After years of fan requests, the Jackbox Megapicker is finally here, offering players a seamless and intuitive way to organize, filter, launch, and purchase more games from Jackbox Games' famous Jackbox Party Pack series. While it is exclusively available on Steam, it is still a massive improvement for a series that now features over fifty mini-games. Fans have persistently expressed issues with needing to sort through every Jackbox Party Pack for the games they want to play, and the Jackbox Megapicker solves those issues by essentially being a one-stop shop for everything Jackbox.
Despite being a product of Jackbox Games, the Jackbox Megapicker wasn't solely devised by the party game developer, as the release of the application is actually proof of the developer's respect for player feedback. The Best War Games had the opportunity to chat with engineering director Brad Vah and the vice president of international and business development Andy Kniaz about the Jackbox Megapicker, the feedback that inspired its creation, and how the developer plans to use that inspiration to propel the Megapicker into the future.
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Feedback Is the Lifeblood of the Jackbox Megapicker
One thing Jackbox Games has made clear is that the sole drive behind its development of the Megapicker was the fans. In fact, judging by a blog post about the Megapicker on the Jackbox Games website, it seems the word "megapicker" was even used in a line of feedback left by a fan, so that could very well be where the official name came from. Nevertheless, the Jackbox Megapicker is a quality-of-life improvement that was built on the backs of fans' requests, and Jackbox Games doesn't plan to remove it from their backs for the foreseeable future. When asked about the intuitiveness and user-friendliness of the Megapicker, Kniaz explained,
The functionality of the Megapicker has been requested by Jackbox players for years, so the first thing we did was listen to our audience. Players wanted an easy way to filter, find, and run games. They didn't want to have to load the Party Packs individually to find the game they wanted to play. Players wanted to be able to see their entire game library at a glance and then sort through those games using a variety of filters. This is the core of the Megapicker, but it is a live product in its early days, so we've integrated a "Send Feedback" button so people can tell us what they'd like to see more of and what they’d like improved.
Player feedback is therefore the origin and the lifeblood of the Jackbox Megapicker, as users will have the opportunity of essentially standing side-by-side with Jackbox Games as they continue to develop it. The Megapicker isn't going to be released in an early access state, and yet it appears the developer is treating it similarly, with some updates already lined out and others likely to be requested by fans in the future. Concerning plans already in place for the Megapicker, Vah disclosed,
We have a lot of upcoming features planned for users to be able to order, rank, hide, or otherwise curate their library and make it their own. In the near future, we’ll be expanding the home screen to show things like recommended games and past game galleries (your previous drawings in Tee K.O. For example).
It might have taken Jackbox Games years to respond to fans' requests by giving them the Megapicker, but they responded nonetheless. On top of that, the developer has no plans of leaving fans out in future updates either, seemingly all but begging users to keep making their requests known. As more Jackbox mini-games are released, Steam users can count on the Megapicker to provide them with a streamlined experience as they host exciting game nights for their friends and families, all while having the security of knowing their appeals will continue to be heard by the developer.
The Jackbox Party Pack
- Released
- November 26, 2014
- ESRB
- T For Teen // Crude Humor, Drug Reference, Fantasy Violence, Game Experience May Change During Online Play, Mild Language, Sexual Themes
- Developer(s)
- Jackbox Games
- Publisher(s)
- Jackbox Games
- Engine
- Adobe AIR
- Multiplayer
- Local Multiplayer
- Franchise
- The Jackbox Party Pack
WHERE TO PLAY
For 1-100 players! Your phones or tablets are your controllers! The team behind YOU DON’T KNOW JACK presents FIVE guffaw-inducing party games in one pack!
Games include:
1) The comedy trivia sensation YOU DON’T NOW JACK 2015 (1-4 players) with hundreds of all-new questions.
2) The hilarious bluffing game Fibbage XL (2-8 players), with 50% more questions added to the original hit game Fibbage.
3) The bizarre drawing game Drawful (3-8 players) -you draw right there on your phone or tablet (very little/no real skill required).
4) The racy-as-you-want-to-be fill-in-the-blank word game Word Spud (2-8 players).
5) The wacky-fact-filled Lie Swatter (1-100 players).
- Platform(s)
- Windows, PlayStation (Original), macOS, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- Party Game
