Westeros

We’ve just been told that Focus Home Interactive and Cyanide Studio have fully opened the official website for their forthcoming strategy game, Game of Thrones: Genesis, with additional information and screen shots. The site also has a forum devoted to the game.

There’s a particularly great one showing a closer look at the dragon model—love the fact that there’s a rider in the saddle!

Art of the Title, a rather cool website focused on the art of main title design, has a terrific interview with creative designer Angus Wall, an Emmy-award winning title designer and recent recipient of the Academy Award for film editing. They go over the Game of Thrones title sequence in some detail.

Best of all, the article is heavily illustrated with concept art and high-resolution stills from the sequence. Plus, the highest resolution glimpse at the map that includes Essos ... including Essos’s eastern coast, on the opposite side of the Sunset Sea. This one’s so cool that we’ve added it to our Gallery, with some comments.

Dartmouth’s student newspaper profiles alumnus David Benioff, and Game of Thrones is briefly discussed. Of note is the fact that it states Benioff (presumably with Gemma Jackson, and perhaps D.B. Weiss) spent ten days scouting possible locations in Croatia and Spain. Croatia, Spain, and Turkey are three areas that we’ve now learned of as possible shooting locations for the second season.

Locus Magazine has posted the list of finalists in this year’s Locus Award, and there’s a number of finalists we’re extremely pleased to see present:

• Novella: “The Mystery Knight” by George R.R. Martin, published in Warriors (US, UK), edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
• Short story: “The Thing About Cassandra”> by Neil Gaiman, published in Songs of Love and Death (US, UK), edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
• Anthology: Warriors (US, UK), edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
• Best Artist: John Picacio, artist for the 2012 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar (US, UK)
• Best Editor: Gardner Dozois, co-editor of Warriors (US, UK) and Songs of Love and Death (US, UK)

Congratulations to GRRM, Gardner, Neil, and John, as well as all the other finalists!

The fans of A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones often reveal some great talent, turned towards celebrating the story they love. Whether it’s cooking up a storm, depicting the lands and the characters, or just plain rocking out, it’s always good. And now, one of the newest additions to the fan pantheon of awesome, ASoIaF/GoT inspired works are…

Infographics. But not just any infographics, no. These infographics from HauteSlides beautifully, succinctly, and humorously lay out the inter-relationships between various families, and gives a nice, clean look at the key locations of the story. Great work from graphic designer Magda Maslowska!

This week’s installment of Sky’s Thronecast not only features Linda and I with an awesome new webcam (are you excited yet?!), but it also has a fun interview with actor Jason Momoa, who plays Khal Drogo. The webcast itself contains a short except from the interview, while the landing page for it features the full interview as a separate video.

The So Spake Martin collection of correspondence, signing and convention reports, and interviews has been updated with a number of entries from the past month. These include Dave Itzkoff’s and James Poniewozik’s extensive interviews with Martin, as well as Joe Abercrombie’s chat with GRRM for Sky Arts.

More good news for Game of Thrones this week, on both sides of the pond. In the U.S., James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly has again gotten the scoop: ratings are up a tenth of a point from last week, to a total of 2.5 million viewers on the initial viewing. More numbers will probably roll in later in the day, so well-worth taking a look at. And over in the U.K., the show had a whopping 20% jump in viewership on Monday, according to Digital Spy, from 510,000 to 628,000 viewers. Of course, last weekend was a holiday, but still—a strong showing.

Just a quick note: those who’ve eagerly awaited for the soundtrack to Game of Thrones can now pre-order via Amazon.com! The CD is due to be released on the 14th.

And while you’re considering that, HBO’s updated their store with a few new items, which we’ve added to our Store page. Ever wanted a mousepad featuring the Seven Kingdoms? It can now be yours, provided you are in the U.S.; the UK HBO store may or may not have it, for those who reside there.

... with Westeros.org in an exclusive interview!

Introduced in tonight’s episode, “Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things”, the ferocious Ser Gregor Clegane is a knight with a black reputation, and armor to match. The role is played by 7’ ft tall Australian stunt man, actor, and former professional wrestler Conan Stevens, who agreed to answer a few questions for fans about his career, how he became involved in the production, and some details of the shooting that we’re fairly sure have never been noted before.

At the end, Conan teases that he’s leaving local film behind (he lives and largely works in Thailand), and that there’ll be some big news soon. Keep an eye out on his official site to learn more. Until then:

Read the interview!

The strategy game A Game Of Thrones: Genesis, being developed by Cyanide Studio, receives some coverage from IGN, a leading source of PC and video game information.

The interview with designer Regis Robinson illuminates some more details of the gameplay, explaining the single-player focus on a linear campaign covering the breadth of Westerosi history in the last thousand years (from the time of Nymeria’s landing in Dorne) to Robert’s rebellion. One important aspect that Regis emphasizes is the fact that the game really isn’t about resource-production or warfare—it’s about political intrigue and subterfuge more than anything else.

Also of note, a new release estimate (at least, it’s new to us): Q4 2011.

HBO has shared a little sneak peek at next week’s episode, “Crippples, Bastards, and Broken Things”. This preview features Tyrion Lannister, ready to depart Winterfell after a cold welcome, and a combative conversation with one Theon Greyjoy. A second sneak peek was later added, with Sansa Stark and Septa Mordane.

Our interview with Miltos Yerolemou, who plays the role of Syrio Forel, is now on-line. It’s our longest podcast-style interview yet at nearly 50 minutes long. Enjoy!

Pearson Moore’s latest essay on Game of Thrones, discussing “Lord Snow”, is now available for reading in our Features section. His detailed, thoughtful analysis covers several notable, thematic aspects of the episode as well as touching on some of the plot points. He draws particular attention to the debt of the kingdom—largely owned by House Lannister—and draws some interesting (and unexpected) historical parallels.

Moore, known for his incisive Lost essays, offers additional material at his site, Winterfell Keep.

With the airing of Game of Thrones on Canal+ in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway, there’s been quite a lot of media coverage in those countries. As Westeros.org’s admin happen to be based in Sweden, we thought we’d share with fellow Swedish fans (and those fans who are used to the vagaries of Google Translate) some of the most notable articles we’ve come across: