THANK YOU, FOLKS: SU&SD Newsletter #79

Matt: I’m JUST A TOUCH emotional, this month - if you fine folks will allow it?

We came into 2024 with explosive plans for making cool stuff, and gosh it’s already March? What on earth happened? Same story as every year, admittedly: we don't exactly have a track record of keeping things on track, but I think this year might be different: I actually think we really might manage to execute the ambitious plans that we’ve been cooking up.

For now though, things remain IRRITATINGLY BUMPY. My goblin-realm of video cables & clever new systems has had teething issues that have resulted in marred or unusable videos, our whole team has been a little bit stretched & physically and existentially tired, and our filming schedules have been perpetually interfered with by train strikes. We fully support these strikes, but - as is intended - they’re obviously frustrating! If the UK Government is reading this newsletter, please stop faffing around with filling your pockets and get this country back into a state in which literally anything works, thanks.

If any of the above sounds MISERABLE, don’t worry! IT IS NOT! More than anything right now I’m thankful for the spirit and vision of our team - we have a collective belief in what we’re doing right now that feels strong enough to treat these roadbumps as little more than that: we're such a tiny group of people that when things go wrong they tend to go REALLY wrong, but the magical sauce in this potion is YOU: either the person reading this newsletter right now, or the person who gets them every month but never gets around to looking at these emails.

Meeting people at conventions who enjoy what we do is such a vital part of our energy-engine, but - and it feels almost crass to say it, and I usually avoid doing so because I’d never want to feel like I’m pressuring anyone into donating unless they can absolutely easily afford to DO so: BUT…

Seeing the consistent financial support that folks so kindly provide to keep our silly and lovingly-crafted corner of the internet alive and thriving? It means a lot. We started using crowd-funding to support our work before crowd-funding even really existed in the way it does now. We were lucky back then, and we’re even luckier now.

Things are tough right now for an awful lot of folks, and those who work for media outlets are experiencing the nastiest squeeze that I’ve ever seen, and that’s after literal decades of things being “honestly quite bad”. So many fantastic creators and minds are now scrambling to find consistent support from crowd-funding, and I’m amazed and just so grateful that we’re still able to keep doing this.

This might just seem like a needlessly extrapolated way of once again saying THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT, but the process of creating our recent review of Earthborne Rangers has given me a perspective that feels new: this is a game that uses well-worn foundations as a springboard for something totally new. It’s something that feels like an evolution of the work of Fantasy Flight Games, but also something that I honestly don’t think ever could have been produced by that studio.

It’s a seed that shook loose from a mighty oak that tumbled. I don’t want to romanticise this process at a time when so many are being crushed to fit the whims of venture capital; but it’s a reminder that alongside the anxiety and fear of starting something new, there’s also a power to the freedom that a fresh start can bring.

And while I can’t highlight heavily enough the privilege of working on something so established and beloved - I think that comes with a different set of challenges that I’d been frankly underestimating? I’m realising it’s actually really HARD to keep something like this alive, for this long? Personality-driven work can never be the same forever, because we’re all just constantly-evolving lumps of meat.

Not only that, we’re lumps of meat fuelled by PASSION. Working out how to continually juggle our personal creative desires with long-term audience expectations is a puzzle that never ends but always needs examining: we provide folks with a bit of joy and information, but also a sense of warmth and comfort. We cannot act as an eternal duvet for all of reality’s mutating disappointments - even though some commenters clearly expect that we do so - but that doesn’t mean I don’t take seriously what SU&SD means to people, what it meant to people, and what it might mean in the future.

Being important to people is such a brilliant problem to have, but when you’re also expected to create more new things on a very frequent basis? It doesn’t leave much breathing room for working out how to balance all of that with our own personal needs, in both our work life AND life outside of it. To then find the space in this puzzle to do the unthinkable: to evolve, and spark up some of that NEW-THING Energy? Beyond excited for the future, I’m really proud of us right now?

I am always amazed by the impact that just a tiny handful of negative or cynical commenters can have on the positivity and mental wellbeing of those who create and share work online. I’d like to tell people that they should just ignore it - that they only represent a fraction of a percentage of those who follow our work - but this advice isn’t useful! Our brains are ancient machines: it is simply how they function.

But what counteracts this effectively for me, right now, is the stalwart support from those who care about what we do - and trust in what we’re currently doing. Being OLD & ESTABLISHED changes the nature of how we create work, but I’m also realising that it changes the nature of support that we’re given?

In the same way that unfair audience expectations can sometimes be our worst enemy, I feel like we’ve developed other expectations that I’m truly so thankful for.

You expect us to always try our best. You expect interesting observations, honest representations of our experiences. You expect a certain level of quality - if only as an expression of craft, of care. You expect us to fight to find joy wherever possible. You expect us to celebrate real human connections.

You expect us to bite off more than we can chew. You expect us to stumble, to occasionally mess up, to get things wrong. You expect that our passions will sometimes collide with the hard walls of reality. You expect this to stop us, or slow us down. But that also - every once in a while - we’ll smash through that wall, achieving something remarkably unlikely.

So more than saying THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT, AGAIN: I'd like to just take a moment to appreciate the implications that come with this long-term support, and the ways that these implications buoy the team’s spirits. It’s easy to get the fear when things go wrong, you know? But for the vast majority of you - this isn’t your first rodeo.

And so what I’ve realised this month is that I’m often thanking you for your support for the wrong things, at the wrong time. You aren’t just the folks that make our fine work possible, you’re the folks who support us on the days when we’re knackered and useless.

You provide the loving foundation we’ve needed for me to press the wrong button, to muck up videos, to end up with audio where we all sound like robots. It’s these things that need the support, really - and it’s in these moments that we support each other best internally, as a team.

And it’s probably been the case for a while? But it’s this month that, for whatever reason, it clicked for me that our long-term donors are a part of that team: an invisible hand that pats me on the back on the days where everything has gone horribly wrong. It feels as if that expectation has evolved into acceptance, and that bedrock of long-term faith is just so powerful and wonderful - a true tonic to wash away those waves of insecurity; diluting the ridiculous potency of internet grumblers and their throwaway thoughts.

So welcome to the team, I guess? Glad to have you onboard! You don’t get paid anything, sorry.

And by the way I messed up all the recordings for the next Top 100 episode sorry hahaha bye

What are we working on?  🖥️

Tom: The Dune: Imperium video is set to come out next week, and I’m really chuffed with the goof-to-value ratio on this one. I think it’s a good set of observations about a much-loved and really-rather-good boardgame meshed with some outlandishly silly moments.

Outside of that, I’m assembling a MEGADOC of notes on the next Leder Games title - ‘Arcs’ (a little video on that available to watch right now at the bottom of this newsletter) and putting dates into the calendar for a slightly outlandish video project that’ll be deeply scrappy but hopefully very entertaining.

I’m also eyeing up a positively heaving in-tray for possible video reviews. Bloodstones? Galactic Renaissance? Pax Penning? My goodness; we are so BACK! I’m also having a lot of fun putting together the Bonus Bits for our newsletter - getting into the swing of being fast and loose with these extra nuggets for you lovely folks. Do let me know what you want to see more or less of, here! I’m just enjoying the lower stakes, rather than having to sweat about analytics and internet shitheads.

What are we video games!  🎮

Tom: Shut Up & Sit Down will always be a boardgames channel, but 2024 is so far a year that’s consistently chucked out games that make me want to do ‘The Year of No Cardboard’.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is not a game I’d buy at full price for many Ubisoft-related reasons, but it’s a cracking metroidvania with some of the most ‘Oh! Cool!?’ unlocks in the business. Every extra bit of kit you get access to is gently subverted - not exactly what you expect it to be - and the silky smooth platforming is delightfully kinetic and moreish. It’s good! It’s just good.

Much like everyone else on the planet, I’m also hooked on Helldivers 2 - a game that has me delighted at every turn. I was a huge huge huge fan of the original Helldivers despite both my close friends and ‘The Gaming World at Large’ being largely ambivalent towards it. To see that studio find overwhelming success without compromising on the playful slapstic of the original has me grinning even more than the ludicrous ordinance on show. I’m also enamored with the live service of it all - whilst writing this segment I’m itching to tab out and blast some robots so WE get access to some sweet mechs.

If I’m being honest, though, my month has been defined by Balatro. We should have a podcast about this game soon, and potentially a full video as well. It’s an exceptional roguelike, a modern classic, and unmissable if you’re a fan of basically any games. You probably are, if you’re reading this! Go and play it! To give you the shortest, sweetest summary possible - it’s a poker-themed roguelike where a steep difficulty curve forces you to contort a standard 52 card deck into horrible shapes.

You look the dealer dead in the eye as you slide five aces across the table. They are all hearts. You take your winnings, and use them to buy three more aces. All’s fair in love and cheating.

What are we music!  🎵

Emily: MGMT’s new album Loss of Life feels incredibly special. I know most people only know them from their first album’s three big singles and that’s painted a very specific image of the band in their minds. I never really had that problem. When that first album was released I was a kid too busy bopping around to the sickly sweet tunes of MIKA and Kylie Minogue to pay too much attention to the hot psychedelic hits. It wasn’t until their previous album, Little Dark Age, that I started to get into their music. LDA is a great album with lots of songs that go incredibly hard and are so danceable. What kind of music is that? A bossa nova beat? As much as I love LDA it has a lot of songs I happily skip skip skip through its tracklist like a sweet summer child through a field of daisies. Loss of Life is skipless. Not an album of bops but an album of beautifully constructed songs with heart wrenching lyrics that make me feel like I am floating on my back in the middle of a tar pit, gradually being engulfed by the pitch black. That is a feeling I like.

I also listened to IDKHOW’s new album GLOOM DIVISION and IT! IS! DISAPPOINTING! I like SIXFT but that’s probably the only song I’ll be going back to. I mostly bring this up to recommend their previous album RAZZMATAZZ which is a total indie rock powerhouse. If you are someone who somehow reads through these newsletters and actually tries these things we recommend, let alone the second album recommendation from the girl who has barely appeared on the site and certainly not in a fair while, then I think it’s great :) The song Razzmatazz is the closer of the album, but if you only listen to one song to get a taste, I’d recommend that one.

Oh, and PVRIS’ new single Burn The Witch is a banger! Thxbyeeeee

What are we watching? 📺

Tom: i can’t
Stop
Watchin g

survivor