Summary

• Jackbox has introduced an M-rated Naughty Pack with more adult humor, deviating from typical entries.
• The Naughty Pack will contain only three minigames, details to be revealed this summer.
• Jackbox Games CEO Mike Bilder discusses the creation process, playtesting, and future plans for the franchise.

The long-running Jackbox Party Pack series is finally delving into more adult themes, announcing their first M-rated project at today's IGN Xbox Showcase. Called the Jackbox Naughty Pack, the new game will explore much less family-friendly humor than typical entries in the franchise. This will mark the first real deviation from the typical Party Pack formula, save for last year's The Jackbox Party Starter, which was a compilation of existing fan-favorite minigames.

Since 2014, Jackbox Games has produced 10 mainline Party Pack entries, each containing a selection of five minigames spanning everything from drawing and trivia to fill-in-the-blank and presentation-giving titles. The new Naughty Pack will have only three minigames included, the specifics of which will be revealed this summer. The new game currently doesn't have a set release day, but can be expected some time later this year.

Screen Rant interviewed Jackbox Games CEO Mike Bilder to discuss the creation process behind the Naughty Pack, playtesting a game with M-rated humor, and the future of the Jackbox franchise.

The Inception Of The Jackbox Naughty Pack

Bringing In M-Rated Content A Decade In

Screen Rant: Can you talk a little bit about how this idea first came about? I know it's something that the fans have been sort of talking about for a while, but was there already also a desire to do this on your guys' end as well?

Mike Bilder: Yeah, it's definitely a little bit of both. We do customer surveys all the time. We obviously watch people play our games and we're pretty connected with our fans. All of our games are rated T for teen, and so for the most part, they're kind of this PG-13 gameplay. But since there's so much -generated content, people can kind of make it as adult as they want to make it. And in many, many cases, I'm sure if you've played our games, that happens.

And so in surveying our fans and trying to find out what they like about our games, what they would want, what haven't we done that they'd like to see, the idea for an adult pack of games has come up many times, and it's been demanded many times over the years. And so we just kind of put our heads together, "What would that look like? How would we make that? What would a Jackbox Naughty Pack look like? And we got pretty excited about it internally. And so we decided to just do a little bit of departure from the typical five pack of games annually and this year do something a little different.

It doesn't mean we're not going to keep making party games or T-rated party games. We will absolutely continue to do that, and we have more things to share beyond this reveal of things that we're working on. But it's a fun departure and it's been a fun one to make internally as well.

And what was the pitching process like for the games in this pack? Were you really sort of actively encouraging people to push the envelope when it came to the games?

Mike Bilder: Yes. We wanted to do it in a safe way as well, internally. Obviously some people don't like to play games that are pretty risque, or don't like to play them with their coworkers, let's say. They'd be comfortable playing with friends, but I don't know about in the work environment.

So first, we wanted to make sure that that was safe, that people were opting into this, that they knew what they were going to be participating in or things that they might be exposed to. And so we had a very open group of folks internally that were all about it and were comfortable doing it. And then after that, it was, "Alright, sky's the limit. What kind of pitches do we have?"

Now, the thing that we did want to be mindful of is we didn't want to do anything that was just so overtly over the top or offensive. You can look at other adult party games or card games, and sometimes they can get very offensive or be very uncomfortable. And so we've tried to make sure that we're kind of toeing the line of: it's an M-rated product, it has adult material, but it doesn't do things to offend.

And so it's been a fun and interesting time. There's a lot of IP that we have right now that lends itself well to, "What could you do if it was an adult version?" And then there's new ideas that have been pitched. What I can tell you is there's going to be three games in this pack, but I can't reveal what those games are just yet.

I was curious how much you were drawing from old stuff, if it was going to be more like Quiplash rated-M, or if it was all entirely new stuff. It sounds like it's a blend of both kind of?

Mike Bilder: Yeah. Again, I can't really reveal yet, but I think your line of thinking is good.

And usually, Party Packs are streamer favorites online. Do you think this one will be too dirty to be viable for streaming?

Mike Bilder: For some streamers, sure. The ones that like to have family-friendly material, but for a lot of them, I think they're going to have a lot of fun with it.

Were there any ideas floated during the process that were too crazy where you had to maybe scale it back a little bit?

Mike Bilder: That's the case in every year, even when we're making a teen-rated pack, there's always some stuff that's just out there - nothing different than the usual. I can't say there was anything particularly unique. The nice thing, like I said, is I think everyone was very mindful of what kind of a mature-rated adult game we want to make, and to just be aware of those parameters in the pitches in the gameplay iteration that we've done.

Fan & Staff Reactions To The Naughty Pack

Living Up To Fan Expectations & Keeping The Work Fun

What kind of fan reactions are you predicting for this pack when it's announced?

Mike Bilder: Hopefully good. I think there'll probably be a little bit of shock, because of the fact that our franchise traditionally has been teen rated. Now, what I can tell you is that the majority of players are over 18 that play our games anyway, so it should still appeal to a huge set of our audience.

But the ones that like to play maybe with their parents or their grandkids and grandparents at holidays, this probably isn't going to be the pack that's played at Thanksgiving or New Year's with your family. I would imagine it will be played with friends, the ones that are up for this kind of thing.

So, I expect there'll be a bit of a polarization, perhaps, of some of our audience. But what I'll say to that, is we do have other things that we're not talking about yet that are more in the wheelhouse of what's familiar from Jackbox that will be options for them besides this Naughty Pack.

Based on what fan reactions wind up being for this pack once it's out, is it something you can see doing more of in the future as sort of a new style of Jackbox?

Mike Bilder: Yeah, I think there's potential for that. We'll see how people respond to it. I think internally there's a lot of excitement, and we hope and anticipate that it will be well received and people will enjoy it. And if that's the case, it's likely we'll do more like this. If that's not the case, we still make really good fun party games and we're going to keep doing that, and maybe in the more traditional sense that you're used to from Jackbox.

So I think it gives us lots of options. I think it is a fun departure for folks in the studio, too, because it is just kind of a different formula and a different audience. And so there's been a lot of fun developing it, which has been great for the studio and for the teams.

What would you say has been your favorite part, and something you've also maybe really noticed people on the team enjoying as well, about developing a pack that's so different like this?

Mike Bilder: I think we are always mindful of the teen rating when we're making stuff in our traditional standalone games or Party Pack games, and it's nice to not have that restriction. There's some freedom to that, and I think allows a bit of a creative muscle to be flexed that maybe we don't typically flex. And so that's been one of the freeing things and fun things in just early prototyping and play testing and , it's been fun to experiment that way.

But otherwise, it's a very similar formula and experience of play as to what you're used to in typical products from us. And there's a lot of laughter. For me, that's always an awesome sign, when every year we're traditional making our Party Pack franchise and we're pitching games and prototyping games and people are playing them in conference rooms or playing them in Zoom channels. And the more laughter you get out of the room, the more you know, "Hey, there's something to this concept. What is it? Maybe we should refine it." And in the case of this Naughty Pack, there's always a lot of laughter and a lot of reaction. And so from that sense, it seems like it's going to be a lot of fun. People are going to enjoy it.

And you touched on this earlier, but I was really curious just what play testing something like this is like when it is - like you said - with your co-workers. I know when I've played Jackbox games during press events, I really have to do a switch in my brain of, "Alright, I have to be normal."

Mike Bilder: Right, you've got to censor yourself a bit. One thing we like to do as a studio and have always done, as games get on their feet and we have the ability to take builds home, is we want people to play with their friends or their family and get and bring it back to us, "What's working, what's not? Did you have bugs or problems or issues?" It's just part of our development process, but it's also a validation of, "Is the mechanic working? Is the gameplay working?"

That really isn't different here. And I think what we're finding is some of these external tests or friend groups that want to opt into something like this might even give us more free than a bunch of your co-workers being in a room together, where it's maybe a little harder or maybe some things that come up on screen are a little uncomfortable.

And I will say, we kind of have different groups internally of, "I'm free to do anything and everything. Let's go. I want to work on the game, I want to write for the game, I want to play test the game," all of it. Then we have others who are like, "I'm happy to be part of the production team that creates the game, but I don't want to play test this game. I'll play it with my friend group at home, but I don't want to play it with my co-workers." And so we've been very mindful about that internally, to just make sure that people are exposed to or not exposed to what they're comfortable with.

But for the most part, we're a funny, fun group of folks at Jackbox by the nature of the games we make. For the most part, just about everybody's kind of all in. And I will say there's sometimes some shock value moments while play testing, and sometimes there's, "I can't believe that person said that," but it's also kind of fun and freeing in that way, too.

We do internal tests. Obviously we play as a team all the time, but we also will bring in groups of external testers. And in the process of doing that, we also disclose to them, "This is an adult game. You're going to be exposed to some things you got to be comfortable with." So we make them opt in so they know what they're getting at, too. But those have been incredibly valuable, too, and I'm happy to say the has been very positive in those tests, too.

Personal Pack Preferences & Future Plans

Highlights From Previous Releases & What's Next For The Franchise

I have a question about your Jackbox preferences in general. Usually with the packs, there tends to always be at least one drawing game, one sort of fill-in game, and a trivia game. Which do you find yourself gravitating towards the most?

Mike Bilder: That's a great question. I will tell you some of my favorite games - Fibbage is still one of my favorite games. So, lying, bluffing, trivia game, it kind of mixes two different parts of your brain. And I think because you can play it to win or you can play it to be funny, it's just a very robust game for me with any different friend group or family group. So that one is still one of my favorites.

I am not a very good artist. I have family , my daughter, lots of people in my family are really good artists. I am not, but I still enjoy the drawing games because you don't have to be a good artist. And in many cases, not being a good artist is what makes it fun and funny. So, I'm not intimidated by our drawing games - Tee K.O., Drawful, I really like those. And thematically, I really love Trivia Murder Party. I think it's just such a cool vibe and just a fun way to play trivia.

I'm kind of all over the map. I like a lot of the mechanics that we have in our games, but if I'm stack ranking, it's like picking a child, you can't really do that.

And there's so many at this point with so many different packs.

Mike Bilder: Yeah, we've done a lot. We've done a lot of games. And some of them are a hit and people love them and they're well-known, and some of them aren't. But I think that's one of the fun things about making a pack of games, is you can experiment that way. It's not a single title each time that has to live on its own. There's a different kind of pressure in the marketplace for that. If it's within a pack, we can have a couple of games that we know are really going to resonate, they're easy to get into, they're quick to laughs, and we can have a couple that are on the periphery or maybe polarizing.

We have a lot of presentation-type games. Patently Stupid and Talking Points - if you like to get up in front of a crowd and present, these games are perfect for you. But there are a lot of people that don't like that. They don't like charades, they don't like that kind of mechanic. And again, if you put that out as a single game, that might be polarizing. If you put that in a pack of games, it's kind of perfect because there's a couple of games for everybody in the pack.

So, it's really been fun making all these Party Packs over the years and offering up different varieties of gameplay that appeal. Hopefully, a couple of games in each pack will appeal to everybody, and then if a couple only appeal to certain groups, that's fine, too. They're fun for those groups.

And we always try to anticipate what's going to be the breakout game in this particular pack, and I would say we're kind of always wrong. We think one thing and then the audience tells us something else. And I think it's probably going to be the same with this Naughty Pack. I think hopefully everybody loves every game in the pack, but I'm sure there'll be some favorites in it, too.

Is there a reason that three was the right number for this pack instead of five?

Mike Bilder: That's a good question. It's a bit of a departure from what we're doing, and so the idea of making five games in the same amount of time differently than how we've done this, and being mindful of the things I've talked about in trying to make an adult game, seemed a little tricky.

And we also have the studio over the years and we have multiple things in development. So doing a three game pack, bringing it out a little earlier in the year, we think going after that back to school timeframe, end of summer, it's going to be good for young adults, people that hopefully would be into the Naughty Pack.

It's a shorter production cycle than our typical one. It's a new kind of mature content play for us. Doing five games seemed a little tricky and overwhelming. So doing three seems like the right amount of content, and also gives us the ability to have a different price point for the game too than we would maybe with a five game pack. But what I will tell you is the other folks that would be making those other two games, are busy working on other things right now as well. And we'll have more to talk about as the year goes on.

The Jackbox Naughty Pack will release some time in 2024.