Blog - The Game Development Strategy Guide

16 Sep 2025

The Game Development Strategy Guide releases worldwide as an Amazon Top New Release in the Game Design category!

Blog, Book

The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games That Thrive released on Tuesday, September 16 worldwide, and quickly shot up to the Top New Release spot for several days in the competitive Game Design category. The Strategy Guide has also been charting in the general Best Sellers list in several game development related categories this week. Don't have your copy yet? Buy now on Amazon.com -- 15% discount coupon still available through September 22! Buy The Game Development Strategy Guide on Amazon Pre-orders have been shipped out to readers around the world - please let us know what you…

16 Sep 2025

Enduring Play S1 E5 Released: Ludonarrative Harmony for Narrative Designers with Whitney Beltrán

Enduring Play

The fifth episode of Season 1 of Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast, hosted by Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz, is now live with guest Whitney Beltrán, a multiple award-winning Mexican-American Narrative Director with over 12 years of experience in narrative design and professional writing whose experience spans triple-A video games, mobile games, extended reality games, tabletop roleplaying games, and pretty much anything interactive. Most listeners will be learning plenty of new concepts as the field of narrative design is fairly specialized - but understanding what goes into good narrative design can improve everyone's game development craft. Our…

15 Sep 2025

Author Cheryl Platz speaks about Opti-Pessimism at Design Matters Tokyo on the Game Development Strategy Guide book tour

Book, Events

September 14, 2025 / Tokyo, Japan: Author of the Game Development Strategy Guide, Cheryl Platz, debuted her second new talk in two months as one of the closing keynotes at Design Matters Tokyo 2025. Entitled "Future Sight in Design: Using Process and Context to Solve the Right Problems," this talk focused on two case studies that demonstrated how the use of Cheryl's opti-pessimism framework for design ethics at scale, helped her and her teams to design around critical issues before they occured. About Opti-Pessimism The opti-pessimism design framework was first introduced by Cheryl Platz at her DEVit 360 2018 talk…

09 Sep 2025

Enduring Play S1 E4 Released: The Global Heartbeat of Music Games with David Ventura

Enduring Play

The fourth episode of Season 1 of Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast, hosted by Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz, is now live with guest David Ventura, CEO and Creative Director of Swedish indie gaming studio Ichigoichie Games. This unique episode also features music from Ichigoichie's games in the transitions between the podcast levels, helping listeners get a sense of what they can create when playing David's games. The conversation covers some of the early history of the music game genre tied to David's early career at iNiS Corp in Japan, and expands to bigger philosophical discussions about…

08 Sep 2025

The Game Development Strategy Guide celebrated by early reviewers; selected by Kirkus Reviews for an indie spotlight

Book, Press

New book by Cheryl Platz honored for its groundbreaking approach to demystifying and documenting modern video game development with new tools and insights in a fun and accessible way Bellevue, WA : The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games That Thrive is a uniquely expansive take on end-to-end on video game development written by designer and creative director Cheryl Platz that’s being celebrated by early reviewers as a ‘tour de force’ for developers at all stages of their careers. The book covers everything from player motivation to video game economies, as her experience in senior leadership for video…

02 Sep 2025

Enduring Play Season 1 Episode 3 Released: Creative Strategy for Thriving Teams with Amy Kalson

Enduring Play

The third episode of Season 1 of Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast, hosted by Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz, is now live with guest Amy Kalson, Executive Design Producer at Meta. This week's episode starts out a bit like an episode of Apple TV's hit series Mythic Quest with a real-life story of video game development shenanigans that seem almost too scripted to be real, but were a shared core memory for both Amy and host Cheryl during their time on Disney Friends DS. After the walk down that memory lane, the talk turns towards life as…

28 Aug 2025

New talk debut: Modern Motivators of Play

Book, Events

Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz was honored to debut her new talk, "Modern Motivators of Play," as the kickoff to her book tour at McCaw Hall during the inauguaral SLICE (Seattle Loves Indie Creators Expo) conference on August 27, 2025. Cheryl's talk expands on the Motivators of Play introduced in Chapter 1 of her book The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games That Thrive, and covers some context that didn't fit in the book. Talk Summary In the first portion of the talk, we cover more of the detail behind some of the many motivational frameworks…

27 Aug 2025

Author Cheryl Platz launches book tour for The Game Development Strategy Guide at Seattle Indies SLICE on August 27

Book, Events, Press

Explore changes in player motivations backed by theory and data paired with ideas in Cheryl’s microtalk “The Modern Motivators of Play” at McCaw Hall SEATTLE, WA, UNITED STATES, August 26, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Author, game developer, and creative director Cheryl Platz is honored to be launching the book tour for her new book, The Game Development Strategy Guide: Creating Modern Video Games That Thrive, with a microtalk intended to help indie game developers recalibrate their understanding of what drives today’s demanding video game fans based on industry scholarship, research, and data - all while gamers and game developers from around the…

26 Aug 2025

Enduring Play S1 E2 Released: Safe and Thriving Prosocial Gaming Communities with Carlos Figueiredo

Enduring Play

The second episode of Season 1 of Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast, hosted by Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz, is now live with guest Carlos Figueiredo, Director of Player Trust and Safety for Mojang Studios/Minecraft and co-founder of the Thriving in Games Group. Today's conversation brings hope for the future of positive gaming experiences, and is a must-listen for anyone creating multiplayer gaming experiences but also any parents of gamers who are wondering what goes into creating or encouraging safe online gaming experiences. https://www.gamedevelopmentstrategyguide.com/enduring-play-season-1/enduring-play-season-1-episode-2-safe-and-thriving-gaming-communities-with-carlos-figueiredo/ Key Quotes: "Prosocial behavior is something that's actively contributing to a thriving community.…

25 Aug 2025

The Game Development Strategy Guide receives “Get It” recommendation from Kirkus Reviews

Book, Press

We're thrilled to share that the experienced reviewers at Kirkus Reviews appreciated the Strategy Guide's unique and accessible take on the video game industry, yielding a "Get It" recommendation for their readers. "Platz treats the history of gaming with reverence, mentioning deep cuts such as MadMaze alongside indie darlings like Unpacking; this makes the guide feel truly all-encompassing—as expansive as an open-world RPG—in a way that will resonate with industry insiders, newbie developers, and curious players alike. A wide-ranging introduction to how games are made, balancing insider rigor with accessibility."Kirkus Reviews: The Game Development Strategy Guide, August 21, 2025 Head to the site…