Inside modern game design - Cheryl Platz (The Pokémon Company International, Riot Games, Microsoft)

What It Covers

Cheryl Platz, creative director at The Pokémon Company International and former director of UX at Riot Games, explains modern game design principles including player motivators, onboarding strategies, and monetization models. She demonstrates how gaming insights apply to product development, particularly around self-expression, companionship mechanics, and designing scalable learning experiences.

Key Questions Answered

• •Player Motivators Framework: Games satisfy nine distinct motivators split into classic (fun, mastery, competition, immersion, meditation, comfort) and modern (companionship, self-expression, education). Recent research shows competition dropped below 20% of player motivations while self-expression and companionship nearly doubled, fundamentally changing how successful games monetize through character skins rather than upfront purchases. Product teams should map features to these motivators to understand diverse user needs.
• •Disney Friends Testing Lesson: When boys rejected a relationship-focused game prototype that girls loved, adding visible friendship points and sparkle feedback transformed engagement without changing core mechanics. This demonstrates different user segments approach identical products with different motivations. Product designers should test whether small additions like progress indicators or achievement feedback can serve mastery-motivated users without compromising experience for relationship-motivated users.
• •Logarithmic UI Solution: During Marvel Strike Force's sixth anniversary server outage caused by players redeeming thousands of orb shards simultaneously, the team redesigned the redemption interface from open one/ten/all to logarithmic scaling (10/100/1000/10000). This solved both server capacity issues and gave players granular control over multi-use currencies. When systems break, audit whether the failure reveals underlying UX problems worth fixing permanently.
• •Journey Mapping 100 Levels: Complex products with scaling progression (like games with 100 experience levels) require mapping the entire user journey to identify gaps where users lack guidance or support. Players at level 20 versus level 100 have fundamentally different experiences. Product teams should visualize the complete progression, identify drop-off points, and design on-demand learning content users can access repeatedly rather than one-time onboarding flows.
• •Prosocial Design Principles: Creating thriving communities requires designing systems that honor helpers, memorialize shared events, and make mutual support visible. Transparency about player interdependence, shared experiences like time-limited events, and recognition systems (like Amazon's phone tool icons for employee participation) build companionship at scale. Product teams should identify and elevate users who naturally support others rather than leaving community building to external platforms.