This Week in Weird Giraffe Games: December 4, 2025
🦒 This Week in Weird Giraffe Games — PAX Unplugged Recap, Designer Signings, New Prototypes & 2026 Plans!
Hi friends! I'm Nick, and welcome to This Week in Weird Giraffe Games — a behind-the-scenes look at the life of running a tabletop publishing company. I'm joined by Carla (founder of WGG for ~10 years!) and Justin, our General Manager, booth runner, demo master, and all-around joy-creator.
This episode was filmed from Justin's legendary board game house, where we also played through a ton of solo games, prototypes, and upcoming Weird Giraffe titles!
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What's Inside This Episode?
Our Wild Travel Month
We haven't posted in a while because… we've been everywhere:
Seattle → Portland → Cleveland (wedding!) → Hosting friends for 3 weeks → Prepping for PAX Unplugged → PAX itself → Now Washington, D.C.
PAX Unplugged 2025 Recap
One of our best conventions ever:
• Logic & Lore SOLD OUT on Saturday!
• Fans brought their friends back to the booth just to share the game
• Designers Darren & Jason did signings and got to see their own game sell out
• Kingdoms of the Deep got its first real non-pandemic-era release buzz
• Ian Zang demoed it and players said it “feels like Scythe, but easier to jump into”
• People who played demos were immediately buying copies
• Logic & Lore appeared in the Mystery Game Tournament — players loved it and stayed late to play multiple rounds!
Behind the Scenes With the Team
At Justin's home base, we:
• Decompressed from PAX
• Finalized Reef & Ruins manufacturing
• Wrapped up Surplus of Sloths edits (almost ready for print!)
• Playtested next year's prototypes
• Evaluated a promising pitched game (!!)
• Worked on the second Logic & Lore game, which finally clicked into place
• Started planning the 2026 lineup — our 10-year anniversary!
Visiting One of the Largest Game Stores on the East Coast
We toured Games and Stuff in Baltimore — a massive, beloved store that carries WGG titles. We shopped the Black Friday deals (yes, we needed an extra suitcase), chatted with staff, and saw our games on shelves!
🧠 Weekly Growth Lesson
Carla's improvement of the week:
Don't change systems just to change them.
We explored switching from Asana/Google Docs to Notion… and realized the time cost outweighed the benefit. This applies to:
• Project management tools
• Board game design
• Life choices
Make intentional improvements, not impulsive ones.
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What's Coming Up?
We're preparing for a huge 2026 with:
• PeliCON (Houston)
• Dice Tower West
• GAMA Expo
• Gen Con
• PAX Unplugged
• A slate of expansions, promos, prototypes, and new releases
• And yes… cats and feathers were mentioned
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Thanks for Watching!
We're excited to be back posting weekly(ish). Life happens — burnout is real — but we're learning how to balance passion and sustainability. Thanks for learning alongside us.
If you enjoyed this peek behind the curtain, hit Like, Subscribe, and leave a comment telling us:
What should we cover in the next episode?
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Helpful Links
🦒 Weird Giraffe Games: https://weirdgiraffegames.com
Logic & Lore: https://weirdgiraffegames.com/logic
Kingdoms of the Deep: https://weirdgiraffegames.com/KotD
Join the WGG Insiders Mail List: https://weirdgiraffegames.com/mail
Tabletop Simulator Links: https://weirdgiraffegames.com/tts
Follow us everywhere: @weirdgiraffegames
