4 Questions for Gamification Consultant Selection

Published on January 21, 2026

During a visit to MIT in 2018, I attended an interactive media seminar led by Jesse Schell—author of The Art of Game Design, founder of Schell Games, and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).

The seminar explored the foundations of creating good game concepts, specifically "games that matter." One discussion that stood out to me was the Challenge – Challenging, Solve – Solving approach. Let’s keep it cool and call it C 2 S 2. This framework inspired how I teach game design and has greatly enriched the development of serious games and gamification programs at kummara.com.

The C 2 S 2 approach is simple. You only need to ask four questions. (Here is an example of how it applies to a strategy game):

  1. What is the main challenge (Challenge)?
To make the opponent’s king pawn have no choice of moves
  1. Why is it challenging (Challenging)?
Because the king’s pawn is protected by many other pawns
  1. How can players complete the challenge (Solve)?
By using the pawns he has to defeat the opponent’s pawn and trap the king’s pawn.
  1. Why is completing the challenge (Solving) fun?
Because there are many combinations of strategies that can be developed. 
Because each strategy also depends on the strategies of other players.

These four questions are an excellent starting point for developing new game concepts, but they serve a greater function: they act as a guide for modifying existing programs to target different players.

They also function as a checkpoint to ensure challenges remain relevant to a player’s skill level. This prevents boredom or stress, allowing players to enjoy the process and improve. As Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi described, this allows players to enter a state of "Flow" (see this 3-minute explanation about flow: Youtube).

f your company plans to create a game concept or hire a gamification consultant, try asking them these four questions. Their answers will help you determine if they are the right fit for your project.

However, if I happen to be the one presenting, please don’t ask me those questions. Just ask for a good coffee shop recommendation in Bandung instead.