Blog - The Game Development Strategy Guide

24 Mar 2026

Enduring Play S2 E4 Released: Events as a Catalyst for Thriving Communities with Cristina Amaya

Enduring Play

Discover an astonishing variety of community insight in this candid conversation with video game event professional and nonprofit board member Cristina Amaya. Cristina's love of gaming was forged like many of her peers with late nights in World of Warcraft guilds and inspiring trips to the Penny Arcade Expo, and those formative experiences led to a career organizing esports, developer, and player-focused events around the video game industry. This episode is full of new things to discover: explore third space theory, prosocial gaming patterns, the fighting game community and their flagship fighting tournament EVO, dive into some of the history…

17 Mar 2026

Enduring Play S2 E3 Released: Putting Playtesting into Your Process with Steve Bromley

Enduring Play

You don't need to be a games user researcher to confront the need for playtesting in your video game. All game developers, from solopreneurs to indies to AAAs will have to put their games in front of players at some point, hoping to learn from the experience. Steve Bromley is one of the world's foremost experts on the art of video game playtesting, and for over a decade he's been mentoring future generations of games user researchers through the International Game Developers Association and his own books and classes. In this week's episode, get insight from Steve that you can…

12 Mar 2026

The Game Development Strategy Guide sells out at GDC 2026

Blog, Book, Events

Cheryl Platz, the author of The Game Development Strategy Guide and a speaker at GDC 2026, was blown away by the support for her book at her GDC speaking debut. It was a dream to see her book featured at the bookstore - but beyond her dreams to see the book sold out by Thursday at the conference. A highlight of the experience was getting to share a book signing immediately following her talk with her mentor, friend, fellow speaker, and foreword author Jesse Schell - whose book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses has launched many…

10 Mar 2026

Enduring Play S2 E2 Released: Self-Expression, Representation, and Generational Gaming with Adanna Nedd

Enduring Play

Celebrate GDC week by listening to one of the many talented GDC speakers hitting San Francisco in 2026: Narrative designer, games writer, and games researcher Adanna Nedd brings her extensive knowledge of what's current in gaming to expand our horizons. Explore unexpected questions like: what's "friend slop" and why does it matter? What does self-expression really mean to marginalized groups in games? How is one of the current breakout games innovating in women's health? Why are some vintage consoles still getting playtime? And... what do spiders have to do with AI? While Adanna's research focuses on the experiences of players…

09 Mar 2026

Cheryl Platz talks game development with USC’s Game Innovation Lab on the Playthink Podcast

Blog, Book, Press

Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz was honored to join the lineup of game designers and developers who have joined the folks over at Playthink Podcast with USC's Game Innovation Lab. Learn about some of the core concepts from the Game Development Strategy Guide but also get deep insight into Cheryl's career - hear about some of the critical turning points in her past, how UX design and game design relate, how she inspires the teams she leads as a senior leader, and what she hopes her legacy will be for the game industry once all is said and…

03 Mar 2026

Enduring Play S2 E1 Released: Powering Up Game Dev by Making Space for All with Joanie Kraut

Enduring Play

Season 2's bonus-length debut episode features a candid, constructive, and hopeful conversation with Women in Games International CEO Joanie Kraut. Recent reports indicate that 46-48% of gamers globally are women - but only one third of game developers identify as women or nonbinary, and that's still far larger than the representation numbers seen in esports. How do we break these cycles, and how can we lift up marginalized groups in gaming in a way that benefits everyone - all genders, all ethnicities, all races, all sexual orientations - with an eye towards equity? Joanie Kraut has been exploring these questions…

02 Mar 2026

Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast launches Season 2 on March 3, 2026 with a powerful lineup of community leaders

Enduring Play, Press

Host, game dev, and author Cheryl Platz launches the second season of this popular video game podcast with Joanie Kraut, CEO of Women in Games International Season 2 will bring curious, candid content that speaks directly to game devs at every stage of their career: studio, indie, full time, laid off, students, and everything in between. SEATTLE, WA, UNITED STATES, March 3, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- As the video game development industry prepares to head to the annual GDC Festival of Gaming, Cheryl Platz is launching the second season of her successful podcast Enduring Play with an expanded look at what makes modern…

28 Feb 2026

Games and Education Industry Collider in Seattle February 2026 – Event Report

Blog, Book, Enduring Play, Events

Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz had a fantastic time meeting local game developers and game educators at the rescheduled Games and Education Industry Collider, a semi-regular event hosted by Seattle Indies that graced the Cornish Playhouse (fun fact: formerly known as the Intiman Playhouse, a theater where Cheryl performed improv years ago) on February 26 in the Seattle Center. Cheryl's stock of physical books sold out quickly - both the newer Game Development Strategy Guide and her original book Design Beyond Devices - but the conversations kept going all night long. It was a great chance to meet…

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

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,…

11 Nov 2025

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…