Schell Games

Schell Games
Information
Type	Private company
Industry	Video games, Virtual reality, Educational games
Founded	2002
Founder	Jesse Schell
Headquarters	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Notable Personnel	Jesse Schell (Founder and CEO)
Products	I Expect You To Die (series), Until You Fall, HoloLAB Champions, Among Us VR, Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire
Website	https://schellgames.com

Schell Games is an American game development studio based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 2002 by game designer Jesse Schell and creates original games for personal computers, mobile devices, and Virtual Reality and augmented reality platforms, along with educational and client work. The company describes itself as one of the largest full-service entertainment and educational game development companies in the United States.

The studio became one of the more prolific virtual reality developers after the 2016 launch of I Expect You To Die, a spy-themed escape-room puzzle game that grew into a multi-title series. Its other VR work includes the sword-fighting roguelite Until You Fall, the educational chemistry simulator HoloLAB Champions, the social game Among Us VR, and the horror puzzle game Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire.

Jesse Schell

Jesse Schell founded the company and serves as its chief executive officer. He is also a Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center, where he teaches game design and virtual world building. Before starting Schell Games he was creative director of the Walt Disney Imagineering Virtual Reality Studio, working on projects for Disney theme parks and the DisneyQuest indoor interactive venue, as well as on Toontown Online, an early massively multiplayer online game aimed at children.

Schell wrote The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, first published in 2008, with a second edition in 2014 and a third in 2019; it is widely used as a textbook on game design. He served as president of the International Game Developers Association from 2004 to 2005. He holds a master's degree in information networking from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor's degree in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

History

Schell Games was founded in Pittsburgh in 2002. In its early years the studio worked on online virtual worlds and family-oriented massively multiplayer games, including Toontown Online (2003) and Pixie Hollow (2008), before broadening into mobile and Steam titles such as Enemy Mind (2014), Orion Trail (2015), and Happy Atoms (2016).

The company turned to virtual reality around 2016 with the release of I Expect You To Die, which it followed with a sequence of VR titles over the next several years. The studio has also continued to make educational and contract games, listing clients such as Disney, Meta, Google, Apple, Microsoft, LEGO, and Universal Studios.

As of the mid-2020s the studio was led by Jesse Schell and reported employing more than 150 people; an earlier figure put the headcount at about 110 in 2018. Schell Games has funded a fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center aimed at reducing financial barriers for aspiring game designers.

Virtual reality and augmented reality games

I Expect You To Die

I Expect You To Die is a seated VR puzzle game in which the player takes the role of a secret agent who must escape deadly situations by solving environmental puzzles. The player manipulates objects at a distance using a telekinetic mechanic, which removes the need to walk around and lets the game be played from a seated position, an approach the studio adopted partly to reduce motion sickness. The first game launched for the Oculus Rift on December 6, 2016 and for PlayStation VR on December 13, 2016, later coming to Windows via Steam in April 2017 and to the Oculus Quest in May 2019. Schell Games said the original title had generated more than one million US dollars in revenue by August 2017.

A sequel, I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy and the Liar, was released in August 2021 for PlayStation VR, Steam, Oculus Quest, and Oculus Rift at a price of 24.99 US dollars; the studio reported it passed one million US dollars in revenue in less than a week. A third entry, I Expect You To Die 3: Cog in the Machine, followed in September 2023 for platforms including HTC Vive, Quest 2, and Quest Pro.

Until You Fall

Until You Fall is a roguelite melee combat game in which the player uses two swords to fight enemies in a neon-styled world, with permadeath runs and upgrades between attempts. It entered Early Access on Steam on August 27, 2019, and the full version reached Oculus Quest and PlayStation VR on September 29, 2020 and Steam and Oculus PC on October 27, 2020 at 24.99 US dollars.

HoloLAB Champions

HoloLAB Champions is an educational virtual reality game set in a chemistry-lab game show, where the player performs lab procedures such as titration and precise weighing while hosted by holographic characters. It was built in Unity for SteamVR and launched on Steam on July 10, 2018, initially for the HTC Vive. Schell Games developed the title with chemistry and education advisers and the RAND Corporation, with the aim of letting students practice lab skills and make mistakes without the physical risks of a real laboratory. It was named a Cool Tool Award winner in the EdTech Digest awards for 2019.

Among Us VR

Among Us VR is a virtual reality adaptation of the social deduction game Among Us, developed by Schell Games with Innersloth and Robot Teddy. It released on November 10, 2022 for Quest 2, SteamVR headsets, and other platforms, recreating the game's spaceship setting in first person so that crewmates complete tasks while impostors try to eliminate them.

Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire

Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire is a VR horror puzzle game in which the player hunts sleeping vampires, carefully dismantling the defenses around each coffin with slayer tools and staking the occupant without waking it. It launched on June 6, 2024 for Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, and Meta Quest 3 at 19.99 US dollars, and came to SteamVR later in 2024.