The Game Development Strategy Guide

Crafting Modern Video Games That Thrive

Cheryl Platz, Jesse Schell

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English

Rosenfeld Media
16 September 2025

Product design; Computer games: strategy guides; Digital animation; Digital video: professional; Indoor games

Some of today's most popular video games have been on the market for decades, while others barely make it days before disappearing forever. What differentiates the games that survive? This expansive look at modern video game development gives you an end-to-end, cross-disciplinary understanding of the people, processes, and core design principles you'll need to create video games that thrive.

Who Should Read This Book

This book is for anyone and everyone interested in working on and creating games, including:

Aspiring game developers of any discipline.

Veteran game developers looking to reframe their understanding of game development to account for modern trends and standards.

Creative leaders who need to build and support environments where great video games are created.

Game designers trying to improve their understanding of the business considerations that have felled so many recent games.

User experience designers looking to understand, define, and expand their impact in the broader video game market.

Producers struggling with the choice of business model or monetization choices for their games.

Partners to video game developers like legal counsel, business development, venture capitalists, marketing, licensing, and human relations.

You'll learn...

A standard for basic game design principles.

Foundational science and the art of universal player motivation, critical to informing decisions about the game.

The modern gaming business, including live-service games.

The roles that people and companies play in the game development process.

A common language for game development techniques.

How to achieve creative ideation and learn prioritization techniques.

More advanced design topics to help games thrive over time.

How to design games that encourage positive social experiences.

Modern video gaming monetization techniques.

To recognize common ethical and legal issues.

About key video games hardware, software, engines, and platforms.

What works and what doesn't in gaming--showing common patterns in the industry and design struggles.

Insights that will apply to teams and games of any size--from indie games to mega games

Frequently Asked Questions

Does ""game development"" in the title mean this is a programming book? No. This book is intended for anyone who works on video games, and starts in Chapter 1, ""What Makes Us Play,"" by exploring universal player motivations. The word developer in video gaming, like the broader software industry, is used in many different ways. As discussed in Chapter 3, ""Putting the Dev in Game Development,""while some folks believe ""game development"" refers only to programming, it is usually a more general term applied to the collective act of making a game across all disciplines (as demonstrated by the existence of the broader Game Developers Conference).

Is this book only useful for new game developers? This book is useful for game developers at any stage of their career. While it's a fantastic overview for early career game developers, many veterans who reviewed this book mentioned that they pulled away new insights, especially from chapters like Chapter 9, ""From Emergence to Prosocial Gaming."" and Chapter 11, ""Efficient and Ethi-cal Economies."" Readers will walk away with a common language for game development techniques from chapters like Chapter 3 and Chapter 13, ""The Good and Bad of Game Dev Processes,"" that you can use with developers at any career stage.

Can I use this book to help my nonindustry partners understand game development? Absolutely! As I wrote this book, I wrote it with a secondary audience of partners like business development, legal, and other groups who don't experience the industry in the same way. There are tons of folks who would benefit from an overview of the industry and our considerations all in one place. They'll get the most out of chapters like Chapter 2, ""The Living Business of Games,"" and Chapter 10, ""The Money Game,"" which lay out the basic business models at play today, as well as Chapter 3, which will help folks understand why game development teams are so big and complex, and Chapter 7, ""Engaging Players over Time,"" and Chapter 8,""Creating Immersive Worlds,"" which really help explain how games are different from other forms of entertainment.

By: Cheryl Platz
Foreword by: Jesse Schell
Imprint: Rosenfeld Media
Country of Publication: United States
ISBN: 9781959029717
ISBN 10: 1959029711
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 16 September 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Cheryl Platz is a world-renowned designer, creative director, teacher, and author whose work on emerging technologies has reached over one billion customers across multiple industries, from best-selling video games to the largest cloud platforms in the world. Past employers include Griptonite Games (Disney Friends), Electronic Arts/Maxis (The Sims franchise), Riot Games (League of Legends, VALORANT, Arcane), Scopely (MARVEL Strike Force), Microsoft (Azure, Cortana), Amazon (Alexa, Echo Look, Echo Show), Disney Parks (PhotoPass), the Gates Foundation, and MAYA Design. In 2024, Cheryl joined The Pokémon Company International as Creative Director, Game Studio, with an initial focus on Pokémon TCG Live. Cheryl's first book, Design Beyond Devices: Creating Multimodal, Cross-Device Experiences was published by Rosenfeld Media in 2020. As a video game director, designer, writer, producer, or voice talent, Cheryl has contributed to or supported shipped titles including The Sims: Makin' Magic (PC), The Sims 2 (PC, DS), The Sims Bustin' Out (GBA/Console), The Urbz: Sims in the City (GBA/DS), Disney Friends (DS), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (GBA), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (GBA/DS), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (DS), BATTLETECH (2018, PC), League of Legends (PC), Teamfight Tactics (PC/Mobile), VALORANT (PC), MARVEL Strike Force (Mobile), and most recently Pokémon TCG Live (PC/Mobile). Her popular Game Dev Diaries TikTok series was viewed hundreds of thousands of times with over 30,000 followers at @theCherylPlatz. As principal and owner of design education company Ideaplatz, LLC, Cheryl has presented her sought-after talks and workshops to global audiences in over 15 countries and five continents. Cheryl holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University and is an adjunct faculty member of Carnegie Mellon's Master of Entertainment Industry Management program at Heinz College where she teaches the craft of video games. You can find her on Bluesky and Instagram at @funnygodmother, follow her on Medium or LinkedIn, or learn more about all of her work at http: //cherylplatz.com.

Reviews for The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games That Thrive

""A compelling overview of the design heuristics, psychological concepts, development approaches and core concepts necessary for game development--essential reading for the game industry today."" --Steve Bromley, Author, How To Be A Games User Researcher ""An amazingly broad and contemporary take on our industry. Whether you are new to the gaming industry or a veteran, if there is only one book you read about the game industry and all the different points of view--it should probably be this one."" --Will Wright, Game designer, creator of The Sims, SimCity, and Spore; BAFTA Fellow, and co-founder of game development studio Maxis ""An essential resource for developers who want to build a standout video game that thrives in a crowded market--and avoid the critical failures that plague many games."" --Catt Small, Independent game developer and Executive Director of the Game Devs of Color Expo ""Cheryl compiles a wealth of knowledge and experiences in this engaging deep dive into the complex world of video game development."" --Stephanie Cheung, Art director, independent ""Cheryl Platz's book is a true tour de force that deserves a prominent place in every game developer's library!"" --Weszt Hart, Co-author, Digital Thriving Playbook, board member, Thriving in Games Group ""If every game developer is a gamer first, why not speak to them in gamer terms? Every career needs a walkthrough like this!"" --Dr. Christopher Maverick, Assistant Teaching Professor of English, Digital Narrative and Interactive Design, University of Pittsburgh ""This guide is an amazing crash course for anyone who wants to make games that actually succeed."" --Jesse Schell, Author, The Art of Game Design