2020: Year of the Jackbox
One of the strongest memories I have of this year before the pandemic was attending a yearly friend get together at the PAX South convention in San Antonio, Texas. For the past couple of years, some of us cosplay (this year my friend helped me cosplay as Milo from Pokémon Sword and Shield) and catch up on what we’ve been up to for the past year. We play some games on the show floor, and spend way too long figuring out where to eat after we’re done exploring the con for the day. But when we return to the hotel room, we always find time to play hours of the JackBox Party Pack series
For the past 6 years, Jackbox Games has been creating an annual series of party game collections designed for two purposes: To be silly, and to be accessible to just about everyone. Each pack consists of five games each and can vary wildly on their premises. Some games might be more focused on trivia, some on drawing, and others can be described as an experimental work. What these games have in common is how people interact with it. You do not need multiple controllers or even multiple copies of the game for people to play together. A smartphone, tablet, a computer, or anything that can run an internet browser (Someone should try using one of those smart fridges) is all that’s required to engage with the host.
I’ve been happy to host party pack sessions with friends over the years, chugging a PS4 along plane rides before replacing that method with the more travel friendly Nintendo Switch. Unfortunately, those days are currently on hold due to the current pandemic era we’re in. But, that did not mark the end of hosting JackBox sessions in 2020. Instead, I somehow found myself to be an online traveling JackBox host, streaming sessions to various discord servers throughout the rest of the year.
Admittedly I cannot remember what sparked me to try making online sessions of JackBox, but I do remember it was not easy putting it together at the start. The biggest roadblock to translating a once physical endeavor to a digital one was the wonderful world of capture card shenanigans. Unlike folks who can naturally stream pc games via discord’s screen share system, streaming a console game requires sharing a program’s window to everyone watching that can display the game as intended along with its audio. As someone who streams regularly on Twitch, I thought Streamlabs OBS could do the job. NOPE! Would not comply with Discord at all. So I had to resort to using regular OBS instead, which could show the game running, but would not output audio to anyone watching. It took a weekend’s worth of google searches and self-hatred, but the tech-support side of things was done. It could be streamed, audio could be heard, and JackBox could be shared. Now it was time to lean into my hosting skillset.
A quick lesson I learned from sharing these games with different friend groups and their families before doing this online, is the importance of knowing your audience. Not everyone is going to know each other at the start. They may not share the same interests, sense of humor, or knowledge of game design. When I have a crew that needs to get warmed up, I’ll bring out Party Packs 3, 4, or 7 to sooth the audience into the groove of learning how to access the game session, learn each other’s boundaries, and to make each other laugh. Fibbage 3 (From JackBox Party Pack 4) is one my go-to warm up games. It’s a trivia game where the goal is to correctly guess the answer to outrageous questions while also trying to trick other players into picking a lie you wrote instead. A simple premise, goofy in nature, and does not require voice chat to play.
Once everyone has gotten used to the playing atmosphere, and the number of people actively playing remain stable, I like to try switching to one of my all time favorite games of the franchise, Tee-KO from JackBox Party Pack 3. It’s perhaps one of the most freeform experiences to be had from frankly any party game I’ve experienced. Each round begins with everyone drawing whatever they would like to see on a T-Shirt (standout examples can include a tiny Spider-Man crying in the corner, the USSR flag, or the disembodied head of Space Ghost) followed by coming up with random phrases, slogans, or some nonsense that could pair well with the right drawing. Everyone’s drawings and writing are distributed at random to everyone else to ensure the results are the most ridiculous, and out of this world possible. The absolute best part of this game is that you can actually buy the shirts you make! I actually purchased one this year and it’s one of the comfiest shirts I’ve ever owned. It features a drawing of Err from Aqua Teen Hunger Force with “Travis McElroy” written under it.
A common sentiment I would hear at the end of these JackBox sessions was that “this was the most fun I’ve had in months”. This is one of the most demoralizing, cruel years of human history that many have experienced globally. Work has dried out for several of my friends, while others are working longer, harder hours than they ever had before. The standard ways to relax the brain and body are inaccessible in the pandemic world where everything sucks, nothing gets better, and help isn’t on the way. I feel this relates to why streaming these games from server to server has felt strangely therapeutic to myself and to the others I’ve shared these games with. Letting your mental and physical self take a break from the infinite despair machine is important! Everyone should have the chance to have a good laugh over guessing what a dragonfly’s dick is shaped liked.
These games are important to me, and no other game out there created more positive memories in a shitty year than the JackBox Party Pack series. Games that can make people laugh are an invaluable gift, and I hope one day I can go back to the hotel room in San Antonio and laugh with my friends in person.