Schell Games

Schell Games, an American video game developer, has its headquarters in Pittsburgh, which is located in Pennsylvania. Jesse Schell, formerly the Creative Director at Disney Imagineering's Virtual Reality Studio, established the studio in 2002. They focus on creating Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) experiences, with a portfolio that includes both educational and entertainment games. In 2017, Schell Games partnered with Disney, Lucasfilm, and Lenovo to serve as the primary game developer for Star Wars: Jedi Challenges. During this collaboration, they worked directly with Caleb Arseneaux, a Managing Producer at Disney who oversaw the project, while Lenovo was responsible for developing the necessary hardware.

Following the initial release, Schell Games continued its work on the game by creating three significant expansions: "The Last Jedi Update," the "Holochess Update," and the "Dark Side Expansion." According to Schell Games employees, they and Caleb Arseneaux were given only a limited, carefully controlled preview of early footage depicting the final battle with the Elite Praetorian Guard in The Last Jedi. Subsequently, they were tasked with recreating the guards' fighting style from memory for the "Epic Combat Challenge" featured in The Last Jedi Update. The team felt constrained to feature the Praetorian Guards as the final encounter, as the film lacked other suitable enemy combatants who weren't already included in the game.

At the 2018 Webby Awards, Star Wars: Jedi Challenges brought home awards for Schell Games and its collaborators in four different categories. These included the "Official categories" of "Technical Achievement" and "Best Use of Augmented Reality," along with the "People's Voice categories" of "Technical Achievement" and "Best Use of Augmented Reality." The game was ultimately discontinued on June 1, 2022, with no further content planned and support ending entirely on July 6, just a month later.