A new most recent entry in the Jackbox series released in late 2023, which presented a blend of new games as well as a Tee K.O. sequel. Party Pack 11 will feature five never-before-seen games for the franchise, with only one being officially announced so far: a social deduction game called Suspectives.

The noir-themed title tests players' knowledge of one another as well as their ability to stay calm under questioning. Players first answer personal questions about themselves, like describing the last photo in their camera roll or if they consider themselves to be a hater - but these tidbits may come back to bite them if they’ve secretly been given the role of criminal. Each person will be put in the hot seat by the others, having evidence weighed against them based on clues given about the perpetrator, followed by a vote on who’s guilty.

ScreenRant interviewed Tim Sniffen, the game director of Suspectives, to discuss the noir inspirations of the title, how it games, and how it will make you doubt all your friends.

Suspectives Will Have Everyone Hurling Accusations

“We’re Often Aiming For A Group Of People Shouting”

Being a hard-boiled detective is about many things: finding clues, collecting evidence, and aggressively threatening to throw the book at a no-good punk - in the case of Suspectives, these punks are also dear friends. Sniffer immediately saw the potential for playfully-combative fun during the initial pitch meeting for Suspectives, which drew him to the project. “We could call it spirited debate,” Sniffen says, “during the pitch, when people are like, ‘No you didn’t!’ ‘Yes I did!’ Within Jackbox, we always really look at that. We're often aiming for a group of people shouting and having a good time.”

Once players have answered the basic questions at the beginning of the game, things can quickly devolve into chaos. “There might be some where there's a right answer, and then that's a clue, like, ‘suspect does not know what a carburetor does.’ Then it would be like, ‘Fine! Tell us what it does! See? You don’t know!” They’re largely preferential, though, like asking how many cups of coffee one drinks in a day. These can also lead to revelations: if a player claims it’s just one, “you have people saying, ‘You're drinking coffee right now, that doesn't make sense!’”

You will know you're playing a Jackbox game from the crimes. That's been a real process of finding what still feels like a crime you're trying to solve and has a little bit of weight to it, but if there's room for written editorial fun, we will find it.

Suspectives isn’t just about playful arguing with friends, however - it’s also designed to help players know each other better. “It's really fun when you learn something about your friend group,” Sniffen says, sharing an instance where, during playtests, it came out that someone at Jackbox doesn’t make their bed every day. “Based on what we knew about that person, people's heads were exploding. I think that can be such a fun moment, if you walk away from a game like, ‘I never knew that you are willing to sneak your homemade pasta into a movie theater.’”

Even for those who don’t know each other, it’s been easy for groups of detectives to get into the game. The director excitedly shared that they’ve “had some play tests where people that, they're external play testers, we don't know them, they really get into it. I want to applaud, it’s so much fun.” All of this ties into one of the key principles of Suspectives: “We always love elevating the players so that they feel like the center of the game, and Suspectives absolutely leaves room for that.”

How Suspectives Compares To Previous Jackbox Games

“We Wanted To Give People Something New”

Suspectives isn’t Sniffen’s first foray into social deduction games - he previously directed Fakin’ It All Night Long, which was part of the Jackbox Naughty Pack. This experience certainly helped, but he and the team were also determined to not simply repeat what they’d done in the past. “We wanted to give people something new,” he says, “especially if people have other games from our catalog.” One of the biggest differences between Suspectives and past titles is the injection of personal details, instead of things like players taking on different identities or receiving mismatched action prompts that they have to explain away.

The game begins with “very easy questions anyone can answer, because they're about yourself, your life, your preferences. We really leaned into that, because for many of our previous social deduction games, we give you a scenario, and then the way that people react to it gives you clues of what's going on.” Things get much deeper in Supectives than other titles: “That moment of having to defend your choices in Faking It is pretty quick - you're just voting. Here we really expanded, there are people saying, ‘I think you're telling the truth,’ or, ‘I don't believe what you're saying.’”

The addition of personal elements also makes the title much more accessible, with the team’s aim being to create questions anyone can answer without thinking too much - a sense of ease that’s also a fun double-edged sword of sorts. “It would almost feel like a magazine quiz,” Sniffen says, “but you're giving people evidence while you do it.” Clarity is another hallmark of the game, as it’s key to facilitating good discussions, with Sniffen emphasizing that, “Everyone is clear on what they're doing, what you're heading towards.”

During interrogations, “players can take turns talking to each other, people can chime in.” There are several tools at their disposal, like marking down disbelief of certain suspects, and they can choose to go back to these players for additional questioning. There are also “ways of keeping track of the evidence so that you can say, ‘When you said that earlier, you then said something later that contradicts that, so what's going on here?’”

Crafting A Noir-Style Game With Distinctly Jackbox DNA

“We’ve Done Murder - We Haven’t Done Forklifting Without A License”

The world of Suspectives is delightfully stylized, taking on a noir theme that plays excellently with the faux-seriousness of its crimes. This motif “was a match early on that helped it feel very theatrical, and it kept it fun and light.” Sniffen credits much of this ambiance to lead artist Lev Cantoral, who drew inspiration from a myriad of sources, from other games like Grim Fandango to classic cop shows. “We honestly looked at episodes of things like Cagney & Lacey,” Sniffen says, “we looked at Colombo - we loved that very immersive investigation world.”

The environment is further brought to life by Suspectives’ audio lead Elise Wattman, who created a live jazz soundtrack for the game that’s incredibly inviting. Though Sniffen loves a lot of the music that’s gone into Jackbox games over the years, this score has particularly struck him: “It’s a game where we'll be in the lobby, and we'll say, ‘Do we want to not start it for another half a minute? I just want to keep listening to this.’”

The team even revisited their own prior social deduction games to determine “where does the fun come from? What do we want to lovingly leave with this other game, but make sure we do something different?” The franchise’s DNA is indeed very clearly woven into Suspectives: “You will know you're playing a Jackbox game from the crimes. That's been a real process of finding what still feels like a crime you're trying to solve and has a little bit of weight to it, but if there's room for written editorial fun, we will find it.”

“There were times when we were like, ‘We went too far. This is confusing and makes no sense whatsoever,’” but it was nonetheless fun for the team to experiment and branch out from the very killer-centric games of the past like Trivia Murder Party. “We've done murder - we haven't done forklifting without a license,” Sniffen says with a laugh, “and they have to be brought to justice.” Those no-good forklifters will soon have their time in the hot seat, as will many other absurd criminals, when Jackbox Party Pack 11 releases this fall.

The Jackbox Party Pack 11 will release some time later this year for PC, Mac, and all major consoles.