Level Complete

It was around March 2013 I had the idea for the podcast. I’d been toying with a few things, mostly video related, but lacked the confidence and ability to push on. I’d been happily disecting news events and putting my own spin on them for former PCZone caretaker David Brown’s plughead.net and wanted to expand on that by putting the news under a spotlight to show just how ridiculous it was when the shadows weren’t reaching in from the sidelines.

Having spoken with Dave and dropped a few suggestive remarks his way, in July I sent him my draft idea for The Plughead Peach Peppered Podquiz.

I’m host and ask the questions and generally try and keep things moving along.

3 guests, possibly with Dave as a regular.

Each guest supplies their own buzzer / means of attracting attention audibly

In the best video game tradition the aim of the quiz is to gain experience and level up. The winner will be the one who has reached the highest level come the end. As we go along there will be opportunities to boost XP.

XP is awarded by me though the manner of the amount of XP is never to be explained or justified. If anyone queries it answer “Videogames”

It seemed easy enough. I read all the news anyway so carving out questions shouldn’t be too challenging and Dave had a suitably well stocked list of contacts. On 8th August 2013 we recorded the first episode of Level Up with Dave, Hany Gohary and David Gower as the contestants.

I felt it went well, if a little long. It was harder than I had anticipated to put the questions together and editing the audio proved incredibly time consuming. The plan was to run for six episodes as a trial and by the end I was glad it was over. I’d enjoyed it but it had completely consumed my time. I decided that if we were to continue it would need to be stripped right back to the core idea of poking fun at the news and maybe a little trivia.

As 2014 pulled up its pants and strutted into the street Dave had lost interest in maintaining plughead.net and if Level Up was to return it would need a new home. I looked at setting up a dedicated site and hosting but bricked it when I saw how much it would cost. There are numerous ‘low cost’ and ‘budget’ solutions which still represent more than I could reasonably divert. And while I did receive very kind offers of support I believe if you’re taking someone’s money you have to offer them a commitment I wasn’t yet prepared to make.

So this is where Level Up set up home and as July once again approached I started to prepare for another run and emailing guest invitations. Better prepared however doesn't mean better able and as each week went by I found it increasingly difficult to absorb all the news while performing the tasks I need to keep a roof over my head. I was also losing most of the weekend in editing.

“It’s only a few weeks” I’d tell myself, “then back to the family.”

By the end of the second run I think we’d nailed what worked and what didn’t. I’d also learned to be a little more (though still not enough) controlling in keeping things on track with a mind to reducing the editing time. I’d decided that I could do this on a more permanent basis. That I could concentrate on a few big stories rather than constantly feeding throughout the week and so better direct the recording. The audience still appeared to be small but I figured once I had proper hosting, was doing it regularly, and had it on iTunes so I could promote it more efficiently that would improve and in turn justify the costs, both time and financial. I had an idea for an end of year special which would lead straight into a 2015 relaunch with birth partners Hany Gohary and David Gower providing the flavoursome topping to my otherwise tasteless waffle.

As the end of 2014 loomed into view I had become involved in a high profile project at work. It’s not something I particularly wanted to be a part of but my superiors thought I had something to offer so that was the decision made for me. I expected it might run into January and impact on the relaunch but as I write this it is still very much ongoing with no clear end in site. I also became ill. Don’t worry, I’m not dying. At least I hope not. Well, I suppose I am in a sense but what I mean is I’m not, to the best of my knowledge, going to drop tomorrow. It has meant some small but significant changes, none of which are of interest to anyone other than me and I’ll thank you to leave the rubber gloves in their box madam.

Which leads us to the concluding paragraph and which you have no doubt already established is me saying that while I have enjoyed doing Level Up and am grateful to everyone who indulged me by coming on the show or listening to it, I can’t do it anymore. Those ‘few weeks’ aren’t mine to give. They’re my wife’s and the little rays of sunshine that leech money from me and keep me constantly dreading the future we’re setting out before them. I still intend to make stupid occasional videos but as I’ve already got an ever growing folder of half complete scripts and another of parody songs we’ll see how that pans out.

Play nice,

Kev.