What’s Quiplash?
Quiplash is a judging game played on Jackbox Games and was created by Mike Bilder, the CEO of the platform. Quiplash is a party game where players compete to come up with the funniest responses to prompts and vote on their favorites.
As a pretty inclusive party game, Quiplash has a wide range of target audiences, including adults, teenagers, and families. Due to the influence of player autonomy on the game, the game dynamic can range from being light-hearted and playful to being dark and inappropriate for younger children. If you don’t believe me, see below:
Analysis of Formal Elements + Types of Fun
- Players: Quiplash requires 3-8 players who all need a device to join the game room and to submit answers. The game strongly fosters fellowship as the gameplay encourages players to interact with each others’ responses through sharing and voting on their favorites. This often leads to lots of laughing as well as lively, heated discussions as players defend why their response is most hilarious.
- Responses: At the beginning of each round, players must submit their best responses to their prompts before the timer runs out. The objective is to come up with responses that will win the most votes; so of course, the funnier the better. The ability to submit anything as a response enables players to be as funny, random, and inappropriate as possible which involves expression and keeps players entertained throughout the entire game. Responses can make absolutely no sense, incorporate dark humor, or be wildly scandalous– the rule is anything goes, and this makes every round unique and exciting.
- Voting: After responses are in, prompts are individually presented along with responses to vote on. Like responses, the surprise element is also present with voting since the game reveals who voted for each response. Everyone has a different sense of humor, so players are sometimes shocked by the winning response.
- Prompts: Quiplash is known for its outrageous prompts. In asking users to respond to these prompts, the creators force responses that are often unexpected and hilarious.
- Competition: Since players must compete by brainstorming the funniest responses, Quiplash is also fun due to the challenge. This competition fuels tension and chaos as players feel the urgency to submit the craziest thing that they can think of.
Competitors
Quiplash is similar to other judging games like Cards Against Humanity and Apples to Apples. While Cards Against Humanity and Apples to Apples allows one person to choose the best response, Quiplash operates on a voting system. It also differentiates itself by allowing players to come up with their own responses to prompts while the other two ask players to fill in the blanks of statements. Quiplash’s extra layer of autonomy makes gameplay more unpredictable, more chaotic, and therefore more fun.
Conclusion + Improvements
Overall, Quiplash is easy to pick up and play, making it accessible to players of all skill levels to have a good time. Quiplash aims to make people laugh, and it fulfills that goal well, so I would say it’s a pretty awesome game. In terms of improvements, allowing players to create their own prompts could add another layer of personalization to the game. Imagine if you could tailor and target your prompts to specific friends– this could have insane potential for laughter and maybe even some drama if you’re up for it.
