On November 5, 2025 author Cheryl Platz expanded her book tour for the celebrated new game development book The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games That Thrive with a guest lecture at Drexel University’s Entrepreneurial Game Studio. Thank you to everyone at the EGS for the great discussion and for the opportunity to spend your class with you this week!
Talk topics covered
Cheryl walked attendees through an interactive exploration of the Motivators of Play drawn from the microtalk first seen at the Seattle Indies SLICE conference – then moved into expanded content created specifically for extended academic settings. The expanded content is intended to provide more actionable guidance for students who may be looking to explore the motivators of play immediately in their own work:
- The Spectrum of Gaming Graphics, with newly updated examples
- The Spectrum of Game Monetization, with a draft of an upcoming exercise for placement of games on the spectrum
- An exploration of the relationship of user experience design and game design
- Guidance on Celia Hodent’s Engageability metric as a way to measure the intersection of game UX and game design
- A brief introduction to the CGI framework used by the Thriving in Games Group to evaluate prosocial gaming readiness
Q&A topics to inspire your group or class
The follow-up discussion included thought provoking questions including:
- Why are Comfort and Meditation different motivators?
- Where do horror games fit into the Motivators of Play?
- How do education and mastery relate to each other?
- How many motivators should a game target to be successful?
If you’re interested in exploring advanced questions like these with Cheryl with your class after reading the book, Cheryl has partnered with her publisher Rosenfeld Media to offer free remote Q&A sessions to classes that purchase 15 or more copies of The Game Development Strategy Guide. Visit the Rosenfeld Academic site to learn more about the volume discount, Ingram Academic partnership, and the Q&A offer.
Event Photos: Drexel University Guest Lecture
