Party game studio Jackbox Games recently announcedLegends of Trivia,the third addition toJackbox Party Pack 11.Jackbox has a long legacy of trivia games, includingYou Don’t Know JackandTrivia Murder Party,andLegends of Triviabrings something fresh and new: a collaborative experience where players must work together to answer questions while facing fantasy-inspired monsters. ThisJackbox Party Pack 11game combines the best of both trivia and TTRPGs to make for a laugh-out-loud experience.
Game Rant spoke toLegends of Triviadirector Warren Arnold about the game’s development process, how to craft the perfect trivia question, and how the game’s characters and monsters drew inspiration fromDungeons and Dragonsand other tabletop role-playing games. He teased thatLegends of Triviais one of Jackbox’s trickiest trivia offerings yet, and that players will really need to work together to defeat each monstrous foe.This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The Origins And Development OfJackbox Party Pack 11’sLegends Of Trivia
Q: How did you decide on a fantasy theme forLegends of Trivia? Was this an idea you’ve always had or a newer one?
A:It’s actually been around in our company for a while. I’m trying to think whatParty Packcycle it got pitched in. Hector Padilla was, I think, the first person to have the concept for this. I would want to say, if I had to guess, aroundParty Pack 5era.
And he just had an idea of: okay, we’re answering a trivia question. If you get it right, you attack a monster. If you get it wrong, the monster attacks back. Very, very basic. And Hector - he’s one of our amazing artists - put together some art for it. I think, at the time, we were still trying to figure it out. Because it was going to be big. It immediately sounded big.
Back in those days, it was like, do we have the resources and the time to put together the full vision of this game? So, aswe’ve grown as a company, I feel like we can do more complicated things in our games. It just kind of made a lot of sense to revisit this idea. So it was re-pitched. Hector and a couple of other coworkers put together a pitch, and it was great. And we’re like, yeah, now’s the time to move forward with it.
Q: You mentioned thatLegends of Triviawas first pitched duringParty Pack 5. How did you decide thatParty Pack 11was the perfect time to develop and release this game?
A:I think resources were a big part of it. Just technology and things like that, so we could actually do it properly. Because it always intrigued us, and we always knew it would be a big game. So it just felt like, now’s the time to bring out a newtrivia game that feels like Jackboxbut also breaks new ground for us. It’s like anything else. When you do it, you want to do it right. And this felt like the time when we could actually do it right. So that’s exciting.
Q: The mix of collaborative and competitive elements definitely feels very Jackbox.
A:Yeah. Hopefully, we’re scratching that itch well.
Q: What challenges did you encounter while blending trivia and RPG to createLegends of Trivia?Would you describe it as a difficult game to develop?
A:In a way, yeah. Withtrivia games, it’s like - I answer the question, I get it right, and yay me. There’s my score. It’s a one-to-one. So, in game development, we start adding in more complexity that all has to be balanced and make sure that it feels good for the player. And not just a bunch of mud that makes you go “Well, why are we doing this?” That sort of thing.
So, getting it to feel good so thatattacking a monster and progressing in the worldmakes sense. That it fits with trivia. I think that was the number one, the first thing. We’re just like, how do we make it feel like a natural fit? And not like “we grabbed this, and we grabbed that, and we’re trying to smash them together.”
Q: When you’re designing a trivia game, how do you decide what topics to cover?
A:As a whole, we kind of leave it up to the writer - well, what are you interested in? What do you think is hitting? And then we’ll look at that whole sampling, and we’ll start making adjustments on that. For me, I’m almost fifty years old. So there are things I’ll ask, like - am I talking too much about the1990sright now? And if I need to, I’ll back off that.
So, in this one, I think we have made an effort to be like - there are questions we want everybody to be able to answer. That’s something we’ve had in our DNA for a long time. Or, you feel like you should know this whether you’re 70 or, let’s say, as young as 15. We want you to be like “Oh, yeah, this feels like I should know it.”
But also realize that there are just things in pop culture and things like that, which do need to be in. They’re satisfying to answer about. And if you feel like, I don’t know anything about whatGen Zis going through, that’s true, but you’ve probably heard of it. Or you can make an educated guess. The nice thing about playing trivia as a group is that all it takes is one person in your group to have a foothold.
Q: I love that it’s so different fromTrivia Murder Party,where you’re against each other. Here, you’re all on one team, that every member of your group is working together to fight the same monster.
A:In games I’ve directed, likePush the ButtonandPoll Mine,the thing I always like to look for is “what makes people yell at each other, or turn on each other a little bit?” So, yeah, it’s your group against the monster. But it has been funny to watch people try to get consensus on things. Suddenly, one person says “I know I’m right about this,” and then they turn out to be wrong. That’s been such a funny interplay that we’ve discovered.
Q: Jackbox games must be so fun to test.
A:They are.Anybody at our company can pitch a game. If you have an idea, it doesn’t matter what department you work in. You can even be an intern. If you have an idea, pitch it. Usually, when games get greenlit, the thing we’re looking for is - how quickly are you laughing? Or, at least, having a big reaction. If you’re having a reaction to the game, we can work with that. We can make it funny, or we can make it fun. So the things we’re testing out on a daily basis are probably causing some sort of calamity.[Laughs]
Q: Jackbox has done a lot of really great trivia games. How do you make a new one, such asLegends of Trivia,feel fresh?
A:It wasn’t 100% easy, but it wasn’t super hard. I do think it was there in my mind. Because I started out writing for theFacebookversion ofYou Don’t Know Jack,and I’ve worked on multiple versions of that, and theTrivia Murder PartiesandFibbages.I think there’s always something in the back of our heads as writers - “How else can we be doing this?”
And sometimes it’s like, “Frame it in a completely different way.” So we’ll be using images and different question types. But sometimes, as a writer, it’s just like “Oh, how can I write this differently in a way that makes you go ‘That’s a fun way to do things.'” If you played a bunch ofYou Don’t Know Jack,that was the whole premise of that.
We always described it as “high culture and pop culture.” So we’re going to take something from Shakespeare andScooby-Doo, and we’re going to twist them up. We’re not doing that so much [inLegends of Trivia, ]but we did try to think, “Okay, what’s another way that we can ask this question?” So that you’re smiling when you see it, or you go “Oh, you guys.” Things like that.
I think that’s always the hard part - make it so it’s not reading like somethingyou might hear at any old trivia, where it’s just a straight question sort of thing. If it’s a straight question, there’s probably a mechanical twist we’ve thrown in on top, because we don’t necessarily want to do two twists at the same time.
Legends Of TriviaFeatures A Fantasy Theme Inspired By Tabletop Games
Q: So, inLegends of Trivia,answering trivia questions will let you attack monsters. Can you tell us anything about the monsters players will be facing in the game?
A:I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll talk at a higher level. There are some that are very easy - you can knock them out by getting one question right. And some take more. This is a collaborative trivia game, so it’s more like going to pub trivia. The one difference, I would say, as someone who’s done a ton of pub trivia, is that pub trivia is always likesix people coming together and coming up with one answer. In this case, everyone can have their own individual answers.
So, let’s say you disagree with the group. you may be like, “Well, I think the answer is Antarctica. I’m still going to putAntarctica.” Let’s say we’re a group of six. If five people get it right, they could go do damage, and, if you got it wrong, you wouldn’t be doing damage. But, if you’re the person who did get it right, you could at least be like, “Aha, see. I told you.” So that’s kind of the gameplay with that.
So, with some monsters, if you have a perfect team consensus, you can knock them out very fast. Other monsters take much longer. You’re gonna sit with them for a little bit, and they might be a little tricky with the types of questions they ask you. It’s not all just straight “What is the answer to this?” We try to mix it up - asking “how do we interpret a trivia question?”
As a fan ofJackbox, you know, we’ve done things in games likeYou Don’t Know Jackwhere we present a trivia question, but we’ve twisted it in a way. We’re gonna just come at it from a different angle. And there’s a lot of that inLegends of Trivia,and we’ve made that very dependent on the personality of the monster. We’re really trying to tie it in to the monsters.
Q: I know there will be different characters you’re able to choose to play as inLegends of Trivia.Are the characters unique - do they have special abilities, or something like that?
A:They will have abilities. I don’t want to say too much about that, but there will be a reason to pick different characters.
Q: They look great, too - each immediately has such a distinct aesthetic to them.
A:Yeah, Hector and the other artists at Jackbox always knock it out of the park. I like the vampire and the cat, but I usually play as thepaladin, the knight. That’s my go-to. I test all day. I play the game probably eight times a day.
I’ve been really involved in thetesting process. On the director side, a lot of it has been “Could that be a little bit faster?” or “That part’s confusing.” So we’re constantly just combing through it, and it doesn’t really stop until they tell us “Okay, hands off the game, we have to send it to QA.”
Q: What has been the trickiest thing you’ve encountered throughout the development process ofLegends of Trivia?Has it been the trivia, the combat, or something else?
A:It wascombining the two. The hard thing was the collaborative trivia. If you’ve played pub trivia, you know, sometimes you get a know-it-all in your group. It can kind of feel like you aren’t needed. “Okay, well, I’ll go grab some beer for the table or something.” So it’s been making sure everyone has a way to contribute to the team.
And so, that’s where we really kind of leaned into some of thebattle mechanics. You can all agree on the answer, but you can also help with what your character can do, and things like that. So everyone has a purpose to be on the team.
And, you know, someone can think they know everything and they don’t. I think that’s my favorite thing we’ve seen in testing so far. Someone will answer two or three in a row, and then people will start to defer to that player - and then they don’t know the answer. Then they have to rethink how they’re operating as a group. So it was getting the group dynamics to feel good - that was the most challenging.
Q: One thing I like about Jackbox games is that there’s often a narrator or host-type character with a lot of personality. What sort of narrator or host will we be meeting inLegends of Trivia?
A:There is a narrator. You’ll have somebody leading you through the world. I can talk about it a little bit - I’ve got stuff that I don’t want to divulge, but you have abardwho is basically singing the songs of your glory as you go. And I think I’ll leave it at that.[Laughs]Not to be too cagey, but there’s stuff I want players to discover on Day One.
Q: Fair. I’m excited to meet the bard.
A:Narratorsand hosts do so much in our games. There’s always a right balance to hit with them - how much talking, the energy, things like that.
Q: The idea of a bard telling the story feels veryDungeons and Dragons.Did you draw any inspiration fromDungeons and Dragonsor other TTRPGs when developingLegends of Trivia?
A:Yeah. We have a lot of people who are very passionate aboutTTRPGs, is what we’ve discovered. And it’s tricky. Because RPGs have people who love them, and have very distinct ways they want to play.
And it’s like I was saying earlier. We’re trying to put two genres together, so we want to verify we service the people who likeRPGsand are expecting certain things to meet that bar. But also, there’s going to be people who pick this game up at Thanksgiving and want to play with their family. So, are they getting a good trivia experience as well? Is it a welcoming RPG? I think that’s where the balance is that we’ve really worked hard to hit.
Q: So RPG newbies can enjoy the game too?
A:Yeah. Because we’ve tied it in with the trivia. It’s like, if nothing else, you understand that you’re doing well, and it’s translating to action on the screen.
The Game Is Friendly To Newbies, But Also Challenging For Trivia Enthusiasts
Q: As someone who’s definitely been burned by pub trivia questions that are too detailed, or too specific - how do you determine what makes a good trivia question?
A:The ones I like personally, I really want to know the answer. Or, if I do know it, I’ve probably forgotten it, or I feel like I can get close. If you’re asking something where someone is like, “I don’t know,” it’s still interesting to them.
I tend to likesportstrivia questions, but I also know that those are kind of in the weeds sometimes. There’s a point, even with me, where I’m kind of like, “does anyone care?” So, if you feel that way, it doesn’t go in the game.
Any time you can make someone be like “Oh, I don’t know, but I would love to,” that’s good. To me, that’s what makesFibbagework. There’s crazy stuff in there, and you’re reading all the jokes, and you ask yourself, “What’s the right answer? I want to know.”
Q:Fibbageis one of the many examples of Jackbox putting a twist on the standard trivia formula. Are there any twists players can look forward to inLegends of Trivia?
A:Oh yeah, there are. I’m trying to think about what I want to divulge. Sometimes it will be the actualtype of trivia. We will be using pictures for some of them. I can’t say too much - I want to surprise people on Day One. But we do image trivia, which I think is very fun, because it relies on people really having to talk to decipher what you have - to ask “is this correct?”
And then a lot of other things rely on themonsters’ abilities. So you need to be sure to do well at certain points, otherwise this monster will attack in a different way or cause something to happen to you - that sort of thing. There are effects and things like that which may pop up. I think that’s the biggest twist.
Q: What advice would you give to teams looking to do well and have a successful run inLegends of Trivia?
A:It’s all about communication. People try to go rogue or on their own, and they always end up regretting it. It’s consensus, really. And if you may’t get that, then sometimes you do have to go rogue. But I love the people who are immediately like, “Oh, I know it.” And then, as the group keeps talking, it’s like, actually, no. I guess I have it wrong. So yeah, collaboration, I would say, is the big thing.
Q: What would you say the difficulty of the actual trivia questions is like, especially compared to previous Jackbox trivia games?
A:I would say it’s on the harder side. The reason is that one thing we learned very quickly is that six people together, which is the max size, are very smart. So we would ask a pretty difficult trivia question, but there was always one person in the group who knew it or could quickly get it. And so we were like, okay, we really need people to talk about this more.
The trick is, you don’t want to find punishing trivia that’s just like “Okay, whatever.” It’s more like, “Oh, that’s interesting. I didn’t know that. Let’s figure it out, because it feels like something we really want to know.” So I would say it’s on the harder side because we kind of have to be. Six people will suss it out pretty quickly.
Q: After officially announcingLegends of Trivia,what do the next few weeks look like for you and your team?
A:That’s a good question. I don’t actually know. I’m neck-deep in the game right now, so I don’t know what our marketing department has planned. I would assume, just looking atthe other games that have been announced [forParty Pack 11], I would assume we’ll probably have some footage out in the world pretty soon.
Q: I hope we learn more about the characters and their abilities.
A:Yeah, there are a lot of things like that which I’m really ready for people to see.[Laughs]
Q: I’m also curious, since you mentioned it was a big game, do you have an estimate of how many trivia questions will be appearing inLegends of Trivia?
A:It’s definitely north of 1000. And it’s gone up in the last month. I don’t know what the full number is, but yeah, there’s a good amount.
Q: What would you say the balance is between “high culture and pop culture” in terms of questions?
A:It’s a mix. We don’t want anyone walking away saying “oh, well, this game is just for this specific generation” or “It’s just sports” or something like that. It should feel like when you go to pub trivia - someone should hopefully chime in like “Ah, that’s my area, I’ve got this.”
Q: What are some of your favorite moments from testing and developing the game?
A:We had a lot of yelling moments. And it’s because we have a trivia type that I don’t want to spoil, but, basically, you really have to work together on this type of trivia question. It pops up pretty regularly. We have someone at our company who likes to be very certain about things, and has led the group astray so many times that now, when we go into sessions, it’s like “I trust you, but, also, I do not.” I think that it’s been more of an amalgam of three or four really favorite moments of someone leading everyone down a wrong path and then getting punished by the game for it.
Q:Poll Mineto me is one that’s infamous for getting groups to yell at each other in high-stress moments. DoesLegends of Triviacause more or less yelling thanPoll Mine,in your opinion?
A:I would say it’s probably on par withPoll Mine.The thing that I loved about that game - I pitched it and directed it - was that we had deliberate moments that were constructed to be like, “You’d better find the right one.” We phrased some questions in a way where players would be saying “Uh, oh no, it could be this one or that one,” but you were about to get hit by a monster, so you really had to make up your mind right then.
Q: Given the fantasy elements of the game, I’m imagining that Game Overs can be pretty rough - you can die horribly, stuff like that?
A:Yup.[Laughs]You have a health meter. It can be wiped out - that sort of thing.
Q: Is that a full game over - do you have to restart from the beginning?
A:We have a little bit of a different mechanic, because it’s always hard - we don’t want to straight up punish people in our games. But this is a game that should punish you. So we’re trotting something out which I think will kind of work for everyone who likesJackbox games.
Q: Ooh, that’s going to be tough, especially because the trivia will be challenging.
A:Even if you really like trivia and think you’re good at trivia, you should still feel very challenged by this game.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to tell Game Rant’s readers aboutLegends of Trivia?
A:We’re really looking forward to seeing how collaborative trivia is received by people, because it’s kind of a new area for us. Like, “Hey, let’s all work together.” We’re not trying to drive you apart, but you know what human nature does.[Laughs]So I just want people to know that this is a game where you should be working together, but you probably will turn on each other at certain times.
