What’s a Game Jam?

A Game Jam is a nonstop session where developers, designers, artists, writers, and more come together for 48-72 hours and make a video game! Game Jams have various themes and have produced some of the world’s most popular games over the years. C3’s Game Jam aims to help students understand the value behind being able to translate academic research into video games to help broader audiences understand the impacts of the research!

At C3, our game jams go a step further: You’re not just making games — you’re making games with a purpose, grounded in real academic research and community-centered topics.

Previous Jams

Spring 2025

March 14-16, 2025

Our inaugural game jam!

Welcome to Camp Climate Control.

Why Game Jams?

While academic writing is obviously an important part of sharing and broadening scientific understanding, it is often inaccessible to larger audiences, thanks to its complexity and jargon. By capturing the nuances and real-world impact that these papers address and synthesizing it into a video game, students are able to create an educational medium that is not only more accessible, but also more compelling to a broad audience!

It’s a course!

Are you passionate about designing video games for a better world? Together with a team, you will create a video game from scratch that translates meaningful, community-centered research for a broad audience. This two-part course consists of an asynchronous module and an intensive game jam experience that begins in the evening of Friday, March 14 and continues through the evening of Sunday, March 16. To enroll in this course, you must submit an application before your course request is approved. Priority will be given to JMHC students in good standing who have not yet proposed a Scholarly Project.