Book - The Game Development Strategy Guide

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…

06 Nov 2025

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…

28 Oct 2025

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…