Host, game dev, and author Cheryl Platz launches the second season of this popular video game podcast with Joanie Kraut, CEO of Women in Games International
SEATTLE, WA, UNITED STATES, March 3, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — As the video game development industry prepares to head to the annual GDC Festival of Gaming, Cheryl Platz is launching the second season of her successful podcast Enduring Play with an expanded look at what makes modern video games thrive.
Host Cheryl Platz explains that Season 2 goes beyond what was covered in her critically acclaimed book, The Game Development Strategy Guide. “While Season 1 pulled directly from the interviews for my book, Season 2 expands on game dev and player communities and scaling sustainably while cross-referencing key insights back to learnings from the book. I’ll be speaking with gaming researchers, game educators, event organizers, community leaders, and of course a selection of leaders from the video game industry in a variety of roles. I plan on bringing curious, candid content that speaks directly to game devs at every stage of their career: studio, indie, full time, laid off, students, and everything in between.”
Confirmed guests for the first half of Season 2 include Joanie Kraut, CEO of Women in Games International; Adanna Nedd, independent games researcher, narrative designer, and IGDA 2021 Scholar; Cristina Amaya, Chairman of the Board, Latinx in Gaming; Tim Cullings, Executive Director at Seattle Indies; and Steve Bromley, Author of How to Be A Games User Researcher. Additional guests will be announced in late March. While Cheryl typically seeks to program a fairly even balance of podcast guests across gender, she will be booking back-to-back women in Episodes 1 and 2 to start Season 2 in honor of International Women’s Day.
Listeners this season will take away themes like the role of events in video game launches, the path to launching nonprofit video game professional communities, tips for surviving layoffs and navigating the indie gaming scene, the shifting realities of video game player preferences, networking tips applicable to game developers at all career stages, insight into research techniques, and so much more.
The launch of Season 2 Episode 1 with Joanie Kraut on March 3 is particularly fortuitously timed with International Women’s Day a few days later on March 8. According to host Cheryl Platz, “I had been hoping to work with Joanie on my podcast for a while now, but this timing in accordance with International Women’s Day is the best possible scenario – and this allows us to go deep on the great work WIGI is doing for the GDC Festival of Gaming this year and every year. This is a great way to go beyond performative support for the women in your workplace this year – listen to this episode if you want to learn how to be part of positive change no matter your gender.”
ABOUT ENDURING PLAY: A GAME DEVELOPMENT PODCAST
Season 1 of Enduring Play: A Game Development Podcast was released on August 19, 2025 on all major podcasting platforms as a companion to Cheryl Platz’s second book, The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games that Thrive. Hosted by game developer, author, and teacher Cheryl Platz, the podcast is uniquely crafted with a structure that helps bring gamers along with rich context and helpful asides. The most popular episodes in Season 1 included guests like UX strategist Celia Hodent, PhD; producer Yesenia Cisneros; systems designer Joe “joemag” Magdalena; and artist Tamara Knoss. Enduring Play is produced by Ideaplatz, LLC, the design education company founded by Cheryl Platz in 2017 to support her global outreach on cutting-edge design topics.
Season 1 of Enduring Play drew over 1,250 lifetime downloads since August using the IAB algorithm. Top episodes received upwards of 80 downloads in the first 30 days with the pilot episode exceeding the 200 download mark and multiple episodes well over the 100 download mark despite no sponsors or dedicated marketing budget outside of these press releases and the website – support is all word of mouth, organic socials, and referrals from Cheryl’s book and book tour. Top countries on the download charts include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Australia, Japan, Germany, France, Brazil, and Norway – with 24 other countries represented.
Enduring Play host Cheryl Platz will be speaking at the GDC Festival of Gaming on Tuesday, March 10 as part of the Spreadsheets Microtalks series, and will be following that immediately with a book signing at the GDC book store from 5:45 – 6:45 PM on Tuesday night. GDC attendees can bring proof of book purchase to Cheryl to get a signed book plate sticker if they don’t want to bring their copy from home to the conference (supplies limited, first come first served).
To learn more about Enduring Play, please visit the Enduring Play press kit.
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The final episode of Season 1 of Enduring Play, featuring producer Yesenia Cisneros
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