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

Cheryl Platz, a professional blonde woman wearing a green dress and black jacket, stands on a modern-looking stage surrounded by plants, computers, and colorful blocks while giving a talk.

Cheryl Platz, author of The Game Development Strategy Guide, speaks during her book tour at Design Matters Tokyo 2025

A book cover with bold graphic design: yellow top, a black and white pixel grid, and a purple bottom with the title "The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games That Thrive" by Cheryl Platz with publisher Rosenfeld Media and foreword

The cover for The Game Development Strategy Guide" by Cheryl Platz. (Rosenfeld Media, 2025)

Cheryl Platz, the host of Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast

Veteran game developer and author Cheryl Platz is headed to Drexel University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University in early November

I grew up in Bucks County and studied at Carnegie Mellon University. Launching my academic book tour in Pennsylvania is a way to bring everything I’ve learned throughout my game dev career back home.”

— Cheryl Platz

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 the skills they've already learned on a broader scale. Author and game developer Cheryl Platz has unlocked that possibility for today's students with her new book The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games That Thrive - celebrated in the October 15 print edition of Kirkus Reviews as “a wide-ranging introduction to how games are made, balancing insider rigor with accessibility." Now, Ms. Platz shifts from the industry launch of her book tour to an academic focus, honoring her roots by visiting three Pennsylvania colleges to kick off her academic outreach program from November 5-7 followed by an educational community mixer in Seattle on November 10.

As a Carnegie Mellon adjunct faculty member teaching video games herself, Ms. Platz understands that lighting a passion for video game creation is far more powerful than just driving students towards a single career. “The creation of video games is an inherently multidisciplinary act and The Game Development Strategy Guide is written to help readers better understand the wide variety of roles in the game dev process. Whether you’re looking to pursue a career in game development or merely looking to inform an exciting group project, The Game Development Strategy Guide can unlock powerful new ways of working and entrepreneurial insights for a generation of students forged via play in user-generated gaming platforms like Minecraft, Fortnite, and Roblox.” Cheryl ‘s popular MBA game development class “What Makes Us Play: The Craft of Video Gaming” will be returning for its third year at Carnegie Mellon’s Masters of Entertainment Industry Management campus in Hollywood, CA in 2026, and was the inspiration for The Game Development Strategy Guide.

This kickoff to Ms. Platz’s academic outreach includes a variety of stops: on November 5, a guest lecture for the Entrepreneurial Game Studio at Drexel University in Philadelphia; November 6, a book signing from 1-3PM at the Carnegie Mellon University Store (lower level); and November 7, a lecture for the Digital Narrative & Interactive Design program at the University of Pittsburgh. Author Cheryl Platz points out that starting this phase of the tour in Pennsylvania is particularly meaningful: “I grew up in Bucks County, graduated from Pennsbury High School, and spent 5 years in undergraduate and graduate study at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Kicking off this leg of my book tour for The Game Development Strategy Guide in Pennsylvania is a hugely meaningful way to bring everything I’ve learned throughout my video game development career back home.” Following her Pennsylvania stops, Ms. Platz will rejoin the Seattle Indies community for the WILA Games and Education Industry Collider at Seattle's Cornish Playhouse on November 10, where she will participate in a book signing and roundtable conversations with community members.

The Game Development Strategy Guide covers topics from player motivation through production processes, interwoven with engaging “player” interviews with industry veterans and “boss battle” recaps at the end of each chapter. The website for The Game Development Strategy Guide includes additional “chapter quests” that provide deeper engagement with the material, and more supporting material like worksheets and additional case studies will continue to launch as Ms. Platz hears from the community about what will help them apply this material for their own professional learning as well as in their classrooms.

Cheryl has also partnered with her publisher Rosenfeld Media to ensure that her book is fully supported for academic purposes, as detailed on their Rosenfeld Media “Books for Educators and Students” site. Rosenfeld Media extends a 20% academic discount and is partnered with Ingram Academic. Classes that purchase 15 or more books may request a free 30 minute virtual Q&A session or microtalk with author Cheryl Platz, subject to mutual availability. Ms. Platz is enthusiastic about these sessions: “I’ve been working with students from middle school through undergrad and beyond since my days volunteering as a UX design workshop instructor for the Digigirlz program at Microsoft, Dawgbytes at the University of Washington, and Girls Who Code at Amazon as well as my two years as a board member for educational non-profit IGNITE Worldwide. It will be a real full circle moment for me to connect directly with other instructors and their students as they explore my new book The Game Development Strategy Guide.” Along these lines, as a new member of BAFTA North America Cheryl is partnering with her publisher to launch a book club for a cohort of the Young Game Designers program this winter, which gives aspiring game designers aged 10-18 a chance to express their creativity and evolve their skills with industry mentoring.

Future book tour announcements will continue through September 2026. To get the latest updates on The Game Development Strategy Guide book tour schedule, subscribe to the new events calendar hosted at the official book website for The Game Development Strategy Guide. Additional confirmed dates include her BAFTA YGD Q&A on November 5, a virtual Q&A with LinkedIn community GameDev Bookshelf on November 25, and a confirmed appearance at the Game Developers Conference 2026. Ms. Platz is actively exploring additional tour stops in New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver BC throughout 2025-26 and welcomes inquiries. She is also interested in options for specific weeks in San Francisco (early March 2026), Los Angeles (late March/early April 2026), and Orlando (late April/early May 2026), although she also welcomes all proposals via info@ideaplatz.com.

Cheryl Platz
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Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast S1 E1 - Using UX Strategy to Put Players First with Celia Hodent, PhD

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