Jibber Jabble

About Jibber Jabble

Jibber Jabble is a light party game, designed by Cassie Sikes and published by Allplay, where clue givers take turns saying a single letter to chain them together to form clue words. The guesser has to try and guess the word after they get three clue words.

Project Overview:

Jibber Jabble was one of those cases where less is more. The core gameplay was already great, and it was a conscious choice for us to not try and tinker with the main core of the game. Instead, we chose to focus on elevating the elements of the game we found fun, and smooth out the arc of the player's experience by introducing difficulty levels for different words.

We finalized the wordlist and broke it up into three difficulty levels, designed new content for the hit cards, and developed a new communication rule for play.

Services Provided:

Case Study: Social Norms in Party Gameplay

Jibber-Jabble is a party game that flips the social dynamics of guessers and clue givers. In most party games, the guessers are typically the ones in the hot seat while the clue givers watch the guessers sweat; In Jibber-Jabble, the social pressure is more on the clue givers to not mess it up, while the guesser gets to watch the clue givers fumble around.

One place we paid a lot of attention during development were the optional Hint Cards. We found that certain personalities often felt over-pressured or stuck during play. Cassie had already designed these cards, and we experimented with many powers that help players smooth over rough moments, either by requesting help or giving aid to another player. While optional, we recommend trying them out if you have shyer folks in your playgroup.

Our other main contribution to this game was the addition of the "Jibber-Jabble" rule. Players are encouraged to say "Jibber" for "Yes", "We're on the same page", or "You're on the right track", and "Jabble" for "I'm confused" or "I'm unsure". While this rule might seem relatively minor, it did a lot to elevate the experience of the game.

It allows players to emote and socialize in a way that doesn't break the game. From someone who's watching the game being played from the outside, it adds an element of table presence to watch people yell "Jibber!" and "Jabble?" at each other constantly. And lastly, it helps people remember the game name vs the more common phrase Jibber Jabber.

Brieger Creative Team