Jackbox Games have become a game night favorite for a reason. The collection of unique games tests players with drawing prompts, trivia challenges, and jokey contests. This flexibility bring a truly unique energy to the franchise. The series has gone through lots of evolution since the days of the You Don’t Know Jack series. This has included plenty of new games and exciting variants introduced over the years.
Mike Bilder has seen much of that growth first-hand. Bilder was brought into the company in 2008, reflecting a revitalization of the company in the gaming space. Since then, Jackbox Games has grown in plenty of unexpected ways. During an interview with That Hashtag Show, Bilder reflected on the surprises he’s encountered while a part of the company, the inventive approaches players bring to their games, and broke down the core elements that define a Jackbox game.
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The Jackbox Games Experience
Jackbox has become synonymous with party games over the last decade, and especially in the last half-decade. What does it mean to you to see this series become such a consistent presence in culture?
Mike Bilder: This question is a gift in itself! To be a consistent presence in the culture is something that any studio strives for and we are no exception. We never want to rest on our laurels. However, we are so proud of all of the people who have had a hand in creating the Party Pack franchise. We feel very lucky to be able to continue to do what we love to do. We’re so lucky to see fans keep coming back to enjoy our games. Even now, new people discover games we made five, six, and seven years ago every day. It gives us a lot of purpose and energy to keep the momentum going.
The Megapicker is going to be very useful going forward — why was now this the right year to introduce that concept?
Mike Bilder: Because we release new titles on an annual basis with a lean team, we don’t usually have bandwidth for additional projects like the Megapicker. It’s a challenge that we’ve wanted to tackle for a long time. Across the board, 2024 was a year of experimentation and new ideas for us.
It was important to us to make some space to try new things and focus on quality-of-life updates for our fans. Things like the Megapicker or adding new content to a fan-favorite like Trivia Murder Party 2 [did that]. The best thing about using 2024 in this way was that it helped us iterate on and refine our internal processes. We can continue to explore new ideas within our traditional release cycle. We learned a lot that we want to apply to future projects!
Taking A Naughty Turn Can Be Plenty Funny In Jackbox
The Naughty Pack is a fun reformat that has two follow-ups and a new game with Let Me Finish. Internally, what’s the process of developing new game modes versus revitalizing older concepts?
Mike Bilder: Some of our biggest fans have been requesting an adult version of our games for a long time. This year we wanted to release a game for an adult market (The Jackbox Naughty Pack) and also release something that families could enjoy together over the Holidays. (The Jackbox Survey Scramble). The early playtests for Fakin’ It All Night Long (in the Naughty Pack) were hilarious and we wanted to use this as an opportunity to see if a “Remote Play” mode would resonate with fans.
When we revisit a concept, we try to make sure there is a new element or twist that would give it a reason to exist on its own. Aside from the adult humor, the remote play mode tested very well. It was great to see fans enjoy it so much out in the wild. In the spirit of experimentation, we wanted to introduce a new title to this pack as well. Let Me Finish led to some hilariously absurd internal debates and we could envision fans getting worked up in the best way when playing it.
Since its release, we’ve been excited to patch in an additional mode that offers the option of quicker, head-to-head matchups that our fans have enjoyed in previous titles. This practice, patching in new game modes, is something that is new for us. We also recently did this in The Jackbox Survey Scramble by introducing two new game modes: Dares and Dash. It’s part of a larger theme of listening to our fans and iterating on our work to deliver more joy to their gameplay experience.
There are so many game modes and forms that have been released through Jackbox — is there a core element that they all share from your perspective, or is there a unique energy to each of them?
Mike Bilder: The most important part of a Jackbox game is that it motivates you to engage with the people you are playing with – our games are meant to bring people together and get them talking, smiling, and laughing. Our games dabble in many different mechanics and approach this in so many different ways.
We take on trivia, drawing, joke writing, hidden identity, puzzles, social deduction, and more. But the throughline that we aim for in all of our games is that we want to encourage connectedness. Not to be too saccharine, but it gives our work a real purpose. There’s so much division in our world right now. It feels special to be a part of creating moments that bring people together.
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Jackbox’s Future
What can you tease about future additions to the series? Any old games we should be practicing ahead of a new edition?
Mike Bilder: With our next products, we have been thinking a lot about our back catalog of games and what people love about the Party Pack franchise. The truth is, any game of ours is on the table for practicing! That is because we are putting a premium on what we feel are some of the core pillars of a Party Pack:
● Variety: People of all ages, backgrounds, and interests play our games. There should be something for everyone, whether you’re playing with family, friends, or coworkers.
● Laugh out loud moments: We’re always striving for funny experiences. It’s our intent to bring joy to the world and connect people together when we develop games.
● Easy ins: We don’t want our players to have to deal with a lot of setup. At a party, the last thing you want is to listen to a bunch of confusing rules. We want people in and having fun as quickly as possible.
With these pillars in mind, we are analyzing all of the games we’ve made to figure out what is resonating with our fans the most.
Jackbox’s Biggest Surprises
What has been the biggest surprise you’ve encountered during your time working with Jackbox?
When you ask people which game is their favorite in a Party Pack, you can get wildly different answers! Even some of our titles that aren’t necessarily household names have hardcore fan bases out there. They constantly reach out to us wanting a sequel. Monster Seeking Monster may not be the game you play with grandma at Thanksgiving, but there are people out there who have created entire backstories for its characters.
They can speak to each monster’s impact on the game in great detail. Survive the Internet is another title that has had a recent resurgence. It has been fun to see more and more people appreciate how the game taps into the wildness of our online world.
The Jackbox Party Pack and The Jackbox Naughty Pack are now available
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