دسته: جدول رتبه‌بندی بازیکنان

  • This January on Shut Up & Sit Down

    This January on Shut Up & Sit Down


    Tom Brewster

    Tom: Happy new year folks! The team has had a little rest, played some little games, and are generally emerging from hibernation ready to make content… and a few changes. You may have noticed the title of this post is a little different than usual, because we’re going to try swapping out our weekly ‘This Week On’ posts for ‘This Month On’ posts in the first half of 2023. 

    So, why the change? Mostly this comes from me sitting down to write the weekly posts and realising that the format was increasingly becoming either ‘we are posting a video and a podcast’ or ‘we are not posting a video but there will be a podcast’ for most weeks in 2022. This wasn’t terrible, of course – but it was a weird little job that didn’t feel all that useful! Now we want these posts to be more substantial, and to give folks who are interested more of a peek behind the curtain as to what we’re getting up to, as well as affording us a little more flexibility in how we approach things. Video reviews can get changed, pushed back, shuffled around and entirely canned for all manner of reasons, and we want to reflect that reality in our scheduling updates.

    However! We still want to be updating the community and sharing the ins and outs of being living human beings working on things – so, to that end, we’re going to loosely start the Twitch Channel up again for some much needed chill and chat time. We’ll probably keep these very casual to begin with, and be guided by you lot on what you want to see next! The first of these will likely be next week where I’ll be playing a splash of the new Firaxis game: Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and I’ll be open for questions and rambling about SU&SD in 2023! We’ll post a date for that over on the SU&SD Twitter account once I’ve got things in order.

    So! With that change out the way, what’s going on in January?

    First up, you can expect a really lovely raft of podcasts. We just released our 2023 predictions episode last week, and we’ll follow that up this week with a chat about the first few games we played this year – The Wolves, The Search for Lost Species, and Ginkgopolis! After that, we’ve got a few more episodes lined up in the hopper – a CCG Special talking about Flesh & Blood and Solforge: Fusion, as well as a lengthy chat about Stationfall and some of the games we’d played after PAXU. Good times!

    Over in videoville, a couple things are in the cooker. We’ll soon have a video on classic family game Rummikub, in which I have a complete critical breakdown. Why am I making it? I don’t really know. On top of that, myself and Quinns are sketching out the borders of a ‘Top 10 Small Games’ feature, but that might end up being a February project – such is the way when we’re trying to feature a whole bunch of games at once. There’s a few other scripts that are in the ‘maybe’ pile for turning into full-fat videofilms – but I think our January and February will likely be a little quieter on the video side of things whilst Matt continues to assemble the video studio for new features, and I navigate the absolute state that is Brighton’s rental market.

    Thanks all! See you next week for a stream, and next month for another this month on Shut Up & Sit Down

    [oh, and I know this is a little late for ‘This January in Shut Up & Sit Down! We’ll hopefully have these updates much earlier – so we sandwich the month with a ‘This Month On…’ and a Newsletter!]

     



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  • SU&SD, Tariffs, and Sponsored Content


    SU&SD

    Hello!

    Basically every single year I’ve worked for Shut Up & Sit Down, I’ve typed out the words:

    “it’s been a weird year”

    …and 2025 is proving to be absolutely no exception! We’ve just put out a sponsored video onto the channel, and that feels weird. I’ve taken some time, below, to chat about why.

    It’d be quite the feat of cave-dwelling if you hadn’t seen news of the rapidly-mutating tariff situation that’s currently being imposed on the people of America – but you might not be aware of the extent to which it’s rapidly damaging the board game industry. Greater Than Games have collapsed, many Kickstarters – and even sizable publishers – have massive question marks on their fulfillment and sustainability, and Stonemaier Games are suing the President.

    The unpredictability, the volatility, the pig-headedness of these tariffs create a huge amount of uncertainty for just about everyone. We’ve been asked about what we’re going to say about it all, but the pace of change makes it tricky! Are they here to stay, or will they be scrapped once cooler heads prevail? Either way, the livelihoods of those affected will have changed significantly for the worse. It’s horrible. We want to help, where possible, and we’re putting together a bit of a plan should the situation stick around.

    The tariffs have had a knock-on effect on us, too. Many of the fine folks who have helped us out financially over the years have understandably had to pause their support of the site; as with the potential for huge economic pressure looming, we are a luxury atop a luxury! With board games potentially becoming a far more expensive hobby within its largest market, this drop in interest feels inevitable. And tariffs are not the sole factor, here. The gradual erosion of folks’ disposable income over the last few years is the reason you’ve seen us explore other ways of maybe keeping the lights on – though it didn’t feel like there was any way of communicating this change without feeling like we’d also be pressuring folks towards donating.

    I don’t want to play a tiny violin and make this massive, scary shift about us; the publishers with far more on the line, with funds tied up in product? They have got it far worse off, and we want to put our energy behind helping them wherever possible – we don’t exist, and our hobby doesn’t exist, without them. But I wouldn’t be showing the whole picture here if I didn’t acknowledge the immediate effects on us, and how they are affecting our decisions.

    That’s the thrust of it – we want to make sure that we’re sustaining ourselves as a platform that might get people to the table, when the industry needs folks playing their board games. We want to be making great videos about those board games until we’re old and grey, and the occasional sponsorship will keep us afloat to do just that.

    ———-

    Speaking personally, I am immensely grateful for this job, because it’s something I love to do.  We are all salaried at a reasonable wage, but the job itself is a lot of the reward. Whilst I personally was pretty hungry for growth, and numbers getting bigger… right now? I will have lived a contented life if this channel stays exactly as it is, with a community as lovely and easygoing as you lot. Making mostly dumb, occasionally smart videos about board games? It’s a joy, and a great privilege!

    If you have supported the site over the years – Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. It’s because of your generosity that we get to make sometimes goofy (and sometimes quite serious!) videos about cardboard, for everyone.

    Donations make up the vast majority of the revenue that keeps us going. To have the time to really take care with every video and podcast – to make them special, and weird, and honest? We take that honour and obligation very seriously, and as our “boss” I hope you can continue to be proud of our direction, and the work we’re doing.

    Growth is neat, profit is cool, but stability is a lot more valuable to me – to us! The odd sponsored video now and again is not to line our personal pockets and juice our platform for pennies, but to stabilise the channel against instability in all forms. We wouldn’t be taking it on if it wasn’t necessary for that purpose.

    ———-

    So, importantly, what are our big picture policies regarding this stuff?

    First off – we’re never going to put anything in front of you without absolutely screaming it is sponsored. I think that we’ve done decently well with this in the past, but we’re going to make sure it’s clear as crystal where the lines between coverage and promotion lie.

    Secondly – any sponsored videos we make are in addition to, not instead of, our regular reviews. We don’t want to be committing time to these projects at the cost of our regular review output, and those videos will still be the same as they ever were.

    Thirdly, and more vaguely, I suppose; we want to feel good about the thing we’re actually being sponsored by. We want any of these kinds of videos to be honest, because honesty is a core part of what we do!

    It’s important to us that we’re able to chat openly about the thing we just played afterwards, and we won’t lean into anything that we wouldn’t normally bat for. We also don’t want to take sponsorships for completely irrelevant things, either – we’ve turned down a lot of sponsorships for your classic Nord VPNs, your Skillshares, your Raid: Shadow Legendses! We don’t want to waste your time with things that we don’t think would at least be of passing interest to you, because they will be things that are of passing interest to us!

    Finally, we are not going to be doing sponsored videos for individual board games, or publishers, that could be mistaken for reviews. It’s important to us that our editorial voice is clear as day in our bread-and-butter coverage, and that’s not going to change. SHUX Previews, that we’ve done in the past, are a slightly different bag –  those  were deeply important in making SHUX a reality, and we think there’s no confusing them with a standard review.

    Of course, this might all be a little hypothetical – we’re only going to take sponsorships that seem like they fit, and that let us talk about the thing we’re covering pretty openly! That might be a sufficiently irritating combo of things that this could be our first and last foray into this world! And, ultimately, we do want to return to the simplicity of donors, ad revenue (it’s much less than you think), and side projects like Wilmot’s Warehouse and SU&SD Presents to be our ways of making a living.

    But to get to that future, we need to keep pottering along now.

    ———-

    That’s a lot! Reading back through it, some of the language almost seems a little melodramatic for a pretty simple tweak to the channel – YouTube channel contains Sponsored Contentisn’t a headline you’d expect to turn heads, but for a bunch of folks – including us – this will feel like a bit of a surprise.

    I think of SU&SD as a channel that’s broadly been steered by real principle and transparency. We’ve been quite unique in entirely sticking to videos free from publisher influence, and have remained trustworthy over the years that we’ve been active in the space. We’re honest about what we like and why, and I think that makes us useful.

    But the site began in a fundamentally different media landscape, and things have changed a hell of a lot. We’re still a very small fish in the grand scheme of YouTube, and fighting for that same level of exposure and support gets tougher every single year.

    I’ve gone from starting at the site to heading it in what feels like a blink of an eye. I don’t want to ruin the thing that I fell in love with, and I don’t think I am! SU&SD fundamentally wants to do the best by the people who support it – and to do that it needs to exist. But, please do make your voice heard below if you have questions or concerns with anything I’ve rambled about here.

    I’m hoping that you can see this as what it is, to me;  that anything sponsored on the channel will be a fun little extra, with our bread-and-butter tabletop coverage remaining much the same as it’s ever been, come rain or shine.

    Thanks for reading! Next week’s video is our regular, daft stuff.

    -tom



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  • This February In Shut Up & Sit Down…

    This February In Shut Up & Sit Down…


    Tom Brewster

    Tom: Hello folks! Welcome to Wednesday, the very first of February! You’re reading this direct from the café where I’ve set up a temporary office to fill out our monthly schedule, to craft this very post, and to write our next video review! It’s all very exciting. I’ve got my laptop, a big coffee, an HP Deskjet 2710e, a second monitor, and a massive boom mic for a quick podcast record while I’m here. My ‘associates’ should be arriving any minute.

    Let’s talk about videos! Our next review will be for the hot new Splotter game – Horseless Carriage! You can look forward to that, hopefully, next week. Where does it sit in the Splotter Canon? You’re going to have to wait to find out, but I should hope it’ll be an interesting video. The next video after that will be the first from Quinns this year – on yet another classic family-weight game involving pleasing, clacky components! What might it be? I’m going to leave this one as a teaser, just for fun!

    Audio-wise, we’ve got some treats! This week’s pod will be the fabled CCG Double-Feature, where myself and Quinns go head to head in a… well, hopefully quite a nice chat about two interesting new CCGs! After that, you can expect a smattering of ‘what have we been playing’ podcasts, as well as some full-fat-thoughts on Paperback Adventures! I’m hoping, too, that we might even have something special ready for the end of the month, but I’ll tease no more than that.

    Lastly, what about streams? Yesterday we played some Against The Storm, a fascinating little Roguelike City Builder! That, and the previous stream, will be available as VODs over on the Twitch. Next week’s stream will most likely be a Destiny 2 dungeon or two with a couple friends of the show, schedules permitting, and the week after that we’ll be playing some of the digital implementation of Paperback Adventures.

    That’s the month! Some great stuff coming down the pipe for you all to look forward to – hopefully not too messed around by me moving into a new flat! Wish us luck, we’re hoping to get the paperwork signed so I can continue on living life as normally as a professional board game reviewer can.

    Thanks everyone! What have you been up to, recently?



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  • This March In Shut Up & Sit Down!

    This March In Shut Up & Sit Down!


    Tom Brewster

    Tom: MARCH MARCHES ONWARDS, IT’S KIND OF COLD BUT GETTING NICER. Here’s what’s happening in Shut Up & Sit Down this month!

    Very, very, very soon you can expect a video from Quinns on the fabulous indie RPG ‘Alice Is Missing’! If you’re a fan of ‘SU&SD Videos Persuading You To Buy Something’ then boy howdy, it’s a good day to be you. Following that, I’ve got a review in the works covering a smattering of Word Games I’ve been dabbling in recently – and only one of them is a board game! That’s right, we’re getting WEIRD with it!

    We’ll see what else March holds, though. I’ve got a little holiday booked, Matt is making his new house have such luxuries as this thing called ‘Electricity’, and Quinns is getting on with what sounds like a very interesting video over on PMG. So we could be in for another slightly slower month whilst we find our feet in 2023. Some hurdles have been cleared already – I’ve moved into my new flat, and had the first good night’s sleep in about a year and a half! Such joy! But there’s still a few things to sort before we can get the schedule back on track. Thanks so much for your patience with this more comfortable schedule whilst we get everything in order.

    Podcasts-wise, we hit a small hitch where one member of the team deleted an entire podcast by accident, so we’re one pod down! I won’t reveal the human responsible, but their name starts with a T and ends in an M. But fear not – we’ll work to keep the games flowing! This month, we’ve got what should be a really interesting podcast where myself and Quinns chat about our time playing Mahjong for review, and the reasons that Quinns didn’t want to proceed turning that script into a full on video. There’s potential for a podcast about John Company 2e, if I can find 3 more fools who might want to take on that journey, and I’m thinking about the potential for a Brass: Birmingham retrospective episode now that the game has ascended into the top spot on the BGG top 100. I’m also about to start gathering people into my nice new living room to work through the stacked in-tray that I’ve accrued, which should fill in the gaps.

    That’s March! What have you been up to, everybody?



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  • This April In Shut Up & Sit Down!

    This April In Shut Up & Sit Down!


    Tom Brewster

    Tom: April! The month of my birth. In it we shall surely make some videos, some podcasts, and some streams! Here’s what’s happening this month on Shut Up & Sit Down.

    Coming soon, we’ve got a few great video reviews. I’m just about to embark on playtesting a chunky box with a robust community around it to see if a video springs forth – but I’ll be coy about exactly what game that is, just to keep things exciting. Myself and Quinns are working on a ‘Top 10 Small Games Video’ that’ll hopefully be done this month – a rapidfire assessment of a bunch of little boxes we’ve been digging into that’ll hopefully capture some of the energy of the 10 Oink Games video we made all the way back in 2019. We’ve got some other ideas simmering too – one incredibly large box in particular finally getting a full script from Matt – but I will not over-promise!

    Podcasts! We’ve got some great games to cover on that front too! If the right boxes arrive on my doorstep at the right time, a ‘Retrospective Special’ on a few old favourites in shiny new jackets might appear somewhere on the podfeed – and we’ve also got a plump stack of new games to natter about too. I’ve not quite sorted out the schedule for such delights – a week of holiday was followed by a week of video… which was then followed by a week of ILL! Rubbish.

    Stream-wise, things should be really fun. I’m going to play some Slay The Spire: Downfall on Tuesday – a wildly impressive fanmade mod to one of my favourite deckbuilders! We’ll also probably squeeze some more King Of The Castle in at some point, alongside any suggestions thrown out by the general Twitch public. I’m not sure what to do on my birthday – as it does fall on a stream day! Do I go out and enjoy a nice meal with my partner, or do I use the occasion to force Quinns to play Fortnite in front of you folks? We’ll see.

    What have you been up to, everybody?

     



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  • This May In Shut Up & Sit Down!

    This May In Shut Up & Sit Down!


    Tom Brewster

    Tom: MAY! The last month of the year you can count on one hand! Unless you’re my uncle Terry, who can only get up to March on account of a freak bobsled incident. What have we got planned for YOU, though, this month? On our little site? Called Shut Up? And?? Sit Down???

    First up, let’s talk about videos. We’ve got a bumper Frosthaven video from Matt very soon – undoubtedly an exhaustive guide to our feelings on one of 2022’s biggest games that, if you’re anything like me, will be an accompaniment to your next few ‘Waiting For My Pasta To Boil’ sessions. I’ve started writing a script for Guards Of Atlantis 2, a game I’ve played a bunch of recently and developed all kinds of complicated thoughts about. Look forward to that in a few weeks, I should hope! Outside of that, Quinns and I are stewing on whether or not to take a leap into the world of Nine Men’s Morris for a video that’s being formed ‘Title-First’, but also thinking about a format for a few classic Reiner Knizia games we’ve been playing recently. Lots to think about!

    On the podcast front, you can expect the “Gerding’s Game Gulag” Special mentioned on the last podcast, alongside some chats about what we’ve been playing recently. I’ve given Findorff a couple shakes after reading its frankly ridiculous blurb. We also played some Mobile Markets, Amun-Re, and Mogul just the other day – all of which will no doubt get a slice of coverage – and I’m still gradually trying to pull groups together for a Brass Birmingham Revisited podcast, and, gulps, John Company. 

    Nothing much changing on the streams front, continuing to pursue a schedule of ‘Whatever We Fancy’. This week we’ll return to King Of The Castle after some balancing changes have made it so I’m less likely to continually ‘Get My Ass Beat’, which should be fun!



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  • SHUX 2023 – Shut Up & Sit Down

    SHUX 2023 – Shut Up & Sit Down


    SU&SD

    An important but hopefully understandable update: we won’t be hosting a SHUX event this year. That’s the bad news out of the way – with the GOOD news being that we’re already planning SHUX 2024 for next October, and hoping to return to the Vancouver Convention Centre.

    Obviously, this is a bummer. We know how special and important this event is to a lot of people, partly because WE are those people too. It’s our highlight of the year, and as we’ve said repeatedly at the events themselves, we’re amazed and humbled at what SHUX has become – sprawling out to be something that’s bigger and cooler and kinder than any of us.

    If you receive and read our monthly newsletter this likely won’t be a surprise: ambitious projects and post-lockdown exhaustion means that 2023 is a rebuilding year for the SU&SD team – after a decade of creating neat stuff at top speed, we’ve needed a little time to get back to the core focus of making lovely and interesting videos about games.

    Covid was obviously disastrous for conventions, scuttling plans and erasing entire businesses: thankfully we were able to carry some of the deposits and ticket sales from 2020 forward to SHUX 2022 – but we simply didn’t have the cash in the coffers to sort the down-payments for another show this year.

    Again, we’ve been hugely lucky throughout the difficulties the industry has faced in the past few years – but we’d be lying if we said we weren’t hit pretty hard by the covid lockdowns: while “board games” as a concept saw a boom for those with families or folks who lived with like-minded individuals, hobbyist were – in most cases – playing fewer games together, or frustrated by the imperfect digital alternatives.

    Add that to times being tougher across the board for everyone, and it’s very understandable that our donations have dwindled – it’s just unfortunate that this coincided with a point of “low batteries” – having just spent a handful of years trying to swivel and pivot our way through a difficult period.

    Thankfully though – literally just because of our donors – we’ve been able to hold this ship together, plugging any of the holes with laminated cardboard and mouth-mashed chunks of tiny wooden cubes. And while we’re really sad not to be able to share the joy of SHUX with some of you this year, we’re still emotionally buoyed by the vibes of last year’s convention – honestly, it might have been the best one yet?

    A powerful reminder of what life can be like when everything aligns: great people connecting around the squidgy core of this extraordinary hobby – a beacon of laughter and passion and fun after such a long stretch of glum isolation. Our team lost loved ones to the pandemic, as I’m sure is also true for many of you – but as much as the past few years may have changed us, one thing remains the same: life is at its best when we’re surrounded by the folks we love, at a table, staring quizzically at far-too-many cardboard components.

    And since we won’t have a chance to see you in Vancouver, we’re doing our DARNDEST to get to more conventions this year. Here’s what we have in the works, we hope to see you there!

     

    UK Games Expo [confirmed!]: Birmingham, England: Jun. 2-4, 2023 – Matt, Tom, and friend-of-the-show Pip will be doing some stupid things live on a stage, and signing your stuff, at some point?  This is the big UK show we try to do every year, and we’re thrilled to be returning. Sadly we won’t be doing “live podcasts” this year because warhammer has probably spend mad $$$$ to turn the room we usually use into laser quest, or something? Honestly we’re not even mad, that’s a glow-up.

    Ropecon [confirmed!]: Helsinki, Finland: Jul. 28-30, 2023 – We have been invited to be this year’s guests of honour at Ropecon! Quinns, Tom and Matt will be doing some talks, and likely playing lots of roleplaying games. What else will we being doing there? We don’t know! And legally, WE DON’T HAVE TO TELL YOU. Come and see for yourself, with your eyes!(???).

    SPIEL [unconfirmed]: Essen, Germany: Oct. 5-8, 2023 – It doesn’t look like SPIEL really does stage events – or necessarily has any dramatic interest in us BEING there –  but we’re trying to airdrop special-correspondent Tom right into the beating heart of SPIEL.

    PAX Unplugged [confirmed!]: Philadelphia, PA: Dec. 2-4, 2023 – We’ve headlined this great show a few times in the past, and we’ll be back again to do COOL STUFF. More details closer to the time!

     

    Obviously – none of the above are SHUX – and we’re really going to miss it – and you! – this year. But here’s to hoping that for October 2024 we can spring back bigger and better than ever. Thank you as always, from the whole team!



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  • This June In Shut Up & Sit Down

    This June In Shut Up & Sit Down


    Tom Brewster

    Tom: Hello! Sorry for a slightly late monthly post here – we’ve been scrambling together videos and podcasts aplenty before pootling up to Birmingham for a whole load of the UK Games Expo! We had a wonderful time and have come back loaded with games and excitement for them – an excitement that will gently trickle out of us into all kinds of fun content. Ew.

    We’ve got a really lovely slice of videos lined up for you this month. Very soon we’ll have a review of Beast for you – a cracking iteration of the hidden movement genre that throws us right back into the kinds of games SU&SD reviewed when it was just a little baby. We’ve also got a video review of War of the Ring: The Card Game, as well as some quick-and-nasty reviews for games we played at expo. We’re slowly gearing back into the rhythm of more regular videos, so expect a whole heap of content over the next few months! (I hope!)

    Podcasts-wise? It’s the wild west out there. We’ve played so many games, and next week myself and Matt will be sitting down to record multiple pods telling you all about them. I don’t entirely know what to expect from those, or even how long we’ll record, but we played enough exciting games to keep us chatting for a good long while. They’re making some great stuff out there!

    As for streams – I think I might start worming my way through the System Shock remake very soon – but I’m thinking about changing the day we stream on. More on that soon, as it’ll all abide by the classic stream motto – “idk, it’s chill”. For donors to the site, the next newsletter will be a fun recap of UKGE and will arrive a little later than usual – I was thinking about writing it whilst there, but I was simply having too much fun. What a silly job. Thank you for letting me do it!



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  • This July In Shut Up & Sit Down!

    This July In Shut Up & Sit Down!


    Tom Brewster

    Tom: Hello Gamers; big and small and wide and tall. This is going to be a very brief ‘This Month In’ because July is, to quote myself right now, ‘Popping Off’! Let’s GET TO IT!

    The big event early this month is that we’ll be spilling every single bean on all our future plans in a summer update video and newsletter. The video itself will give you the rough idea; but if you’re a donor to the site the next newsletter in your inbox will be absolutely rammed with details about all the new plans we’re going to tinker with in the near future.

    Videos! We’re actually recording a bunch of reviews for the future, so you might see a small dip in the pace we’ve been setting recently, and a surge of content when the games we’re chatting about actually release. We will have a video very soon, though, for a game you couldn’t possibly predict! We’re also hoping to have recorded a bit of a convention report whilst we’re at RopeCon in Helsinki; so expect no video that week whilst we’re busy getting beaten by the Finns, and a bruised and bloody report soon after.

    Podcasts! We’ll be chatting about Golem, we’ll be rambling about My Island, we’ve got further thoughts about Iki, we’ve entered My Gold Mine, we’re taking on the Great Machine, and we’ve… Zoo Vadis’ed? So many games, lots of them good, and we’re jazzed to tell you more about them all. We’re also trying to record more in-person pods – they’re lovely for energy and ease and so I think, perhaps, going back to them might be the way forward.

    Streams we’re running will be kept continually pretty chill and inconsistent, as per usual. It’s fun to hang out exactly when I’ve the energy for it, and so far the slightly pottering pace has been perfect!

    That’s all for this month! Plenty to come very soon…

    What have you been up to, everybody?



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  • This August In Shut Up & Sit Down!

    This August In Shut Up & Sit Down!


    Tom Brewster

    Tom: AaaAA! CHAOS MONTH!

    I’ve been internally referring to August as ‘Big Month’ for the past few weeks but the more time I spend sort-of-planning-it-out the more I realise a better way to describe it might be ‘CHAOS MONTH’.

    We’ve got some videos planned! What are they, and when are they coming out? Science bears no answers.

    Podcasts? Oh yeah, we’ve got a few, and they’ll be near your ears… soon? Yeah, probably! Help.

    Please bear with us, for August is the month that we’re actually launching the studio stuff to donors at the same time as both Matt and Quinns taking time off. I’m truly laying the train track whilst it runs, Gromit-Style. Wish me luck!

    CHAOS MONTH!



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