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GAMA Expo 2025: The Op Games — Tea Witches, Cat Between Us, Tiny Epic: Game of Thrones, and The Office: Paper Paranoia

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by W. Eric Martin

And the pics and notes from GAMA Expo 2025 keep on pouring out, almost as if I'm trying to race ahead of the crumbling memories in my mind that are being supplanted by, among other things, announcements of yet more games. For the most part, these write-ups are teasers of games to come, giving you a sampling of what you might want to subscribe to for more info later.

▪️ The Op Games plans to release a new edition of Sky Huang's Cat Between Us, which debuted in 2024 from Taiwanese publisher Formosa Force Games. Given that this is a number-on-cards game for 2-6 players, I'll provide more info than I usually do in these con round-ups:

Do you understand what the cat wants? Try to get as close to the cat as possible without passing it by.

Each round in Cat Between Us, you first draw a card from the deck, then place the cat token on the numbered space on the track matching the tiny number on the card. Shuffle the deck, then deal all players their current hand size.

The originalStarting with the player who won the previous round, players take turns playing one card at a time under the six items laid out on the table until each item has two cards below it. The sum of these two cards is the value of this item. Each player sums the value of each item remaining in their hand to determine where they should place their token on the track. Whoever is closest to the cat without passing it has won the round; multiple winners are possible. (If all players have passed the cat, whoever passed it least wins.)

Winners move their personal token forward on their playing card, which indicates how many rounds they have won and how many cards they receive. Each time you win, you start the round with one more card in hand, making your next victory harder! Whoever first wins three rounds wins the game.

▪️ Tiny Epic: Game of Thrones is a Scott Almes design for 1-4 players from Gamelyn Games that is being co-published with The Op Games, presumably due to that company holding the game rights to the TV series.

This game has been delivered to crowdfunding backers and is due out at retail in March 2025. I looked for feedback on the BGG game page and saw only one review so far, with 91 of the 220 posts being about the game's rules for a WHA? rating of 41.36%, with "WHA?" standing for, of course, "Who Has Answers?" We don't track WHA? ratings in the BGG database — probably because I created them while writing this post — but I often look for this metric when checking out a game. Yes, I know that some people ask rules questions for material covered in the rulebook, but I figure that's happening on all game pages at roughly the same rate.

▪️ Here's another pic of Kedric Winks' Fountains, which I previewed in an earlier GAMA Expo 2025 round-up. Note the still ubiquitous hand sanitizer on the table five years after the fear-filled show of 2020.

▪️ The Office: Paper Paranoia is a 4-8 player "hidden identity" design from Jon Cohn and Kami Mandell that publisher The Op Games labels as a reimplementation of 2017's The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31, with the Dunder Mifflin employees trying to make it through twelve weeks without failing five tasks.

▪️ The Op Games teased Manny Vega's Tea Witches at Gen Con 2024, showing off only the cover featuring Sandara Tang's artwork. Now I can show off the complete look of the game, surrounded by an overview of gameplay:

This year's Teaquinox Faire is heating up, and as a contestant, you have four days to prove to the world that your kettle has the mettle to win!

In Tea Witches, tea vendors from across the land must summon and serve lines of witches in order to gain their loyalty, all while sending out magical TeaPups to entice Celebri-Teas and find ways to further enhance their prestige. By growing their loyal fan base, upgrading their hut to maximize service, and collecting all the right tips and toppings they can prove that their tea reigns supreme.

Sample Celebri-Teas
The game lasts four rounds, each representing one day of the Teaquinox Faire. Each day has two phases. In the summoning phase, players simultaneously draw a crowd of witches to their tea hut, being mindful not to push their luck too far as any identical witches will cause a hex, which results in witches leaving the queue.

Sample Special-Teas
In the service phase, players take turns sending their adorable TeaPups to various Bootiques in the city to gather toppings and collect tea from the rotating crystal fountain in order to serve witches waiting at their hut. Additionally, TeaPups can help players collect powerful upgrades, attract Celebri-teas, and brew up Special-Teas with bonus abilities. Clever TeaPup placement can also help you complete to-go orders for witches out and about in the city center.

A TeaPup is an animated teapot crossbred with a cute animal, with a spot inside the pot to hold one of six toppings, with each new topping pushing out the old into your 5x5 shop, which you can upgrade with boxes of different sizes, bonuses, and abilities.

Tea Witches will debut at Gen Con 2025.