The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world’s largest game creation event taking place around the globe.
Its mission is to empower individuals worldwide to learn, experiment, and create together through the medium of games. The GGJ provides unique opportunities for people to create, collaborate and practice their game creation skills, and invites everyone of any skill level to take part.
If you wish to participate in the game jam, register as a jammer with us in these quick steps:
*If you face an "Access Denied" error when accessing the Singapore jam site, please login/signup first.
The deadline for registration is 26 January 2024, 5PM.
Team Size
There is no restriction on group size - feel free to bring all your friends, or even join as a solo jammer.
Generally we recommend a group size of 5-6.
Looking for a group?
You can also find group members through our Discord server!
Take this opportunity to meet fellow game enthusiasts! 😄
Is this event only open to Singaporeans?
Global Game Jam® is open to everyone around the globe, though GGJ SG primarily aims to foster a community for game development and creativity within Singapore.
If you are not from Singapore, you are still free to join our site and our activities, but you could consider finding a jam site nearer to you instead.
Formerly a Lead Game Designer for gumi Asia, Jared is a games designer with experiences spanning various disciplines across a small handful of turn-based titles. In his free time, he experiments with streaming, writing, and other bits of games that tickle his fancies, but his biggest joy is always in the understanding of what makes games tick.
To warm up everyone's game design brain, Jared will be sharing his (latest) attempt at framing the fundamentals of game design thinking for game designers. Come gain some perspectives on how to process games - both those that you play, and those that you will eventually come to make!
Chiquita is the company's Senior UI Artist and Lead, she was leading as many as 8 UI colleagues. Armed with 10 years' work experience, she would like to share with jammers insights of how and what are the requisites needed to be a UI artist.
Contents:
- What does UI Artist do and common misunderstood info about them
- Basic Necessity in preparing as UI Artist
- Starting paths for budding UI Artist (Publishing, Developer and Indie) & Process example for each path
-Advices on keeping up growth after graduation
- Q & A
In this talk focusing on board and card game design, Shaun explores the strategies on translating themes into engaging board games. In this session, we delve into playful and innovative ways to be inspired by themes, turning them into the core concept of an analogue game, while making the critical choice between using cards, dice, or boards, tailoring this decision to best fit your game's narrative and mechanics.
Shaun shares the common pitfalls of jamming (that cut across analogue and digital games), as well as how to stay grounded in the thick of jamming. Key skills to manage the time-sensitive environment of a game jam would also be explored.
Shaun has 15 years of experience as an educator in game design, game-based learning and gamification in Republic Polytechnic, where he teaches Game Theory, Board and Card Game Design, 2D Art Asset Creation and Arts History. He is engaged in the application, and prospects of gamification as an academic researcher. His philosophy in game design is identical to his methods as a dungeon master – it’s all about the player’s experience.
Xiang is a game industry veteran and pioneer, he is currently Century Games' CTO and co-founded his company(now a studio of Century Games), Outact. Prior to founding Outact, he was the Technical Director at ROBLOX where he led the multiplayer engine development fueling ROBLOX's massive success. Previously, as Server Team Lead at Tencent Boston, he managed game server development and operations. Before Tencent, he worked at EA and Ubisoft on numerous AAA titles as software engineer. Xiang holds a Master of Liberal Arts in Management from Harvard University, a Master of Science in Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, and Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering from Nanjing University.
Contents:
- Introduction of game server architecture of different game types from MMO to social games.
Alwyn is a Senior Lecturer at DigiPen Singapore and co-founder of Daylight Studios. He will share tips on what to look out for in Game Production, from conceptualisation to MVP, and some advice on joining the gaming industry.
Contents:
- Quick concept development and defining a minimal viable product (MVP)
- Understanding your roles and responsibilities as Designer, Artist and Programmer
- Advice on joining the Game Industry
- Q&A
As associate producer, Duan Kai essentially functions as "Team Mom". His job is to rally and support the team, whatever that means. In the eternal words of his teammates, he's here to 'make stuff happen'.
Personally, he has a strong passion for community building and narrative, so you'll probably always find him either at industry events or a movie theatre.
Playtesting is the process of letting people play your game when it's still a work in progress in order to learn how your game's received.
Could you imagine playing games with no HUD or UI? Or navigating without a map? That's kinda what it's like to make games without playtesting. Come listen to how Duan Kai learnt this lesson the hard way.
But hey, listen! There's some pro tips for playtesting in this talk as well.
In this presentation, Chris Hong, with almost 30 years of experience in creating more than 15 real-time multiplayer games, aims to illustrate examples of encountered latency issues and how they were overcome.
Contents:
- What is latency, and where does it come from?
- Time frame synchronization and adapting time window
- How to cover up by game design
- How to improve the server architecture
Jammer's Manual
Past GGJ SG Talks
Workshops by NUS GDG
Anyone can take part!
Experience in programming, 2D and 3D art, or game design and development is not necessary. We encourage anyone and everyone, regardless of experience and background, to participate and try their hand at making a game. You can learn many new skills and support your team by contributing ideas, playtesting, and giving moral support. You could also work on a non-digital game, and then there's no need for heavy digital skillsets!
You are also welcome to join any workshops and talks, playtest the projects or interact with jammers. The final presentations of the games will be livestreamed on YouTube/Twitch, so do tune in!
We recommend a group size of about 5-6 people but feel free to join with a team of any size that you are comfortable with. Solo participants are also welcome and are encouraged to interact with other solo jammers and form their own teams via GGJ SG’s Discord server.
GGJ has no restrictions on what game engines, asset creation software, or physical tools (if making an analog game) you may use to make your game. GGJ is open source, hardware and software agnostic.
Yes, you may! A jammer is allowed to contribute to more than one game project, and join more than one game project on the jam site.
Any kind! Digital and non-digital games are all accepted! We only ask that your games utilise The GGJ’s central theme as a starting point for brainstorming and idea conception.
Please also note that NSFW games containing explicit sexual and/or gore content are not allowed. Games that use gambling as a main mechanic are also not allowed. We also kindly request that you include trigger warnings if your game involves sensitive trigger warning topics. If you are not certain whether your game contents would be appropriate, do drop a message to the GGJ SG organising team to ask!
Examples of games made in previous GGJs are available here: https://globalgamejam.org/games
The GGJ SG organising team, Kueh 22, is made up of local game development students and recent graduates, and some of us have jammed in The GGJ prior to becoming organisers. We are passionate about game development and the local games community, and are voluntarily organising a jam site for The GGJ in Singapore to maintain a platform and community locally for those interested in The GGJ, as we are excited about the spirit and goals of The GGJ ourselves. None of us are part of The GGJ team.
GGJ is about bringing communities together through collaboration, innovation and experimentation. Discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to xenophobia, racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia. If you want to say something but are unsure whether it crosses any of those above lines, it would be best not to. Do alert the organisers if you observe anyone violating the above.
Please read the full Code of Conduct here: https://globalgamejam.org/inclusiveness-policy-and-code-conduct
All projects under GGJ SG are to be licenced using the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Creative Commons Licence.
Please read more about GGJ’s legal policies here: https://globalgamejam.org/legal-policies
Please refer to our Discord server for the rules to participate in GGJ SG 2024.
Your game executable, source codes, and assets. Do include a README describing how to put your game together (e.g. Necessary 3rd party tools and libraries and compilation process for digital games, or assembly instructions for analog games).
More details can be found here: Creating projects and uploading games - Global Game Jam Manual (gitbook.io)
Please submit your games to our jam site by 28 January 2024, 6pm SGT. As a high server load is to be expected, please begin to upload your games at least 1 hour before the deadline.
Each jamming group (or individual, if solo) will take turns to showcase what they have made in the 48 hours to the rest of the jammers. This can be a casual 1-3 min showcase explaining their game, such as their inspirations, design process and the actual gameplay. Please note that the presentations will be recorded and livestreamed.
Yes! You might even be able to develop your game beyond The GGJ to kickstart your journey as a game developer!
It’s okay! Understandably, game development takes far longer than 48 hours, and it’s alright that you or your team is unable to finish. Ideally from the beginning, scope the project so that a viable prototype can be presented, but if you are unable to, you can showcase what you have managed to complete within the jam duration. We encourage you to continue working on your projects after the deadline if you like what you’ve built!
Yes of course! You are also allowed to continue development on the game and potentially eventually turn it into a product. However, The GGJ reserves the right to distribute a copy of your source codes, assets and game in the state the game was in at the end of the game jam. Others may work on your game code but will not be allowed to commercialise it, and must credit your team fairly.
To be considered as having a game submitted, you should:
- Have joined the GGJ jam site
- Be included in one or more game projects on the GGJ jam site which has source codes, assets and a runnable game submitted by Sunday 2359
The game does not need to be fully complete or playable, but should be some playable content, or otherwise indicative of considerable effort put into the project.
Submissions may still be allowed after Sunday 2359, but GGJ SG cannot guarantee that GGJ submission portal will still be available.
It is up to the discretion of the GGJ SG organising team to determine if a participant has submitted a game.
Kueh 22 is a team of volunteers in Singapore that aim to bring our community together to celebrate games and making games. Kueh 22 has previously organized Global Game Jam Singapore 2022 & 2023.
