Posted in: Games, Interview, Jackbox Games, Jackbox Party Pack, Video Games | Tagged: interview, Jackbox Games, Jackbox Party Pack

Interview: Talking Jackbox Party Pack 9 With Company Heads

Jackbox Games has been hard at work on the latest entry to their franchise, Jackbox Party Pack 9, which officially comes out today! As part of the lead-up to the game's release, the team revealed all of the new additions that you'll have a chance to play with your friends, as well as the returning Fibbage to the latest game. Today we chat with several heads of Jackbox Games about the latest entry, including Allard Laban (Chief Creative Officer at Jackbox Games), Brooke Hofer (VP of Marketing at Jackbox Games), Mike Zuba (VP of Production at Jackbox Games), and Arnie Niekamp, (Studio Editorial Director and Editorial Lead for Nonsensory).

(Clockwise Top-Left) Allard Laban, Brooke Hofer, Mike Zuba, & Arnie Niekamp

BC: Hey there, first off, how has 2022 been treating you?

Allard Laban: Pretty good, considering. We locked down the Party Pack 9 lineup of games earlier than we have in the past (all greenlit in '21), so each game had a healthy development cycle.

How were things coming off of Jackbox Party Pack 8 and the reception it received?

Brooke Hofer: Every year, each game in a new pack ends up having its own fanbase. There are games that some groups love that other groups might rarely play, and vice versa! Just like our Party Packs, communities are filled with variety. That's why we pair five different games together each year. There is something for everyone! In Party Pack 8, we knew that Drawful: Animate would have fans as a returning franchise. It was really neat to see some of the new games, like Job Job and The Poll Mine, also become fan favorites. As we began to prepare for Party Pack 9, we paid close attention to what was resonating. Ultimately, we landed on a grouping of games that are quick and easy to get into. Once you've seen a round of each of the games in this pack, it's easy to explain the mechanics to others and focus on keeping the party going.

What was the planning process like for Jackbox Party Pack 9 when it came to the original games?

Allard Laban: Every year, we do post-mortems on each of the games and then make tweaks to the process where it makes sense. This year's production seemed to benefit from some of those improvements since we were able to lock down all the Party Pack 9 games before the holidays of 2021. A first for us! This turnaround allowed for more time play testing and precious pre-production planning.

Is there one new title, in particular, you really enjoyed creating?

Mike Zuba: All of these games are incredibly fun to make! Quixort is a great example. We are always looking for new and interesting ways to approach trivia in our games, it's in our DNA, but we also strive to make games that bring out in-the-room social interactions. Quixort checks both of those boxes. Quixort's unique approach to trivia teams players up to pool their collective knowledge by shouting at each other to find the best place to sort falling answers before they hit the floor. It's chaotic in the best ways, especially when your team ends up with an absurd task like sorting the lyrics to "The Oompa Loompa Song."

Were any of these titles difficult to nail down before they became the final version we're playing today?

Arnie Niekamp: I'd tinkered with the idea for Nonsensory for several years, and it had been pitched for a few previous packs but didn't quite make it. I wanted to do another self-expression game that still had an objectively correct answer. And that led to nuanced answers along some kind of a range. For years it was playtested under the name Very Very, which I still like. In those iterations, instead of numbers, you were trying to guess if something was very scary, very very scary, very very very scary, etc. It was fun but confusing. When we finally embraced just using numbers, the game started to really work. At first, it seemed like a bummer to change the range points from things like very very very constipated to just numbers… but everything started to click very quickly when players could latch onto the numbers and not be distracted by a framing that was probably a bit too cute by half. It was largely the same game, but with that simple change, it went from just a few people thinking it was maybe promising to it generally having a sense that it was really working, and it got a green light for Party Pack 9.

What made you decide to bring Fibbage back as the one returning title this time?

Allard Laban: Fibbage is one of our favorite games to play and write for. It has long been a fan request, but when we realized just how much time had passed since the last iteration in Party Pack 4 (2017), the time felt right to bring it back. It also provided a good platform for us to explore the use of video content in our questions. We're pretty chuffed about how well they turned out.

Mike Zuba: Our entire studio is always on the lookout for good Fibbage content. Anytime someone stumbles upon a crazy piece of news or content, it gets shared in Slack and tagged with a special Fibbage emoji. After a few years, it provides us a really nice well of new content to start from!

What's it been like the past couple of months seeing people play demos and testing them out with new audiences?

Brooke Hofer: Giving early looks at the new games in the pack is really important for us in building awareness for the upcoming release. It also allows us to better understand which games favor different kinds of audiences and environments and then focus our efforts there after the game is out. It's a really rewarding experience but also a vulnerable one too! It can be tough to see something not yet fully polished being played out in the wild. With that being said, we have an amazing community, and they are the first ones we tap to grant early access to the game. They understand what goes into making the games and trust that we will hear and respond to their feedback. In general, it's an amazing time for us to see what starts as an idea on paper turn into something playable, making people laugh and be silly together.

What are your thoughts going into the release of this new pack?

Brooke Hofer: We've been able to play some of the new games in The Jackbox Party Pack 9 at some bigger events with large audiences, including PAX West, PAX Australia, and TwitchCon. We pay really close attention to how loud the audience gets while the game is being played. During a round of Quixort at TwitchCon, the audience was actively yelling, cheering, and shouting answers at the panelists because they were so engaged with the game. That's how we know we've done our job. We want everyone in the room, whether it's a huge convention hall or your living room, to be laughing (or yelling) together because they're so in the moment and engaged with what they're doing. We believe we have a pack full of these games this year, and it's incredibly exciting for us to share it with all of you.

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