Events - The Game Development Strategy Guide

06 May 2026

Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz joins the 2026 Awarding Jury for Cannes Entertainment Lions for Gaming

Blog, Book, Enduring Play, Events, Press

Game Development Strategy Guide author and Enduring Play podcast host Cheryl Platz (@funnygodmother) is deeply honored to announce that she will be serving on the Awarding Jury for the Entertainment Lions for Gaming at @cannes_lions 2026. She takes the responsibility and privilege of setting the global benchmark for creativity very seriously – and looks forward to discovering the fun in the process! For those unfamiliar with Cheryl’s work in video gaming, she began her career on the legendary Sims series, shipping The Sims Makin’ Magic (PC), The Sims 2 (PC), The Sims Bustin’ Out (GBA, PS2/XBOX/GC), and The Urbz (PS2/XBox/GC) – and…

01 May 2026

Author Cheryl Platz’s GDC 2026 microtalk “Localization Magic” now available in the GDC Vault

Blog, Book, Events

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…

26 Apr 2026

Cheryl Platz gives guest lecture on the Motivators of Play for Stanford University

Blog, Book, Events

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…