Roughly five years ago, Quintin Smith and his friend Paul Dean set out to create a website about board games that was different than anything else at the time. They envisioned a site that wasn’t just detailing the rules and components in board games, but was something that would do games justice. They wanted to make board games seem as fun as exciting as they knew them to be, which would hopefully get even more people interested in their hobby. They gave this unconventional idea an even more unconventional name, and Shut Up & Sit Down was born.
Smith and Dean were joined by Matt Lees and Brendan Caldwell, and Shut Up & Sit Down soon became one of the Internet’s premiere destinations for board game fans. One of the keys to their success, according to Lees, is that their coverage of games is “fun and vibrant, and about how games make you feel.”
I got the chance to spend some time with Lees in the Shut Up & Sit Down board game lounge at GDC this year. We discussed a range of topics, including his thoughts on what video game developers can learn from board games (and vice versa), and what he has been playing lately.
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To see and hear more from Lees, check out Shut Up & Sit Down, CoolGhosts.net, and the Daft Souls podcast.