About

"The GGJ is the world's largest game creation event taking place around the globe boasting tens of thousands of participants (jammers) at hundreds of physical and virtual sites in over one hundred countries around the world. In January 2020, we had a record-breaking year with 934 locations in 118 countries create 9,601 games in one weekend! In January 2021 we shifted GGJ to an online-only format due to the global pandemic and still hosted a great event with 585 virtual locations in 104 countries which made 6,383 games! In 2022 we welcomed back in-person sites while keeping the option for virtual sites we had over 33,000 jammers register at 681 sites in 100 countries.

A game jam is similar to a hackathon where people come together for a short period of time to create games around a central theme revealed at the start of the jam. The structure of The GGJ is usually that everyone gathers on Friday late afternoon, watches a short video keynote with advice from leading game developers, and then a secret theme is announced. All jammers worldwide are then challenged to make games based on that same theme, with games to be completed by Sunday afternoon."

-- Global Game Jam

https://globalgamejam.org/about

Who's at SU?

Know absolutely nothing about creating a game?

Excellent! You're our typical jammer at this site.

Did some coding or interactive narrative before? Beautiful! We're happy to have you here, and you're not alone.

Made a few games before or participated in a previous jam? Wonderful! Thanks for joining us!

Professional or hobbyist developer? Wow! We're honored you want to jam with us. : )

Everyone is welcome, and every skill is useful! Whether you're an artist, a writer, a coder, an editor or tester, a mathematician, a project manager, or just a really awesome muse, we have a place for you here.

We have several mentors on site happy to help you learn something new or perfect acquired skills. We've got food. We've got fun. We've got software and craft supplies!

Whether you want to make video games, card games, interactive stories, party games, or board games -- we love them all.

Meet Your Organizers & Mentors

We are all here to help you have a smooth jam. Whether it's helping you learn new software, walking you through game theory, introducing you to importance online steps and tech strategies, helping with proof of concept, editing, or even just running for supplies -- we've got you!

Some helpful Jam advice from Extra Credits:

In 2017, the team at Extra Credits was the Keynote Speaker for Global Game Jam. So the animated a video of course! The video is full of good advice for pacing yourself and taking care of yourself during a jam. While the ultimate goal is to create a game in 48 hours, it's also important to remember that we're learning new things, to take breaks, and be proud of whatever it is we manage to create!