The Jackbox Party Pack 11 is dropping on Xbox this fall, and we can’t wait for everyone to get to see what we’ve been working on! We have five, all-new games in this pack including a joke-writing game, a cozy drawing game, a sound effects game, a social deduction game, and a trivia role playing game, called Legends of Trivia!
Legends of Trivia is Jackbox’s newest trivia game, with a fantasy twist! In this new title coming to Party Pack 11, work cooperatively with your team to defeat monsters and villains by answering trivia questions correctly while trying to avoid the baddies hitting back!
We recently spoke to a few of the developers from the Legends of Trivia team, including Game Director, Warren Arnold, Lead Artist, Hector Padilla, and Audio Lead, Nate Sandberg.
How does Legends of Trivia work and how does working on it differ from past Jackbox games you’ve contributed to?
Warren Arnold : Players are given a trivia question which, when answered correctly, does damage to a monster. However, incorrect answers allow the monster to attack the players. Players work as a team to face increasingly difficult monsters and rack up as many points as they can in order to be considered “Legendary.”
Legends of Trivia is definitely one of the bigger games we’ve made, due to the fact that there’s a lot of action, animation, and balancing that are necessary to make this game come to life.
How did the team make decisions about the world this game exists in?
Hector Padilla: I actually pitched the first iteration of the game about five or six years ago! It was my first prototype. I was really happy with how it turned out, and it made it pretty far in the pitching process. People seemed to like it! Ultimately, we decided to put the idea on ice because there were still a lot of unanswered questions about the design.
Then recently, Nate (Sandberg, Jackbox Audio Lead) randomly asked me to send him all of the notes and designs I had accumulated during that pitch process and he made a small pitch team that successfully got the green light to make the trivia-RPG game that we’re working on now! A lot of years in the making!
What are some inspirations for the art and audio? What has been easy or challenging about designing Legends of Trivia’s art and audio?
Nate Sandberg: The 8 bit music in the Final Fantasy franchise, written by Nobuo Uematsu, imprinted on me hard. The arpeggiated analog synths, ear worm melodies, and driving bass lines in that soundtrack define fantasy and RPG music for me. I tried to bring some of that sound to Legends of Trivia. I mixed analog sounds with more traditional fantasy genre instruments like lute, bodhran, Irish whistle, cello, and trombone (the main instrument I actually play).
I had a clear idea of how the music should sound in this game, but it was a lot more serious and, at times, intense, than a lot of other Jackbox games. So one challenge has been trying to offset that intensity by bringing humor into the sound design for the game. I’ve ended up using some classic cartoon sound effects for monsters and characters to make things more funny and Jackboxy. And I threw in some jaw harp and contrabassoon for fun.
Hector: Yeah, I was a Final Fantasy fan like Nate, too. More than anything, I am a student (or a graduate?) from the school of Ken Sugimori, who was the primary visual designer of the Pokémon franchise since its beginning. His art was always a huge influence of mine. Character design is something that comes more naturally to me, but UI and layouts are always a struggle.
Do you have a favorite character you’ve created for this game, and why?
Hector: I grew to love Azura, The Princess Mage a lot because I worked on a lot of her animations. I really had to get in touch with the magical girl inside my heart. Also, Bingo, The Rogue Jester! People need to stop being afraid of clowns!
Do you have a favorite audio moment in the game? Why is it your favorite?
Nate: I think my favorite audio moment is the sound design for the ogre boss monster. Hector created this massive ogre riding a tiny donkey. I had so much fun creating sounds for those animations. I used cartoon inspired xylophones and squeaky toys for the donkey, which makes for a hilarious contrast with the big, bassy ogre sounds.
What do you hope to inspire players to experience or feel based on the game’s art and audio?
Hector: I hope that players really feel immersed in the game. I want them to feel like the choices that they make matter, where the moves they make really hit or the avatar they choose really fits the character they want to roleplay for 20 minutes.
Nate: I hope the music and sound design inspires a sense of story and nostalgia. And I hope some of the melodies stick with players like those classic RPG melodies did with me. Legends of Trivia, along with five other all-new games, are coming to The Jackbox Party Pack 11 this fall on Xbox! Follow Jackbox Games on Instagram and TikTok to keep up with our games as they get announced.