Global Game Jam
@globalgamejam

Your donations help us to provide scholarships for our community members to attend events like GDC, Gamescom, Gamescom Asia, PocketGamer Connects, and more. With your support we can also provide microgrants for community members to continue work on games conceived at Global Game Jam events. Your donation also helps us continue to pursue our mission by paying for our monthly overhead which is mainly our dedicated and expert staff of industry veterans with over 50 years of combined experience who engage with our community on a daily basis, work with partners to create new opportunities for our community to shine on a global stage, and help make our website and technological backbone strong and robust to support our ever expanding community of game developers worldwide.

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/February 2023, we had a great comeback year which saw 40,000 people at 800 locations in 108 countries create 7,600 games in 48 hours around the theme of Roots! GGJ Consistently maintains a 90% satisfaction rate year over year among our participants.

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.

The GGJ stirs a global creative buzz in games, while at the same time exploring the process of development, be it programming, iterative design, narrative exploration or artistic expression. It is all condensed into a shortened development cycle. The GGJ encourages people with all kinds of backgrounds to participate and contribute to this global spread of game development and creativity. Jammers are invited to explore new technology tools, trying on new roles in development and testing their skills to do something that requires them to design, develop create, test and make a new game. The GGJ is rooted in the idea that in today’s heavily connected world, we can come together, be creative, share experiences and express ourselves in a multitude of ways using the universal language of video games.

The GGJ is the starting point for countless game developers who have turned a moment of bravery to join their first GGJ event into a successful and sustainable career in game development. Our vast network of volunteer organizers are vetted and committed to our mission of empowerment and inclusivity, helping us build a safe and welcoming event and community for everyone.

The GGJ helps to foster new friendships, increase confidence in aspiring game developers and creates opportunities within local communities. The GGJ is dedicated to collaboration and camaraderie and is not a competition.