Schell Games

[{"content":{"text":" Schell Games' commitment to education is something we live every day; in the products we create, the work environment in the office and the ways we share that knowledge with others. Each month, we'll be dissecting a different Lens from The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by our CEO Jesse Schell and applying it to a noteworthy title. It's our hope that you use these as you develop your game or are looking to critically analyze what makes someone else's game successful. As Spring emerges here at our Pittsburgh campus, we thought this was a great month to dive into the details of The Lens of Emergence. Happy creating! "},"id":"2c473f9c-c777-4568-86e7-586fbcdd236a","isHidden":false,"type":"textBlock"},{"content":{"location":"kirby","image":["file:\/\/V6L8VECFmSMkX0nk"],"src":"","alt":"Lens of Emergence Lens of the Month","caption":"","link":"","ratio":"","crop":"false"},"id":"7d71a6fb-de96-4ca2-b4fe-5656052c33e7","isHidden":false,"type":"imageBlock"},{"content":{"level":"h2","text":"The Lens of Emergence","customid":""},"id":"aa134f95-5502-48b4-a63f-03724b8cc149","isHidden":false,"type":"headingBlock"},{"content":{"text":" How This Works: Use this Lens (full text below as well) and picture your game at the same time. See how you answer each question and how difficult it is to arrive at these conclusions. Repeat and refine until complete - how much different does your potential game look than when you started? Full Text: To make sure your game has interesting qualities of emergence, ask yourself these questions: "},"id":"d080f9d7-9848-45d9-ba89-cfcb03c330e5","isHidden":false,"type":"textBlock"},{"content":{"text":" How many verbs do my players have? How many objects can each verb act on? How many ways can players achieve their goals? How many subjects do the players control? How do side effects change constraints? "},"id":"a8c82c39-1fac-429e-b326-365c07c4f9b7","isHidden":false,"type":"listBlock"},{"content":{"location":"web","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4YEKb4i3Pbw","video":[],"poster":[],"caption":"","autoplay":"false","muted":"true","loop":"false","controls":"true","preload":"auto"},"id":"2474db9c-f337-479b-9d4f-046dd18c8716","isHidden":false,"type":"videoBlock"},{"content":{"level":"h2","text":"Example - Avowed","customid":""},"id":"4d4eb7e4-5970-426c-8796-61fd484f61ac","isHidden":false,"type":"headingBlock"},{"content":{"text":" Never count out Obsidian. After mixed and more often confused reactions to trailers, Avowed has been a surprise hit of 2025, delivering first-person, RPG power fantasy goodness in a bright, lush world. As Avowed has emerged into the spotlight in the gaming world and shaken up expectations of what gamers truly want, it seemed to be a great fit for The Lens of Emergence. Avowed succeeds in part because of how well it can answer al of the questions detailed in this Lens. As RPGs increasingly go open world with hundreds of \"verbs\" for their players to accomplish and thousands of ways each verb can interact in complex systems, Avowed 's restraint is a huge reason for its approachability and success. Avowed is not like a Skyrim where you can can endlessly explore in the sandbox of the world and fight every NPC in the game. Instead, you get to explore four dense, beautiful maps packed with adventure and secrets, but always moving you towards your overall goal. Within quests, there's a ton of variety to solve with violence, try to talk your way out of it, and side with different people. And all of these choices matter, especially as you barrel towards the big stakes of the endgame. But whereas only 30% of players reach the endgame of Skyrim, Obsidian is banking on its players seeing the game as a complete story they'll want to finish, then perhaps begin all over again to make other choices. It's a throwback to games like Knights of the Old Republic that almost necessitated another playthrough just to be amazed at all of the ways things could play out. And with 10+ official endings, there's lots of reason to revisit the world of Eora in Avowed . "},"id":"e5cef0c9-10a0-44e3-bbfc-e2264d31d718","isHidden":false,"type":"textBlock"},{"content":{"location":"kirby","image":["file:\/\/ugEUyfgLJsbEXfyd"],"src":"","alt":"Combat in Avowed","caption":"","link":"","ratio":"","crop":"false"},"id":"8687b676-02d4-4684-9394-a6551f9ae689","isHidden":false,"type":"imageBlock"},{"content":{"text":" By limiting some aspects of what the player can do, it keeps them focused on the story. There's no romance worries about seducing the wrong character. There's no super intricate base building or crafting systems to try to keep track of. There's no card game to sink 20 hours into. And you control one character while giving light directions to your other companions. The result is the \"emergence\" of a game that is incredibly hard to put down. Trying to stop a play session is almost impossible, because there always seems to be another interesting cave, bounty, mission, or character interaction just beyond the checkpoint we reached. The simple combat makes it possible to focus on being a stalwart melee attacker, but it's also perfectly viable to specialize as a fireball casting wizard with a shield and a gun. Obsidian focused on all the right verbs to make Avowed a success, and should be a game you constantly check your own projects against to guard against scope creep and adding features just for the sake of more content. In a world of bloated open-world games, remember Avowed and The Lens of Emergence. 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The Lens of Emergence

April 7, 2025 · insights

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