About the Framework

The Transformational Framework is based on the work of Schell Games, an independent game studio that specializes in bridging entertainment and education to create games that are both engaging and enriching. The primary intended audience of the book is experienced video game developers moving from entertainment-focused games to Transformational games, particularly individuals in leadership and design roles. It’s also intended reading for clients and partners working on Transformational games. Students and those new to game development will also benefit from reading; however, this book does not focus on how to design good gameplay. (If you’re looking for a book on general game design, you won’t find a better introduction than Jesse Schell’s Art of Game Design.) The Transformational Framework is a model. It is not a set of absolute rules or perfect answers to the challenges of creating Transformational games. As the saying goes, “All models are wrong, but some are useful.”  In line with making this model as useful as possible, the book has been made available in a free, downloadable PDF format and most of the book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License  which means you are free to reuse most of the visual and textual content of the book for non-commercial uses as long as you provide attribution and share what you create under the same licence. Note that some images are excluded from this licence – see the copyright page. If you would like to use the book’s contents in a way that extends beyond this licence, please reach out: