Heard of Hackathons for coding? Well game jams are the community way to play, build and design games together.

Game jams are a massive part of indie game communities and the game education movement. They are opportunities to bring new and experienced developers together to collaborate, share resources and inspire each other.  Just consider the power of immensely popular events like the Global Game Jam where thousands of enthusiasts from across the world try their hand at creating a game in under 72 hours.

Game jams aren’t just events taking place elsewhere; here in the Portland area, Pixel Arts Game Education supports a number of jams and half-jams. In May, we had the chance to work with middle and high school students at the Oregon Game Project Challenge, an event hosted by our program partner TechStart.

More recently in June, we assisted Saturday Academy with their course, Social Justice: STEM Solutions. With our half-jam, students jumped into developing a game idea in just a few hours to help non-profits address in a social issue. Starting with actual local issues like saving animals and the roots of hunger, they creatively innovated new ideas to bring us into solving problems through games.

Pixel Arts Game Education helps create fun, hands on maker based learning in games. By playing, making and designing games together, we can support the creative imagination of youth and engage their passions to create better worlds. Want to bring a half jam or full game jam to your learning community? Contact Pixel Arts Game Education now for resources, support and services.  We’re excited to spread the joy of making games and empowering youth to explore new skills through games.