Words to Know - What is a Game Jam?

A Game Jam is a cooperative or competitive event in which participants attempt to create a video game from scratch within a set amount of time. Public Game Jams can be hosted locally in singular locations or remotely around the world. Participants may be required to adhere to a specific theme or be given free reign to create whatever they wish. Popular Game Jam events include the Global Game Jam, The Ludum Dare, and Nordic Game Jam.

Internal Game Jams are common in game studios as a way of breaking up long development cycles on main projects and allowing developers to flex their creative muscles. Bethesda Game Studios ran an internal Game Jame following completion of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, in which developers focused on brainstorming and implementing new features to the game, many of which were later added in via free patches or downloadable content. Double Fine Productions produces the Amnesia Fortnite Game Jam in conjunction with Humble Bundle, in which the studio's developers pitch their ideas for games and fans vote on which ones will be made.

Because of the restricted development time games produced during Game Jams are usually small in scope and are often never further developed on or released, though it is certainly not unheard of for promising Game Jam productions to receive further polish and go on to achieve success. Examples of popular games to come out of Game Jams include Surgeon Simulator, Super Hot and The Binding of Isaac.

Thanks for reading “Words to Know”. Voting for this years Amnesia Fortnite is over, but Double Fines pitch video is worth watching if you'd like to see what kinds of interesting ideas come out of Game Jams. And you can also check out Bethesdas Skyrim Game Jam trailer to see what did and didn't eventually make it into the game.