Cheryl Platz

Wild how the halo of success causes selective situational amnesia, huh?

I’m impressed you got so close on the surgeries guess lol 🤣😭☠️

UX Design Roles at Riot Games Every company’s design track shakes out a little differently — here’s what a design career looks like in our world.

Events of the last few days have reminded me that much of my content may be New To You (TM). Here’s one of my most popular #gamedev posts from my Riot Games era where I documented how the career tracks worked when I was head of their #Uxdesign craft company-wide.

medium.com/riot-games-u...

Thanks for engaging, with the implied ask. People jump straight to demands without engaging with the person. So many transactions, so little community.

My work doesn’t get much reach, so it’s really frustrating that people still ask for free labor. Algorithms don’t lift women up, we still talk about the same male designers, and folks just want to ignore the work that’s out there and ask for more? No. Engage with what’s there and THEN come back.

It’s great if folks just lurk! Much of my content is free for all. But if they’re going to come into my DMs and try and claim my extremely limited time by virtue of having been a “fan” or following my work, I expect them to have done that homework first to show they’re invested.

And while I don’t expect everyone to know everything, I can tell pretty quickly when someone is not being honest about truly following my journey over the past 5-10 years, much less putting in the work to support or engage with me. There are SO many notable things any of which would jump out.

4 and 1. Right arm reconstruction Aug 2020 (12 neurosurgical procedures), published Design Beyond Devices Dec 2020, left arm reconstruction Jan 2021 (13 procedures), emergency appendectomy Mar 21, Toupet fundoplication May 21

All of which I documented very publicly on Facebook, Medium, and TikTok 😭

“Hey artists! Come be inspired by our biggest announcement of the year!”

“Oh, yeah, we couldn’t actually be bothered to HIRE artists to support the announcement”

I believe this is located under “cringe” in the dictionary

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but the time to network with and support people is when they are your peers, not 10 -30 years later when they’ve been through hell to get to their dream job

Few people asking for favors can tell me how many surgeries and published books I had from 2020-2021 🤣

I can’t get over how Barbie succeeded because it offered tangible ways for women and girls to celebrate each other (and dress up and go to the movies together) but studios thought it worked because it’s about toys so now they’re making like Bananagrams the movie

But they also did indicate that there is a threshold for minor GERD which was nonoperable / watch and wait; but I qualified immediately based on the algorithm

My surgery was done by a thoracic surgeon, and I was referred by my hand surgeon (!) who is an EDS expert who heard me describe my sore throats when waking up and identified the risk of Barrett’s esophagus. I was tested for GERD and within a year had the surgery

I had a toupet fundoplication which is a partial wrap and it was life changing. There are options. If GERD is a big issue worth talking to a thoracic surgeon. The liquid diet was tough but I got everything back after - even sleeping flat

The USPS posting a NINE BILLION DOLLAR LOSS!!! sounds terrible. Certainly worse than if you said "USPS costs thirty dollars per person per year" even though that means the same thing and more accurately describes a government service

Design Beyond Devices | Free Ebook with Purchase | Cheryl Platz Go beyond screens and learn how to design adaptive, human-centered experiences across multiple devices and inputs for a seamless user journey.

And my #uxdesign book Design Beyond Devices is also included in the sale for $28 to get the paperback - and the ebook only prices for both books are even lower and come DRM free for your favorite platform. Support indie publishing and distribution! rosenfeldmedia.com/books/design...

The Game Development Strategy Guide | Free EBook with Purchase | Cheryl Platz 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 l...

HEY. Have you grabbed my new #gsmedev book The Game Development Strategy Guide yet? If not, TODAY is the best day all year to grab it - the 30% Black Friday Week sale ends midnight Eastern time. Only $42 for the paperback that comes WITH the ebook!

rosenfeldmedia.com/books/game-d...

Japanese devs face font licensing dilemma as leading provider increases annual plan price from $380 to $20,000+ Japanese game makers are struggling to locate affordable commercial fonts after one of the country's leading font licen…

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but #gamedev is about way more than just game design. FONT LICENSING is currently threatening to halt some game development in Japan. Many game devs balk at things like legal, licensing, and biz dev but they == survival.

www.gamesindustry.biz/japanese-dev...

Japanese devs face font licensing dilemma as leading provider increases annual plan price from $380 to $20,000+ Japanese game makers are struggling to locate affordable commercial fonts after one of the country's leading font licen…

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but #gamedev is about way more than just game design. FONT LICENSING is currently threatening to halt some game development in Japan. Many game devs balk at things like legal, licensing, and biz dev but they == survival.

www.gamesindustry.biz/japanese-dev...

FunnyGodmother - Twitch It's time for a MOEment with the #MagicMafia - join a short post-holiday puppet stream tiday!

It's time for a quick holiday puppet stream before an unscheduled early holiday flight - join Cheryl and Moe to catch up on the in-person Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade experience! 10AM PT - 11AM PT twitch.tv/funnygodmother

Once you’ve celebrated the Pikachu and Eevee balloon in the Macy’s parade on Thanksgiving - or maybe just because it’s almost the holidays - come to TCG Live starting Thursday to celebrate our Balloon Festival all month long. 🎈

GO GET THE EEVEE SLEEVIES BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE! 💜✨

we should have a support group for the non-paged

A slide from an Ideaplatz-branded presentation about the 9 Motivators of Play from The Game Development Strategy Guide: Fun, Mastery, Competition, Immersion, Meditation, Comfort, Self-Expression, Companionship, and Education. The slide bears purple, gold, black, and white styling that matches the cover of The Game Development Strategy Guide and is tagged with FunnyGodmother's social handle.

GDSG readers may also notice the Motivators of Play in #Hytale's new go-to-market strategy: release early, re-enable modding, & collaborate with the community. Creating a highly interactive #gamedev & modding community satisfies the key motivators of self-expression and companionship.

The post is worth a read to see how the founders are processing the state of the game and choosing what to focus on and what to pause. We talk in my new book The Game Development Strategy Guide about the complexities of console - that's reflected in their need to set the multiplatform engine aside.

As a #gamedev, it hurts to see games cut off before shipping. Moreso in the case of #Hytale, which was a community effort that went AAA before meeting its end at Riot Games. Or so we thought. Riot and the founders came to an agreement and independent dev has resumed: hytale.com/news/2025/11...

Some of us have been advocating this going back since chatGPT launched. It also has other benefits: correcting someone else's work is actually a really good way to learn something yourself.

FunnyGodmother - Twitch It's time for a MOEment with the #MagicMafia - join us for more hyper-variety indie game streaming!

It's time for a MOEment with the #MagicMafia - join us for more hyper-variety indie game streaming and lurk or bring your #gamedev, geek, and #uxdesign topics to chat! I am always happy to answer questions about my career or books during Twitch broadcasts. 10AM PT - 1PM PT twitch.tv/funnygodmother

Carnegie Mellon raises $2.5 billion in historic fundraising campaign Twelve years ago, Carnegie Mellon University raised more than $1 billion in a five-year fundraising campaign, its record at the time. Building off that...

I am one of the people who endowed a scholarship as part of this campaign, to give back what was given to me as an undergrad. CMU has always been different, and the focus on affordability is a source of pride - we all win when good education is broadly available. www.post-gazette.com/news/educati...

a man in a red sweater and tie is sitting on a bench and says hi neighbor ALT: a man in a red sweater and tie is sitting on a bench and says hi neighbor

Today is world kindness day, and a perfect day to celebrate Fred Rogers and his impact on many of our lives.

He shared innumerable wise words with us, many which have stuck with me and guide me even today, and I'd like to share a few of them this morning.