By Daryl Baxter,Jorge Jimenez
Copyright escapistmagazine
There’s a good chance you’ve played at least one game from the Jackbox Party Pack since its 2014 debut. Whether you’re a passionate gamer or someone who has barely lifted a controller, you’ve likely visited friends or family, and a Jackbox game has been showing on a TV, ready to go.
Featuring roughly four games, players can log in with their smartphone, followed by working on their own or in teams to win the most points. Jackbox has been going strong, and with Party Pack 11 coming later this year, Escapist Magazine sat down with Rich Gallup, Director of Production at Jackbox Games, to talk all about the series.
The Escapist recaps
The Jackbox series debuted in 2014 for PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and PC. There were reportedly 200 million active players during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Streams and events helped propel Jackbox from a fun niche party game to an established brand, with lots of packs readily available to buy for almost every platform. The latest game, Jackbox Party Pack 11, arrives later this year for PC, Mac, and Steam Deck.
Hitting the jackpot
Although Gallup began his career as a games tester, he fondly remembers how he was introduced to the Jackbox series. “My first introduction to the Jackbox games goes back to the 90s, you know, cramming around a single keyboard with my older sister playing You Don’t Know Jack. My sister would destroy me so much. But it’s just such a great game. Such good jokes and really good trivia. Yeah, so I go all the way back as a player.”
Gallup joined Jackbox Games in 2022, so he’s experienced how the last couple of Jackbox releases came together. For Party Pack 11, he breaks down how a game is deemed ‘Jackbox worthy’.
“There’s so much. It starts with really cool people. We have such a fun and interesting group with so many different talents. The core of any game, becoming a Jackbox game, is these awesome people collaborating and iterating together.
To make a game, our method is just to make it playable as quickly as possible. Often that starts with the pitch — even if it’s just playing it with a PowerPoint, a slide deck, a spreadsheet, drawings on a mural board, or a whiteboard — and iterating. Every good idea, no matter where you are in the company, is treated equally and tried.
Are we laughing out loud in a playtest? Are we eager to hit that replay button again? Are people clamoring to jump into the playtest? When you know a game is like, “oh, we got to do that again,” that’s when you really know you’re onto something.”
Making the cut
With this passion at Jackbox Games, we put the question to Gallup as to whether any games didn’t make the cut for Jackbox Party Pack 11.
“There are so many. We have such a deep library of game ideas that we’ve tried. I went through our internal wiki and counted at least 40 different game ideas considered for Party Pack 11. At least 20 of them got to the pitch phase, some to multiple pitch phases.
We generally start with the strongest idea. For Party Pack 11, the first three were Legends of Trivia, Suspectives, and Doominate. Then we look at what else fits — we didn’t have a drawing game yet, so Cookie Haus came in. Some ideas that didn’t make it could appear in Pack 12, 13, or even 200.”
In Party Pack 11, there are five brand new games to choose from — no returnees or follow-ups this time. One of these, Doominate, requires players to ruin a situation by writing a bunch of jokes. Then there’s Cookie Haus, a drawing game that would give Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster a run for his money. Gallup revealed to us what his highlights have been from testing these five games.
“It depends on who I’m playing with. With my wife and kids, our go-tos are Hearsay and Cookie Haus — they love making ridiculous noises, being competitive in the mini-games, and drawing ridiculous cookies.
With co-workers, it’s Hearsay, Suspectives, and Doominate. Playing Doominate with comedy writers is a privilege. For solo play, it’s Legends of Trivia. You can fight monsters, play through the questions, and see all the characters.”
Jackbox and AI: A good match?
A big topic that’s abound in several industries right now is Artificial Intelligence. With apps like Claude and ChatGPT able to generate erroneous results, and others like Apple Intelligence claiming to streamline tasks for users, we put it to Gallup whether AI has a future in Jackbox.
“AI is in its early stages. I personally do not see how AI can help Jackbox make better games. Our games have so much soul — you can see the individual artists, writers, and improv comedians behind every game. I don’t see a big autofill ever being more special than most people.
That said, AI could help people understand each other, like writing an email to someone in a different language. If AI could make our games more accessible via language, that would be awesome. But current methods aren’t the way to go.”
With streaming games becoming a growth industry too, Jackbox also seems like the perfect match for this technology, something Gallup agrees with.
“But streaming is another story. At GDC (Game Developers Conference), we announced that we’re working on a streaming app. Beta is going well with friends and family. It’s just playing a Jackbox game on a different service. That could let people play on smart TVs, set-top boxes, or the web.”
Back to the Jackbox
With so many games featuring in the Jackbox series since its 2024 debut, everyone has a favourite that they’d like to see return in some way. Gallup was coy to say whether any would in the future.
“The nostalgia factor is strong for Jackbox, and the legacy factor is strong for me personally. We really like that people play our older games. People ask about You Don’t Know Jack, for instance. That game has a big scope. Fans still love older games like Fibbage or Quiplash.
Many people who made those games are still here. We know if we make a new game and our team likes it, then we’re on to something, so we think the hits are just going to continue for new players.”
Of course, with a series like Jackbox and the games offered, playtesting is essential in order to make sure every game works as intended. Gallup was quick to mention some memorable moments when playtests were being held for Jackbox Party Pack 11.
“For Doominate, in a playtest, the way randomness worked made it feel like you were writing to the person who originated the prompt. That added a special layer. We iterated on that, and now in round two, the prompts can say, for example, “ruin Tomb Raider for Daryl.” That makes the game personal and funny.
When we were making Dirty Drawful last year, there was always a challenge — how to get through a playtest without doing something off-color. As I learned at GameSpot, everything lasts forever. Are we recording this playtest? Well, I’m not drawing that thing you asked me to draw. For me, that was a fun challenge. With Survey Scramble, we made the game quickly with a small team. Watching players play it and enjoy the mini-games was great.”
Gallup followed this up by explaining how Party Pack 11 can appeal to both old and new players of the series, especially as the holidays are coming up.
“Party Pack 11 has something for everybody. If you’re playing alone, Legends of Trivia is great. With family, Hearsay, and Cookie Haus are fun. With co-workers, Doominate and Suspectives. There are three clear parties: messing around with silly games, trivia adventures, and social deduction. All the games can be played over and over again.”
On the Spot
If you were on the internet around 20 years ago, there’s a good chance you may have caught Gallup as one of the hosts of Gamespot’s ‘On the Spot’, a show that had interviews and reviews of all the latest games. We put it to Gallup whether these early days could have influenced his input into helping to make the Jackbox games.
“I’ve been fortunate to play a lot of games and see a lot in different states. What I learned is that until you actually play a game, it’s not quite real. I remember interviewing Valve’s Gabe Newell in a prison cell on Alcatraz for Half-Life 2, a year before release. Everything sounds great, but until you play, it’s just words.
At Jackbox, we move fast. Games are playable almost immediately. We playtest every day. That’s why I’m confident in our games.” We followed this up by asking if Party Pack would have been a great game for On the Spot. “Oh, for sure. Absolutely. I feel fortunate to be part of the proto-live streamer era. It’s rewarding to make something yourself instead of just talking about someone else’s work.”
With the battle-royale game Fortnite reaping the benefits of its collabs, such as its recent one with the Power Rangers, there seems to be a similar opportunity here for Jackbox to partner up with brands to be used in their games. Whether it’s a Shark Tank take on the Bidiots game, or even a take of Fibbage that crosses paths with Marvel, or a comedy show, we put it to Gallup whether it’s something Jackbox Games has considered.
“It’s perhaps something that companies may be looking into as an expansion because so many brands — like a Power Rangers Jackbox, or a Tomb Raider take. I probably would do a Ninja Turtles Jackbox collaboration. Jackbox has a lot of friends around the world. We’re talking to a lot of them all the time.
For us, it’s about what’s the right fit and how the timing works. We always want to be making our own games, too. How do we carve out bandwidth to do partnerships? We do smaller content partnerships, like with Quiplash packs — sometimes you get themed questions. I would need to check that. No news to announce on that part yet, but we are having fun conversations.”
A Box of highlights
Finally, we asked Gallup what his highlights of working at the company were so far.
“It’s amazing to sit at PAX East next to Tom Gottlieb, the voice of Cookie Masterson, and have people recognize his voice. That’s special. Working with the team is incredible. Everyone brings energy, jokes, and ideas.
That’s the reward every day. Playtests are fun. Something ridiculous will happen. Seeing players enjoy the games we make — like Survey Scramble or Party Pack 11 — is incredible.”
Jackbox Party Pack 11 has no release date at the time of writing, other than Fall 2025.
Ask The Escapist
Games ( Jackbox Games) The Jackbox Party Pack 11 (Jackbox Games) Rich Gallup on LinkedIn (LinkedIn) The Jackbox Party Pack 11 on Steam (Steam) Classic GameSpot: On The Spot – Dec 1, 2004 (YouTube) Bidiots (Jackbox Games) Fibbage 3 (Jackbox Games)
