Jackbox Party Pack 10drops later this fall, with fans of the franchise able to check out five new games. It’s practicallyJackbox Party Packtradition for a previous game to get a sequel and act as the “headliner” for devs to build around, in order to have a strong, cohesive line-up of games. For this Pack, fans will be getting a sequel in the form ofTee K.O. 2.
The originalTee K.O.came out withJackbox Party Pack 3, and because it is a sequel, devs were quick to see all the ways this original title could be improved. After all, according to one dev, sequels need a reason to be. Game Rant recently spoke with a handful of devs atJackbox Games, includingTee K.O. 2director Tim Sniffen andDodo Re Midirector Brooke Breit, about the upcoming Party Pack, what made it intoTee K.O. 2and what didn’t, and the role of sequels within these releases.
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With the development ofTee K.O. 2, Sniffen made it clear that this wasn’t wiping the slate clean for the game but, instead, a concentrated attempt to preserve everything that made the original fun and build on that. Key additions and improvements toTee K.O. 2include, but are not limited to, avatars representingthe history and legacy ofJackbox Party Packs, more colors, more garments like hoodies and tank tops, more fonts, an improved drawing interface (borrowed somewhat fromChamp’d Up), and a more involved final round. Perhaps one of the most interesting things mentioned, however, isn’t what made it intoTee K.O. 2but what didn’t, with Sniffen explaining,
“We talked about other things that were impossible. I’m going to tell you, we did spend some time with the idea of pants, and there was a lot of passion around that. But it really did boil down to, where did the design go? It would have to go on the butt, and there was just a lot of time spent talking about that. So in the end, we lovingly put that back on the shelf. Tee K.O. 3, I’m not making any promises.”
Beyond just the placement of the design, another limiting factor was the production of these pants. InTee K.O., players could purchase the shirts they make, and Jackbox Games wasn’t quite sure how readily companies would make pants featuring the player designs that could come out ofTee K.O. 2.When we joked about pants inTee K.O. 3, Sniffen had a simple response: “Don’t let that dream die.” Fans should take that at face value, of course, but the idea of a “Pants K.O.” is hilarious in concept at least.
Tee K.O. 2is the sequel forJackbox Party Pack 10,which also had us curious in regard to the process of how Jackbox Games decides on sequels. This decision comes very early on in the process, and other games in theJackbox Party Pack 10are, in a way, built around this flagship. As Breit discussed, there is a greenlight committee at Jackbox Games every year, which features consistent voices like leadership and different perspectives from various departments year to year, and the selection of the sequel comes down to: what the company wants to explore, what hasn’t been seen in a while, what fans could hunger for, and so forth. All important considerations, of course, to bring the whole project together, as Breit explained,
Those conversations are had pretty early in the development process as a figurehead for the Pack. Then, when the Pack is developed as well, it’s cohesive. We’re trying to find different types of games that feel like they would go well together, so deciding on that sequel earlier on helps indicate what other new ideas we’re looking for.
Of course, this is but one of fivegames coming toJackbox Party Pack 10this year. Fans can also expect to enjoyFixyText, where groups of players try to “fix” a potentially risky text;Hypnotorious, which is a theatrical social deduction game where every player must figure out where they belong (or if they don’t);Dodo Re Mi,the first music-based rhythm game for the franchise; andTimejinx, atrivia game befitting the Jackbox name, based on the concepts of history and time.
