Ideaplatz

24 Mar 2026

Enduring Play S2 E4 Released: Events as a Catalyst for Thriving Communities with Cristina Amaya

Podcasts

Discover an astonishing variety of community insight in this candid conversation with video game event professional and nonprofit board member Cristina Amaya. Cristina's love of gaming was forged like many of her peers with late nights in World of Warcraft guilds and inspiring trips to the Penny Arcade Expo, and those formative experiences led to a career organizing esports, developer, and player-focused events around the video game industry. This episode is full of new things to discover: explore third space theory, prosocial gaming patterns, the fighting game community and their flagship fighting tournament EVO, dive into some of the history…

17 Mar 2026

Enduring Play S2 E3 Released: Putting Playtesting into Your Process with Steve Bromley

Podcasts

You don't need to be a games user researcher to confront the need for playtesting in your video game. All game developers, from solopreneurs to indies to AAAs will have to put their games in front of players at some point, hoping to learn from the experience. Steve Bromley is one of the world's foremost experts on the art of video game playtesting, and for over a decade he's been mentoring future generations of games user researchers through the International Game Developers Association and his own books and classes. In this week's episode, get insight from Steve that you can…

10 Mar 2026

Enduring Play S2 E2 Released: Self-Expression, Representation, and Generational Gaming with Adanna Nedd

Podcasts

Celebrate GDC week by listening to one of the many talented GDC speakers hitting San Francisco in 2026: Narrative designer, games writer, and games researcher Adanna Nedd brings her extensive knowledge of what's current in gaming to expand our horizons. Explore unexpected questions like: what's "friend slop" and why does it matter? What does self-expression really mean to marginalized groups in games? How is one of the current breakout games innovating in women's health? Why are some vintage consoles still getting playtime? And... what do spiders have to do with AI? While Adanna's research focuses on the experiences of players…

03 Mar 2026

Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast launches Season 2 on March 3, 2026 with a powerful lineup of community leaders

Podcasts

Host, game dev, and author Cheryl Platz launches the second season of this popular video game podcast with Joanie Kraut, CEO of Women in Games International Season 2 will bring curious, candid content that speaks directly to game devs at every stage of their career: studio, indie, full time, laid off, students, and everything in between. SEATTLE, WA, UNITED STATES, March 3, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- As the video game development industry prepares to head to the annual GDC Festival of Gaming, Cheryl Platz is launching the second season of her successful podcast Enduring Play with an expanded look at what makes modern…

12 Dec 2025

Cheryl Platz speaking at the 2026 GDC Festival of Gaming

Talks

Cheryl Platz, author of the new book The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games That Thrive, is thrilled to be speaking at her first Game Developers Conference as a part of the popular Spreadsheets microtalk series, returning for a second year. In this series, a collection of talented game designers from across the industry bring you practical, tactical tips for applying a game designer's favorite tool - spreadsheets - to improve your daily work. Last year's inaugural Spreadsheets microtalks were a breakout hit, and Cheryl is honored to join the lineup this year. Cheryl's spreadsheet microtalk, "Localization Magic,"…

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…