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Jackbox Games, Inc. (formerly Jellyvision Games, Inc.) is an American
video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...
based in
Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, best known for the '' You Don't Know Jack'' series of quiz-based
party video game A party video game is a genre of video game that stems from in-person party games, involving player-to-player interaction as the central gameplay element. These games are often defined by simple controls which can be easily picked up and understoo ...
s and ''
The Jackbox Party Pack ''The Jackbox Party Pack'' is a series of party video games developed by Jackbox Games for many different platforms on a near-annual release schedule since 2014. Each installment contains five games that are designed to be played in groups of ...
'' series. Founded by Harry Gottlieb, the company operated as Jellyvision Games from 1995 until its closure in 2001. After seven years of dormancy, Jellyvision Games was revived in 2008, and the company rebranded as Jackbox Games in 2013.


History

Jackbox Games was founded in 1989 by Harry Gottlieb as an educational entertainment company called Learn Television. Prior to developing '' You Don't Know Jack'', the company created a children's trivia game called ''That's a Fact, Jack!''. In 1995, the company rebranded as Jellyvision and developed the first edition of '' You Don't Know Jack''; originally a
PC game A personal computer game, or abbreviated PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer (PC). The term ''PC game'' has been popularly used since the 1990s referring specifically to games on "Wintel" (Micr ...
, its success established a franchise, and Jellyvision produced numerous installments of ''You Don't Know Jack'' from 1995 through 1998. In 2001, the computer game market shifted, as players moved from personal computers to home consoles of the sixth generation, affecting the demand for
CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...
games. Jellyvision attempted to enter the marketplace with console-based versions of ''You Don't Know Jack'', but these games were unsuccessful. Jellyvision Games was shelved, and the following year Gottlieb launched a new company called the Jellyvision Lab. Pivoting away from games, the Jellyvision Lab focused on business software, developing a technology called the "interactive conversation interface" inspired by the voice-driven interface of ''You Don't Know Jack''. These interactive conversation products were a success, in part because of the ''You Don't Know Jack'' series' popularity. In 2008, as networked consoles and mobile devices became popular, Jellyvision Games was relaunched as a subsidiary of the Jellyvision Lab, hiring Mike Bilder to lead the studio. The company released an
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application of ''You Don't Know Jack'' and, in partnership with
THQ THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initial ...
, a console version in 2011. The studio later developed a Facebook version of the game, allowing them to continuously provide new trivia; later, the game expanded to include a standalone mobile application that allows data sharing and competition with the
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version. The game, now defunct, was awarded the "Social Game of the Year" at the 2012
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. Near the end of 2011, Jellyvision Games was spun off into a separate company. The studio rebranded as Jackbox Games in June 2013, and announced that it would continue to focus on developing social games, for mobile devices and home entertainment devices like
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and
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. During this time, the company allowed the game to be played using
smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
s and tablets as controllers, rather than actual game controllers. Jackbox released more apps including ''Clone Booth'' (a humorous photo-manipulation app) and the games ''Lie Swatter'' (a find-the-lies game of unusual facts) and ''Word Puttz'' (a word game). The studio released ''Fibbage: The Hilarious Bluffing Party Game'' on the
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and as a digital-only title on
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,
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and
PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...
in September 2014. ''Fibbage'' proved successful with players, particularly using streaming media services like
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. In October 2014, the company packaged ''Fibbage'', ''You Don't Know Jack'', and three other games that were designed to be played with others over a stream. This was the first ''Jackbox Party Pack'', and they have continued working on this approach, releasing a new ''Party Pack'' each year through 2023. Around mid-March 2020, Jackbox Games experienced a large increase in traffic due to the stay-at-home limitations of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. The team currently produce videos and live streams named ''"The Jackbox Party Club"'' in which the producers, designers and team of the Party Packs play together along with the audience.


Games developed


''You Don't Know Jack'' series (2011–2013)

Jackbox Games was founded to bring back Jellyvision's premiere title, ''You Don't Know Jack'', which prior to 2011 had not been published since 2002. The revival sought to take advantage of newer technologies such as modern consoles and mobile gaming tied with
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
integration. Jackbox Games has brought three of these standalone titles to market: * '' You Don't Know Jack'' – 2011 – For personal computers and consoles * ''You Don't Know Jack'' (Facebook) – 2012 – Via Facebook integration, and later to include tie-in
iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...
/ Android versions. * ''You Don't Know Jack Party'' – 2013 – For Amazon Fire TV and
iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...


''The Jackbox Party Pack'' series (2014–present)

''The Jackbox Party Pack'' games are individual collections of five party games per pack, designed for online play by multiple people, including large audiences, via streaming websites like Twitch. Packs follow a loose format, with every pack generally including at least one sequel, drawing game, and writing game. Since 2014, Jackbox has released a new set of games in these packs each year, with a total of 10 packs available .


Standalone games

Jackbox Games developed additional games initially geared to mobile devices after the success of the Facebook-based ''You Don't Know Jack'' game. These have been released as individual titles, while some have been then featured as part of ''The Jackbox Party Pack''.


''Lie Swatter'' (2013)

''Lie Swatter'' is a single player game for mobile devices that presents the player with a number of statements which may be true or false, and the player is required to determine which ones are lies and "swat" them. The player earns points for correctly guessed answers (i.e. not swatting true statements and swatting false ones). A multiplayer version of ''Lie Swatter'' has been included in ''The Jackbox Party Pack,'' which supports up to 100 players. The game has also been ported to a hands-free version on the
Amazon Alexa Amazon Alexa is a virtual assistant technology marketed by Amazon and implemented in software applications for smart phones, tablets, wireless smart speakers, and other electronic appliances. Alexa was largely developed from a Polish speech s ...
.


''Clone Booth'' (2013)

''Clone Booth'' is a photo app for mobile devices that allows one to take a photo and then have that digitally manipulated into a number of stock historical images which then can be shared via mobile devices.


''Word Puttz'' (2013)

''Word Puttz'' is a single player game for mobile devices. On each level, the player is presented with a miniature golf hole, including a tee and a cup; other obstacles may also be present. The objective is to create words using a given set of letter tiles to create a path from the tee to the hole, in the manner of ''
Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a Board game, game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, re ...
''. The player is scored based on how few words they use, as well as point values of those letters in the words.


''Fibbage'' (2014)

''Fibbage'' is a party game played by at least two players and up to eight players via a streaming channel. It is broken into three rounds. In the first two rounds, each player has an opportunity to pick one of five randomly generated categories, and then all players are presented with an obscure fact with a missing word or phrase. Each player secretly provides the answer to the missing phrase, trying to craft an answer that appears legitimate. If players enter the correct answer, they are told of this and encouraged to enter a false answer. If a player doesn't enter a legitimate answer before the timer runs out, they can press the "lie for me" button and get two choices. The game then presents all players' answers and the correct answer randomly. Players must then select the correct answer. If the player selected the correct answer, they score points, while if other players have selected that player's fake answer, they also score points for each player that selected their answer. If the player selected the lie the game wrote itself, they lose points. In the final round called "The Final Fibbage", the game provides one last question for all players to answer. The player with the most points at the end wins. Following each question, players have the opportunity to mark one or more answers as favorites, and the player with the most favorites is shown at the end of the game. Improved versions of ''Fibbage'', offering new questions/prompts and additional features, have been included in various ''Jackbox Party Packs''.


''Quiplash'' (2015)

''Quiplash'' is a party game played by at least three players and up to eight players via a streaming channel. It is broken into three rounds. In the first two rounds, players are given two prompts to supply a humorous answer for; each prompt is seen by two random players. Then, the prompt and the two provided answers are shown, and players and the audience vote on which is funnier, with the players that provided the answers given points on how many votes they get. If a player's answer gets all of the other players' votes and, if there is an audience, a majority of the audience's votes, that player gets a "quiplash" and earns bonus points. However, if two players that see the same prompt enter the same thing, they get a "jinx" and they don't get any points. The final round called "The Last Lash" has all players reply to the same prompt, and players subsequently select three of the answers as the funniest. The player with the most points at the end wins. ''Quiplash'' is the first game to feature an audience. Jackbox Games used a
Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...
approach to fund development of the game, with the March 2015 campaign seeking and finishing with over from over 1,600 backers. Enhanced versions of ''Quiplash'' featuring new prompts have been included in various ''Jackbox Party Packs''.


''Drawful 2'' (2016)

''Drawful 2'' is a standalone game released on June 21, 2016, for
Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
,
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, PlayStation 4,
Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...
, and Xbox One. It follows the same format of ''Drawful'' from ''The Jackbox Party Pack'' and is played by at least three players and up to eight players. Players are presented with a silly phrase they must try to draw out on a canvas. The picture is then shown to all players, who attempt to guess the original phrase, with points awarded to players who select that phrase, and to players who have their response voted as the "correct" phrase. ''Drawful 2'' has added features, such as allowing players to use two colors for their drawings. The game includes support for user-generated phrases which are created in a similar party-oriented manner as the game itself, which then can be shared with other players via a code.


''Quiplash 2: InterLASHional'' (2020)

''Quiplash 2 InterLASHional'' was released on April 8, 2020, as a newer version of ''Quiplash 2'' that was originally released in 2016 as part of ''The Jackbox Party Pack 3''. Jackbox developed the ''InterLASHional'' version following the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
that forced many people to stay home due to resulting
lockdown A lockdown () is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison protocol that us ...
restrictions; the various ''Jackbox Party Packs'' had become popular games played over streaming network services to help people pass the time and created a large influx of players. Jackbox saw that many of these were non-English speakers, leading them to decide to create the standalone of ''Quiplash 2'' with translations for French,
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, and
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
in addition to English.


The Jackbox Survey Scramble (2024)

''The Jackbox Survey Scramble'' was released on October 24, 2024.


Trivia Murder Party 3 (2025)

Trivia Murder Party 3 is a stand-alone game released in 2025


References


External links

* {{Official website Companies based in Chicago 2008 establishments in Illinois American companies established in 2008 Video game companies established in 2008 Privately held companies based in Illinois Video game companies based in Illinois Video game development companies You Don't Know Jack (franchise)