We all know that staying home is the best thing we can do to slow the spread of covid-19 and ease the burden on our healthcare systems. But, as stay-at-home orders are extended we are all looking for ways to NOT GO OUT OF OUR MINDS! I mean, how many jigsaw puzzles can I possibly do? We all miss socializing with our friends and family. Thanks to Zoom and Jackbox we can once again come together to play some silly games.
Jackbox has a wide variety of digital games that are sure to tickle your funny bone and make you forget about #pandemiclife for awhile. There are 30 games to choose from including interactive drawing games, trivia games, to everything in between. Each game challenges the players to be be as crass and as clever as possible with their answers. (Usually borderline vulgar and asinine!) Some of the games may be purchased individually but most are bundled into “Party Packs”. There are six party packs available.
Jackbox Games may be played using just about any digital platform. Purchase and download the game(s) to your Xbox One, PC, Apple TV, Fire Stick, etc. Once you’ve bought a game or party pack, you own it and may play as much as you want but you cannot switch platforms. Up to eight players may play along with you and do not need to purchase the game. Once the game starts, they will be given a url and a code to play using their phones or other web-enabled devices as their controller.
In normal times, everyone would gather around the tv (or other screen), open a website on their phones, and start the party. With social distancing, a few more steps are required. The directions below are for play using an ipad while streaming the screen with Zoom. We have managed to laugh away many hours together using these techniques. I hope you are able to have some fun with this and forget about lockdown for awhile!
How to Play Jackbox Games on an iPad Zoom Meeting
- Go to the App store on your ipad and purchase the Jackbox game(s) or party packs you want to play. Note: you only have to buy the game once—your friends and family can play for free, even if they don’t own a copy.
- Download and install Zoom onto your ipad.
- Create a Zoom account and start a Zoom meeting by clicking “New Meeting”. Note: You can also share your ipad screen to a Zoom meeting on your computer. Directions to do this are given below.
- Before the meeting starts, open the Jackbox party pack and go to “settings”. Turn the volume control way down. (For some reason the volume is extremely loud for the participants joining the meeting.)
- When the meeting is open, click “Invite” to send invitations to anyone you want to join.
- Select “share content”. Select “Screen”. Select “Start Broadcast”.
- Boom! The ipad screen is shared into the meeting. Note: you may want to turn off your notifications on your ipad or they will be shared as well!
- Swipe up to return to the Jackbox app to start the game. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to both share your screen and see all of the players but you can still hear everyone in the meeting.
- Direct the players to go to Jackbox.tv, and type the four-letter code displayed on the shared screen. Once everyone is in the game and can see your screen, you’re ready to play!
How to Play Jackbox Games on an iPad Shared to Computer Zoom Meeting
- Go to the App store on your ipad and purchase the Jackbox games or party packs you want to play. Again, you only have to buy the game once—your friends and family can play for free, even if they don’t own a copy.
- Download and install Zoom onto your computer.
- Create a Zoom account in the installed app on your computer, and start a Zoom meeting by clicking “New Meeting”.
- When the meeting is open, click “Invite” to send invitations to anyone you want to join.
- Select “share screen”. Select “iphone/ipad”. Select “Share”. If this is the first time, you will be prompted to install the plug-in for sharing and iphone/ipad.
- Connect ipad to the same WiFi as your computer.
- Swipe down from the right on the ipad to access the control center. Tap “screen mirroring”. Choose Zoom-your computer option.
- Voilà! The ipad screen is shared into the meeting. Note: Again, you may want to turn off your notifications on your ipad or they will be shared.
- Tap and swipe up on the ipad to access the game app. Open the game. Your ipad becomes the controller for the game with the game video shown in the zoom meeting.
- Direct the players to go to Jackbox.tv, and type the four-letter code displayed on the shared screen. Once everyone is in the game and can see your screen, you’re ready to play!
- Using this method the person sharing the game is able to do both – See everyone in the Zoom app and the game screen. However, there is some lag time in the game response which can suck the fun out. I think this is an internet issue and may be avoided with faster internet speeds.