It’s time to level up your game development career by learning from a series of engaging and candid conversations with game development veterans passionate about building a better industry in Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast, launching today on all major podcast networks. Explore what it takes to create thriving video games and game development studios with host Cheryl Platz – creative director, faculty member in video gaming at Carnegie Mellon University, and author of the upcoming book The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Video Games That Thrive. The first season of the Enduring Play podcast brings 10 of the book’s 14 industry expert interviews to life for listeners for free, ensuring that none of the incredible insights are lost on the cutting room floor.
Podcast host Cheryl Platz, who herself was laid off in 2024 before picking up new roles at two other major game development studios, thinks that these are the conversations the industry needs: “If we’re not having fun making our games, who will have fun playing them? By understanding the crafts around us, we can be better together than we are apart. Video game development is incredibly challenging because it is deeply interdisciplinary and deeply ambiguous. My interviewees come from a wide range of disciplines, studios, and perspectives so that listeners can get a better sense of how to build shared understanding and creative vision as they work together towards crafting video games that truly thrive.”
The Season 1 premiere, Using UX Strategy to Put Players First with Celia Hodent PhD, launched on August 19, 2025. Celia and Cheryl explore a multitude of topics, from the psychology of games to the ethics of game monetization and the art of using user experience research to aid in relieving decision fatigue. From Celia’s perspective, prioritization is one of the most important strategic arts in game development: “We can do anything, but we can’t do everything. I love the saying. You don’t want to do everything with your game. You want to do the things that are really serving the gameplay and serving the players that you’re targeting. The UX process, UX mindset, and strategy are very much about defining those priorities and defining, ‘OK, where do you want to challenge players?’”
The remaining 9 audio episodes of Enduring Play will launch weekly on Tuesdays. Episode 2, Safe and Thriving Gaming Communities with Carlos Figueiredo launches on August 26. Carlos is Director of Trust and Safety for Mojang Studios, home of the massively successful game Minecraft, and is a founding member of the Thriving in Games Group.
Future guests include developers with experience at Electronic Arts, VRChat, Roblox, iNiS Corp, Ichigoichie Games, Meta, Riot Games, Scopely, Microsoft, Hidden Path Entertainment, Wicked Fox Games, Activision/Blizzard, and a variety of other studios.
Enduring Play is syndicated on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, YouTube, IHeartRadio, and RSS – and is also available for free web streaming from enduringplay.com show pages or the Libsyn podcast site. An independent podcast solo produced by Cheryl Platz via her design education firm Ideaplatz LLC, Enduring Play is currently completely free to download. The content is inspired by the content in Cheryl’s new book, The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games That Thrive – which legendary game designer Will Wright applauded as “an amazingly broad and contemporary take on our industry.” The Game Development Strategy Guide is currently available for pre-order from Rosenfeld Media or most online booksellers, and will launch on September 16, 2025 alongside Episode 5 of the Enduring Play podcast.
LEARN MORE:
Enduring Play Website: https://www.gamedevelopmentstrategyguide.com/enduring-play/ or https://enduringplay.com (shortlink)
Explore The Game Development Strategy Guide: Book Site or RosenfeldMedia.com
Enduring Play Press Kit: Website – Google Drive
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