Books – Ideaplatz

08 Oct 2025

Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz launches academic book tour in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh

Books, Talks

Veteran game developer and author Cheryl Platz is headed to Drexel University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University in early November 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 Roblox: games that are also themselves video game development platforms. Students are just missing the industry insight to apply…

24 Sep 2025

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

Books, Talks

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…

15 Sep 2025

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

Books, Talks

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…

28 Aug 2025

New talk debut: Modern Motivators of Play

Books, Talks

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 that inform the Motivators…

27 Aug 2025

Author Cheryl Platz launches book tour for The Game Development Strategy Guide at Seattle Indies SLICE on August 27

Books, Podcasts, Press, Talks

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…

19 Aug 2025

Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast now available on all major platforms!

Books, Podcasts, Press

It’s time to level up your game development career by learning from a series of engaging and candid conversations with game development veterans passionate about building a better industry in Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast, launching today on all major podcast networks. Explore what it takes to create thriving video games and game development studios with host Cheryl Platz – creative director, faculty member in video gaming at Carnegie Mellon University, and author of the upcoming book The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Video Games That Thrive. The first season of the Enduring Play podcast brings 10 of the…

01 Feb 2024

LinkedIn LIVE Recording Available: Design Beyond Devices Community Q&A

Books, Talksdesign beyond devices

On January 31 2024, Ideaplatz founder Cheryl Platz ran a community Q&A for LinkedIn followers that yielded a nuanced conversation about how her book has impacted her practice as a Design Director these past three years, as well as some very thoughtful questions from attendees about navigating stakeholder relationships when working in this space. Check out the replay at the LinkedIn event page. Future community events, based on community feedback, will be hosted on Zoom via Ideaplatz - stay tuned for further details and your chance to participate! Sign up for our mailing list or follow our LinkedIn page to…

14 Oct 2021

Voiceflow Keynote: Demystifying Multimodal Design

Books, Talksappearances, design beyond devices, keynotes, multimodality, public, vui

On October 13, 2021, Ideaplatz founder Cheryl Platz joined the Voiceflow community to share a keynote specifically targeted at practitioners in the conversational design space, aiming to share some of the insights from her book Design Beyond Devices to reveal how multimodal design complements that existing practice. How do you position your multimodal experience, and how do you extend your designs? Thanks to all who attended live, and thanks to Emily Lonetto at Voiceflow for all of her organizing efforts along the way! Catch up with the talk on YouTube or download the slides below. Ready to go deeper? Check…

06 Sep 2021

Free fall talks with Ideaplatz

Books, Talksbook club, design beyond devices, multimodality, public, voice design, vui

On September 1, Cheryl launched her newest keynote, "The Carousel of Progress: Adapting to a (Post) Pandemic World" to an enthusiastic response from the CHIFOO practitioner community. (Recording available to CHIFOO members.) This keynote is available for booking at your conference or event - reach out to us for more information. Still to come in early Fall: September 9 at 12 PM PT --Design Spaces Book Club: Design Beyond Devices Cheryl talks with folks who are reading her book about next steps to take when applying the content in her book. She'll answer audience questions, go through some of the…

18 Nov 2020

Capturing Customer Context – Free Downloadable Worksheets

Books, Workshops

In Chapter 2 of Design Beyond Devices, Ideaplatz founder Cheryl Platz lays out the importance of going beyond surface inquiry when doing customer outreach for multimodal and cross-device experiences. But how do you bring your stakeholders along when they think they understand everything about your customers? These 4 downloadable FREE worksheets are designed to jumpstart your own explorations. Either have team members print and complete individually during a workshop, or use them solo as questions to prompt your own preparations. Shared Understanding Baseline: What do you already know, what are the constraints, and what has already been done?Visualizing Context: Use…