Interview with the Team Behind A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe

We first met the team behind A Week in the life of an Asocial Giraffe at Dreamhack Atlanta in October 2024. Harry and I played the demo that they had there and we fell in love with Giraffe and his social anxiety. It was such a pleasure to be able to include their trailer in our May showcase. 

A huge thank you to Zi, Remy and Lin from Quail Button LLC, for answering my questions about the game. 

• Can you tell me a little bit about the team behind A Week in the Life of an Asocial Giraffe and how the idea for the game came about? 

Our team is made up of three passionate developers, all of whom want to make cool things and polish them to be the best they can be! Zi, the producer and engineer, came up with the initial idea for the game based on her experience playing Animal Crossing and reading Finnish Nightmare comics. She then made a version of the game for a game jam. Remy, the writer and level designer, thought the idea was awesome and wanted to expand it to a full game, and Lin, the artist, also thought the idea was awesome and wanted to make it beautiful.

• Asocial Giraffe reminds us of a lot of old puzzle games we used to play when we were younger. What inspired the classic look and feel of the game?

The gameplay of the game is a twist on the traditional point-and-click formula, where the player seeks out conversations with characters to get clues about what to do next to solve puzzles. Although you can still talk to people and get overly-wordy conversations and subtle hints about what to do next, your head will explode. So, on top of solving classic point-and-click adventure puzzles, Giraffe must also stealthily navigate his way to avoid being noticed by the chatty residents of Friendly City.

The look of the game was inspired by mid-century cartoons, as well as contemporary revivals of the style. We wanted to make our game look amazing while still being within the scope for our small team size to make, and so chose this look and limited animation style to make sure our workload was manageable without sacrificing quality from the experience.

• Can you explain a little more about the stealth elements of the game? How will players be able to avoid talking with people in Friendly City?

Just like any NPCs in video games, the citizens of Friendly City all have little problems that they’d love to ask Giraffe to help them with (after telling him their life story, of course). If they can see Giraffe, they’ll talk to Giraffe. So, Giraffe will need to use every means he can to make sure they don’t: avoid being seen, do something to make them want to go somewhere else, get them whatever it is they desire without them noticing you, or get someone else to help them. However, Giraffe will never harm anyone, because he’s a nice guy: this isn’t a game about setting fire to a building so everyone gets out of it, it’s more about going into the burning building and putting it out because otherwise you’d have to talk to a firefighter.

• What kinds of chores will be on Giraffe’s list of things to-do during his week?

Your week-long list of chores include super exciting tasks like going to the laundromat, checking out a book at the local library, and working out at the gym, all without talking to anyone! Giraffe will also have a few impromptu things he’ll need to handle-- things rarely go according to plan.

• What are some of Giraffe’s favorite things to do when he’s at home and safe from social situations? 

Giraffe has a wide variety of interests!

• Drinking matcha!

• Eating sushi!

• Listening to lo-fi music on analog audio equipment!

• Tending to his succulent plants!

• Writing haiku poetry!

But, if he had to choose, his favorite thing in the world would be

• Not having his head explode!

• What’s a social situation you tend to avoid at all cost when you just can’t be bothered to talk to people? (I think mine is talking to strangers in an elevator).

For Zi, she dreads having to talk to other introverted people, because of the mounting pressure for one of them to say something in the eternity of silence between them.

For Remy, it’s talking to booth salespeople at markets or festivals, because he feels guilty about telling them that he’s not interested in their chocolate-coated candles or their AI-driven marketing asset spreadsheet consultation services.

For Lin, it’s being at a party where she doesn’t know anyone. If there isn’t anyone she knows there, she beelines to the nearest dog or cat or iguana, and pets them until the party ends.

• What does “indie” mean to you? 

Self-funded, self-motivated, self-inflicted! It means doing it for the love of the game!

A Week in the Life of An Asocial Giraffe is available to wishlist on Steam right now.