#141: Personal news
I'm on the Back Page podcast! Plus, Hit Points shatters another milestone.
Hello! A quick note from my holiday rental (Dorset, three days of heatwave then three days of rain, one blissful day of the sweet spot in between, then home) as I have a couple of exciting things to report.
Firstly, Hit Points hit 3,000 subscribers on Tuesday! Since we only reached 2,000 in mid-May that means 50% growth in a shade over three months, which is kind of ridiculous, awfully exciting and honestly very humbling. While these are hardly huge numbers in an era where websites and #content creators count their user figures in millions, I think this is pretty incredible for a one-man show that’s fully independent, has no marketing budget (or even promotional instinct), is based on a platform that has no algorithm to game, and which simply has no interest in SEO. I am tremendously grateful for and appreciative of your support, regardless of whether you’re willing or able to support Hit Points’ future with a paid subscription.
Secondly! I am the guest this week on The Back Page, the excellent podcast produced by my former Future Publishing mag-pals Matthew Castle and Samuel Roberts. It’s a couple of hours of me rabbiting on about my origin story, my days rising through the ranks and eventually editing Edge, and my work these days on Hit Points and my shadowy consulting operation. It was terrific fun, and if you’re not already aboard the Good Ship Back Page this is as fine an, um, dock (?) as you’ll find. It’s an excellent pod even when (ok, especially when) I’m not involved.
Here it is, providing Spotify embeds work on Substack the way I think they do:
Other podcast sources are available, of course, and I am assured that The Back Page is on them all. Fill your boots, at the boot-filler of your choice.
Oh, and if that’s somehow not enough Me for one day, I’m also quoted a few times in this excellent, deeply reported, zoomed-out look at the game industry’s latest round of consolidation over at The Ringer, written by Hit Points chum Lewis Gordon.
So there you go! The (surprisingly high) number of you who got in touch to specifically request a Hit Points x Back Page collab may now rest easy. I will now return to my new life in the country. I miss fibre internet something rotten.
See you soon!
