The Global Game Jam and Games for Change have partnered to create the world’s largest student game jam in support of the Games for Change “G4C Student Challenge.” The jam collaboration will kick off with the 2025 Global Game Jam and run through April 18, 2025.
The GGJ Next-G4C partnership will include two student jams:
- The G4C-GGJ Next Student Jam
- the G4C-GGJ University Student Challenge Jam
G4C-Global Game Jam Next Student Jam
As the official international jam partner for the G4C Student Challenge, Global Game Jam will expand the global footprint of its GGJ Next jam while engaging youth around creating creative solutions to social problems through the medium of games.
The G4C Student Challenge is a game design competition that invites youth to create digital social impact games, and uses youth interest in video games to develop coding and digital design skills, as well as problem solving, collaboration, creativity, and other critical STEAM skills.
GGJ Next® is an annual game jam event operated by the Global Game Jam to serve middle and high school youth who are interested in learning how to create video games. Most recently, the GGJ Next jam has run concurrently with the Global Game Jam in January.
Through this collaboration and focused on sites outside of the United States, GGJ Next jam organizers will have the option to participate in the Global Game Jam in January or shorter jams from February through March to develop games that can be submitted to the G4C Student Challenge in April.
The winning G4C Student Challenge Game of the Year team will receive a $10,000 USD scholarship to be shared among team members.
The option for shorter jams—as short as four to six hours that can be spread over one or more days—will be more compatible with school and afterschool program schedules and enable the jam to be accessible to more students.
Educator and/or jam facilitator training will be available around the game jam themes and curriculum from both Games for Change and Global Game Jam.
How to sign up
GGJ Next sites can sign up here. The link will direct you to the main GGJ site. Click the button that says “Host a Jam.” When you are registering your site, under the “Jam Audience,” make sure you select GGJ Next.
Additionally, if you are also the organizer of a regular GGJ site, you will need to use a different email address to register your GGJ Next site, as an email address can only be registered to a single site.
A limited number of stipends are available to GGJ Next sites outside the United States. To request a GGJ Next stipend, please apply here.
More information on the G4C Student Challenge can be found here: 2025 Student Challenge Competition Handbook.
G4C-GGJ University Student Challenge Jam
This initiative will kick off with the Global Game Jam. To participate, teams can select one of the three G4C diversifiers to incorporate into their game.
Post-GGJ, jammers who created games under the G4C diversifiers will be guided on how to submit their projects to the G4C platform with opportunities for feedback in the iteration and further development process with the intention that participants will revise their initial GGJ game for the G4C challenge.
Interested participants who do not participate in GGJ or who do not create a game using a G4C Diversifier for their GGJ game but who want to participate in the G4C-GGJ University Student Challenge Jam can still join by signing up here.
From February through April 2025, the Global Game Jam will provide support to participating teams through webinars, access to content areas experts, serious games experts and office hours with mentors so that jammers can develop their GGJ games into competitive G4C challenge submissions.
The winning G4C University Game of the Year team will receive a $10,000 USD scholarship to be shared among team members.
Multiple information sessions on both the G4C-GGJ Next Student Jam and G4C-GGJ University Student Challenge Jam will be available as part of Global Game Jam 2025’s Prep Week. You can view see the full schedule here.
G4C Student Challenge Game Requirements
- Games must be playable on a web browser and accessible via a URL.
- Games must be created using a free or open platform (ex: Scratch, Unity, Construct, Co-Spaces, Game Maker, Twine, Godot, etc.).
- Games must be about one of this year’s 3 themes.
- Games must be original work created by 1- 4 students
-University Student Challenge teams can have additional “mentor” team members who are over 25. Those mentor team members should be indicated on the submission. While a team with mentor team members is eligible to win the Game of the Year prize, the scholarship money would only go to the student (ages 18-25) team members.