Allard Laban and Belia Portillo from Jackbox Games on Jackbox Party Pack 11

Vince Pavey has had the chance to speak to the irreverent party game developers Allard Laban and Belia Portillo at Jackbox Games again, this time to find out about not only the brand-new Jackbox Party Pack 11, but ask about how their plans for game night world domination have progressed since his first chat with them back in 2022.

What were the big goals for what you wanted to accomplish with Jackbox Party Pack 11?

Allard: We took the fan feedback on The Naughty Pack and other past games to heart. We did a bit of soul-searching, and realized that with Pack 11, we had an opportunity to take a fresh look at our current development processes and focus on the things that made our games work historically:

• Accessibility, where everyone could easily jump in and play
• Innovation, and new ways of interacting with your game via the controller
• Good old, silly fun

You took a longer time with Party Pack 11 than is usual for your studio. Why was that? … and what were the advantages of having more time?

Allard: While we may have taken a break from the Party Pack publishing schedule, the development length was similar to past Packs. We started development right after Naughty Pack shipped in September 2024. Which, truth be told, is a bit faster than we normally get to ideation. We had all the games greenlit and in preproduction before the end of the year, which helped a lot.

What steps do you take to make sure a wide variety of players can enjoy each Party Pack?

Allard: It’s one of the key things we look at when choosing which games to pursue. Is this game playable and fun for the hardcore gamer and their mom? The temptation to go deep into strategy and complex play experiences looms over the process, especially with a game like Legends of Trivia. We strive to keep in mind who’s playing and what their state of mind is. (They’re at a noisy party and have likely had a few.)

There were no sequels in Pack 11, although a couple of games do feel like they might be spiritual successors. Was that an intentional choice, or did it just sort of happen?

Allard: Absolutely intentional. Unbelievably, it’s the first all-original Party Pack. It was a fun challenge, and I think it was a healthy choice to be out of the “anchor game” comfort zone. It kept us more honest to be flying without that net. Each game had to be great.

What game design elements is Jackbox Games particularly interested in right now?

Allard: Jackbox is always looking at how to make each other laugh together. Way back when we rebooted as Jackbox Games in 2013, we attempted to distil our mission and why we do what we do. With the years of success and good vibes that You Don’t Know Jack brought us, our most meaningful reason for being was “To bring people together.“

We started with people huddled around a keyboard pressing the Q, B and P keys to buzz in, and now we’re doing it over Zoom calls and at parties, with mobile phones. Any new design elements that interest us always further that idea: “How does it bring us together?”

What have you learned from developing Jackbox Party Pack 11?

Allard: I’ve personally always thought there’s no limit to game ideas — it’s the execution and the balance of time and passion that matters. We had some ambitious plans for the pack and we largely got it all done. What I’m always learning, is to not underestimate the power of passion in the face of limited timeframes to make faster, smarter decisions. Although sometimes, we make dumb decisions, and you sure learn from those as well.

My friend group particularly liked the co-op trivia game in Pack 11. (Don’t worry, I made them sign a frieNDA!) Do you see more co-op games in your studio’s future?

Allard: Great to hear! Absolutely. A number of great ideas surfaced during the development of Legends of Trivia, however a bunch did not make the cut due to timing. I’m already seeing new pitches and game concepts leveraging group knowledge and co-op play.

How do you decide upon the art direction for each of the games in a Party Pack?

Allard: For a game comprising five mini-games, the approach has always been to keep it diverse in style and theming. Otherwise it would be a pack of same-y games. The best way we’ve found to do this is to unleash the Lead Artist of each game to embrace their personal style or vision on how to translate the game visually. The same goes for music and sound — we gratefully lean on the individual (and immense) talents of the studio to define the visual and auditory landscape.

How much playtesting does each Party Pack game go through before release?

Allard: We do months of company playtesting throughout production, twice a week, combined with external non-Jackbox players to get the honest feedback we need.

Do you find that it’s hard to balance how fun something is for three players against how fun it might be for eight players? Or is it just always fun, scaling exponentially?

Allard: It is hard! There’s a common expectation that more players in a game is better, but sometimes we’ve found that less can give you a better (and shorter) experience. It’s something we try to discover as soon as we can, since the number of players can impact scope and play-balancing throughout production.

When I interviewed Belia about Party Pack 9, she said that Jackbox were “in the process of growing [their] audience outside of the United States” — how’s that going?

Belia: Party Pack 9 was available in French, Italian, German, and both Castilian and Latin American Spanish. Since then, we’ve released The Jackbox Party Pack 10, The Jackbox Party Starter, Survey Scramble, and The Jackbox Naughty Pack in those same languages and expanded to include Brazilian Portuguese.

We’ve also still been travelling quite a bit. During the month of our launch, we were in Australia and London to showcase Party Pack 11. Last year, we were in Germany and Brazil to demo Survey Scramble and Naughty Pack for new audiences. 

All this to say, we’ve been working hard to make our localization efforts known. Our international audience is passionate and continues to expand, but for now, our main focus is on making the core experience the best it can be for all players.

Without making any promises, what do you think the plan is for next year? Another Party Pack, more You Don’t Know Jack (please) or something else entirely?

Belia: We’ve been working on Trivia Murder Party 3 all year with the hope of having it out in 2026. You can already wishlist it on Steam to stay up to date on any new developments including developer blogs. You Don’t Know Jack just celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, and we ran a series of fan messages recorded by Cookie Masterson this summer to celebrate! 

Looking towards the future, what I can say is that our studio is never idle. We’re always looking for ways to expand to new audiences, explore new platforms, expo at new conventions, and experiment with new ideas. You’ll have to follow along to see what we get up to next.