Social anxiety can make you feel fit to burst, at times. In any public setting, there’s expectation to be social, approachable, and friendly, and so much judgement when you’re not. In A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe, social anxiety isn’t only a complication of travelling in the big city. It could be a death sentence.
This novel point-and-adventure, currently featured in LudoNarraCon 2025, is all about Giraffe – a tall, socially anxious giraffe who loves his laidback, relaxing lifestyle, but can’t venture into the outside world without the risk of his head exploding. Any time someone talks to him, his head just explodes. He sweats, and mumbles, and red rises along his neck, and then poof, he’s gone.
A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe is all about protecting him from the nice, horrible folk of Friendly City, and ensuring he can go about his day without suffering panic, and dying. Giraffe’s plight, while taken to the extreme, is incredibly relatable, and I immediately found myself endeared to him on jumping into a recent demo preview. He’s just a sweet, awkward little guy, and he needs your help to survive in the big, bad world.
Developer Quail Button has something very sweet in Asocial Giraffe. It’s immediately eye-catching and compelling, thanks to a lovely children’s book art style, and subject matter that is serious and funny at once. The pressures of social anxiety are explored with a tactful hand here, couching real-world challenges in funny little metaphors.
The loudmouth folks of Friendly City are caricatures of people in the real world, but not so abstracted not to be relatable. In the opening moments of the Asocial Giraffe demo, you find yourself outside a lift. So far, so good. But once you enter the lift, a chatty little human named Jay immediately finds your height and strangeness to be the opening he needs to yap, and yap, and yap.
Friendly City is exactly that. The folks are so, so friendly. But with their rapid, passionate chatter and seeming lack of awareness of Giraffe’s social anxiety, they immediately cause him to explode as they talk. There’s no consideration for his particular social challenges, just an assumption that he’s open to talking, and that his appearance is an invitation.
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Anyone who’s sat down on a plane, dreaming of some quiet time to read, relax or watch TV, likely knows this feeling. The dread that creeps up as the person next to you turns, and begins to recount their life story, their desires, and what their holiday plans are. You’re trapped. But they’re being friendly. And you wouldn’t want to appear unfriendly back. You simply must owe your time and sociability to others.
Asocial Giraffe feels like a clever rumination on this dissonance – the quiet push-pull between introverts and extroverts. It’s an exploration of the social contract, and that idea of owing strangers your time, regardless of personal feelings. What feels most important is that Giraffe isn’t judged for this social anxiety. Rather, the game lets you help him escape social situations, making your way through stealth puzzles in a way that keeps Giraffe safe, and comfortable.
There’s a great balance in these puzzles, as you work out the best way to stay asocial, whether that means hiding behind a drinks stand, or taking your own formal ID photos. There’s a cleverness baked into all of these scenarios, with simple point-and-click mechanics buoying complex situational challenges.
Paired with the game’s cutesy art style, and the delightful countenance of Giraffe himself, A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe is pure and delightful. While the demo launched alongside LudoNarraCon 2025 is relatively short, it gives a very compelling glimpse of the full game, and gives you so many reasons to care.
A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe is set to launch later in 2025.
