JACKBOX GAMES WRITER

Jackbox Games is best known for its rapidly expanding catalog of critically acclaimed party games, including You Don't Know Jack, Quiplash, Drawful, Fibbage and Trivia Murder Party. We hope to build on our successful business by pushing the boundaries of party games with new technology, new game concepts and new forms of interactivity. We also hope the sandwich shop doesn't put too much mayonnaise on our sandwich next time.

Our players interact with a game displayed on a screen using their phones or tablets as controllers. While our games are often played at home in small groups of 2-8 people, we also support large-scale games at conferences or via Twitch streaming, where thousands of users can connect and interact.

We're a small group (around 35 people) of very talented, funny and creative individuals looking for writers to join our Chicago-based team. Check out our website for more info about who we are and what we make: www.jackboxgames.com.

HOW QUAINT… BUT WHAT'S THE JOB?

Jackbox Games is in search of writers who can generate lots of hilarious and smart (but sometimes dumb) content, on a deadline, for a variety of projects. The writing on these projects ranges from absurd prompts that set players up to be funny, to well-researched, surprising trivia questions that are succinct, funny and smart (but again, also sometimes dumb). A Jackbox Games writer is also expected to pitch ideas and help to make other game ideas even better.

Responsibilities

• Write (frankly absurd amounts of) funny content.
• Do rigorous and well-documented research.
• Participate in punch-up sessions and group brainstorms.
• Graciously accept and integrate feedback.
• Adhere strictly to deadlines.

What skills and experiences are we looking for?

• A killer sense of humor that can be molded to a project's directives and purpose
• Computer proficiency and adaptability to proprietary writing tools
• The ability to work well in groups
• A love of games (tabletop games, party games, video games) with a special bonus for game design experience

ANYTHING ELSE?

Yes. We only hire nice, bright, funny people who are willing to work hard. Jackbox Games is a group effort, and you must be capable of working collaboratively with creative, technical and sales types. Everyone here shares a commitment to excellence and a desire to work in a comfortable, friendly atmosphere.

Jackbox Games is committed to providing employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, ancestry, age, veteran status or disability.

ARE THERE ANY PERKS?

• Casual dress and a flexible schedule.  Come in a sweatshirt, jeans, whatever, like everyone else here.
• Creative work environment. We are lucky to work in a place that is full of intelligent, talented and innovative folks. Although most hours the place is deathly quiet (we're a focused bunch), it's punctuated with hilarious outbursts and general merriment, which makes for a nice way to spend the day.
• Easy transportation. We're really close to the “L” and the Halsted (#8) bus (right by the new Apple Store and Mega Whole Foods).
• Snacks

INTERESTED?

Great! We look forward to reading your application. Make sure it includes:

• Cover Letter - Highlight why you would be great for the job. Ideally it's funny. Helpful hint: We'll be reading a LOT of these, so giving us the relevant information quickly (and memorably) will definitely be in your favor. If it's longer than a page it'll make us sad and cause us to wearily lay our heads down on our desks and forget everything we've read.
• Resume
• 3 Humorous Multiple-Choice Trivia Questions – Write three funny trivia questions that surprise us, make us laugh, radiate with brilliance and weird ideas… while still totally working as answerable trivia questions that feel fair. Each question must include four (4) multiple choice answers and one to two (1-2) links from reputable websites that support the fact's authenticity (examples provided below).
• 10 Funny Game Host Intro Lines – Write 10 one-liners for a host to say at the beginning of a game. The host can be you, one of the actual hosts of one of our games, or it can be a made-up host. We don't have a preference. Whatever helps you write the funniest intro lines, and best shows off what you can do (examples provided below).

Submit your application through our hiring portal (which may be this page you're on right now, but if not, you can find it at: https://jackbox-games.breezy.hr/)

If you decide to apply, please know that every complete application will be carefully reviewed. We know it's a time commitment to prepare an application, and we respect that effort by thoughtfully reviewing every complete application and responding one way or the other. But that kind of thoughtful review means it sometimes takes us a while to get back to applicants, so please, NO PHONE CALLS. The time we spend responding to phone calls and emails is time that we could be spending actually moving the process along–so please be patient with us!

Thanks for your interest in Jackbox Games!  

TRIVIA QUESTION EXAMPLES

See this video example for typical Jackbox gameplay.  

_How would you read comedian Will Forte's name if it were accompanied by the musical notation “forte”?   _

1.    WILL FORTE!!!!!! (correct answer)

2.    will forte…

3.    Wiiiiiiilllllllllll Fooooooorrrtttttteeeee

4.    wiLL fOrTe  

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com...

Hey… what's up?

1. The lithosphere
2. The aesthenosphere
3. The cryosphere
4. The mesosphere (correct answer)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M... 

Kelsey Grammer was the subject of the show Frasier. Grammatically, in which of the following is Kelsey Grammer the SUBJECT of the sentence?

1. “I am on a camping trip with Kelsey Grammer.”
2. “Kelsey Grammer's knife goes missing from the tent.”
3. “Kelsey Grammer rips the tent to shreds, screaming my name in anguish.” (correct answer)
4. “I am being hunted by Kelsey Grammer.”

Source: https://leo.stcloudstate.edu/grammar/verbsub.html 

ERMAHGERD, U HAV GERD? SERRY BOUT UR…

1. FEET SWERLLING
2. ACID REFLURX (correct answer)
3. LIVER DERSEASE
4. ERRLEGY TO GLURTEN

Source: https://www.britannica.com/sci... 

Which of these poorly self-constructed answers mentions the founder of IKEA?

1. Stieg Larsson the answer of course is
2. Stefan Edberg it did in 20th century
3. Ingvar Kamprad was it started by (correct answer)
4. Doph Lundgren founder is of it

  Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-... 

And now… a backward question:

Kiss silk

1. Fleek elf
2. Taco cat (correct answer)
3. Denise sinned
4. Which of these is a palindrome?

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.co... 

_ _

Which of the following Big Sean lyrics demonstrates the rhetorical device epizeuxis?

1. “Okay, drop it to the floor, make that ass shake (shake, shake…)”
2. “Built a house up on that ass; that's an ass-state”
3. “Woah, make the group move: that's an ass-quake”
4. “Ass ass ass ass ass/ ass ass ass ass” (correct answer)

Source: https://www.britannica.com/art... 

HOST INTRO EXAMPLES

These examples are provided to give you a loose example of length. These are pulled from some of our existing games, but again, your 10 host intro lines don't have to be.

1. Hi, I'm Cookie Masterson, and if you don't believe in mermaids, then what is this right here? Huh? [SFX: dolphin squeaks]
2. Hello! Welcome to Dictionarium! A magical kingdom where the #1 export is words. And the #1 import is corn.
3. Oh hello. Welcome to Dictionarium! Don't forget, a sentence is a long sequence of things that ends with a period. Like my childhood.
4. Hey, this is is Cookie, and sometimes I enjoy gazing out this window during the game and OH MY GOD I THINK I JUST WITNESSED A MURDER!