Finnish Game Jam Stories – Story Gathering

What kind of game jam experiences do you have?

Did you organize a game jam yourself? How was it? How many jammers participated in the jam, what were the highlights?

Or maybe you experienced something surprising or exciting at a game jam somewhere? Did you make new friends? Jammed with your child? Brought your dog to the jamming site? Made an interesting game project? Fooled around in a creative way?

Submit your story to this story collection with a photo or without. The stories submitted before the 4th February 2024 and written in English will be considered to be published as part of the Finnish Game Jam Stories book. All the stories will be archived to the archive of the Finnish Museum of Games.
Share your story

Register to jam with us at Finnish Game Jam 2024!

The Finnish Game Jam 2024 jammer registrations are open! Mark your calendars for 26-28 January 2024 and visit finnishgamejam.eventbrite.fi to get your free tickets. If you do not see a site you’d like to register with just yet, keep an eye out – more sites are still coming!

And if you would like to register your own site, check out globalgamejam.org!

If you have any questions about a specific site, please use the contact info mentioned on each site’s Eventbrite page. For more general inquiries, you can use finnishgamejam@gmail.com.

Finnish Game Jam 2023

#FGJ23 is a 48-hour-long game development event organized as a part of the Global Game Jam. In 2023, FGJ#23 and the Global Game Jam are organized between the 3rd and the 5th of February. With various different #FGJ23 online locations, Finland is celebrating the 14th Global Game Jam in 2023! We will soon update this page with more information on #FGJ23. To hear the latest updates, follow this page and our other channels:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/FinnishGameJam
Twitter: https://twitter.com/finnishgamejam
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/FinnishGameJam
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/finnishgamejam
Discord: https://discord.gg/5hMyXB3tyQ

How to join?

Participation requires registration through our Eventbrite page – each location has its own registration. All of the sites are different, contact your local organizer if you need more info.

What is a game jam?

A game jam brings together all types of game developers, amateurs, professionals, and students to innovate new games in a single weekend or a similarly short time span. Typically participants work in small teams, racing to produce as complete a game as possible with limited time and resources, but unlimited creativity.

What is a Global Game Jam?

Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world’s largest game jam event taking place worldwide every January. In 2017, jammers in 700 locations in 95 countries created over 7000 games.

What is Finnish Game Jam and #FGJ23?

Finnish Game Jam ry (FGJ) is a registered association founded to organize game jam events in Finland. Our main event is an annual game development event and a part of the worldwide Global Game Jam (GGJ). This year’s event is called #FGJ23, and comprises several game jam locations organized all around Finland. In #FGJ17, we had 22 locations, 888 jammers and 222 games created in one weekend!

Pocket Jam returns 27-28 September 2022!

Finnish Game Jam ry once again collaborates with Pocket Gamer in bringing mobile jamming to Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2022. This year, the jam is an in-person event held at Cable Factory (Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki)

Whether you are an avid mobile gamer or simply want to try your hand at making bite-sized mobile (or other) games, we hope to see you at the jam! Game submission will be considered for an award both at the culmination of Pocket Jam, as well as the Finnish Game Jam Awards 2022.

We welcome both lone devs and already-formed teams! And, of course, we will help you find teammates as well. In addition to the jamming experience, participants will also receive full access to the conference, including expos, networking events, and other benefits.

More information and registration on Eventbrite
Also check out the event page on Facebook

Disclaimer: we reserve the right to make changes to the event schedule.

Pride Game Jam HKI 2022 is here!

Today, Thursday 30. 6. 2022, the 3rd annual Pride Game Jam officially begins!

In honor of Pride Month, this four day event celebrates LGBTQIA+ people by creating a safe space where participants can create art, music, and, of course, games, by which they can freely express their gender, sexual, and romantic experiences.

The event is a hybrid one, meaning that jammers can join us in-person in Helsinki, as well as through Discord from anywhere else in the world. Everything you need to know about Pride Game Jam can be found on PGJ’s website, including schedule, information for our jammers, and a list of this year’s amazing speakers.

The event will be streamed on the Finnish Game Jam Twitch, and you can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

You can also follow us through our official hashtags, #PrideGameJamHKI22 and #FGJ. Use these when posting about the event!

And finally, huge thank you to our sponsors: Metacore as Platinum sponsor, Skunkworks Games as Gold sponsor, Ubisoft RedLynx as Silver sponsor, and Boom Corp as Bronze sponsor!

Happy jamming everyone!

Thank you for attending Jam Jam 2022!

“Woah! What a weekend! Thanks to everyone who attended this year’s Jam Jam festival! We hope to see you back next year! The weather this time treated us well and the warmth wasn’t too unbearable. The food was tasty and not too much of it went to waste. The hot tubs were warm and only one terrace got broken. Overall we feel this was a huge success!

We’ll send the feedback form out to the participants really soon and we really want your thoughts and suggestions. We especially hope to hear from you if you are interested in organising or volunteering next year.

Finally, huge thanks to our volunteers who made the event possible. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Thanks again!

– Joni Finne and the rest of the organising team.

Pride Game Jam Helsinki 2022 registrations are open!

It’s time for the third annual Pride Game Jam HKI! This year we start by having a workshop day on the June 30 and by jamming all weekend July 1 – July 3 of 2022!

Pride Game Jam HKI – is a four day event that celebrates LGBTQIA+ people by creating a safe space for expressing one’s gender, sexual and romantic experience through art, music and of course games!

The event is part of Helsinki Pride Week 2022, and is organized by Finnish Game Jam ry in partnership with Helsinki Pride ry. This year our jam will run in hybrid mode! Meaning you have a venue to come to and jam with your buds, but also you’re free to stay cozily online – all workshops and speakers will be streamed directly to you through Twitch! Be ready to celebrate with us, and get delighted with another brilliant ✨care package✨ to set the jamming mood (please sign up by June 21 if you want the care package) !

NB! Venue is not available on June 30 for jamming.

Pride Game Jam HKI is taking place on June 30 – July 3 of 2022. The event aims to educate on LGBTQIA+ experiences, and help budding game devs to learn key skills in teamwork, design, and familiarize with relevant software! Everyone is welcome, including allies, regardless of skill level and background!

Registrations and more information at Eventbrite

Welcome to Jam Jam 2022

Jam Jam is a two-day summer festival and retreat for game jam organizers and anyone interested in learning, discussing and sharing ideas on game jams.

Jam Jam 2022 consists of a workshop day and talks on game jams and jam games. During your visit you can decide what you work on – bring your jam organizing team and work with planning or debriefing your jams or come without an agenda and talk with all other jam organizers and jam-organizers-to-be, brainstorming new jams and sharing lessons on organizing events.

Retreat in a cozy cabin environment

The event is located in the middle of a Finnish forest, on top of a mountain called Sappeenvuori – about 2 hour car ride from Helsinki (see details from Sappee.fi). The venue consists of eight well-equipped cabins with saunas and hot tubs surrounded by the beauty of a Finnish forest and the power of the midnight sun of the Northern summer.

Join the team of volunteers

Right now we are looking for volunteers to make the event possible to organize. Please fill the forms below if you are interested to be involved in one of the greatest events in Finnish Jamming Summer!

  • Volunteer Applications here
  • Early Bird Tickets on sale here
  • Workshop Apllication (for participants) here