell Game's first intern and never looked back. |
Melanie earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and a Masters of Entertainment Technology from Carnegie Mellon University. She interned with Schell Games during her undergrad and came on full time in 2007. She was a game engineer on Disney's interactive ride, Toy Story Midway Mania and currently works as a lead on Disney Fairies Pixie Hollow online. She is also a huge fan of the 80's and houses a large collection of retro toys. |
Ryan recieved a BS in computer science from Bloomsburg University. After that he went on to the Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center to earn a Masters in Entertainment Technology. Before Schell Games, Ryan was a programmer for The Winds of Orbis: An Active Adventure. |
Nik has a BA in computer science and philosophy from Swarthmore College. He has many years of software engineering experience under his belt, working on a variety of projects including autonomous vehicle navigation, augmented reality, broadcasting special effects, and digital cinema solutions. Gaming of all kinds has always been a central influence in his life, so it made sense for it to become a professional interest as well. At Schell Game, Nik seeks out interesting problems to solve, and tries to not back down from any challenge. |
Howard received a BA degree in Computer Science from Soongsil University, and has completed his Masters of Entertainment Technology degree from Carnegie Mellon. He has helped design and implement an interactive experience for the Heinz Museum, a synthetic interview of George Westinghouse and was one of the developers for Disney's Pixie Hollow Online. He also loves to have the opportunity to solve interesting problems, contribute strongly to the design process, and destroy competition in Magic: The Gathering, chess, and lunar landings.
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Matt landed at Schell Games after many adventures in his academic and professional career. His undergraduate studies were spent at Bowling Green State University, with one year taken abroad to study at Nanzan University in Japan. After receiving his BFA from Bowling Green, Matt moved to North Carolina to assist in making educational software for Marine V-22 mechanics. He was then accepted to Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), studying for two years and receiving his graduate degree. Before arriving at Schell Games, Matt worked as a programmer on Carnegie Mellon's MySecureCyberspace project - a program that involved games for children with the purpose of teaching them safe Internet habits. |
Keith has a Bachelor of Science in computer science from the University of Pittsburgh. He started his game development career at DreamForge Intertainment in 1997. While there he worked on WarWind II, Sanitarium, Unreal's OpenGL implementation, TNN's Hunter, and the DreamForge 3D game engine. Keith has been developing games for Pocket PC and Smartphone over the last few years and is working on a new 3D engine with Sword and Spirit LLC. At Schell Games Keith is the go to guy for graphics and performance issues. |
Adam is a western PA native who graduated from Digipen Institute of Technology in Redmond, WA and holds a degree in Real-time Interactive Simulation. He's worked in game development for the past 7 years for a number of game development companies in a range of roles, including Dreamforge, Vicarious Visions, Neversoft, and Spark Unlimited. His most recent projects have included Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, Tony Hawk: Underground 1 & 2, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, and Legendary. Adam primarily specializes in tool and engine development. |
Matt has a BA with a double major in Computer Science and Math from Assumption College. He has worked in the game industry since 1995, starting at Humongous Entertainment working his way from game scripter to Project Lead. In 2000 he left to join the ill-fated Hulabee Entertainment. In 2003 Matt joined Gas Powered Games as a level designer for the Dungeon Siege franchise and later worked with the Supreme Commander team as a Content Engineer Manager. In 2007 Matt, with wife and kids in tow, packed up and moved from Seattle, WA to Pittsburgh, PA to be closer to family and to join in the excitement here at Schell Games. |
Rick became interested in the entertainment industry at a very young age. Born and raised in the City of Champions, Rick has been in attendance for many memorable moments in Pittsburgh sports history. Perhaps Rick's greatest passion in entertainment comes in the form of computer technology. The ridiculously awesome projects and cool people at Schell Games attracted him to the studio in 2007 after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh where he earned a dual major BS degree in Computer Science and Business, summa cum laude. |
Bard has pursued a range of studies and career paths but finds the creative sector most fulfilling and challenging. Between receiving his BFA in Film & Television from NYU and his MET from CMU's ETC, Bard experienced life and work as a pedicab driver, interior design, animator, film editor, and Flash developer among other things. He considers himself lucky to now hang his hat at Schell Games, among such a splendid and unique assortment. |
Sam is excited by the potential that interactive media poses to transport "guests" to other worlds and create truly immersive experiences both for entertainment and for education. Since Sam graduated from Macalester College with a degree in Computer Science and a minor in Geology he has decided to travel down the path of making his love for entertainment technology his vocation. Through the Carnegie Mellon ETC program Sam has found new skills and people to help him create completely new interactive experiences that are both fun and beneficial for the world. |
Before coming to Schell Games, Jason had a long and rich history at Carnegie Mellon University , where he received a BS in Computer Science. After graduating, he stayed on as a software architect at the famous Stage3 research group for many years, developing Alice, a 3D authoring tool that teaches high school and college students how to program by letting them develop video games, interactive movies, and virtual worlds. He also worked on many different virtual reality prototypes, some using Panda3D, the engine of choice at Schell Games. |
Before Schell Games, Steven worked at Pandemic Studios and shipped the game "Lord of the Rings: Conquest." He went to school at Full Sail for a Bachelors in Game Development. While there, he worked on a 7 man team to make a game called "Meltdown." Steven is mainly interested in low-level tech/pipeline and build. Currently his main source of gaming is his PS3 and Nintendo DS. He experiments in all genres of gaming but is partial to RPGs and Action/Adventure. |
William received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a minor in math from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. Prior to working at Schell Games, he worked as a TV Systems Programmer for AccuWeather developing the CinemaLive HD Weather Display System. The CinemaLive HD software can be seen in action on many local television stations and AccuWeather.com. |
Edmundo is primarily a gameplay programmer. He spent a few years as
a television technical director, a web designer/developer, a graduate
student at Carnegie Mellon University, and an intern for the Walt Disney
Internet Group's VR Studio, the team that created Disney's online
worlds such as Toontown Online. He holds a degree in Computer Science
and a Masters of Entertainment Technology. At Schell Games, Edmundo
contributed to Toy Story Midway Mania, and continues to work in console development, online worlds, and this very own website.
Outside of work, he collects his and other's ideas related to
entertainment design into his own website, edmundito.com. |
Tedo joined the team after completing his Masters degree program in Entertainment Technology in Carnegie Mellon. Before that he studied in Singapore where he earned a Diploma in Digital Entertainment Technology from Nanyang Polytechnic. At Schell Games, he works with the rest of the team building and programming cool experiences. |
Adam started work at Edi Enterprises then got his undergraduate degree in Software Development from University of Wisconsin - Stout. He went on to earn a Masters of Entertainment Technology from the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon. While there, he interned at Schell Games and has been there ever since. Adam enjoys kung fu, bowling, Magic: the Gathering and making a really flexible and intuitive system for others to use. |
A reformed music major, David earned a BS and MS in Computer Science from West Virginia University while coding at local companies and teaching undergrad classes. After, he moved to DC and worked at the National Security Agency. After saving the world at NSA, he decided it was time to pursue his true passion by joining Schell Games and the growing video game developer community in Pittsburgh. David is our resident network programming expert, and also participates in Wii development and game design. When not immersed in a game, David still likes to indulge in music by playing various instruments and dabbling in electronic music composition. |
Mike has a deep love for parsing and manipulating data, regular expressions, bitwise operations and sodas. Prior to working on games, he has worked on custom software projects ranging from retirement planning to data collection and warehousing to corporate websites as well as developing several tools to improve developer efficiency. He has a BS from the University of Pittsburgh in Computer Science and Philosophy. Mike loves old school arcade games and in his spare time, he writes music and performs as the local band Rainbow Kitten and collects JFK memorabilia. |
Rachel attended Carnegie Mellon University studying music and
multimedia production. She is currently a student at Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment
Technology Center and hopes to continue to create music for interactive
experiences, and contribute in any other ways she can. She also loves
playing the violin, listening to movie scores, and drawing comics.
Some of this work can be seen on her own website.
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Katelyn holds a Bachelor of Music from Oberlin College, where she studied Technology in Music and Related Arts. She went on to receive her Masters in Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University. She has worked at several small audio post-production houses assisting with recording, foley editing, and sound design for music and motion pictures. She also spent a summer at Electronic Arts, where she created sound effects for a number of different Sims titles. At Schell Games, Katelyn continues her longstanding tradition of making noise.
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Jared was hired on at Schell Games in 2007 after completing a BA degree in Writing and Religious Studies from Mount Union College. He is active in theatre, having written and directed for the stage, and has also published poetry. He writes for and sings for a local Christian Rock band and is active in the Pittsburgh community outreach. Aside from writing dialogue and narrative for Schell Games projects, he is also involved with writing graphic novels. |
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