Editorial: March 2019

Welcome to March’s editorial post, a monthly progress report which rounds-up all the happenings here at Later Levels along with the games we’ve been playing. Spring is finally here along with cute, newborn animals – so let’s find out what has been going on.

Statistics:

Blog life:

March revealed a lovely surprise: I woke up one morning to discover several WordPress and Twitter notifications on my mobile phone, and then found out Later Levels had received the Best Blogger title in the Normal Happenings 2019 Blog Awards! I can’t tell you how humbled, chuffed and excited I am. Thank you so much to the amazing people who nominated the blog with some very kind words, to Matt for hosting the awards, and to everybody in the community for being as awesome as they are. It’s an absolute honour and a pleasure to be a member of this group.

This, and a few problems with Facebook earlier this month, inspired me to think about the way I manage the site and the way post are oriented. As a result I did a little spring-cleaning around the place and have a few more ideas I’d like to start working on over the coming month. I’d love to hear your thoughts too: what would you like to see more of, what could be improved, would it be good if I finally stopped going on about Monkey Island? Feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments below or get in touch with me directly.

Real life:

Our lovely little Link sadly passed away last night. He was a part of the family and he will be truly missed. 💔 twitter.com/LaterLevels/st…

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Later Levels (@LaterLevels) February 28, 2019

Hopefully this spring is the start of something new. A lack of motivation and enthusiasm recently made me take a couple of days out to do nothing but play video games and bake cakes, and this break made me realise that I need to take action. It’s unfair on both myself and those around me to keep feeling this way so I’m finally doing something about my long-term career and life changes I’ve been considering since January. I’ve been learning as much as I can this month and figuring out a new, brighter direction.

I think my recent emotional dip started when our lovely cat Link passed away at the end of February. He was a very sociable animal – always wanting to be fussed over or to play, and usually appearing on stream whenever the camera was rolling – and so his unexpected absence has hit us all pretty hard. Zelda, our other cat, was a little confused at first but is now growing in confidence and I think she’s enjoying her dominance in the household. It’s good to see things becoming more settled… but I do miss the little furball.

Gaming life:

As mentioned above, I’ve been hiding out in video games recently and therefore completed more than I usually would. First was A Way Out, a cooperative my other-half and I started during GameBlast19 last month; unfortunately it didn’t end the way we wanted it to which left a bit of a sour taste. Far better was point-and-click Paradigm, a funny and somewhat offensive game that had me giggling for an entire afternoon. And I can’t forget about LIMBO, a game I finally played for #MaybeinMarch after leaving it on my backlog for five years.

A couple of weeks ago we went back to the London Gaming Market and picked up a new (old) toy: a PlayStation 2, along with copies of Fahrenheit and ICO. We’re planning to purchase some more retro titles for the console so we can put on some nostalgic streams. Who knows, if we keep doing them regularly we may end up making Partner status on Twitch – although I still haven’t decided whether to sign up for the Affiliate program after receiving the invitation recently. Thanks to everyone who gave advice on that!

Coming up:

And now over to you guys: what have you been up to lately, and what have you got planned for the coming month? Is there anything the community can help with or get involved in? Let everybody know in the comments below so we can show our support. Thanks for reading!