Interested in making a game and being part of a global experiment in creativity? SUNY Morrisville is once again serving as a host site for Global Game Jam® (GGJ), the world’s largest game jam event, taking place Friday, Jan. 24-Sunday, Jan. 26.
During the worldwide event, participants are given a central theme and just 48 hours to create a video or board/card game.
During the fast-paced “jam session,” teams of artists, musicians, hobbyists, programmers and gamers are given a chance to brainstorm, innovate, collaborate and develop new ideas for game design.
The event begins at SUNY Morrisville on Friday, Jan. 24, at 4 p.m. in Charlton Hall, with registration, a videoconference and unveiling of this year’s theme. Final game submissions are due at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 26, followed by a game creation preview and weekend wrap-up.
Teams, some of which are formed on-site, spend 48 hours brainstorming and designing a new video or board game from scratch without any outside help. All finished GGJ games are archived on a website for everyone to play.
Some of the games that participants at the Morrisville site have created include: Traps: The Spanish Adventurer (a journey to prove capability as an adventurer, by collecting all of the gold); Ex-Extinction (Sir Captain Rawrington must save his dinosaur ancestors from the incoming asteroid onslaught); Flight Team Phoenix (pilot a phoenix spaceship and eliminate alien enemies) and Cardiac Canyon (a hiker tumbles down a cliff and must follow his heart to lead him through the dark and back to his camp)
For more information about GGJ at SUNY Morrisville, contact Adam Saunders at 315.684.6055 or saundear@morrisville.edu.
Global Game Jam® history
- 2009 Game Jam — 53 sites, 23 countries, 1,650 participants, 370 games
- 2010 Game Jam — 138 sites, 39 countries, 4,300 participants, 900 games
- 2011 Game Jam — 169 sites, 44 countries, 6,500 participants, 1,500 games
- 2012 Game Jam — 242 sites, 47 countries, 10,684 participants, 2,209 games
- 2013 Game Jam — 319 sites, 63 countries, 16,705 participants, 3,248 games
- 2014 Game Jam — 488 sites, 72 countries, 23,189 participants, 4,292 games
- 2015 Game Jam — 518 sites, 78 countries, 28,000 participants, 5,438 games
- 2016 Game Jam — 632 sites, 93 countries, 36,164 participants, 6,866 games
- 2017 Game Jam — 701 sites, 95 countries, 36,401 participants, 7,263 games
- 2018 Game Jam — 803 sites, 108 countries, 42,800 participants, 8,606 games
- 2019 Game Jam — 860 sites, 113 countries, 47,006 participants, 9,010 games
- 2020 Game Jam — 934 sites, 118 countries, 48,753 participants, 9,601 games
- 2021 Game Jam — 585 sites, 104 countries, 28,825 participants, 6,383 games (held online due to COVID-19 pandemic)
- 2022 Game Jam — 680 sites, 100 countries, 33,000 participants, 5,860 games
- 2023 Game Jam — 800 sites, 108 countries, 40,000 participants, 7,637 games
- 2024 Game Jam — 796 sites, 102 countries, 34,649 jammers, creating a record 9,964 games. This was the first time the event spanned all seven continents.
