Joke Boat

Joke Boat

Joke Boat game tile
Internal name	Jokeboat
Part of	The Jackbox Party Pack 6
Game type	Speaking, Writing
Hosted by	Captain Chuck Hull
Number of players	3-8
Game duration	15 Minutes
Languages	English
Genre	Party
Director	Spencer Ham
Producer	Luke Cody
Website	jackboxgames.com

	HEADS UP! This page is under construction.
	Pardon our dust—not all information is available.

Joke Boat is a party video game and one of five games featured in The Jackbox Party Pack 6.

Gameplay

In Joke Boat, players assume the role of amateur comics competing in a talent show on a cruise ship dubbed the "Sea Minus" (a pun on C-, a below average grade), run by Captain Chuck Hull (a pun on the word chuckle), voiced by Kevin Sciretta.

Upon joining the lobby through Jackbox.TV, the player is greeted with a prompt asking to fill in one of three topics for their catchphrase, which will come into play later.

The main gameplay consists of three parts:

• The first part involves brainstorming. Players write as many topics as they can (such as an animal, object, person's name, location, food, brand, and plural noun) until time runs out.

• The second part is creating the joke set-up: Players are given one of two joke set-ups to pick from. They then select one of three topics (including player submissions)—if none of those topics suit them, they have the option to reset their choices, however, it can only be done once.

• The third and final part is creating the punchline: Players type in their punchline up to 80 characters—if they can't come up with anything, the player can use the "Joke for Me" button, which will create a pre-made punchline for them, while also deducting half the points.

During the writing process, there are Captain's Logs that appear, with their time and date matching the computer's time and date.

After everyone's jokes are submitted (or time runs out), Captain Chuck introduces the comics through a segue animation, before the first player is called to perform their stand-up through a ventriloquist dummy. On the controller, the player has a choice:

• I'll Perform the Joke: Allows the player to have them speak their joke while it's typed on-screen, followed by the catchphrase they selected—Captain Chuck will remind the player to say their catchphrase the first time this option is selected.

• Perform the Joke for Me: Allows the player's dummy to speak their joke in gibberish (voiced by various members of the Joke Boat design team), while the joke is typed on-screen, followed by the catchphrase they selected.

The second player then does the same thing as the first player—after both jokes are finished, the players (along with the audience) vote on which one is their favorite.

After all the players put in their votes (or time runs out), the votes are counted, and the player with the most votes wins the match, with both comics splitting the score (1000 points) based on the percentage.

The winning player receives a 100 point bonus, unless they sweep their opponent, which will result in a 250 point "Crushed It" bonus. If another player's submitted topic is used for a joke, the player who submitted that topic gets a 100 point bonus.

If a player's answer isn't submitted in time, they've has basically "choked" and the other player's joke wins automatically. (The same thing applies if the VIP censors the player's joke while it's being read.)

Afterwards, the next two players are up, and the cycle is repeated. After all the jokes are read, the scoreboard is shown on-screen, and all the players move onto the next round.

The number of rounds depends on the number of players:

• If a game contains 3 to 5 players, there are three rounds. The second round plays similar to the first—players are prompted to create two more jokes, and the point values are doubled. Afterwards, the final round's points are tripled.

• If a game contains 6 to 8 players, there are two rounds—the final round's points are doubled.

Before the final round begins, the Sea Minus speeds towards a rubber duck in its way and touches it, causing the ship to suddenly stop before capsizing. Captain Chuck then reminds the players that they're "sinking again" and that there's no time to write jokes from scratch.

In the final round, players have to pick one of two existing jokes to recycle (one is worth a regular value, while another is worth a bigger value), before being prompted to type in a different punchline. The gameplay works similar to the first round: The comic performs their joke, before players (and the audience) vote on whether or not they're better than the original. (If a player chokes at least once during a regular round, a Captain Chuck puppet will fill in the gap for the final round.)

After all the jokes are read, the final scores are revealed before the ship sinks. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins a life vest, and stays aboard Chuck's last remaining lifeboat (dubbed the "Wee Minus") before the credits roll.

Development

Joke Boat was one of the first games Brooke Breit designed and pitched for Jackbox Games—she was working on a concept for a game with a joke telling mechanic without a theme, and studio writer Claire McFadden said, "What if it was on a boat?"

The game was pitched as "Joke Boat" before getting greenlit—unlike most Jackbox games in development, the game's title remained the same throughout its development cycle.

The design team are as follows:

• Spencer Ham - Director and Writer
• Brooke Breit - Original Design and Writer
• Pascal Pochol - Ledd Engineer
• Andy Poland - Audio Lead
• Owen Watson - Lead Artist

Contributing writers consist of Tom Gottlieb and Brian Rodriguez-McGovern.

Jackbox.TV controller engineering for Joke Boat, along with the rest of the games in The Jackbox Party Pack 6, was handled by Alex Swan and Chase McClure.

Additional Sound Design was provided by Avery Makel.

Additional art and animation was provided by Steff Egan, Erik Voigt, and Patrick deBardelaben—Joke Boat marks Steff Egan's first Jackbox game she worked on, providing the animation for the Captain's Logs.

Production management for Joke Boat, along with the rest of The Jackbox Party Pack 6, was handled by Luke Cody.

QA management for Joke Boat, along with the rest of The Jackbox Party Pack 6, was handled by Steve Pakal.

Joke Boat was first teased on the Jackbox Games social media accounts on July 13th, 2019, with a short video of a captain and his parrot sinking into the ocean, before it cuts to the words "COMING SOON" on a black background.

Three more teasers were posted over the course of a month:

• July 20th, 2019: A picture of the captain and the parrot looking at the viewer while the word "Ahoy!" is shown on-screen.

• July 30th, 2019: A looped video of a framed picture of the captain holding a puppet in a wedding dress floating underwater.
• August 6th, 2019: A looped video of the off-screen captain holding a Captain's Log with an animated drawing of the captain in tears that reads: "If you listen to the ocean, it is almost always making fun of you."

Joke Boat was officially announced as game four of Party Pack 6 on August 23rd, 2019. Smosh Games revealed an in-development version of the game that same day. The build has a few differences compared to the final version, such as:

• The purple-colored background is blue.
• The female puppet avatars have visible eyeliner.
• The Sea Minus is shown sinking in the background during the credits sequence.
• A few animations are missing.

A near-final build of the game was later shown off live during The Jackbox Party Club on September 12th, 2019.

Gallery

• 
  The main menu screen for Joke Boat.
• 
  Captain's Log, displays different entries while players are writing their jokes.