February 2022 Family Game Time – Jackbox Games

It is the last day of February today, and I am coming in just under the wire with this post friends. We had a bit of a crazy February with weather and car shopping and dinner theatre at our high school and auditions and classes and two birthdays and a wedding. I wasn’t sure this was going to be a month where we hit this goal. It wasn’t looking good. And then, yesterday we found a pocket of time in the afternoon to play a few Jackbox Games together. It wasn’t a long pocket of time, but it was enough. I think we all walked away feeling a little more connected to each other. And that’s really the point, isn’t it?

We started our time playing Drawful 2. We have usually been big fans of this one, and it did not disappoint this time. Keith and I actually tied for this round – something that has not happened before, but I think we all had some pretty funny/interesting drawings. To get into the game, you have to go to Jackbox.tv on your phone or tablet and enter the code shown on your computer. Once everyone has done that, you can start playing. When the game starts, every player is given a prompt to draw. Then everyone is shown the drawings and writes what they think the prompt could have been. In the end, everyone tries to guess which is the true prompt for each drawing. It really is a lot of fun! Here are a few highlights:

The next game we tried is Quiplash. For this one, you are given prompts and you write funny quip – like a witty description or summary. The game pairs up two players for each prompt, and you blind vote for the quip you like best. This one is harder for Charlotte because of the writing and her dyslexia, but I think she ended up in second and I lost big time. Maddie was the big winner of this one. Here are a few highlights:

The final game we played this time was Guesspionage. For this game, each player gets a turn each round. You are given a question that involves a percentage of people – like “What percentage of people like Jackbox Games?” You set the percentage to your best guess, and then everyone else gets to guess if the real answer is higher or lower. Some of the questions are pretty obviously high or low, but some are really difficult to guess. The answers come from polling people online, so that is always at least in the back of my mind because I think it does narrow down which people would be answering. The big winner for this game was Charlotte, mostly because she was just really good at guessing the percentages on her turn. Here are some of the questions we had:

I know that we will definitely play some Jackbox games again – either as a family or with our friends. It is enjoyable for larger groups and can be done completely online, so it was our go-to for a while during quarantine.

Have you ever played any Jackbox games? Which is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!

March 2020 Adventure Date

Our March Adventure Date ended up being a triple date! We used the platform Zoom to have a game night with friends. We ran Jackbox Games on one machine and then had a separate machine that we participated on. Our friends Matt and Beth Fox (and their daughter Zara for a few rounds) and Brent and Jenny Small were able to join us through the wonder that is the internet. It was amazing to be able to laugh and interact with everyone even though we were obeying Governor DeWine’s Stay-at-Home order. We seriously live in the best time period for something like this to have happened. Can you even imagine it in the 80s when we were children? School would have had to send work through the mail or through weekly pick up, teachers would probably have to call every family separately each week, Grandpa and Grandma would never see what the grandkids were up to… We would be going absolutely nuts stuck at home with just each other! At least we have YouTube for virtual classes and streaming services to binge watch sitcoms or crime shows or Disney movies. We are so very lucky!!

Anyway, for our game night, we played Quiplash 2, Drawful, Fibbage 2, and Trivia Murder Party. I think everyone had some success, had some defeat, and had some belly laughs. It was one of the best evenings I have had since this whole “quarantine” thing happened. It was nice to see people other than my husband and kids, and it was so nice to use my brain in ways I have not had to for a while. 10 out of 10 would do it again – and often!

How have you been keeping busy at home? Do you have other games we could play remotely? Share your ideas in the comments!