Jackbox Naughty Pack Director Discusses Game Development & Creating An Opt-In Environment

The Jackbox Naughty Pack is now available with three new M-rated titles; Fakin' It All Night Long, Dirty Drawful, and Let Me Finish. Ahead of the game's release we had a chance to talk with Warren Arnold, director of Let Me Finish, to learn about the game's pitch process, what the day to day of Jackbox development is like, and how they found the right balance of 'Naughty' without ruining anyone's night.

Arnold has been with Jackbox Games since You Don't Know Jack for Facebook, which he wrote for as a contract worker. "Once we started doing Jackbox Party Pack I came back full-time and wrote very heavily on You Don't Know Jack and Quiplash, after that I was hired on full time and since then they can't get rid of me."

How Where's The Butt became Let Me Finish

Arnold began our conversation by explaining the origins of Let Me Finish. "It was pitched by our lead editorial Rammel [Chan], and it had us all giggling from the start. The original title was 'Where's The Butt?' The first image he put up had a mailbox that had very rounded parts and it said, 'Where's The Butt?'"

"It was one of those things where the second he asked it in your mind you're just like, 'Well there's only one butt on this mailbox so how is this going to be a game?' but everybody circled something different and had very big opinions about why everyone else was wrong."

"When we have people being very wound up, we know we're onto something."

Arnold likened the success that they immediately felt internally to the same driving mechanic of a game like Quiplash where "[Jackbox Games] should be able to put something up there and your mind is already putting things together." The players should be getting excited to have the chance to talk about their answer.

A new feature to Let Me Finish that hasn't been part of previous Jackbox titles is the ability to Jump-In. This lets players who aren't part of the main head-to-head debate offer their own answer to the prompt.

Arnold explained that the evolution of this mechanic came from playing the game originally as a one-on-one and having other members of the team continuously adding their own thoughts on the prompt. Since then, it changed the team's mentality in terms of the game's design.

"If a player says they want to do something then we need to listen," Arnold said. "We tried different versions of making it a free-for-all, but that doesn't have quite enough structure. We gave it a lot of room to breath and found what's the best version of this."

Part of what influenced the final form of this game was that the team wanted to create something that would appeal to the competitive players who would play to win, and to appeal to those who want to "draw cruel stuff and make your joke." Arnold also laughed as he admitted that the latter is more his play style anyway.

The Development Cycle of a Jackbox Game

Knowing that Jackbox Games have been creating a Party Pack a year, most with 4+ games available, I was interested to hear what the development cycle looked like.

"Most of the time when you're trying to crack the nut, it's a lot of, 'I don't know what I got done this week, but my brain is exhausted.'" Arnold explained further that it came down to a lot of planning and anticipating the desires of their audience. "As a player what do I want? How can I accentuate what's working about the game and elevate your experience."

"What's a very simple and elegant way to make sure you're engaged, you know what we're asking of you, and you can do this fun thing that you couldn't just do at your own house."

As for the writing of the prompts and the aim for the M-rating, I was interested to know how they found the balance between prompts that would add more kick than a regular Jackbox game but not enough spice to be uncomfortable.

"Yeah, that's tricky," Arnold began. "Sometimes it is 'you know it when you know it.' One thing we've always tried to do at Jackbox is if you write a prompt, you don't want anyone to say, 'Oh man, that really ruined my night.' So we really try to have open ears internally and externally."

"Everybody has their own experiences so we just want to be compassionate to that, at the same time we also know we need to make something fun and silly."

For the Jackbox Naughty Pack, the project was an opt-in endeavor with an importance placed upon creating a safe space. Arnold even added that "you could also opt out. If this is going to places that you aren't comfortable with, A) we want to know why so we can take a different angle on it, or B) this is just your own personal choice and you've decided it's not for you. We just listened, that's the biggest thing we could do." 

Trying to find this balance between the rating and something "fun and silly," the team was looking for prompts and experiences where anyone could say, "That is a silly thing, it's also a mature thing, but we can all agree that that is a fun topic to explore. It's trying to find that middle part where everyone can say this is a great place to live and have your party."

Design Meetings With No Ego

Talking about the design team as a whole, Arnold commended the design team, highlighting just how great everyone has been coming to the table with ideas for the past 6-7 years.

Talking through these design meetings, Arnold was especially complimentary of the team's ability to not be discouraged if an idea isn't immediately picked up. "Everyone knows you're going to have way more ideas, so when something comes up and it fits, we are already able to acknowledge it. No one gets their feeling hurt."

"The design meeting are a lot of fun because we're usually talking about something that's pretty ridiculous. I'd liken it to Apollo 13 where we're trying to solve a problem but the thing we're trying to solve is probably about something's butt," Arnold relayed jokingly.

To wrap up our time, I wanted to know, in Arnold's experience, what is the secret to Jackbox Games' success and he was able to offer two thoughts. The first of which is the 'phones as a controller' gameplay style that they wouldn't be able to do half of their games without, but the other key aspect is how players are able to create memorable experiences and in-group jokes with their friends that stick around long after the game is over.

"We want you to be talking about a game years down the road," Arnold said.