Today, we’re pleased to be announcing AwSHUX Spring: a digital event that squeezes a few aspects of a physical convention into a special DIGITAL world that’s 100% free for attendees!
https://awshux.show will go live on Friday April 23 at 8am PDT | 4pm GMT | 11am EDT.
There will be no password, signup or registration needed. You may want to create a Discord account (free) to do demos at exhibitor booths or hang out with other attendees. A Twitch account (also free) will come in handy if you want to interact/comment on Twitch streams over the weekend, but you do not need one to watch streams. Tabletopia (who have kindly partnered with us for a second time) will have a special link that we’ll have on the AwSHUX site to enjoy free access to all their games over the weekend as well!
We had a ton of fun running AwSHUX last year, and since things around the world are still a tad rubbish, we figured why not do another one in April, as well? The COVID situation continues to be especially tough for publishers and players alike, so we hope at the very least this provides a welcome splash of cheer. Here’s what we’ve got planned:
Community
- We’ve heard over and over again that what sets SHUX apart is how friendly and welcoming the attendees are. After dressing up as scientists and trying to work out how to transfer that online, we landed on “a big discord” and live Twitch chat.
- SU&SD has always stood for having fun, but that can’t happen unless everyone feels comfortable. Much as with our physical convention, our goal is to create the safest and most inclusive space we can online – SHUX relies and thrives on everyone in attendance looking out for each other, and that starts with us.
- People travel from around the world to come to SHUX, so the advantage of AwSHUX is you can spend the whole weekend in your favourite chair without horrifying charges for adding oversized luggage.
Playing board games
- Playing our favourite games and finding new delights is what cons are all about – we’re once again partnering with Tabletopia to bring you thousands of games you can play with other attendees, for absolutely FREE. If you thought they had a good selection last year but haven’t used it recently, we reckon you’ll be impressed with the increased library size. Whether you’re on your own or traveling in a pack, we’ll be doing all we can to make it smooth and easy to get you online and playing some games.Discord will be ready for those wanting to join up with others on Tabletop Simulator or Board Game Arena, too – but Tabletopia will have a full staff on hand to help knock down any potential barriers to entry.
- Play from home with the SU&SD team! We’ve had some awesome experiments on Twitch, and we’ll be ramping that up with more play-along fun throughout the weekend. Lookout for some practice runs on our Tuesday streams leading up to AwSHUX!
- A tiny creature is whispering into my ear that we’ve got even more giveaways and prizes than last year? And that you’ll be able to win stuff just by “playing games”? It seems unrealistic, I do not believe it, but this tiny creature is adamant that this is THE TRUTH.
- Want to get in on an RPG? No problem – we’ll have those!
- Love to teach games or help others? We’d really like to hear from you! Tabletopia, Tabletop Simulator, Board Game Arena or whatever your favourite platform to play on – drop us a message here!
Incredible live events and special guests
- We will be running ONE Twitch channel 10 hours a day, with a replay looping when we’re offline for that truly terrifying international 24-hour non-stop vibe. We’ll be doing that every day, for THREE days in a row, packed full of a whole bunch of lovely live content:
- Massive live play-along games you can take part in from home.
- Live plays and demos of some of the show’s hottest launch titles.
- Panels & podcasts with some of our favourite folks from both inside and outside of the industry. If you were in Twitch chat during last AwSHUX, you may already have a clue or two about who these might be!
An online Expo hall brimming with potential and excitement
- Seeing, trying, and buying the newest games the industry has to offer has buzz that’s very difficult to capture outside of a physical convention. But: we have a plan!Admittedly, our plan is to just repeat last year’s plan? It involves a ‘virtual’ hall where scrolling down the page feels *exactly* like walking down the concourse at a busy convention. Squint, shuffle your legs around underneath the table, and pretend that someone keeps accidentally getting in your way – and you’ll have to PINCH yourself as a brutal reminder that you are in fact merely on A Computer Website.Obviously, we can’t capture the true magic of a physical space, but people seemed to really like it last year, and we’re hoping the same is true this April! We’ve made a few usability improvements, and added a few more halls to speed up page-loads. We think it’s pretty neat!
- When a game catches your eye in one of the halls, just stop by to see a live demo, ask a question or two, or even learn the game and play a couple rounds!
- Like what you’ve seen? You can add games directly to your shopping cart without having to queue with that pesky physical form – AND without worrying about carrying it all home?As you peruse exciting new stuff over the weekend, feel cheered in the knowledge that anything you do buy will see publishers getting a MUCH better cut than they would from big online retailers, and you’ll also be directly supporting AwSHUX with that very same purchase!
- And OOH, what’s that? New SU&SD merch, available to buy online? Sir you have retained my interest, please hold my fancy hat while I enter your establishment!
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Shut Up & Sit Down was founded to highlight & amplify how wonderful this hobby can be, and it wouldn’t be anything without the incredible folks who keep the hobby going. AwSHUX is the perfect opportunity to champion the games and the people who make it what it is, and so we’ll be working closely with exhibitors, indies, guests, and creators to get their work popping off the page and into your home, as best we can.
We can’t wait for a future where we can all be together again, making new friends and discover new games across those beautiful physical “real-world tables”. Anyone who’s ever attended a great board game convention will know that there’s truly nothing better than being surrounded by a room full of strangers all laughing and having fun playing the games you know well, and games you’ve never seen.
A hobby with such power to bring people together will be instrumental in reuniting us all once again when the time is right and the clouds start to clear. In the meantime, be safe, be kind, and be dumb with us online.
Keep an eye on Twitter and the SHUX website for more AwSHUX and SHUX announcements, and as always we’re just an email away if you have any specific questions or comments. Otherwise, stay safe – and we’ll see you all soon!
– Team SU&SD
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We’re holding out hope that we might still be able to have an in-person SHUX in Vancouver this year, as planned, in October. We’ll update all ticket holders as soon as we have more information to share, and will also update the SHUX page and Twitter. In any case we can assure you that there WILL be an in-person SHUX as soon as it’s safe for us to host it – we can’t wait to do it again, but it’s so important to us that everyone who attends is safe. Thanks so much again for your patience, we can’t wait to see you all again!
We continue to maintain our policy of honouring refunds anytime up until 30 days before the actual event, details here. If it is possible for you to hold off on that refund we continue to appreciate it – as those sales have been used for our deposits on the convention centre – but if this isn’t viable then we understand.
