Mini Q&A with The Wheel of Enormous Proportions Game Director Mark Turowetz
Mark Turowetz directed The Wheel of Enormous Proportions, one of five games in The Jackbox Party Pack 8. To celebrate the launch of this game on October 14, we asked Mark to share a little insight behind-the-scenes.
Who was on this design team, and what were their roles in creating this game?
- Director: Mark Turowetz
- Editorial Lead: Tom Gottlieb
- Producer: Luke Cody
- Lead Artist: Kyle Fleischer
- Lead Engineer: Ben Jacobs
- Lead Audio: Avery Makel
- Music: Andy Poland
- Lead QA: Dutch Freese
- Controller Engineer: Chase McClure
- Additional Engineering: Rob Swor
What was your favorite part of working on this game?
The Wheel of Enormous Proportions was entirely made with randomness in mind. We actually created and spun our own homemade wooden wheel to make all of our key decisions! Which made developing the game stressful but also very exciting. I was really happy that when we were naming the game, we spun “The Wheel of Enormous Proportions” instead of… “Uncle Spinny and the Mountain of Thinkishness.”
What are you most excited about people experiencing?
With a little bit of luck anyone can win a game of The Wheel. But as you play more and more, you start to realize that there are a lot of ways to strategically gain the upper hand. I’m a strategy nerd, so I’m excited to see people find new ways to increase their odds of winning. Eventually those players will improve and become wise masters. Then tournaments of The Wheel will replace Poker on ESPN. But one thing at time…
Are there any behind-the-scenes production moments or funny screenshots you’d like to share?
In early builds of the game , we thought it would be fun if a round of spinning only ends when someone lands on a skull. And that's how the game worked for a while. But then we watched a video of our QA team stuck on the same round of spinning for over 50 minutes straight! They just never landed on a skull. At first it was funny. Then it was not funny… But after 30 minutes it was pretty funny again.
Legend has it, our missing QA team is still spinning that wheel to this very day. They are endlessly trapped in a Jumanji-esque nightmare - spinning the wheel, desperate to land on skull, but doomed to always fall short.
