The Holiday Special: SU&SD Newsletter #58

Matt: He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice,  he’ll then give you a kilogram of pasta or rice! It’s Christmas!  Regardless of whether the big red fella brings you basmati or spaghetti  for the end of this year, let Shut Up & Sit Down be the first to  offer up a big warm Loaf of Love from the whole of the team.

Regardless of what this time of year means for you, for us it’s  always a time to feel thankful - largely because it’s the only period in  the year in which the whole team can take a break for a week or two,  safe in the knowledge that we’ll still have jobs in the new year. That  might sound silly, but for an outlet that still depends on support from  the community, it’s such a wonderful thing to be able to do - to step  back for a moment and breathe, without fear. So thank you so much from  all of us, it’s the perfect gift.

If you watched our most recent donation drive video,  you’ll have already seen me talking a bit about the nature in which  2021 kind of got away from us: I think there was an optimism about our  capacity for a triumphant Return To Normality in the latter half of this  year, and in retrospect that optimism may have been unfounded. I think  that’s the same story across the world for many of us, though, and I’m  really excited about starting 2022 with a far more measured vision for  the future.

Some of that started this month, too. We had a couple of videos  slated for release in December that we decided to push back until  January - so many of the effects of this global pandemic have now slid  into just being a fuzzy background noise, to the extent that it’s easy  not to notice you’re exhausted - especially when caught in the intoxicating loop of being very, very busy!

I think what I’m really excited about, though, is the ways in which  we’re planning to take advantage of this break - we’ll be kicking off  next year with some chunky editorial meetings so we can reassess what  we’re doing, how we do it. The aspects of that we still love, but also  those we don’t.

After two years of plugging through these wobbly times - and gosh,  we’re really proud of how well we’ve managed that - it’s time for fresh  eyes and a moment to breathe. That might mean that things whir up a week  or so later than you’d expect in the new year, but once we get the ball  rolling it is going to be EXCITING.

And oh, we’ve also played some pretty amazing board games over the past month?!

Tom: GAMES!!!

I got to play Corrosion a couple times and it’s a real brainburner - an engine builder where  your terrible machine is continually coming together and falling apart -  bits of it rusting off and new parts constantly being upgraded. The  delight here is that the game gives you a first-class ticket into the  ‘juicy mid-game’ of any good euro with little fuss around the edges;  what a delight. A couple of drawbacks come in the form of it being a  little longer than it maybe should be, and just the practical  requirement of not really knowing who I’m going to put it in front of;  but still, what a cool, weird box.

I also got my hands on Welcome To The Moon - which starts slow and then immediately throws you into a puzzle  that’s every bit as challenging as the original Welcome To. Having a  campaign structure got me a little worried, but it seems like the  novelty is the draw here - doing a weird thing with cards and pens each  time. It’s a smorgasbord of design ideas from which you can have a  little nibble if you fancy - some bits are great, some are fine, but all  are… interesting.

I also got to play a bit of Undaunted: Reinforcements in… less than ideal conditions. A very loud pub, half the table a  little checked out from the start and a deeply unstructured teach from  me means I’m not keen to give any big hot takes other than the fact that  it’s very cool being able to bring one of my favourite combat systems  in “all of games” to 4 people rather than 2. Maybe this is where I also  subtly drop the fact that I think I was a bit wrong about Undaunted:  North Africa - it’s just as good as the original, I was wrong and am a doofus.

FINALLY I got to play Food Chain Magnate for the first time - wrapping up my 2021 with a game that I've wanted to play for five years -  ever since I first saw the Shut Up & Sit Down review. My game of it  culimated in a turn where I was so fixated on winning a pizza price war  that I forgot to make any pizza and torpedoed my business. What a delight; I cannot wait to play again.

But with the game chat out the way - I’ll also say: thank you. I  deeply appreciate the SU&SD community for letting me into their home  and making videos all up in their space. This year has been bumpy for  plenty of reasons, but I feel like I've made some real progress in both  finding my voice and in my self confidence; and that couldn’t have  happened without the ferocious support on every video, podcast and  stream. I’m excited about bringing some new formats to you all next year  - making some funky experiments and seeing how they pan out. Thanks!!!

Ava: I had such an affirming couple of weeks in terms of my work for Shut Up & Sit Down. In case you haven’t seen it, my first review went live as part of the triple header ‘cosycore’ trilogy review  (Calico, Cascadia and Verdant). It ended up being a rush job, and the  end result isn’t perfect, but it is a beginning that I’m proud of, and  the first step towards finding my own voice and place and ability. It’s  nowhere near the quality the rest of the gang put out without breaking a  sweat, but I’m proud of it, and I am excited for what comes next. I  know I can do it now, and the next year is going to be very exciting for  me.

Almost immediately after that went live, it was time for me to get  whisked to the Untied Stoats of An Merica (have I got that right?). Our  trip to PAX Unplugged was a lot of hard-work, pretty anxiety inducing,  and I don’t think we’d have done it if we’d known how deep into a new  wave we were by the time it came around. But I’m happy to say that due  to the NHS’ steady supply of Lateral Flow Tests, an upsetting amount of  money spent on American versions of these that were legible to  bureaucracy, and by being VERY CAREFUL, it looks like we weren’t  actually a vector for shuffling viruses around the world.

And with that knowledge, I’m so delighted that we could make it  over. I was really touched by people coming up and saying they loved my  work. It was incredible to jump the last big hurdle on my Shut Up and  Sit Down Mixed Metaphors Bingo Card and do an actual live show (three,  in fact!) And there was so much lovely vegan food. I got some lovely  LGBT solidarity, realised that I genuinely helped people be happier and  more themselves (my heart burst a couple of times hearing about young  queer people who felt stronger for seeing me being me in public).

And that’s not even thinking about the games! The games! I’ve got a stack of things to playtest, and have a few leads on really interesting  things coming soon. I think there’s a couple of things here that could  potentially be my next review. But who knows!

I’m quite glad we’re getting a rest now. But I’m so glad to have  had a month of what feels like fully and deeply embedding myself in this  beautiful team of talented people. I’m so grateful for Tom and Matt and  Quinns’ support over the last couple of years. Matt has dumped so much  info into my brain, Tom is an absolute delight and joy to work with, and  Quinns is so inspiringly great at his work. I can’t believe I belong in  this company, but it’s beginning to look like I do!

I don’t want to sound arrogant though. I do not understand what  people see in me, but I’m so glad to have this opportunity to learn and  see and create and grow. PAX helped me know that I want to spend my time  using this stuff to make a difference to people, in whatever small ways  I can. Wish me luck, and thank you so much for your support. It means  the world to me to finally get to shake hands with fans and see who  we’re doing this for. What a lovely thing.

Next year’s going to be fabulous.

What are we video games!  🎮

Ava: I’ve rushed into the document as early as possible to tell you how much I’m enjoying Babble Royale,  which is the most excitingly weird little video toy I’ve seen in a  while. It’s basically Scrabble as a Battle Royale game, using letter  tiles to move around a board, grab power ups, and lie in wait to trap  opponents. I was pretty sold by the elevator pitch, but was then  surprised to learn how much weird depth and narrative there is in it.  Simple rules lead to an emergent narrative, of building little forts and  waiting patiently for perfect sniper shots. It’s significantly cleverer  than it has any right to be. I’ve said that Scrabble is the best  territory control game before, which isn’t quite true. But Babble Royale  demonstrates that it’s truer than even I believed. Lovely stuff.

Tom: Babble Royale really is fabulous and has more  scope for absolutely wicked ‘plays’ than maybe any other battle royale  I’ve played. I’ve never really enjoyed the genre, so to have something  so snappy, immediate and clever within it? A paradigm shift, for me.

Outside of that, I’ve played a few great indie games. Exo One is a delightful marble-based space-faring zen-game, The Signal State is a puzzle game that takes hints from modular synthesis (nudging me  ever closer to falling off that very big, expensive cliff) and Dungeon Warfare is a weirdly great tower defence game where the presence and physics  properties of the many mobs coming to bash your doors in give new  opportunities for devious traps. What I’ve really been enjoying, though,  is Unsighted - a metroid-y, souls-y action game that’s solid enough, but what makes  it truly special is that every character has a timer ticking down  showing exactly when they’re going to do this game’s equivalent of  ‘going hollow’. You’ve a small supply of special dust that will slow  that process, but who do you give it to? The list of characters is giant  and not only includes the little Navi style companion character, but  also yourself. What a wild system to park right in the middle of a game  like this. Brilliant stuff.

What are we reading? 📖

Ava: Before anyone thinks I’m actually on the  cutting edge of things, talking about a computer game immediately after  it enters early access, I will say that I’ve been having a remarkably  good time with last year’s UK christmas number one, Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club.  It’s not exactly the finest literature I’ve ever read, but it’s as cosy  and reassuring as the big man himself, while still giving a solid  mystery trail of red herrings and clever people. It’s well observed and  kind in it’s Britishness in a similar way to something like The  Detectorists. It also has a surprising edge to its discussions of death  and dementia. I will warn that it has some faintly triggering diet  culture stuff in it, so if that stuff causes you problems (I struggle  with it myself) then you may want to be a little careful. Particularly  in something otherwise so gentle.

Quinns: My wife loved The Thursday Murder Club! It sounds ace.

After enjoying the hype-laden Piranesi less than my friends, I was happy to read a book this month that I did really get on with: Ben Lerner’s The Topeka School.  A simultaneously erudite and earthy chunk of literature, I found that  almost every page hummed with the same brooding electricity you find in  the air before a thunderstorm. I expect that’s because it’s  semi-autobiographical, full of details much too specific for Lerner to  have made up.

I’m also having a great time with Martin Amis’ Inside Story,  which is not really an autobiography, not really non-fiction and not  really fiction? But it was glued to my hands this month. Destroy all  genres!

What are we music!  🎵

Tom: For total decompression, I cannot recommend Marshmallow by The Sweet Enoughs… enough? A loping, looping, drippy collection of  tracks that sedate and slow down; a gently circling puddle of ooze that  subsumes a weary brain. Great stuff for, say, taking a day or two to get  over some spicy jetlag. Albrecht La’Brooy’s two full-length LPs, Tidal River and Healesville,  have also provided a similar level of brain-blanketing this month -  albeit peppered with tracks that shuffle uptempo a little more. ‘Sealers  Cove’ is a great jogging track, ‘Daybreak’ is perfect just before bed. A  lovely pair of records.

What are we watching? 📺

Ava: I’m pretty late to the party on Succession.  But I’m going to add to the chorus of ‘my it’s horrible and good’. I  nearly gave up a few episodes in after finding it too stressful and  awful, but a twitter thread debating who should be played by which  muppets (and who should be the sole human) in a Christmas Carol-esque  retelling helped me see the show as the bleak, horrific comedy that it  is.

Also the Expanse has started it’s final season and my word is it  still somehow brilliant. I adore how great telly can be at making us  care about and understand characters so deeply that their every word  starts to drip with layers. That’s the good stuff, that is.

Quinns: I guess we’ve never held forth about  Succession in this newsletter, but I think with Ava’s arrival everyone  on team SU&SD is now officially a gigantic fan. If we all leapt  towards one another at the same time we’d probably fuse as some kind of  Succession Fan Voltron.

Tom blew my mind this week by telling me that the creator of  Succession is Jesse Armstrong, the co-creator of Peep Show, one of the  all time great British sitcoms (if you haven’t seen Peep Show, try it immediately).  But the more I thought about it, the more it made perfect sense. Both  Succession and Peep Show are about dismal people squabbling with one  another, but just when they think they’re gonna get what they want the  rug is pulled out from under them.