Enduring Play

You don't need to be a games user researcher to confront the need for playtesting in your video game. All game developers, from solopreneurs to indies to AAAs will have to put their games in front of players at some point, hoping to learn from the experience. Steve Bromley is one of the world's foremost experts on the art of video game playtesting, and for over a decade he's been mentoring future generations of games user researchers through the International Game Developers Association and his own books and classes. In this week's episode, get insight from Steve that you can…

Celebrate GDC week by listening to one of the many talented GDC speakers hitting San Francisco in 2026: Narrative designer, games writer, and games researcher Adanna Nedd brings her extensive knowledge of what's current in gaming to expand our horizons. Explore unexpected questions like: what's "friend slop" and why does it matter? What does self-expression really mean to marginalized groups in games? How is one of the current breakout games innovating in women's health? Why are some vintage consoles still getting playtime? And... what do spiders have to do with AI? While Adanna's research focuses on the experiences of players…

Season 2's bonus-length debut episode features a candid, constructive, and hopeful conversation with Women in Games International CEO Joanie Kraut. Recent reports indicate that 46-48% of gamers globally are women - but only one third of game developers identify as women or nonbinary, and that's still far larger than the representation numbers seen in esports. How do we break these cycles, and how can we lift up marginalized groups in gaming in a way that benefits everyone - all genders, all ethnicities, all races, all sexual orientations - with an eye towards equity? Joanie Kraut has been exploring these questions…

The final episode of Enduring Play Season 1 launches today featuring Riot Games Senior Producer Yesenia Cisneros, whose iconic self-made journey through the gaming industry has seen her build a video game production career on a strong personal brand of people-focused problem solving, empathy, and well-executed game development fundamentals. In this practical episode, you'll get concrete examples of some of the most common failures to thrive amongst aspiring games and game developers, along with advice on what to do to avoid those pitfalls yourself. Yesenia is a repeat presenter at the Game Developers Conference and her perspective has helped her…

The penultimate episode of Season 1 of Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast is available worldwide featuring the versatile veteran video game artist and interface designer Tamara Knoss. Currently a Senior Technical UI Designer at Wizards of the Coast, Tamara’s experience spans animation, lead artist, UI artist, and technical artist roles. Her expansive experience is a perfect example of the pragmatic cross-disciplinary problem solving required to create thriving games whether you’re shipping on modern PCs or classic handheld consoles. This episode is a fun look at a developer/publisher relationship since Tamara and Cheryl first worked together as developer and publisher…

The eighth episode of Enduring Play, A Game Development Podcast hosted by Cheryl Platz is now available with guest Joe Magdalena, better known around the internet simply as joemag, sharing his perspective as an experienced systems designer on games like Hearthstone and Teamfight Tactics. Listeners will learn about what it takes to design content for live operations games and why joemag believes all game designs are systems design challenges. You'll hear about the magic of spreadsheets and tuning curves, learn some basic truths about progressions, player rewards, and community relations, and get insight into how designers partner with other disciplines…

The sixth episode of Season 1 of Enduring Play: hosted by Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz, is now live with guest Eric Kabisch, a seasoned gaming design executive with experience at companies like Scopely, Roblox, Google, and VRChat. This episode provides a rare look behind the veil of the life of a design executive working at global scale in the video game industry and succeeding with multiple companies, while learning from the engagements that didn't go as planned. Eric's approach is deeply people-focused, with advice about leading with curiosity that can apply to people at all stages of…

The fifth episode of Season 1 of Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast, hosted by Game Development Strategy Guide author Cheryl Platz, is now live with guest Whitney Beltrán, a multiple award-winning Mexican-American Narrative Director with over 12 years of experience in narrative design and professional writing whose experience spans triple-A video games, mobile games, extended reality games, tabletop roleplaying games, and pretty much anything interactive. Most listeners will be learning plenty of new concepts as the field of narrative design is fairly specialized - but understanding what goes into good narrative design can improve everyone's game development craft. Our…