Two Decades of Game Jams

TL;DR

This paper reviews twenty years of game jams, highlighting their evolution, diverse uses, and research areas, while proposing taxonomies and discussing their definitions and community impact.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive history of game jams, introduces two taxonomies, and analyzes key research themes and community dynamics over two decades.

Findings

Game jams have evolved from trivial events to multifaceted activities.

Research focuses on community development, participant analysis, and critical perspectives.

Game jams are now integral to learning, activism, and commercial prototyping.

Abstract

In less than a year's time, March 2022 will mark the twentieth anniversary of the first documented game jam, the Indie Game Jam, which took place in Oakland, California in 2002. Initially, game jams were widely seen as frivolous activities. Since then, they have taken the world by storm. Game jams have not only become part of the day-to-day process of many game developers, but jams are also used for activist purposes, for learning and teaching, as part of the experience economy, for making commercial prototypes that gamers can vote on, and more. Beyond only surveying game jams and the relevant published scientific literature from the last two decades, this paper has several additional contributions. It builds a history of game jams, and proposes two different taxonomies of game jams - a historical and a categorical. In addition, it discusses the definition of game jam and identifies the most active research areas within the game jam community such as the interplay and development with local communities, the study and analysis of game jammers and organisers, and works that bring a critical look on game jams.