I foundJackbox creative director Brooke Brietat the game’s PAX East stage, situated in a large area overlooking the packed show floor where the development team behind the phone-based multiplayer party game was hosting relaxed sessions of some certifiedJackboxclassics. More recently at PAX West, a Jackbox After Dark panel showcased a much ruder alternative to the tried-and tested formula. Once again, I sat down with Briet to catch up.
“The PAX relationship is so special, for us to have these panels with their fantastic people who jump in and show them off so well,” Breit tells me ahead of the launch of Jackbox’s naughtiest iteration. “The fun thing about it is, I don’t think people always realize that it’s the actual people that work on the games that are there. People come up and have conversations with us, and it’s cool to get to connect on that level, to hear how they’re feeling about things, what they’re excited about, what they like, what they’d wish for.”
When we spoke at PAX East, Breit hinted that a new pack would come before the end of 2024, but I’m not sureanyone expected the Naughty Pack, the latest Jackbox release with three minigames focused on you and your friends saying, drawing, and thinking all things mature. Dirty Drawful is exactly what it sounds like and gives you several colors to use fordrawing its perverted prompts. Let Me Finish asks you to think R-ratedly about the most G-rated subjects, and Fakin’ It is like if Push the Button asked exclusively risqué questions to help you figure out who the liar is in your group.
With Party Packs being so naturally spicy on their own sometimes, I asked what it was like trying to make a purposefully mature Jackbox game when so many people treateveryJackbox game like one regardless. “Part of the Jackbox philosophy is setting players up to be successful in whatever way they and their friend group want to play,” she says. “With Naughty Pack, it was a chance for equal opportunity naughtiness, trying to find ways[…] to set up people to still go where they want to go with it, but we’re also a part of that conversation by bringing our own sense of what we deem to be naughty.”
The Jackbox Naughty Pack had been in development for about a year ahead of its launch on September 13, but ideas for it and what it might entail have been floating around about it for much longer. “Things are ideated over time, so when the studio decided that we really wanted to go in on an R-rated game, we were ready to hit the ground running with these three titles,” Breit says. “The games don’t exist in a silo; we’re working on all of them together. It really was a collaborative experience.”
Breit reiterates the importance of the diversity in any new or existing Jackbox pack, highlighting that there should always be a little bit of something for everyone. To ensure the games are up to snuff, the team does ample testing among themselves, “To make sure, are we having fun, is this hitting the way we want it to, does this feel like Jackbox but mature?”
Plenty of players have likely found their own by now, but Breit tells me there was never a clear-cut favorite from the Naughty Pack among the Jackbox staff – and they viewed that as a good thing. “You’re trying to scratch different itches with different types of games, so it feels like you have that variety in it, and the same thing was true for Naughty Pack.”
Though she didn’t have any hints on what might be next for Jackbox, Breit emphasized that she’s excited to hear the reaction to the Naughty Pack as something totally new for the company. “It won’t be for everyone,” she acknowledges in closing, “and that’s okay! It’s fun to know that we’re still going to continue to make T for Teen games, and it was just as much fun to make a mature game to add to our catalog.”
The Jackbox Naughty Pack
WHERE TO PLAY
Bring the heat with a threesome of fun in Jackbox Naughty Pack. Find out who’s the best liar in Fakin’ It All Night Long, illustrate spicy prompts in Dirty Drawful, and answer questions like “How does this avocado get aroused?” in Let Me Finish.
