Introduction

Whether it’s physical distance or social distancing, your family, friends, coworkers, or team can still enjoy a fun, bond-building game using teleconferencing. This guide explains how to host, play, or attend a game via a video conference meeting. Playing a Jackbox game is a great option because only the host needs to own the game.

Terminology

Jackbox: JackboxGames.com publishes nearly three dozen games (as of Spring 2020), many suitable for remote play. Advanced knowledge of their games is not required and instructions are provided in, during, and by the game. But if you are curious, their website has videos to demonstrate the gameplay and a page with details for each game’s features.
Remote Play: The ability to play a game where each player is physically separated from the other players and uses video conferencing to see the game and to interact with other players.
Room Code: A short, four-letter code that attendees type into a web page to join a game
Video Conference: Jitsi, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc. are meeting products that allow attendees to share a video conference call using a computer or tablet. The host should use a product that shares not only their screen, but also the audio (the humorous narration, music, and sound effects are a big part of the fun of a Jackbox game).

Players & Audience

Below are the steps that the players and audience take to join remote play of a Jackbox game. The instructions for the host of the game follows this section, although it would precede the player steps chronologically.

You need TWO screens*

The first screen is used to see and hear the game prompts and other players. This device should have a webcam. Although a camera is optional for some games, it is required for bluffing games or when the body language of the other players is integral to the game play. I’ll refer to this first screen as the “computer” but a good tablet (iPad) can also be used.
The second screen is a smartphone or tablet and runs a web browser. This second device is used to interact with the game. Some games use drawing so this device should have a touchscreen. I’ll refer to this other device as the “phone” in the instructions that follow.

* A computer and smartphone combination is recommended and most likely. But one computer with a dual screen configuration could serve as both devices. Or you could split a single screen with one half used to view the game and the other half with the browser for interacting with the game. But the player would be at a disadvantage when drawing with a mouse and have the advantage for games favoring fast typing.

On the computer, join the video conference. Depending on the software used, this can often be launched from your calendar if the host sent you a meeting invite. The appointment will have a link that can be used to start the software and join the call.

The JackBox.TV URL in the Safari browser on an iPhone

On your phone launch the browser (Safari, Google Chrome, Firefox, etc.) and go to https://Jackbox.TV. You can bookmark this URL so you don’t have to type it in when a new game starts.

Most of the games are 15 to 20 minutes in duration and allow up to 8 players. If you have a larger group, most games have an audience feature. They can join as an audience participant and can answer surveys, attempt to mislead players, or provide input that influences the game.

Players are the FIRST to join the game (that is, enter the Room Code). If you’re participating as an audience member, wait until the players have finished entering their Room Code.

Do I even have to remind players not to cheat?

Do not use Google, Wikipedia, etc. to answer trivia questions
Do not write words or numbers in drawing games

Troubleshooting

An example phone screen showing a trivia question and its answer options.

Sometimes your phone won’t update (e.g., show the multiple-choice answers for a trivia question). This has been known to happen for both Android and iOS phones. Whatever you do, DO NOT close the browser since that will kick you out of the game and you cannot rejoin. Instead, hit the REFRESH icon, and the screen should update. After a game is over you can try these mitigations:

Make sure the browser you’re using has cookies and JavaScript enabled
Try a different browser (e.g., Chrome and Firefox are available for iPhone)
Disable ad blockers (they don’t always play nice with Jackbox.TV)
Disable extensions that may affect cookies or browsing history (e.g., the Evernote chrome extension)
Clear the cache, cookies, and history from your web browser. Then close and reopen your web browser
- For iOS Safari: >Menu (••• button) >Safari >Clear History and Website Data
- For Google Chrome (Android & iOS)
  - iOS: >Menu (••• button) >History >Clear Browsing Data
  - Android: >Menu >Settings >History >Clear Browsing Data

Hosting Games

This section is for the host and can be ignored by players and audience members.

Meeting Software

I recommend Jitsi because it is free, has clients for all major platforms, and supports audio sharing. (I had problems sharing audio using Google Hangouts (now Google Chat), Google Meet, Skype, and Skype for Business.) I also appreciate the Jitsi meeting code links, which can be user selected.

Zoom is popular, but the free version has a 40 minute time limit. This should be plenty for a single game.
Microsoft Teams is an excellent option if your company has licensed this product. You can download Teams for free and it might be feasible if all the participants have a Microsoft account of some sort. As of this writing, a consumer version of Team had just been announced but was not yet available. When using Teams, be sure to set “Include System Audio” to ON before selecting the screen to share.
Discord is popular among computer gamers and is an option if all the players already have this installed. Its interface is a bit challenging for an average person to navigate and configure, however.

If you must use an audio-challenged solution, its shortcoming might be overcome, with patience and persistence, by a technically competent host. Because each system is unique, audio configuration is too big a topic to include in this article. My advice is to switch to a meeting product (like Jitsi) that has good audio support. Wrestling with audio configuration to compensate for a meeting product’s missing features is usually the much harder and complex route. But if you’ve no choice, then using “Stereo Mixer” as Input Source on Windows, using VB-Audio’s software mixers and virtual audio cables, or physically mixing the computer’s output back into the microphone input using hardware are possible workarounds. The Control Panel Sounds dialog and the Open Sound Settings in the System Tray (speaker icon) will be where most audio configuration happens.

Dress Rehearsal

Before hosting a Jackbox game, get together with a coworker or friend and test your setup to ensure there are no technical surprises that will ruin your party. Check that the game volumes and player levels can both be heard and that one isn’t excessively louder than the other. Also change the game settings in advance—below are the ones I tend to use:

Extended Timers: ON (compensates for internet latency)
Write/Draw: OFF (some games will occasionally have a mechanic that requires players to draw a picture or do a lot of typing, so you can choose to disable them if that makes the game flow better)
Audience: ON (if you’ve got more attendees than the maximum player limit)
Full Screen: OFF (leaves room for player webcam feeds on the screen)
Hide Room Code: ON (for large groups so you can control designated players and prevent audience members from stealing their slots).
Start Game from Controller: ON (the host controls when the game starts instead of the player who entered their room code first. Also gives the host a chance to give an overview of the game as needed.)
Family Friendly: ON

As part of your dress rehearsal, make a list of tasks to be done before starting a game. This includes turning off noisy equipment like a window air conditioner, muting other computers and devices, closing doors, adjusting lighting, etc.

Game Day

When sending out your game invites (with the link to your virtual meeting), be sure to include some time at the beginning to work out the kinks, especially if any participants are new to video conferencing. You might also take the opportunity to include the player and audience instructions from above. And give an overview of the game(s) that will be played.

The games that I’ve found to be most popular are Murder Trivia Party series, You Don’t Jack Fullstream, Fibbage series, Quiplash series, and the Drawful games. Both Quiplash 2 and Drawful 2 also allow the creation of custom game prompts if you want to tailor a game to a specific work or family context. If you don’t already own these games, be aware that the Party Packs are a mix of winners and losers. Not all Jackbox games are equally fun to play. Some only work if the players are especially witty and funny. Others are good only for a single play because of their novelty.