September 28th 2025: Prototypes, Playtests, and Pacific Northwest Adventures

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! 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. 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 Zhang 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! 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! 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! 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. We’re preparing for a huge 2026 with: * Pelican (Houston) * Dice Tower West * Gamma Expo * Gen Con * PAX Unplugged * A slate of expansions, promos, prototypes, and new releases * And yes… cats and feathers were mentioned 👀 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? 🦒 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

September 28th 2025: Prototypes, Playtests, and Pacific Northwest Adventures

This week we’re back from the Pacific Northwest! We share how we revamped our playtesting notes and game deck system, visited Seattle and Portland for meetups with amazing designers, and discovered some exciting upcoming games. From industry nights and train rides to playtesting contests and tax battles, it’s been a busy couple of weeks. Plus, updates on Amazon listings, scheduling future projects, and experimenting with Obsidian for better note-taking.

September 15, 2025 - This week in Weird Giraffe Games

September 15th, 2025 This week in Weird Giraffe Games: Nick puts on the CFO hat to wrestle with taxes, Carla recovers from surgery while playtesting our new mythical birdwatching deduction game (working title: Logic & Larks), and we fight through Amazon listings to get Dragon Meeples and playmats online. We also share productivity hacks, talk communication struggles, and play Root, Maracaibo, and The X-Files. Plus—we need your help naming the new game!

September 9th, 2025 This week in Weird Giraffe Games

September 9th, 2025Join Carla and Nick as they share the real ups and downs of running an indie board game publisher. From playtesting a Logic & Lore sequel and prepping Reef & Ruins to navigating taxes, tariffs, and warehouses, this episode dives into both the fun and the not-so-fun sides of making games. We talk about avoiding burnout, reorganizing years of prototypes, and making time for game nights. If you love board games and want a peek behind the curtain, this podcast is for you!