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Cheryl Platz, author of The Game Development Strategy Guide, is honored to share that her microtalk from the popular Spreadsheets Microtalks series is now available on the GDC Vault. Search for "Spreadsheets Microtalks" or "Cheryl Platz" to find the full talk if you have a Vault subscription. You can view the slides for free without a Vault subscription. What is localization? If you're new to game development, localization is the process by which you take the original language in which an app or game is written and use it to get translations for other languages. If you don't design and…

Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz was honored to join the Stanford University Human-Computer Interaction Seminar series this semester to share insights from her book and late-breaking insights from her recently-completed quarter teaching the third year of her popular Carnegie Mellon MBA class, "What Makes Us Play: The Craft of Video Games." This talk blended some insights that you can see in other talks about the Motivators of Play with new references to recently-released research and specific examples from student case studies that help reflect how the Motivators show up in our lives. Video to be released in upcoming…

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…

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…