With the calendar flipping over to 2022, the one-year anniversary of Genius Loci going live seems much closer than it did a few weeks ago. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long already.

However, I’m still just as passionate as ever in spreading the word and making sure the book becomes a reality. I’ll plead your tolerance right from the off here, and ask if you can keep sharing it and spreading it around too - I really hope to reach as many people as I can in both the video game and horticultural spheres. There really is going to be something for everyone in those two realms in Genius Loci.

And in order to keep spreading that word, I have done interviews and podcast appearances in recent months - I’ll put the links below - and one in particular this week. The Level Design Podcast is a regular recording hosted by a group of game developers in the UK and they discuss all things, well, level design. It was a genuine pleasure to chat with them, and talk about what landscape and garden considerations there can be for game makers, and how the book will explore them. 

Before Christmas, Eurogamer - home to many of my freelance video game landscape analysis articles - published an interview with me after I spoke to their features editor, Christian Donlan. This was a pleasure to do and he asked me all about my background and how I got to writing the book as well as the topics and angles I’ll cover.

And lastly, I also appeared on the Level Design Lobby podcast with Max Pears in September. Max is a game developer who has worked on the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and has also written about the intricacies and particulars of designing levels in games. He was keen to see how Genius Loci could be a valuable resource to game developers.

Below are the links to the article and the podcasts:

• Level Design Podcast on Anchor FM and on Spotify
• Eurogamer interview
• Level Design Lobby podcast on the LDL site and YouTube 

I’d be delighted to hear any thoughts you may have on these and whether there are any other podcasts or websites I should approach to shout about Genius Loci. But also, I just hope you might enjoy them too!

I shall continue my efforts to get the book and project to as many people as I can as we head toward spring this year, and hopefully the new season will bring another fresh wave of momentum to Genius Loci.

All the best for now,

 

RD