Welcome to Games Now! Game Jam #17 - Autumn 2025!

Games Now! is an open lecture series on trends in game development and design. Our community is open for anyone to attend, including our game jams! This game jam is all about international teams and cross-cultural game jam exchange from different parts of the world. The jam theme is revealed on Tuesday, 11th November 2025, and the final deadline for the games is on the 16th November 2025.

As the jam is open for anyone to attend (we are all students at the school of life after all), so invite all your friends! The best jam games (there will be time to polish) will be exhibited at an art gallery in Helsinki on May 2026.

We also offer matchmaking help. All the teams and jammers participating in the matchmaking process are required to register for the jam by Wednesday, 5th November AND attend the matchmaking pre-meetup on Friday, 7th November on Discord. 

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Register for the GN! Game Jam - Autumn 2025: https://forms.gle/v1jeqPnw1oXCdSZa6

Join our GN! Discord server: https://discord.gg/YsgagHX

Note: You have to be active on Discord throughout the jam!

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We continue our series of online jams with multicultural collaboration with jammers from various countries around the world. The jam will be jointly held in collaboration with the GN! network's universities and schools. Check the full list here: https://gamesnow.aalto.fi/schools/

You can join the jam regardless of whether you are enrolled in any game school - the jam is open to anyone and free of charge! We welcome everyone who loves games and is interested in cross-cultural jamming. 

You can take multiple roles in game jams depending on your interests. Game jams always need programmers and artists, but also designers, writers and musicians are important to the teams. For a game jam team that crosses time zones, a producer role is also very important.

The jam will kick off as part of the GN! Event Week program at: https://gamesnow.aalto.fi/ and live stream on our Twitch channelhttps://www.twitch.tv/gamesnowaaltofi --- where the jam theme will be announced on 11th November 2025.

####### Requirements and Theme ######################## 

The technology of the jam games is not restricted; we welcome all digital platforms as well as all forms of analogue games, such as board games and TTRPGs. 

All jam teams are required to be completely transparent on which tools, resources, and software were used to make the game. You can choose the license of your game, as long as it allows playing the jam version of the game for free.

The best games of this jam have the possibility to be showcased at Kumma Gallery in Helsinki in May 2026. Eligibility for the art gallery showcase:

• Your game was submitted to GN! Game Jam Autumn 2025 according to the deadlines
• Your game page includes a gameplay video
• We give bonus weight to the teams that worked with several time zones and/or language barriers
• We prioritize teams with at least 1 student from the GN! Network schools (check here: https://gamesnow.aalto.fi/schools/)

##################### Schedule #####################

Time zone: Finland, Ukraine, etc (EET) / Sweden, Germany, Italy, etc (CET) / Ireland, Portugal, etc (UTC) / USA - East Coast (EST) / Hong Kong (HKT) / Korea, Japan (KST, JST)

##### Before the Jam #####

• Matchmaking signup: Until Wednesday, 5th November 2025 (register here: https://forms.gle/v1jeqPnw1oXCdSZa6)
• Matchmaking team announcement & pre-meeting on GN! Discord: At Friday, 7th November 2025 @GN! Discord: https://discord.gg/YsgagHX 

##### The Jam #####

Jammers can communicate, seek help, socialise, and  jam throughout the week at GN! Discord: https://discord.gg/YsgagHX

• GN! lecture (visiting talks): Monday 10-11th November 2025 @ https://www.twitch.tv/gamesnowaaltofi 
• GN! Game Jam kick-off live stream (theme reveal): Tuesday 11th November 2025, 14:00 -15:00 (EET) / 13:00 - 14:00 (CET) / 12:00 – 13:00 (UTC) / 7:00 - 9:00 (EST) / 20:00 - 21:00 (HKT) / 21:00 - 22:00 (KST, JST) @ https://www.twitch.tv/gamesnowaaltofi 
• GN! Game Jam progress update live stream: Wednesday 12th November ~ Saturday 15th November 2025, 15:00 -16:00 (EET) / 14:00 - 15:00 (CET) / 13:00 – 14:00 (UTC) / 8:00 - 9:00 (EST) / 21:00 - 22:00 (HKT) / 2200 - 23:00 (KST, JST) (KST, JST) @ https://www.twitch.tv/gamesnowaaltofi

##### Jam Deadlines #####

Jammers can submit their progress report throughout the week at GN! Discord: https://discord.gg/YsgagHX - organisers will present some of those updates during the GN! Game Jam progress update live stream 

• Pre-meeting for matchmaking jammers: Friday 7th November 2025, 15:00 -16:00 (EET) / 14:00 - 15:00 (CET) / 13:00 – 14:00 (UTC) / 8:00 - 10:00 (EST) / 21:00 - 22:00 (HKT) / 22:00 - 23:00 (KST, JST) - on Discord https://discord.gg/YsgagHX
• First game idea (update with a sentence) by Wednesday 12th November 2025, 12:00 (EET)  / 11:00 (CET) / 10:00 (UTC) / 5:00 (EST) / 18:00 (HKT) / 19:00 (KST, JST) - share on Discord
• Update with image #1 by Thursday 13th November 2025, 12:00 (EET)  / 11:00 (CET) / 10:00 (UTC) / 5:00 (EST) / 18:00 (HKT) / 19:00 (KST, JST) - share on Discord
• Update with image #2 by Friday 14th November 2025, 12:00 (EET)  / 11:00 (CET) / 10:00 (UTC) / 5:00 (EST) / 18:00 (HKT) / 19:00 (KST, JST) - share on Discord
• Update with video by Saturday 15th November 2025, 12:00 (EET)  / 11:00 (CET) / 10:00 (UTC) / 5:00 (EST) / 18:00 (HKT) / 19:00 (KST, JST) - share on Discord

##### Exhibition #####

• GN! Exhibition (for selected games): End of May 2026 @Kumma Gallery (Kankurinkatu 5, Helsinki), Finland - details TBA!

##################### Jam Hosts #####################

Annakaisa Kultima, Aalto University, Finland 

https://aakoosgamelab.com/

Annakaisa Kultima is a university lecturer in interactive media at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Finland. She has been teaching and studying game design and development since 2006 in several universities in Finland and Sweden as well as traveled as a visiting lecturer around the world including universities in US, China, Denmark, South Korea and Japan. Her research is concentrating on game development cultures, creativity, game industry trends, as well as game jams. Kultima’s PhD dissertation “Game Design Praxiology” examined the multitude of issues of understanding ‘games as created’ including game jam cultures. Kultima is also an active member of the game ecosystem in Finland and internationally: she is working as a judge in several game competitions, running and participating in game jams (around 50 game jams so far!) as well as curating exhibitions on games. She has been leading Global Game Jam theme committee and been the regional organizer and site organizer for Global Game Jam for many years. She is also a member of the founding team of The Finnish Museum of Games as well as the co-founder and the head of non-profit organization Finnish Game Jam between 2013-2020. At Aalto University, Annakaisa works on the Games Now! open lecture series carefully picking the most interesting topics and speakers to the series.

Solip Park Aalto University, Finland 

http://www.parksolip.com/

Solip is a game researcher and lecturer at Aalto University School of Arts, Design, and Architecture - Department of Arts and Media. Her current research interest is focused on game development culture and immigrants/expats. Solip is the author and artist of the "Game Expats Story" comic series, a researcher at the EU-funded ORE research project, and a lecturer at the EU Erasmus Mundus game degree programme Replay.  She is also a deputy member of Finnish Game Jam Ry, and a project lead of "Kor-Fin Esports Festival" hosted by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea (South) in Finland - connecting game devs in Finland and South Korea.  Solip was the first South Korean to acquire Finland's startup entrepreneur residence permit in 2018 and was one of the founding members of Nexon Computer Museum in 2013 - the first permanent museum in East Asia dedicated to the history of computers and video games, located in South Korea.