Jackbox Games are back with more couch-filling party games for you and up to thousands of mates, and this time they’re taking answers from players across the globe in Jackbox Survey Scramble!
The Jackbox Survey Scramble is a first for the studio as they’re using one-word survey responses they’ve taken from users to create experiences that require players to guess popular, unpopular and outlier answers based on the information they’ve taken from their database.
The team have dabbled in the idea before with Party Pack 3’s Guesspionage which uses similar survey information.
Like with all Jackbox games, you only need one copy for players with smartphones to join in with. Hosts start up a lobby that generates a code for players and even spectators to get involved with.
Survey Scramble can host up to ten players, and up to ten thousand spectators who can all get involved in their own little ways.
What’s the most popular dog name?
Most overrated holiday destination?
The best condiment for your food?
All these questions and more are answered in hilarious detail across four games called “Hi-Lo”, “Bounce”, “Squares” and “Speed”.
Each asks players to think of a range of answers that best suit open-ended questions. “Hi-Lo” simply asks players to find the most and least common responses while “Speed” wants as many answers as players can offer while under a timer. It’s simple to understand, yet can stump even the most confident player with how unexpected some answers can be.
Squares and Bounce are team battle games that split your group into two to take each other out. Bounce is like if ‘twenty questions’ were played like a game of squash, as teams try to move a paddle across a spectrum of least, average and most popular responses to bounce the ball that keeps getting quicker with every question answered. The team who can’t keep up loses the round.
Squares is played on a three-by-three grid, requiring players to outdo their opponents’ answers to claim each square on the board. By answering the least, most and sometimes wildcard responses, teams can earn three in a row to win the round. Like if tic tac toe was mixed with Guesspionage.
Jackbox Games chief creative officer Allard Laban ran lobbies of Survey Scramble all weekend at PAX 2024 for players to try out. As players continue to enjoy the game, he said their answers will become part of the survey so games can change and grow as more information becomes available.
The team is also looking to add at least two more games to the roster of four as time goes on.
The Jackbox team have gone a step further in offering an engaging experience for players outside the US with localised responses available to UK and Australian users. When a question can be about the most popular drink, it helps to keep it relatively local.
More regions will eventually be added over time as the team collects more survey responses.
The Jackbox Survey Scramble is now released and is available on all platforms for $14.50 AUD. Thanks to Jackbox Games for kindly providing a preview at PAX AUS 2024! To chat more about it, be sure to join us over on the Qualbert Discord.
