Blog Post 7: JackBox Game

While I was unable to attend the two in class JackBox sessions, my friends and I often play JackBox games together. Typically a primary game screen will be displayed on a TV or monitor while players interact with the game via their smart phones. More recently, the experience is slightly different since we can now only play over discord as one person shares the game screen rather than all being in the same room together.

I will describe a game session that occurred within the last week. The three games we played were Drawful 2, Quiplash, and my personal favorite, Survive the Internet. Drawful 2 gives each player a prompt which they are then to draw within a time limit. Other players then guess what they think the drawing is of. After that each player sees everyone’s guess as well as the real answer. Points are gained by either selecting the correct answer, having other players select your incorrect answer or having people select the correct answer for your drawing.

In Quiplash, each player receives two prompts per round. The prompts could be something like “the real reason the dinosaurs died.” It is the player’s goal to come up with the most rediculous response to gain the most points. The game works similarly to Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity, except the player is not limited by pre-written responses.

Survive the Internet has players try to embarrass other players on fake social media cites. The mechanics change for each three rounds. In one round, each player comments on a topic given to them. Other players then replace the original topic and vote on who created the most ridiculous post and comment. This game is my favorite because it allows my friends and I to make fun of each other.

A nice feature of JackBox games is the option of adding audience players. While these players don’t get to participate in creating anything in the game, they do get to vote along with the more active players. This feature allows people to participate when the max number of players has been reached and can shift the scores when they vote.