Global Game Jam is proud to announce the 2026 GGJ Next National Award Winners, recognizing outstanding student-created games from around the world. These projects represent the very best of this year's GGJ Next and G4C-GGJ Next Gen Expert Jam, showcasing the collaboration and innovation of young game developers across the globe.

See all the GGJ Next National Award Winners: https://globalgamejam.org/news/global-game-jam-celebrates-2026-ggj-next-national...

Global Game Jam is proud to announce the 2026 GGJ Next National Award Winners, recognizing outstanding student-created games from around the world. These projects represent the very best of this year's GGJ Next and G4C-GGJ Next Gen Expert Jam, showcasing the collaboration and innovation of young game developers across the globe.

See all the GGJ Next National Award Winners: https://globalgamejam.org/news/global-game-jam-celebrates-2026-ggj-next-national...

Hey, the GGJ Next Best National Game Awards do not include an additional prize beyond the official certificate of recognition. We hope this recognition serves as a celebration of your team's hard work and achievement, we're incredibly proud to highlight your accomplishment!

All GGJ NEXT National Award winners are seen here: https://globalgamejam.org/news/global-game-jam-celebrates-2026-ggj-next-national...

Games For Change challenge winners are featured here: https://learn.gamesforchange.org/student-arcade

To everyone who participated in Juntos: Game Jam for Venezuela Earthquake Relief — sincere thank you.

Whether you created a game, mentored a team, donated, streamed, or shared the event, you helped show what our global game development community can accomplish when we come together for a cause bigger than ourselves.

We had more than 200 participants and 45 game submissions, each one representing creativity and solidarity. Thank you for lending your talent and your heart to support the people of Venezuela.

⏰Also, it’s not too late to submit your game. We have heard from a few jammers who were unable to get the game submitted before the page closed. If you did create a game, but didn’t manage to submit: please email updates@globalgamejam.org the link to your game’s itch.io page, and we will send you an individual link to get your game added to the jam page. 

The jam may be over, but the impact continues.

💝 Our fundraiser remains open through August 24. If you'd like to continue supporting World Food Programme's earthquake relief efforts in Venezuela, or share the campaign with others, you can donate here: https://tilt.fyi/cVK5Fy1gzr 

🎮 Don't miss our Juntos Showcase on August 5! Join us as we celebrate the games created during the jam and hear from some of the participating teams.

Register here: https://luma.com/nwiantdq 

From all of us at Global Game Jam and our partners: thank you for proving once again that games can bring people together and make a real difference.

____________________________________________

A todos los que participaron en Juntos: Game Jam Para Venezuela — un sincero agradecimiento. 

Ya sea que hayas creado un juego, fuiste mentor para un equipo, donado, transmitido o compartido el evento, ayudaste a mostrar lo que nuestra comunidad global de desarrollo de juegos puede lograr cuando nos unimos para una causa más grande que nosotros mismos. 

Tuvimos más de 200 participantes y 45 presentaciones de juegos, cada uno representando creatividad y solidaridad. Gracias por prestar su talento y su corazón para apoyar al pueblo de Venezuela.  

⏰Además, no es demasiado tarde para enviar su juego. Hemos escuchado de algunos jammers que no pudieron enviar su juego antes de que se cerrara la página. Si creaste un juego, pero no lograste enviarlo: por favor envía un correo electrónico a updates@globalgamejam.org con el enlace a la página de itch.io de su juego y le enviaremos un enlace individual para que su juego se agregue a la página del jam.

El jam puede haber terminado, pero el impacto continúa. 

💝Nuestra recaudación de fondos permanece abierta hasta el 24 de agosto. Si quieres seguir apoyando los esfuerzos de ayuda por los terremotos en Venezuela del Programa Mundial de Alimentos, o compartir la campaña con otros, puedes donar aquí: https://tilt.fyi/cVK5Fy1gzr

🎮¡No te pierdas nuestro Juntos Showcase (presentación de juegos) el 5 de agosto! Únete a nosotros mientras celebramos los juegos creados durante el jam y escuchamos a algunos de los equipos participantes.

Regístrese aquí: https://luma.com/nwiantdq

De parte de todos nosotros en Global Game Jam y nuestros socios: gracias por demostrar una vez más que los juegos pueden unir a las personas y marcar una verdadera diferencia.

Thank you so much for participating in the jam, creating a game and your message of support! 

As the game does directly incorporate themes around an earthquake, we wanted to add the following content notice for anyone viewing the game. No action needed on your end; we're just adding this across the jam where relevant.

Content Notice: This game may contain content some players find sensitive. / Aviso de contenido: Este juego puede contener contenido que algunas personas consideren sensible.

The clock is ticking! The jam has officially kicked off, and it's time to put all our creativity into action. 

¡El reloj ya está corriendo! El evento ha iniciado oficialmente y es hora de poner a prueba toda nuestra creatividad.

Perfect 💜

Hey! We have created a looking-for-team channel on our Discord, you can join here.

We have created resources for Juntos jammers:

• Juntos Game Jam Social Media Guide & Resources
• About the Jam
• Tiltify Quick Start Quide

______________

Materiales en español:

Página del jam

Guía y Recursos de Redes Sociales de Juntos Game Jam (en español)

Guía de inicio rápido de Tiltify

Remember to sign up for the virtual kickoff event on July 24! 

🔗 https://luma.com/mkdplatw

See you there!

Hi Everyone,

The time has finally come!

Over the last few weeks, our panel of international judges has been carefully reviewing all of your submissions, and we have been absolutely blown away by the quality of the work. The creativity, innovation, and passion on display have been a true credit to the African games community.

With the final stages of scoring and tie-break reviews now complete, we are delighted to announce the following overall prize winners:

Best Overall Game — 1st Place: Culture_Bridging ($1,000 USD cash prize)
Best Overall Game — Runner-Up: Border Shifter ($500 USD cash prize)
Best Overall Game — Third Place: PROTOCOL: UBUNTU ($250 USD cash prize)
Best Mobile Game: Idle BorderlessTrade ($500 USD cash prize)
Best Board Game: Chase Kapoaka ($250 USD cash prize + $1,000 USD manufacturing credit from Panda Game Manufacturing)

We are also excited to announce the selected winners by country. These teams will receive global recognition and promotion as national winners.

Benin: Idle BorderlessTrade
  Botswana: Mfecane
  Burkina Faso: Highschool Breaker
  Egypt: Ballistic Chicken
  Ethiopia: Skybound: Beyond the Borders
  Ghana: Farmers
  Kenya: YUUH! Better Trade
  Madagascar: Chase Kapoaka
  Malawi: Culture_Bridging
  Nigeria: Border Shifter
  Tunisia: The Sacred Forest | الغابة المقدسة

All Pan-African Jam participants will receive feedback in the form of the judges comments in approximately the next two weeks. National winners will receive certificates of commendation in that same timeframe. For teams that will receive prize money, you will receive an email from the GGJ team by the end of this week. If your team has more than one member, all correspondence will be sent to the primary email contact you listed with your submission.

Congratulations to all of the winning developers. Your talent, energy, and dedication continue to inspire us, and we cannot wait to see what you create in the future!

Thank you once again to everyone who took part in this incredible celebration of game development across Africa.

— The Global Game Jam and Lagos Games Week Team

Hi Everyone,

First of all, we want to thank all of you for participating in the Pan-African Game Jam 2026. Your creativity, energy, and enthusiasm have been incredible to witness throughout the event.

Our panel of judges from around the world has been busy reviewing all of the submissions, and the primary judging phase has now been completed. We are currently in the final stages of scoring and reviewing tie-breakers before making our final selections.

We’re excited to announce that we aim to reveal the winners later this week — so watch this space! We appreciate your patience. Thank you once again for being part of this amazing celebration of game development across Africa.

The GGJ Team

TODAY is the final day of the Pan-African Game Jam 2026!

If your game idea is in a playable condition, make sure to get it posted today. We aren't looking for perfection, we are looking for interesting ideas that look like they are fun to play and fit with the theme.

That's all you have to keep in mind - the deadline is today.

If you have any issues with the submitting process, let us know and we'll do our best to troubleshoot and help you find a solution.

Hello jammers, you're doing great!

We wanted to just hop on and remind you all that the official end of the jam is on 11th of May. So you still have a whole weekend to get the jam game to a playable state.

That's the key word - we aren't looking for anything perfect. There's plenty time for polish after the jam.

So don't forget to submit your game!

Can you tell more details about the error you are facing so we can troubleshoot?

This is your cheer to get that game jam idea ready to be submitted! Remember, it doesn't have to be perfectly polished, as long as it can be played its good to be submitted.

Try not to leave things in the last minute - we believe in you!

We are here to celebrate the art of it all, creativity and sharing your ideas. You can perfect it later.

Hi, you can definitely help others! Tomorrow we have a day dedicated to giving feedback for the work that jammers have done so if you are in our discord server discord.gg/ggj that's the best way to offer support. Just look for the Pan-African Game Jam category!

What is **feedback friday?** its a day that we give to participating jammers as a chance to post their work and seek feedback on the jam game that they have in the works.

Join us on our Discord server to share any updates and questions you might have. We opened up a discussion channel inside the GGJ server for shorter updates but if you have any art or any other visual assets to show off, we welcome you all to use our Jammer HQ forum.

Our community is friendly and welcoming, don't feel too shy to seek feedback on something that might look a little rough.

We hope to see you all in our Discord tomorrow!

Pan-African Jam 2026 Launchpad stream recording is now live on YouTube.

Join the Pan-African Jam 2026 Launchpad Webinar on April 27! 

Hosted by Global Game Jam and Lagos Games Week, this kickoff session will introduce an exciting new game jam bringing developers across Africa together to collaborate & create. 

📅 April 27 
🎫 Sign up: https://luma.com/xmcs5elg

See you there!!

Hi!

This specific jam is for creators ages 18-25. Additional team members such as mentors or advisors can be over 25, but the G4C Student Challenge prize is meant for this specific age group.

We will have other jams in the future so stay tuned :)

As stated in the Jam Page:

• Digital games must be playable on a web browser and accessible via a URL

Hey! This specific jam is for creators ages 18-25. Additional team members such as mentors or advisors can be over 25, but the G4C Student Challenge prize is meant for this specific age group. There will be other jams in the near future, stay tuned!

G4C-GGJ Next Gen Expert Jam is live with two weeks left to submit!

Join the Feedback Friday (March 13) on our Discord: https://discord.gg/hjcFW5AmJd 

 G4C Prep Week Webinars are viewable on YouTube:

Games for Change: Outgrow Hunger - https://www.youtube.com/live/kKEd0GIoRqk?si=qsAG7QN8Z9Q1nKZh

Games for Change: All in for Nature - https://www.youtube.com/live/QzwPHmIkoGY?si=G-u7vlQZafwFYTWb

If you have any questions, please reach out to: updates[at]globalgamejam.org

🕹️ G4C Student Challenge Check-In! ✨

Feedback Friday, March 6. Any time of your day on GGJ Discord #g4c-ggj-next-gen-expert channel! 

This is your chance to share what you’ve been working on for the G4C-GGJ Next Gen Expert Jam, and get useful feedback.

📢 Use this opportunity to…

• Test your concept and see how it plays for others.
• Get fresh perspectives and ideas to improve your project.
• Share a short update, game link, screenshots, or a video clip.
• Give some feedback to your fellow jammers!

👉 Just post whatever you’ve got so far from your entry for the “G4C‑GGJ Next Gen Expert Jam 2026”, such as a link to your playable build, mock-ups, or design docs, in the #g4c-ggj-next-gen-expert channel. 

The team at GGJ will be checking in on your work through our Discord, giving feedback about what you have made so far.

🕹️ G4C Student Challenge Check-In! ✨

Feedback Friday, February 27. Any time of your day on GGJ Discord #g4c-ggj-next-gen-expert channel! 

This is your chance to share what you’ve been working on for the G4C-GGJ Next Gen Expert Jam, and get useful feedback.

📢 Use this opportunity to…

• Test your concept and see how it plays for others.
• Get fresh perspectives and ideas to improve your project.
• Share a short update, game link, screenshots, or a video clip.
• Give some feedback to your fellow jammers!

👉 Just post whatever you’ve got so far from your entry for the “G4C‑GGJ Next Gen Expert Jam 2026”, such as a link to your playable build, mock-ups, or design docs, in the #g4c-ggj-next-gen-expert channel. 

🕹️ G4C Student Challenge Check-In! ✨

Feedback Friday, February 20. Any time of your day on GGJ Discord #g4c-ggj-next-gen-expert channel! 

Welcome to the one-month-left check-in for the G4C Student Challenge! This is your chance to share what you’ve been working on for the G4C-GGJ Next Gen Expert Jam, and get useful feedback.

📢 Use this opportunity to…

• Test your concept and see how it plays for others.
• Get fresh perspectives and ideas to improve your project.
• Share a short update, game link, screenshots, or a video clip.
• Give some feedback to your fellow jammers!

👉 Just post whatever you’ve got so far from your entry for the “G4C‑GGJ Next Gen Expert Jam 2026”, such as a link to your playable build, mock-ups, or design docs, in the #g4c-ggj-next-gen-expert channel. 

 G4C Prep Week Webinars now viewable on YouTube!

Games for Change: Outgrow Hunger 

Games for Change: All in for Nature

 G4C's GGJ 2026 Prep Week Webinars (Free & Open to All)

As part of GGJ 2026 Prep Week, Games for Change is hosting two themed webinars focused on the Student Challenge topics and diversifiers. If you’re planning to use a G4C diversifier this year, these sessions are for you!

Monday, 19 January

 12 pm ET / 5 pm UTC

Games for Change: All in for Nature

Register: https://luma.com/j7hgc9v4

Partnering with the UN and Playing for the Planet, this session focuses on the All in for Nature: Reefs and Rainforests theme. We’ll explore how games can drive awareness around climate change and conservation, and share strategies for effective game design.

Friday, 23 January

 1 pm ET / 6 pm UTC

Games for Change: Outgrow Hunger

Register: https://luma.com/tulx39yq

This session focuses on the Outgrow Hunger theme, exploring how games can address food poverty and sustainability through thoughtful, impactful design.

 Explore More Prep Week Sessions

You can view the full lineup of Global Game Jam 2026 Prep Week webinars here:

 https://luma.com/ggj

As part of the lead up to GGJ 2026, GGJ is hosting two G4C sessions to help jammers tackle the Student Challenge themes.

Monday, 19 January -12pm ET/5pm UTC - Games for Change: All in for Nature - Register Here!

Partnering with the UN and Playing for the Planet, this GGJ Prep Week session focuses on the Games for Change Student Challenge theme and GGJ 2026 diversifier, All in for Nature: Reefs and Rainforests. We discuss how games can drive awareness and knowledge within climate change and conservation along with strategies for effective game design. Planning to use this G4C diversifier this year? This session is for you!

https://luma.com/j7hgc9v4?locale=fi

Friday, 23 January - 1pm ET/6pm UTC - Games for Change: Outgrow Hunger - Register Here!

Partnering with the World Food Program, this GGJ Prep Week session focuses on the Games for Change Student Challenge theme, Outgrow Hunger. We discuss how games can drive awareness and knowledge of food poverty and sustainability along with strategies for effective games design. Planning to use this G4C diversifier this year? This session is for you!

https://luma.com/tulx39yq?locale=fi

Sign up today!

Hi! Yes, a recording link will be shared afterward. Make sure to receive it by signing up to the webinar :)

The Global Game Jam® (GGJ), in collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), is proud to announce the winners of The Next Great IP Game Jam.  The first-of-its-kind virtual game jam was designed to challenge young developers around the world to think beyond making a game, and instead create the next legendary franchise while learning about intellectual property in the process

With more than 60 games submitted from game creators from across the globe, an international panel of judges were inspired by the great range of ideas, creativity, and franchise potential showcased throughout the jam. From these submissions, five standout teams from around the globe rose to the top. Their games showed clear potential to evolve into future franchises. 

The winning games by region are: 

• Asia: Avarice (The Philippines), a 2.5D online co-op horror game where scavenging abandoned buildings for loot becomes a suspenseful gamble 
• Africa: A Gnome's Tale: Spellbound Stones (South Africa), a cute, cozy puzzle game involving a gnome
• Europe: Meal Quest (Lithuania), Eat smart, fight strong in an educational action roguelike that ties in-game nutrition choices to combat bonuses  
• Latin America: Rilo vs The Machines (Ecuador), action roguelite with sokoban-inspired mechanics and armadillo protagonist. 
• North America: Humbug Tales: Keeper of the Swarm (United States), a narrative Action-Adventure game through a whimsical wetland world of puzzles, pirates, and predator

The judges also selected Wild Search for global honorable mention, both for their engaging game as well as diverse team, with members hailing from Brazil (team lead/animator, SFX); Belgium (writer); Germany (environment); Japan (composer); Italy (programming); and the United States (UI/UX).

With guidance from WIPO, experts, and the GGJ community, jammers around the world leveled up not only their games but their understanding of the creative business behind them.

Read more from our official post: https://globalgamejam.org/news/next-great-ip-jam-winners-announced-young-creator...

Hi everyone!
We will have an informational webinar next week about the G4C-GGJ Next Gen Expert Jam, sign up to it from our Luma page below.
If you got any questions you'd like to ask about the jam we highly recommend you to join us live so you can get direct answers from there.

Sign up link:
https://luma.com/j0x8hy08

Apologies for the delayed response. The winners have been reached out to via email from our end and the results will be published this month.

Thank you to everyone who jammed with us and submitted their work successfully by the deadline.
We hope you all had a fun time working on your game and figuring out opportunities for IP development.

We are currently reviewing the games and will share the top picks in the coming weeks!

Submissions for the jam are due on Monday, October 27.

Trust us, we know that jammers love to work on games until the last-minute to submit, but we just want to make sure you don’t wait too long to submit your vision for a fantastic future franchise!

Still polishing your game? Haven’t even started? You’ve still got time. We’re here to cheer on all our Next Great IP Game Jammers through to the finish!

Don’t stress. This is a jam. It’s all about having fun. Focus on possibility and potential, not perfection and polish. We’re excited to see your ideas and support you along the way.