Code
Gameplay systems, tools, physics, UI logic, shaders, builds, and the glue that makes the project run.
PFW ACM flagship event
Make a game in a weekend.
Global Game Jam is 48 hours of making: form a team, choose a direction, learn what you need, and ship something playable before the weekend ends.
Bring the skill you already have, then practice rapid prototyping, teamwork, tools, playtesting, and presenting a finished build.
PFW Global Game Jam / closing showcase48hfrom theme reveal to showcase
14games finished at our latest PFW jam
60+participants at a recent PFW jam
Freeto participate at the PFW site
Why participate
A deadline turns disciplines into a team.
Game development is one of the few student projects where code, image, sound, narrative, interaction, and production all have to meet in the same artifact. You do not need to do everything. You need to bring something the team can use.
The point is not to prove you already know how to make games. It is to discover what you can make with other people in 48 hours.
The jam is free, social, and open beyond computer science. PFW teams have included students from engineering, English, digital studies, art, music, and computing backgrounds, with teams working around complementary skills rather than a single major.
Your place on a team
Games need more than programmers.
Pick a lane you already understand, or use the weekend to try one you do not. Small teams benefit from people who can move between disciplines without treating any one of them as secondary.
Art
Characters, environments, animation, sprites, models, materials, visual effects, and a visual language the team can actually finish.
Design
Rules, player goals, level flow, mechanics, onboarding, balancing, interaction, and deciding what the game is really about.
Audio
Music, ambience, sound effects, feedback, rhythm, voice, and the emotional texture that makes a prototype feel deliberate.
Writing
Dialogue, worldbuilding, jokes, narrative structure, tutorials, UI copy, naming, and shaping how the game communicates.
Production + testing
Scope, task breakdown, playtesting, triage, documentation, presentation, and helping a pile of ideas become a finished build.
What you gain
A weekend that compresses a lot of practice.
Game jams push you through the whole project loop quickly: choose a direction, build, test, revise, finish, and put the result in front of other people.
Prototype + scope
Turn a broad prompt into a playable mechanic, test it early, and learn what to cut when the clock is real.
Tools + engines
Get practical time with game engines, source control, asset pipelines, build tools, shaders, UI systems, and the tools your team actually needs.
Team workflow
Coordinate code, art, audio, writing, design, and production around one shared build instead of six separate assignments.
Playtesting + feedback
Watch other people use what you made, find friction quickly, and revise the game around what players actually do.
Presentation
Demo your work, explain design decisions, answer questions, and get more comfortable talking about technical creative work.
Finished work
Take an idea through the whole loop—concept, prototype, production, testing, and showcase—and leave with something that actually runs.
Beginner friendly
You do not need to arrive as a game developer.
PFW ACM's 2025 participant survey found that only 19% of respondents came in with prior game-design experience, while more than 90% said they learned something. Students reported learning engines, design, UI, programming, project management, organization, and art-related work.
2025 participant survey
19%reported prior game-design experience
90+%reported learning something
The weekend
From blank page to playable build.
A good jam weekend has a rhythm. The clock is real, but the deadline is useful: it forces the team to choose, test, cut, and finish.
Theme
Everyone starts with the same worldwide prompt. The first job is not coding—it is deciding what your team wants to make of it.
Prototype
Get the core interaction working early. Ugly is fine. A playable idea gives the rest of the team something concrete to react to.
Build
Art, code, sound, writing, design, and production converge. Teams learn tools on demand and cut what will not fit.
Polish
Test it, fix the painful parts, add feedback, package the build, and decide how to present what survived the weekend.
Show
Put the game in front of other people. Demo it, watch them play, explain the choices, and see how other teams approached the same prompt.
Built at the PFW site
Three games. Three very different readings of the same theme.
The 2026 theme was “Mask.” The useful part of a jam theme is not conformity—it is seeing how far different teams can push the same constraint.
2.5D puzzle / Godot
View project on Global Game Jam Cyber Stencil
An orthographic puzzler about masking the world with stencils to open a path forward. The team used a custom toon shader, blend shapes, Blender, and Substance Painter, with all art, assets, and sound created during the jam.
Game screenshot / credits: Programming: foopis23, jamac. Art: speedgoergo.
2D arcade / Godot
View project on Global Game Jam Driving Blind
A top-down driving game built around image masking: reveal cars on the road before you collide with them. It turns the jam theme into the core interaction instead of treating it as decoration.
Game screenshot / credits: GGJ project contributors: ghostmice, MisledWater79, whalesarefish, Leshy_Magnificus.
logic puzzle / visiting team
View project on Global Game Jam HOSP
A logic puzzle about containing an asymptomatic virus by allocating masks to patients. The University of St. Francis Game Meat team joined the PFW jam site, adding another school and another set of disciplines to the room.
Game screenshot / credits: Programming: Emmalee Fecher, Xavier Harding, Jagger Walraven. Art: Austin Harrigan, Mersina Muslic, Christian Rogers. Music: Caleb Harrigan.
Show your work
Finish in public.
The jam ends by putting projects in front of other people. At PFW, teams use the closing session to demo their games, explain what worked, show what broke, and compare how different groups approached the same prompt.
That last step is useful practice too: presenting forces you to articulate design decisions, answer questions, and see your project through someone else's eyes.
demo / explain / play / compare
GGJ 2026 / student-led auditorium showcaseBring your skill. Leave with a game.
You do not need a perfect pitch, a finished team, or years of experience. Show up ready to contribute what you know, pick up something new, and help the team finish.