Design Education from Ideaplatz, LLC

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12 Nov 2025
Author Cheryl Platz brings The Game Development Strategy Guide guest lecture to the University of Pittsburgh’s Digital Narrative and Interactive Design program

Author Cheryl Platz brings The Game Development Strategy Guide guest lecture to the University of Pittsburgh’s Digital Narrative and Interactive Design program

Book, Events
On Friday, November 7 2025, Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz visited the storied Cathedral of Learning in Pittsburgh to deliver an invited guest lecture on "The Modern Motivators of Play" for a packed house of students largely drawn from UPitt's groundbreaking Digital Narrative and Interactive Design program. For this lecture, Cheryl worked with program administrators to customize her academic talk with specific content for their interests to help support their use of the book in future book clubs and class discussions - specifically adding user experience content to the base Motivators of Play microtalk. To keep students engaged,…
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11 Nov 2025
Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz completes book signing and guest teaching during Carnegie Mellon University’s 125th Homecoming Weekend

Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz completes book signing and guest teaching during Carnegie Mellon University’s 125th Homecoming Weekend

Blog, Book, Events
Cheryl Platz, author of The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games That Thrive, was honored to meet with many members of the Carnegie Mellon University campus community on Thursday November 6 in a full-circle moment that brought her back for a signing of her new game development book at the newly remodeled University Store. Undegraduate students, graduate students, alumni, faculty, and parents all stopped by to learn more, say hello, meet with Cheryl, and grab a signed book and in some cases a photo. After completing the book signing, Cheryl went on to co-teach a session of Interaction…
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06 Nov 2025
Academic Book Tour Kicks Off at Drexel University for The Game Development Strategy Guide

Academic Book Tour Kicks Off at Drexel University for The Game Development Strategy Guide

Blog, Book, Events
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…
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28 Oct 2025
Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz launches academic book tour in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh

Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz launches academic book tour in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh

Book, Events, Press
Veteran game developer and author Cheryl Platz is headed to Drexel University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University in early November Cheryl Platz, author of The Game Development Strategy Guide, speaks during her book tour at Design Matters Tokyo 2025 PITTSBURGH, PA, UNITED STATES, October 28, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Today's students are better positioned than any other generation to leverage the power of game design and development in the professional world, but the first step is opening the door to them. Over the past 15 years, students of all ages have been raised on experiences like Minecraft and…
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WILA Games and Education Industry Collider

Cheryl is honored to rejoin the Seattle Indies community to participate in a book signing and community roundtables as part of the Games and Education Industry Collider on November 10th. Tickets are required but free to the public through Eventbrite. "Join us for an evening of panels, networking, and knowledge sharing with game developers and educators from the greater Seattle area. The Collider returns Monday, November 10, 2025, at 6:00 PM at our new venue Cornish Playhouse (just across Seattle Center from PacSci). The Washington Interactive Learning Alliance (WILA) co-founded by Seattle Indies, Seattle EdTech Meetup, foundry10, and Perfect Day Games, is teaming up to bring…
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GameDev Bookshelf

Cheryl will meet with members of the GameDev Bookshelf book club to discuss the Strategy Guide and their takeaways in detail.
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Book Signing: Carnegie Mellon University Store

Author, Carnegie Mellon alumni, and adjunct CMU MEIM faculty member Cheryl Platz - normally based on the West Coast - will be doing a 2-hour book signing at the Carnegie Mellon University campus bookstore on November 6, 2025 from 1-3PM Eastern, prior to the Duolingo keynote on Day 1 of the Homecoming events. 28 copies of The Game Development Strategy Guide will be available on a first-come, first-served basis for purchase, and Cheryl will have bookplate stickers on hand in the event of a sellout so that folks can still get a signature and add it to a book ordered…
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University of Pittsburgh: Digital Narrative and Interactive Design Guest Lecture

The University of Pittsburgh is hosting Cheryl as a guest speaker for their Digital Narrative and Interactive Design students, where she will discuss the Motivators of Play, key concepts like prosocial gaming, and the new frameworks from her book, the spectrums of video game graphics and monetization. Admission is open to all UPitt students; contact Cheryl at info@ideaplatz.com if you are interested in attending from outside the UPitt community.
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