Responding to growth in social and family gaming for consoles, and in mobile games, Jellyvision Games released new versions of its cheeky game show-style trivia game, You Don’t Know Jack, a staple of the late ‘90s CD-ROM gaming world.
“Even though the last major release of the game was a decade ago, we never stopped receiving letters and emails urging us to bring the game back to today’s gaming platforms,” Jellyvision Games general manager Mike Bilder says.
They released the console version in February, and are rolling out downloadable content packs for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The mobile game debuted April 14, with version 2 in the works.
This is Jellyvision’s first game for current generation consoles or for Apple’s iOS mobile operating system. THQ published the new You Don’t Know Jack for game consoles.
Jellyvision developed and published the iPhone and iPad versions in-house along with Iron Galaxy Studios and Webfoot Technologies. “Our goal was to take advantage of what the current generation of consoles and the iPhone/iPad could do for us,” Bilder says.
Many of the original YDKJ team worked on the new game, including composer, sound effects designer and writer Andy Poland, creative VP and art director Allard Laban, director/writer Steve Heinrich, editor, sound engineer and writer Phil Ridarelli, programmer Evan Jacover, and CEO Harry Gottlieb.
They retained the basic setup of the classic YDKJ, adding some question categories and making some tweaks for the mechanics of new systems.
“We rolled the dice that the game would be successful precisely because we didn’t try to do a complete makeover,” Bilder says. “Based on the feedback we’ve received so far, we think we succeeded.”
Jellyvision doesn’t release sales or employment figures. Bilder says sales of the new game have been strong. The bulk of their staff is based at their Chicago headquarters, with a handful working remotely, including Poland, who lives in Michigan.
Jellyvision is at 848 W. Eastman St. Call 312/266-0606 or see jellyvisiongames.com
