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A Political Pizza Party: SU&SD Newsletter #56
🕑 Added 2022-06-22 18:15:14 +0000 UTCQuinns: Welcome to the very 56th edition of the SU&SD donor newsletter! [In case you missed our 10th Anniversary extravaganza of a newsletter from last month, find it here.] Another month has passed where you, our proud patrons, have kept this pizza party rockin’, and we, the increasingly rickety and atonal animatronic band, have been allowed to keep juddering and groaning our sordid songs.
Let me tell you folks, I had a weird month.
Some of you might have seen a thread on the board game subreddit talking about a SU&SD video about a game called 1819 Singapore, which includes a panicked comment from me explaining that this game does not, in fact, exist.
You can watch that video here!
1819 Singapore is, in fact, an art project by Sonny Liew, the creator of the award-winning graphic novel The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, which is a biography of an artist who never existed. Sonny - being a big board game fan - thought that next he could try and offer a new lens on the founding of Singapore by telling that story through a simulationist board game.
Or... at least the *concept* of a board game? Because 1819 Singapore was never once played during development. Instead, it was designed to be experienced during an art exhibit (see below). People could walk into the exhibit, see the artifact set up on the table, and have the game explained to them by a British YouTuber - me - who would also express their own British feelings on the colonialism depicted in the game.
I took the job because it was altogether too strange an opportunity for me to pass up, but my goodness, it was SO WEIRD reading the manual for a game that only gives the /impression/ of being a structurally-complete game. It makes you realise how much of reading board game manuals isn’t just reading- you’re first erecting a kind of scaffold in your mind, and then you’re imagining the players within it.
Reading the manual for 1819 Singapore was instead like reading instructions on how to assemble furniture designed by M.C. Escher that could never exist in reality. There were resources in this game that had a hundred uses but almost no ways to gain them. There were social considerations that meant the game would explode on contact with any normal group of players. There were expensive plastic miniatures that were hardly used at all (although actually, it’s hardly the first time I’ve encountered that particular problem).
What I found most striking about the design, though, were the two different modes in which you could “play” 1819 Singapore. In the normal mode the players acting as the local Malay chiefs will slowly find their goals compromised by the military might of the two British players. But in “Fantasy Mode” the game borrows a little bit of the tone of the game Spirit Island, with the Malay players’ military being bolstered by creatures from local folklore.
I found this rule absolutely chilling. To quote the video I made on the game:
“In putting the Spirit of Badang on par with the HMS Wolf, they’re forcing you to consider that to the local Malay people, the invaders were supernaturally powerful. And asking you to reflect on the uncomfortable truth that being colonised by a drastically more powerful invader is like coming face to face with a monster usually kept trapped in your most outlandish stories.”
The whole project ended up being really rewarding, and I’d encourage anyone who’s interested to watch the above video.
Ava: Oh dear it’s been a weird time again. I’m pretty excited though. I’ve been working hard quietly in the background on learning to do video editing, and am just started getting some practice with filming and lighting and writing and such. If my practicing works out really well, I may even be making an appearance in a video soon, fingers crossed!
I’ve also been slowly rebuilding my ability to play games in person again, reconnecting with people the pandemic has disconnected me from and getting together to throw around some cardboard. It’s good! It’s exciting! I still really, really love board games. It’s been really frustrating doing so much testing and playing online, it gives me a lot of the pleasures of playing games (especially the maths and systems explorations stuff), but it tires and drains me in precisely the opposite of the way playing games in person does. It’s very odd having a slice of something you love be excised from the experience. Though I guess that’s a fairly common feeling over the last year and a mumble.
It’s hard though! I’m worried I’ve forgotten how to teach games (although this is partly because I’m more likely to be teaching playtest games that I’ve not played yet). Teaching was secretly always one of my favourite bits, and it feels weird that being so clunky, but I’m sure I’ll get back in the zone before long.
Honestly, I am still pretty nervous about the state of winter covid stuff, but there’s a few things that are making me feel optimistic and hopeful right now, and board games and learning video stuff are right up there. Here’s hoping for a cosy autumn.
Tom: My month has mostly been bumbling away in a videocave and sorting out housing stuff - the former easier, the latter frustrating. The Adventures of Robin Hood might not be my best work, but it’s the fastest turnaround I’ve had from script to screen. I don’t know if I’ve put this in a newsletter before - but I would do so many takes for each shot in a video - way, way, way more than were needed - because of my personal insecurities having never really done on-camera work before. With Robin Hood? I got the lines done speedier, and I feel so much better for it; which, in turn, has given me more confidence in making my next solo video a proper good-un. I’m so excited to film it and show it to you all soon.
What else? I did a bulk donation of a load of review copies to my old school - nearly 70 games in total - some of which I bought when I was at that school on the recommendation of Shut Up & Sit Down. Absolutely wild. Here’s hoping they get played more there than they will sat at the bottom of my cupboard.
In between videos, podcasts, and crushing a school with cardboard; I’ve been working on doing a few drawings for our Monsdrawsity expansion! I’m sure i’ll be allowed to share a little sample (pre-coloured). I’m drawing them all by hand, like a fool, so I think I’m a bit slower than the other (scarily talented) artists on the project, but nevertheless - here’s ‘some guys’:
What are we video games! 🎮
Tom: Woah mama, I’ve been on a real videogames spree recently. Time to ramble.
I am, as ever, obsessed with Spelunky 2 - and I’ve finally decided to pursue getting to ‘the end’. No, not that one. Not that one either. That one. Wish me luck! At some point I might stream some of that journey on Twitch, although I’ve no idea if people would watch it - because I’m quite bad at it and try to go faster than my ability will allow. My other obsession at the moment is DEATHLOOP - which is really, really great so far. Arkane simply does not miss. The writing is fun, the environment design is incredible, the gamefeel is; good. I’m a real sucker for immersive sims, timeloops and sleuthing, so this is one of those games that feels tailor-made for my interests. The way that the tutorial teaches you the building blocks of how to discover things is masterful and cheeky - as well as unearthing all the design roots the game has as you progress - and on top of that, the upgrade that has you "kick like a mule" is just ace.
THEN I played demos for Gloomwood and Dread Delusion - two lofi games that I’m seismically pumped for. If you have a spare hour, definitely check out Gloomwood - it’s a welcome change of pace from New Blood’s usual slicked-back action - and if you want something weird and gritty then Dread Delusion’s fuschia skies will have you covered.
ALSO I played The Forgotten City - stumbling into its second ending almost completely by accident. It’s great! But there’s only room for one loop in my life so it’s getting shelved until I’ve finished the other loop, which might take me a while as I constantly tinker with the ingame settings and waste time merely exploring those 4 clockwork levels.
AND FINALLY I played Cruelty Squad. Cruelty Squad is utterly miserable and utterly brilliant. It’s caustic, gross, and wil sap your brain. It’s a dril tweet video game. It’s vomit made digital. It’s rainbow six with funko pops. It’s a game that lets you swing from your intestines. It’s fucked. It’s brilliant. It’s terrible. I love Cruelty Squad.
How many of these videogames would I recommend? All of them. I’ve been having a brilliant time and cannot be stopped.
What are we reading? 📖
Quinns: I got totally swallowed up by The Ensemble by Aja Gabel this month, but I’m worried that might be because of my personal experience working at Shut Up & Sit Down, which is also a small, creative team that binds people together in weird ways? So instead I’m gonna recommend The New Me by Halle Butler, which is a lot shorter and a lot funnier. Sometimes. Kind of.
If you remember me recommending Temporary a newsletter or two ago, The New Me is another book about a woman searching for gainful employment in our absolutely crumpled, inhospitable economy, and about what it costs to foster a sense of hope when your future looks unrelentingly grim. But, y’know, funnier. Sometimes. Kind of.
What are we music! 🎵
Quinns: If you’re into hip hop, USEE4YOURSELF by IDK really got under my skin this month. It’s at turns furious, melodic, unexpected and bracingly honest. I was listening to it while shooting closeups for the review of Blitzkrieg and Caesar I did a few weeks ago and found myself headbanging so vigorously that it was making my camera pans wonky.
Tom: King Krule’s latest live album ‘You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down’ was a similar headbanging b-roller for me - listening to it full blast late at night while shooting some twinkly images of Robin Hood. Aside from that, I’ve been listening to loads of Octo Octa, Overmono and Chaos In The CBD to get me through editing sessions - and Low’s latest record is something I’m still trying to get to grips with. It’s gorgeous and challenging and beautiful and brutal all at once. Very excited to give it some more spins.
What are we watching? 📺
Ava: Oooh it’s been an odd time for me and the tellybox. A couple of rounds of illness led to me watching the whole of Schitt’s Creek (significantly more humane than I had been expecting, made me cry a lot in a good way) and far too much Gossip Girl (the original in particular is deeply problematic and not very good, if useful for a certain sort of distraction). I’m basically stuck in a rut of watching things it’s hard to recommend, even when I’m enjoying them? So I’m probably just going to stick with noting that Ted Lasso remains one of the kindest bits of telly I’ve ever seen, and there’s a mid-season episode that was just the perfect expression of everything that’s lovely about it, and that I don’t think I’ll ever stop thinking about.
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