You Don’t Know Jack about Allard Laban – PAX Interview

We have a special guest joining us today on the DezDoes couch – the brilliant and imaginative Allard Laban, Chief Creative Officer at Jackbox Games. Allard has been at the helm of some of the most entertaining and beloved party games, bringing laughter and fun to millions around the world.

In this interview, we’ll dive into Allard Laban’s creative process, explore the inspirations behind your favourite Jackbox games, get a sneak peek at what’s coming next & just get to know this innovative mind.

Get ready for an exciting and insightful chat with one of the key figures behind the games that have made your game nights & your PAX unforgettable.

Dez: The first question is pretty easy. What inspired you to start working on party games? How did You Don’t Know Jack come to be?

Allard Laban: I’m going way back—way back. I worked on the first *You Don’t Know Jack* in 1995. At the time, I was working at a company called Berkeley Systems in San Francisco, but every morning I’d drive over the Bay Bridge. It’s California living—everyone’s driving.

I carpooled with some other guys from Berkeley Systems—different artists. One day, my boss said, “Hey, can you come in here and check this thing out? We’ve got this guy from Chicago with a game idea.” That guy was Harry Gottlieb, founder of Jellyvision.

At that point, the company was called LearnTelevision, which we convinced them to change to something cooler. Harry was demoing this HyperCard stack. I don’t know if you’re familiar with HyperCard, but it was a high-level scripting language based on the metaphor of cards, where you could link them together and create simple functions. Harry wasn’t a programmer, but he was great at getting the effect he wanted. He was a TV guy—a film producer—and he designed this quasi-interactive audio experience.

That was the original You Don’t Know Jack.

How long did it take to progress from what you saw that day to the finished version?

That was my job—to take that HyperCard stack and turn it into a product, adding fancy graphics.

At first, people were saying, “We need video. We need a video host. Let’s use this magic window video technique, like in Myst, where you can play a tiny QuickTime video seamlessly in the environment.” I had a hot take: “We shouldn’t see the host. Just use the voice.” It was like radio, but interactive radio—that was cool to me.

This made the art simpler, and in fact, we kept it as minimal as possible. We abstracted the idea of TV. In the end, it was the right choice because it made people listen as well as look. It wasn’t just about the visuals—it was about the dialog and the writing. That’s what made it compelling.

That’s still one of our core tenets today: We hire from the Chicago improv community because everyone’s an amazing writer. As a designer, I’d rather design fun things with funny words than just focus on art for art’s sake.

We took that HyperCard demo, and it wasn’t without a lot of effort and long nights. I saw the demo in April or May of 1995, and we shipped You Don’t Know Jack that November.

After that, I got a job offer from Disney and worked there for about five years. I worked on kids’ programs and a game called Magic Art Studio—a painting and drawing program, sort of like Kid Pix, but Disney’s take on it. That experience influenced a lot of what we do now with Drawful and our drawing games.

But going back to You Don’t Know Jack, that core premise of a simple, engaging experience that brought people together is still what we strive for in every Jackbox game we make.

That’s one thing I love about You Don’t Know Jack—even when playing the older versions, it still feels the same. Sure, things have improved, but it still has the same soul. Even the newer versions have that nostalgic feel. Have you tried to keep that nostalgic vibe?

It’s our language—our visual and audio language. We know how to speak it.

It just works. I think you’ve found something really great. I know, every year at PAX, if I’m tired or not feeling like doing much, I just pull up a beanbag and before I know it, hours have passed and I’m still playing. It’s one of those games that never ages and always feels like a great time.

It’s funny because I remember when I was working at Disney, and people would ask, “So, what were you doing up in Northern California?” I’d say, “I was working on this game.” Then, one time, I put You Don’t Know Jack on a big screen at a party in the main conference hall, and everyone gravitated toward the screens.

This gave me the opportunity to work on the CD-ROM version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? as a creative producer. There was only one team that could pull that off—and that was Harry Gottlieb’s team in Chicago. So, I called them up. The host for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in the U.S. was Regis Philbin, by the way. I Don’t know if you know who that is?

I follow too much American TV & sports. I’m also a Cowboys fan and a Blue Jays supporter, but don’t judge me—I used to live in Toronto.

I lived on Queen Street. Toronto’s great. My wife and I did a North American tour—New York City, Toronto, San Francisco, LA, and then Chicago. Chicago is an amazing city.

Here’s a potentially life-threatening question: Deep Dish or New York-style pizza? This is as much a personal question, as it is for the interview.

You can put this in the interview—because it’s controversial. New York-style pizza is the greatest pizza of all time. New York has the best pizza in America, hands down. Don’t even get me started on deep dish. There are a couple of places in Chicago that make good deep dish, which I’ll always be happy to eat. But if it’s apples to apples, it’s always New York!

Now, where were we?

I ended up working with Jellyvision on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. After years at Disney, where I had access to great artists and big budgets, there’s something special about how Jellyvision does things—how they write, how they make things funny, and how it feels real. I told my wife, “I’ve got an offer from Macromedia and one from Jellyvision.” Macromedia offered me a cool job back in San Francisco, but we decided to move to Chicago. It just felt like the creative environment would be more interesting, and it has been.

I’m all for that mindset. I tell people all the time: money’s good, but sometimes you just have to follow what you love. That brings me to a question—how has your role as Chief Creative Officer evolved since you joined Jellyvision? And I have to say, that’s the coolest job title ever!

Back when I got the job in the early 2000s, it wasn’t long before I became the Chief Creative Officer. Jellyvision shifted when the market for casual games dropped, and we had to pivot. We ended up creating a digital agency that focused on.

I was going to leave this one for the end, but it’s a fun one: If you could play You Don’t Know Jack with three people, living or dead, who would they be?

Oh, wow. That’s a tough one. I’d want to make it an interesting group. Maybe someone like Conan O’Brien—just inherently funny. But I’d also want someone who might surprise you, like a philosopher or Einstein—someone who’s secretly funny but you wouldn’t expect. And then I’d throw in someone I want to shock.

I come from a board game reviewer background before tech, and I’ve seen You Don’t Know Jack style card game replicated many times, but this is the first time I’ve seen it in a video game format—and it just works. Was it hard to adapt a game that seems better suited for the board into a video game?

We take a lot of inspiration from board games. We think of ourselves as a modern board game. We compare ourselves to Parker Brothers. They made so many different games, and we want to be as prolific. Not every game’s a mega hit, but that’s okay. Some people just love the form, no matter how it’s realized.

We want to make accessible games. Sometimes, we’ll try pushing ourselves to do something more “gamer-like” with more strategy, but those are often harder for our fans to appreciate. Our games need to be for everyone—family and friends. We’re not aiming specifically for kids or older people. We’re aiming for everyone.

You’ve done an incredible job balancing that. Kids can get involved, but it’s not childish. Adults don’t feel like they’re playing a kids’ game. How have you balanced that?

One, we make games we like to play. And two, it’s all about accessibility. It’s not about whether it’s for kids or older people—it’s about making it easy to understand. The user experience has to be simple.

I’ll go back to the original You Don’t Know Jack. The sign-in process was very intentional—it had to be as simple as possible. Back then, with 486s and command windows, things weren’t user-friendly. We wanted to make sure players could just start playing, without thinking too much about it. You could turn it on, and the host would walk you through the process step by step.

As Jackbox has grown, it’s kept its unique charm. Every time I see a new one, I think, “Far out, I’ve got to try it.” You get sucked in right away. Every year at PAX, the Jackbox game area is always full & getting a bean bag is almost impossible. I’ve also found You Don’t Know Jack is the easiest way to sober someone up—just throw on You Don’t Know Jack, and they get totally absorbed. Three hours later, you’re still playing, and it’s so addictive.

I’ve never heard that before.

We did that once. We had a drunk mate, and we put You Don’t Know Jack on the TV and told him to play. Before we knew it, eight of us were playing, and we forgot to take the food off the BBQ. But it’s one of those games where you get totally absorbed, no matter what platform you’re playing on. It’s crazy how it’s changed & evolved while staying the same over the years, even though technology has changed.

Well, the benefit of being part of a pack of games is that we can experiment. We’ve got our go-to genres, like sequels and drawing games, but also more niche genres, like presentation games where you improvise with slides. Some people love them, others don’t. We embrace that. Not everyone will like everything, but we aim for most people to enjoy most games.

That’s something I’ve noticed. Many games change so much over time, but Jackbox games stay true to what made them great. That’s impressive, especially since You Don’t Know Jack has been around for so long.

Exactly. It’s about focusing on the core idea and making it work. Ideas are easy to come by, but the trick is in the execution. Even with something as simple as Drawful, there’s a certain magic to it. People add their own spin on a prompt, and that’s where the fun comes from.

I imagine playtesting must provide some brilliant moments. The ridiculousness and fun of your games feel like they come from those testing sessions.

Absolutely. We record everything in playtests. You wouldn’t believe some of the moments that happen—stuff we could never imagine ourselves.

I’ve bought so many Jackbox games during Steam sales. Sometimes I don’t even play them right away, but I just buy them because they have that nostalgic feeling, even if they’re only a year old.

That’s the beauty of user-generated content in games like Drawful or Quiplash. You can play the same prompts over and over, but depending on the people, it’s always fresh. We try to set people up to be funny, and if we do it right, it’s different every time.

 That’s what’s brilliant about it—you leave things open to interpretation, which brings out the humour. It’s easy to go the precise route, but making it broad just lets the chaos unfold.

That’s my favorite part of Jackbox too—when a simple prompt turns into something completely bizarre and hilarious.

Have you noticed how different cultures respond differently to the games? Things you thought would work in one place might take a different turn in another.

That’s interesting. I’ve seen similarities across countries—whether it’s the U.S., Germany, or Australia, people tend to have the same sense of humour. Germans especially love You Don’t Know Jack—it really hit home for them. Humour’s cultural, but at the end of the day, everyone’s looking to make a joke.

I’ve spent some time in Germany, and they’ve got a very unique sense of humour.

Yeah, they’re are freaks in the best way. But each country has its own quirks, and that’s cool. At the end of the day, humour’s universal.

Over the years, have you realized how your games have touched people’s lives—especially people who aren’t even gamers? That must be surreal.

Definitely. During the pandemic, we were amazed by how many people were playing our games. While the world felt like it was falling apart, Jackbox was bringing people together. We had so many messages from people saying our games helped reconnect them with their families. It was humbling.

I had friends during the pandemic asking for something to play, and I’d recommend Jackbox. It’s so easy to bring everyone together with those games.

We’re always grateful for that feedback. But we try to keep things simple and accessible. There’s a temptation to overcomplicate or make the games edgier, but good game design isn’t about being flashy. It’s about getting to the core of what makes the mechanic fun, and letting players express themselves or connect in a new way.

That’s something I see in board games too. Some people overcomplicate their designs, but the best ones are simple, smooth, and just flow. Jackbox has nailed that. I didn’t realize You Don’t Know Jack was released as far back as 1995. Makes me feel old!

I know what you mean. And it’s funny—these days, when I’m wearing a Jackbox hat at a board game event, people will ask, Why don’t you make board games? Well, we’ve got a board game coming out soon.

No way, that’s awesome!

Yeah, it’s a board game version of Fakin’ It. We’ll be releasing it on Amazon in the U.S. on November 1st, with retail stores getting it next year.

That’s fantastic. It’s great that Amazon now makes international releases so much easier for people in places like Australia to get in on the action.

Yeah, it’s a game-changer. I can’t wait to see how people react to it.

I want to say a massive thanks to Allard Laban for taking the time to sit down with me. His insights and experiences have been incredibly enlightening, and it was truly the highlight of this years PAX Australia for me. Thank you, Allard Laban, for your generosity and for taking time out of your busy day to this conversation.