Tee K.O. is a judging, social interaction game where players are brought to the T-Shirt Island, where they must design T-shirts with drawings and slogans that compete against each other to win the most popular T-shirt. The game’s target audience seems to be mainly groups of friends or family, and the game is typically played with 3-8 players. This game was published by JackBox Games as a part of The Jackbox Party Pack 3, which is available digitally on Steam to be downloaded on one’s device. This game is meant to be played digitally, with one host sharing a larger screen, and participants playing through their devices. In the initial rounds, players contribute drawings and slogans that will be put on T-shirts; then, players choose from a random selection of drawings and slogans that other players or themselves made. After each T-shirt is finalized, T-shirts are pitted against the other, and players vote on which shirt they believe is the best T-shirt. The T-shirt that is voted on the most in comparison to other T-shirts is deemed the winner of the competition. Ultimately, Tee K.O. uses judging as a mechanism to create fun and engaging social interactions while also making the dynamics between players a balance of both competitive and beneficial, as players are competing against each other to design the best T-shirt, but also winning other players over.
One game mechanic that creates the competitive and beneficial dynamic of this game is in the initial drawing and slogan-making phase of the game. In the beginning of the game, players are given time to draw 3 different drawings that could potentially go on a T–shirt. Then, players are given 90 seconds to come up with different slogans to potentially put on T-shirts, as seen below.
Then, players are given a random selection of the designs and T-shirts to choose for their final T-shirt, which is to be voted on by others to determine the best T-shirt. Although this game is formally a player vs. player game, this randomness of not knowing which sketches and slogans you will receive introduces the aesthetic of fellowship in this competitive game. For example, if you were using only your own slogan and designs, you would be incentivized to create the best designs possible. On the other hand, if your drawings were only going to be distributed to other players and not yourself, you would be incentivized to create worse designs and logos to put other players at a disadvantage so their shirt would not be voted for. However, since this game introduces this randomness, players are forced to maintain a balance where their designs/slogans are not so good that it would cause players to vote for another player, but not so bad that it would be disadvantageous to yourself if you were presented with your own choices. During our game, Sarah, one of the people I played with in the game, made funny and creative drawings and slogans that other players often took to their advantage to win the game. As seen below, although Sarah did the art and the slogan for the T-shirt, since Walter assembled this T-shirt, Walter won, since he was able to create a favorable T-shirt that all other players of the game preferred.
This dynamic of Tee K.O. of having to create favorable drawings and slogans that others can judge is quite different from other judging games. In traditional judging games such as Cards Against Humanity, players choose from cards that are pre-determined, so there isn’t this additional dynamic of designing the very thing that players are judging on. In addition, in other drawing judging games like Skribbl.io, players are incentivized to draw accurate drawings, whereas in Tee K.O, players are trying to make drawings and slogans that would be the most popular amongst other players.
Furthermore, the judging dynamic of the game adds a very competitive group dynamic, especially within the judging round. After players have finalized their shirts, the judging round begins, where two T-shirts at a time are pitted against each other, as seen below.
All players have one vote, and they have 15 seconds to vote on the T-shirt that they believe is “better”. The T-shirt with the most votes proceeds to the next round, where again, a T-shirt is pitted against another T-shirt that someone designed, as seen below:
In the above example, the shirt on the right was most popular amongst players, with 3 votes, vs. the one on the right which had one vote. Hence, although the game itself is player vs. player, this method of judging that involves all players forces players to create T-shirts for each other’s approval. This is quite different from Cards against Humanity or Apples to Apples, for example, where one person is designated as the judge per round, and players can choose their cards to specifically cater to that judge. In these judging games, it also helps to know the judge personally to help them choose your cards. However, in Tee K.O., players are not creating T-shirt entries to be judged by a specific player, but by all players. Hence, players cannot create specific designs that one person would like, but think more broadly about what all players would prefer. For example, the design that ended up winning in my gameplay, as seen below, was one that made people laugh the most, which could be a criteria that people may not expect.
Because Tee K.O. doesn’t specify any sort of criteria for players to vote for, the voting can be arbitrary and also a fun and engaging process that’s unexpected for players. Hence, the way that the voting mechanic is formed in this game makes it fun for all players to not only have a chance to vote/judge in every iteration of the T-shirt tournament, but also makes it more challenging and competitive for the players’ T-shirts that are being judged.
Overall, Tee K.O. was a very fun and interesting judging game that incorporates both drawing and creativity to create a balance of competition and fellowship between players. One possible critique of the game is the way in which the win condition is determined. For example, if there was a particular T-shirt that was very popular amongst users, it became very clear that it would win the game, even if there were multiple rounds of judging. It could be interesting to add additional win conditions to the game, or even add a point system, where although users get points for the number of votes they get for the T-shirt they put, but also get points if their design or slogan is used on a winning T-shirt. Then, it would be the case that the artist and slogan writer gets credit for their work, and might even potentially win. I think this could make the game less binary in terms of win condition, especially if it was obvious which T-shirts were going to win. Another thing to consider could be adding prompts to the T-shirt designs. The game currently is very open-ended and players can come up with their own designs without any constraints, but it could be interesting to add prompts to the T-shirt design. One example of a possible prompt would be “A shirt you would wear when meeting your partner’s parents”; I think interesting and fun designs could come out of these potentially funny prompts.
Overall, Tee K.O. is a unique and creative judging game that creates competitive and collaborative dynamics between players through art and creativity.
