Jackbox Games 2022 Year in Review

Our studio has so much to celebrate this year. We started parties, got swole, wrote poop jokes, and enjoyed a 24-hour Italian bakery in Boston.

We also came up with game ideas, playtested, prototyped, and developed an entire pack of party games in just a year.

Read on to learn more about a year in the life of your favorite digital party game studio!

January

• In January, bleary-eyed game developers emerged from a candy cane fog to finalize the rest of the games in our upcoming pack. Usually, we have a few “greenlit” by this point and we’re just completing the puzzle.
• Then, the teams kicked off pre-production. This involved developing an outline for the game, art and audio mood boards, conducting a risk assessment, and creating a first playable design.
• We also discovered a small squirrel family living in an abandoned office. The McNutts weren’t paying rent but we did decide to let them stay under the condition that they would only eat the healthy snacks.  

February

• In February, we announced that The Jackbox Party Pack 9 was coming this fall! If you’re following along, we typically use a cute animal image to share the news. Father McNutt was sick that day, so we had to go with baby chicks.
• Over the years, fans have been requesting more behind-the-scenes content. We announced that Roomerang was the first game in Party Pack 9 and kicked off Inside the Box, a monthly stream where we shared work-in-progress with the development team.
• We also shared that The Jackbox Party Starter was coming to Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch over the summer! It includes three fully localized fan-favorite games in French, Italian, German, and Spanish!

March

• The Jackbox Channel launched on Amazon Luna! For $4.99 per month, users are able to access our entire Party Pack library of games.
• We announced that the hilarious say-anything party game Quiplash 3 was the first returning game in The Jackbox Party Starter.
• Development on Party Pack 9 games continued! For some teams, this meant wrapping up pre-production and others were approaching first milestones. Every week, different groups of team members playtest our games while in production. This feedback largely informs how future versions of the game are built!

April

• On April Fools’ Day, we launched JACKEDBOX GAINZ, an incredibly serious venture that made us all rock hard with fitness spirit.  
• The t-shirt battling game Tee K.O. was announced as the second returning game in The Jackbox Party Starter. Now you can create hilarious and very wholesome shirts en français.
• Fibbage 4 was announced as the second game in Party Pack 9 during the Jackbox Party PAX panel at PAX East in Boston.
• Trivia Murder Party 2 completed our trifecta of games for The Jackbox Party Starter. Check out the adorable, animated teasers we produced to share the news!  

May

• External playtesting of The Jackbox Party Pack 9 begins! Our external playtesters come from a variety of places. Sometimes they are people brand new to our studio, sometimes they are our own loved ones. We always learn so much from this part of the production process.
• We celebrated Mother’s Day with Sharon McNutt, and little Timmy McNutt completed 1^st grade. We won’t talk about the report card, what matters most right now is that he’s making friends and learning how to follow a school routine.
• We launched our brand ambassador program! We’ve learned a lot about our community and since made some changes to how we’re operating. It’s been really exciting to connect with so many hardcore Jackbox fans. Thank you to all involved!
• Jayden Zvonar joined our team as a new QA Analyst!

June

• We kicked off our Sparkle Train livestream series with a special stream benefitting Howard Brown Health Center.
• We announced Nonsensory as the third game in The Jackbox Party Pack 9.  
• We announced Junktopia as the fourth game in The Jackbox Party Pack 9.
• The Jackbox Party Starter hit the digital shelves on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation! It’s the perfect gift for the brand new or would-be Jackbox fan. It’s also under $20 if you’re looking for gift ideas.  
• Alina Constantin joined our team as a new Game Designer!

July

• Game teams entered the final stretch of production on The Jackbox Party Pack 9. At this point of the year, teams have a few milestones under their belts and are working toward a build for Alpha that can be deeply tested by our QA team.
• To celebrate the launch of the fully localized Party Starter, we kicked off a partnership with Duolingo that provided access to free months of Super Duolingo for anyone who purchased the title.
• Cold-armed friends rejoice! Long-sleeve tees became available as an option in Tee K.O. Play the game and then order a custom long-sleeved shirt based on your in-game creation.
• We announced Quixort as the final game in The Jackbox Party Pack 9.
• Pauline Ferraro joined our team as a new Associate Producer!
• Baby McNutt lost their first tooth.

August

• In August, we entered Alpha and Beta, two final stretches of creating builds that are QA-tested ahead of submission. This is the last chance for the game teams to get what they want in the game before we ship it off to various platforms for review. Our QA team must test our games on SO MANY different devices. Once they’re done, we owe them a cold one.
• We did our first-ever all-Jackbox staff panel during C2E2 and played Trivia Murder Party 2 with fans in The Yard of the Expo floor.
• We did our first-ever Jackbox street festival at Retro on Roscoe in Chicago. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to celebrate YOU DON’T KNOW JACK.
• We kicked off our pre-order campaign for Jackbox plushies featuring the Drawful owl and M. Bubz from Job Job. We met the goal and you can still buy one for yourself now!
• We revealed the official Party Pack 9 trailer and announced that a kick players feature was coming to the title. This was a much-requested feature from the livestreaming community that allows you to kick players from either the lobby or in-game through our mod.jackbox.tv tool.
• We showed off new games at PAX West 2022 in Seattle.
• We met international reporters and friends at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany.

September

• We had a delightful company picnic day with family and friends.
• Finally! The Jackbox Party Pack 9 locked in a release date of October 20^th. We shared with the masses and there was much rejoicing.
• We finished a season of early looks at Party Pack 9 games with Stumpt, Swiftor, OutsideXbox, SMOSH, and Rob Has a Podcast.
• Sally Park joined our team as a new Senior Localization Producer!
• Rich Gallup joined our team as the new Director of Production!
• The McNutts shared with us that they were feeling cramped in their current room. We successfully relocated them to CEO Mike Bilder’s office so that they could enjoy a better view and highly coveted exposed brick walls.  

October

• We began pondering and ideating for our next release! Stay tuned for more updates in 2023!
• We attended TwitchCon in San Diego. We loved playing Jackbox on the Hard Rock rooftop with our Twitch team. We loved meeting new friends around the convention hall. And we loved watching an awesome lineup of Twitch partners play through Quixort and Junktopia.
• We headed Down Under for PAX Australia and got to play new Party Pack 9 games with international friends.
• We kicked some balls during the Chicago Loot Drop’s annual tournament.
• We debuted a demo build of The Jackbox Party Pack 9 during Steam Next Fest. Players could try out abbreviated versions of some games in the pack and we hosted some livestreams featuring the development team.
• After an amazing 10+ months from our first greenlight to release, The Jackbox Party Pack 9 became available on major digital platforms. As a team, we celebrated with a launch day marathon stream for the ages!
• We wrapped up work on our holiday commercials, which you can spot out in the wild on TV, YouTube, TikTok and more. We produce our commercials in-house and all acting and VO is done by Jackbox team members. You can check a few of them out below!

November

• Staring down the prospect of another bitterly cold winter, the McNutts called a meeting with us. They were grateful for our generosity and the fact that our office wasn’t as smelly as they were expecting. They loved that our vast collection of enamel pins made for perfect (albeit slightly tilted) dinner plates. But ultimately, they just couldn’t handle another Chicago January and February.
• We helped the McNutts pack their belongings into a TwitchCon tote bag and sneak onto a bus headed for sunny Florida. But not before they promised to join us for Survive the Internet Zoom nights once a month.

December

• We’re still rolling along with December and really excited for our 12 Days of Jackbox campaign full of contests, streams, and giveaways to kick off soon.
• We hope everyone will consider joining us in supporting The Trevor Project and Save the Children this holiday season!
• We’re also really excited to watch streams, see pictures, and read messages from players around the world enjoying Jackbox with loved ones this holiday season. Nothing makes us more merry or excited to come back in January and start all over again!

Thank you for 2022!

Jackbox Games