Ideaplatz

07 Oct 2026

Ideaplatz founder Cheryl Platz to explore “Weird Avatars and Wonky Worlds” at Global Innovation Forum in London this November

Game Development, Talks

After a successful year touring with her talk "The Modern Motivators of Play" in support of the launch of The Game Development Strategy Guide a year ago, Cheryl Platz is debuting a new talk inspired by the content from the book based on the prompt "Weird is Good" from this year's Global Innovation Forum. Join her and the rest of the talented lineup on November 18 and 19 from companies like Nike, The LEGO Group, Canva, Save the Children, Pfizer, IKEA, and many independent creatives like Cheryl. Learn more at giflondon.com. Weird Avatars and Wonky Worlds: The Wonders of Self-Expression…

29 Sep 2026

Enduring Play Podcast named Signal Awards 2026 Finalist in Two Categories

Awards and Honors, Podcasts, Press

BELLEVUE, WA / September 29, 2026: Ideaplatz founder Cheryl Platz launched her first podcast, Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast, as a companion to the launch of her book The Game Development Strategy Guide in August 2025. Two seasons and 21 episodes later, Enduring Play has been honored as a double finalist in the 2026 Signal Awards in the categories of Gaming and Actual Play and the very competitive Solopreneur category. Voting for the Listener's Choice Awards in all categories is open through October 15 and your vote goes a long way. If you've appreciated Enduring Play, please consider voting…

07 Jul 2026

Cheryl Platz chats video game economics with Carl Cleanthes on the Pixel Retentive Podcast

Game Development, Podcasts

In the latest episode of the long-running creative strategy podcast Pixel Retentive, "Is the Gaming Industry Broken?" Cheryl Platz sits down with host Carl Cleanthes to hit a variety of topics: What drives sustainably monetized games (like the power of player self-expression)? The complexities of more recent hypotheses about gaming economies (like Web3 gaming) How deeply rooted cultural storytelling is emerging as an antidote to AI-driven gaming, as inspired by experts on recent episodes of Cheryl's podcast Enduring Play. Coming to terms with the coming console replacement cycle Exploring the devastating layoff cycles that have hit tens of thousands of…

27 Jun 2026

Ideaplatz founder Cheryl Platz shares her Cannes Lions 2026 Juror experience

Awards and Honors, Game Development, Press

Cheryl Platz recently returned from the experience of a lifetime: serving as a juror on the Cannes Entertainment Lions for Gaming Jury for 2026 and as a panelist on the corresponding Inside the Jury Room panel the following Wednesday at the event. She was incredibly honored to participate, and the experience gave her a much deeper exposure to the broader world of video game marketing while giving her an opportunity to represent the ins and outs of video game development to her marketing and agency peers. As Cheryl loves to pay it forward by processing experiences through writing, she's begun…

12 May 2026

Enduring Play S2 E11 Released: From Reviving to Thriving with Backyard Sports featuring Lindsay Barnett and James Deighan [Season Finale]

Talks

Are retro games truly lost to time? Lindsay Barnett and James Deighan are at the forefront of a massive revival: the return of the Backyard Sports franchise. Once beloved, it faded into a loss so complete that the source code was destroyed, leaving only the IP rights in a form so hard to find that Lindsay, now CEO of Playground Productions, had to hire a literal private investigator to track them down on her mission to create gaming experiences worthy of her students at Chicago Public Schools. IP rights in hand, she found James Deighan and his unique company Mega…

05 May 2026

Enduring Play S2 E10 Released: Semper Gumby; Flexible Project and Community Management with Desirée Rincón

Talks

Desirée Rincón is a woman of many talents: leader, military veteran, video game program manager, social media manager, graphic designer - but at her core, always a gamer and community organizer. Her resilience has also been tested in a way few people ever face, and she continues to choose community and hope even in the face of repeated adversity. As we explore her story, you see how she repeatedly uses video gaming to connect communities - military units, orphaned military children, disabled gamers, and out of work game developers. And that's not getting into the magic of her service dog…

30 Apr 2026

Cheryl Platz joins the 2026 Cannes Entertainment Lions for Gaming jury

Awards and Honors, Talks

Cheryl Platz is thrilled to share that she has joined the Cannes Entertainment Lions for Gaming for the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity 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 as assistant producer at EA on Urbz: Sims in the City…

28 Apr 2026

Enduring Play S2 E9 Released: Better Production Techniques, Inspired By The Sims with Cory Tsang

Podcasts

Some of the most influential people in the industry have been too busy doing the work to talk about the work - until now. Engineer turned producer Cory Tsang is one of the few original Sims object engineers who has gone on to a second career in production on live-service games at Elder Scrolls Online and beyond, taking what he learned building some of the world's top games and applying that insight to how we make games. People with this rare cross-disciplinary insight are the ones who can help us understand each other and truly become better than the sum…

22 Apr 2026

Cheryl Platz to give seminar for Stanford’s Human-Computer Interaction Group April 24, 2026

Talks

Cheryl Platz is honored to be joining the ranks of this spring's cohort of Stanford HCI Seminar presenters, invited to share her take on the Motivators of Play and other topics related to the intersection of user experience and game design with Stanford's advanced human-computer interaction community. As Cheryl has just completed teaching this semester's session of her original game development MBA class "What Makes Us Play," which she teaches as adjunct faculty for Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College, she will also be sharing insights as an educator from three years of teaching this material as it has evolved from…

21 Apr 2026

Enduring Play S2 E8 Released: Authentic Games through Cultural Technical Design with Timothy Staton-Davis

Podcasts

Learn how cultural technical designer Timothy Staton-Davis is charting a new path in game development, drawing from his experiences across the industry to drive games where the technical implementation is inextricably linked with narrative and game design goals. In a game industry crowded with 10,000+ releases a year, the ability to craft unique experiences that immerse players in specific emotions, experiences, and educational moments is a differentiator that may mean the difference between surviving and thriving for you, your game, and your studio. Timis now Creative Director at Melanated Game Kitchen, taking his unique skills and putting them to use…