August 5, 2020 Reviews Paris La Cite De La Lumiere Ah, Paris. A beautiful city to be portrayed by a beautiful garage. Sorry about the general scuzziness of this one, it was a hot day and very scented candles didn’t help. My copy of Paris: La Cite De La Lumiere now smells like vanilla and … Read more
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Let me tell you a bit of a story behind this stream. When team SU&SD was out on our annual fishing trip last year, bobbing around on the Great British Lakes just outside Upton Snodsbury, Matt caught himself half a dozen beautiful fish. As he packed his catch into the cooler to take home and microwave, one particular fish caught his eye – a fish with a pencil tucked behind its gills and game design in its heart. That fish was Dominic Crapuchettes.
Fast forward a year, and Dominic has fully matured into a real human male, capable of making rather comprehensive board game designs. We sat down on Twitch to play his latest, Oceans, a game about being your truest, fishiest self in an ocean full of haters.
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This might come as a surprise due to the time-warping effects of Covid-19, but it’s that time of year again! Today, we’d like to give you a quick behind-the-scenes message from Shut Up & Sit Down.
If you’re new to this community, you might not yet know that Shut Up & Sit Down is kept alive by donations from people who love what we do. So if you think you can afford it, please consider giving us a dollar or two this summer.
That’s all! We promise to only bother you about this in another six months. Have a great weekend, everybody.
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Oh dear. SU&SD is trying to review a 4,000 year old cultural institution? There are days where we struggle to review dexterity games aimed at drunks. This can’t end well.
In all seriousness, Go is easily among the most magnificent works of design that we’ve ever review. The only question that remains is… is it fun?
Huge thanks to online shop Masters of Games for lending us some of their Go stuff for this video. Quinns says he’ll mail it back shortly, and “Sorry for the Dorito dust.”
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July 15, 2020 Reviews Targi It takes two to tango! But it also takes two to Targi. Our second review of chess month is a snug little box, and a welcome reminder that eurogames don’t have to be big to be clever. (It’s not the first dedicated two player eurogame we’ve reviewed, mind you. That … Read more
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July 8, 2020 Reviews Ice Team, chess month It’s the 8th of July baby, you know what THAT means! It’s time for Shut Up & Sit Down’s inaugural Chess Month – a season dedicated to the joy of fantastic two-player games, literally none of which are going to be chess. To kick us off with … Read more
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After talking about it on the podcast a bunch, Tom decided to make himself a nice little video review of Thousand Year Old Vampire, as a treat. Along the way, he learned the challenges of Adobe After Effects (never again) and filming a compelling outro in a room with no discernible features.
Sit back, relax, and be dazzled once again by the tale of Kenneth – a vampire who gives the sound of boiling mud horrifying connotations.
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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a bird. In fact, it’s all of the birds.
At long last, after a preposterous 7 print runs in 14 months, Shut Up & Sit Down has published a review of Wingspan. It’s the biggest success story that the tabletop scene has seen in a long time. But is it a success story on our tables? Or in our hearts?
Click play, and find out.
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For this week’s Wednesday video, we wanted to offer something a little different.
At SHUX last year Quinns gave a talk on the history of board games. A quick’n’dirty tour of the games of ancient prehistory, all the way through to the invention of cardboard in the 19th century.
We present it today as a reminder that while today’s tabletop scene is overwhelming white, this is a blip in the 8000 year history of the hobby. The earliest known board games are found in Africa. Dice were invented in the Middle East. The first games that tell stories are found in Egypt. Playing cards were conceived in China. Chess came from India, by way of an Islamic Caliphate.
This hobby owes a debt to people of colour that it could never possibly repay. At the very least, we can make sure we don’t forget it.
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