Corey Konieczka Announces Tabletop Retirement 

Corey Konieczka’s name has become synonymous with Unexpected Games and its quality creations. However, the board game designer has announced that he will be stepping down from the company to explore other ventures. 

Why Did Corey Konieczka Retire?

Corey Konieczka began his career in 2005, as a designer for Fantasy Flight Games. He found his style and honed his craft at the studio, which would eventually become a key part of Asmodee’s portfolio. He would go on to create Unexpected Games in 2019, forming a studio that would also fall under the Asmodee umbrella, and release a series of spectacular and unique titles. 

Corey’s career has always been defined by experimentation and crafting gameplay experiences that boast incomparable systems. While he has worked with a range of major intellectual properties such as Star Wars and Gears of War, the American producer has also ideated some original concepts as well. 

However, Corey has decided to step away from his illustrious career in the field, retiring as Head of Studio for Unexpected Games. Corey shared the following message with his followers, via Unexpected Games’ official BoardGameGeek page. 

“After 19+ years making board games, I have made the difficult choice to leave Unexpected Games at the end of March to pursue other interests. With the help of many talented individuals, I had the pleasure of creating every game I could conceive of. We worked on amazing licenses, internal IPs, and fresh ideas; each providing its own rewards and challenges. After living and breathing board games for so long, my muse yearns to travel beyond the tabletop.”

What Games Did Corey Konieczka Work On? 

Corey Konieczka seems satisfied with his career and for good reason. The designer has worked on some game-changing titles, many of which will be instantly recognisable to tabletop enthusiasts. Corey’s first credit comes in 2006 making his debut with Warrior Knights. He would soon follow that up in 2007 with StarCraft: The Board Game, a massive name, before adding Tide of Iron, Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game, and World of Warcraft: The Adventure Game to his CV in the coming years. Obviously skilled with reimagining long-running franchises, he would soon work on Middle-Earth Quest in 2009, cementing his status as a trusted IP connoisseur. 

Titles like Gears of War: The Board Game, Mansions of Madness and Rune Age would fill the middle of his career, before Star Wars took over. Star Wars: Rebellion, Star Wars: Destiny, Star Wars: Outer Rim and Star Wars: Imperial Assault brought Corey’s name to a whole new fandom. And then, Unexpected Games made its play. 

The studio’s first release from Corey came in the form of 2021’s The Initiative, a co-op narrative, strategy and code-breaking game set in 1994. The level of storytelling and detail here gave a strong sense of what the studio wanted to produce. Voices In My Head, 3000 Scoundrels, its expansion Double or Nothing, and another Star Wars release in The Mandalorian: Adventurescapped off the creator’s impressive career. Corey thus rides off into the sunset, leaving a great legacy behind him. But, what of Unexpected Games itself? 

What’s The Future Of Unexpected Games? 

Unexpected Games is set to continue on into the future, with a range of yet-to-be-announced titles still in development. What’s more, Corey Konieczka had previously been working on one more game, which will also be launched in 2026 and will feature another new system. Elsewhere, Unexpected Games has yet to announce the successive Head of Studio, but will keep its fans updated in the coming months. 

For now, you can go and check out Unexpected Games at both Gen Con and PAX Unplugged later in the year, and can appreciate Corey’s storied history across his long list of previous outings.