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Enduring Play S1 E8 Released: The Methodical Magic of Systems Design with Joe “joemag” Magdalena

Enduring Play S1 E8 Released: The Methodical Magic of Systems Design with Joe “joemag” Magdalena

The eighth episode of Enduring Play, A Game Development Podcast hosted by Cheryl Platz is now available with guest Joe Magdalena, better known around the internet simply as joemag, sharing his perspective as an experienced systems designer on games like Hearthstone and Teamfight Tactics. Listeners will learn about what it takes to design content for live operations games and why joemag believes all game designs are systems design challenges. You'll hear about the magic of spreadsheets and tuning curves, learn some basic truths about progressions, player rewards, and community relations, and get insight into how designers partner with other disciplines…
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Enduring Play S1 E7 Released: Engineering for Scalable, Sustainable Games with Caerie Houchins

Enduring Play S1 E7 Released: Engineering for Scalable, Sustainable Games with Caerie Houchins

The seventh episode of Season 1 of Enduring Play: hosted by Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz, is now live with guest Caerie Houchins, current Chief Technology Officer for indie gaming studio Wicked Fox Games. Caerie brings her perspective working on world-class live-service games as an engineering leader to this episode of the podcast, and our conversation explores what it was like working as a critical member of the launch team of VALORANT and how that work differs from her work at the helm of an indie gaming studio today. This episode also explores the role of artificial intelligence…
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Enduring Play S1 E6 Released: Growing and Shepherding Thriving Design Culture in Games with Eric Kabisch

Enduring Play S1 E6 Released: Growing and Shepherding Thriving Design Culture in Games with Eric Kabisch

The sixth episode of Season 1 of Enduring Play: hosted by Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz, is now live with guest Eric Kabisch, a seasoned gaming design executive with experience at companies like Scopely, Roblox, Google, and VRChat. This episode provides a rare look behind the veil of the life of a design executive working at global scale in the video game industry and succeeding with multiple companies, while learning from the engagements that didn't go as planned. Eric's approach is deeply people-focused, with advice about leading with curiosity that can apply to people at all stages of…
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The Game Development Strategy Guide releases worldwide as an Amazon Top New Release in the Game Design category!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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…
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New talk debut: Modern Motivators of Play

New talk debut: Modern Motivators of Play

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…
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