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Game Development vocabulary · Production, QA & Playtesting

Game jam

Meaning in game development, with examples

/ˈɡeɪm dʒæm/nounCommon term

In game development, game jam means: An event where people make a small game from scratch in a short, fixed time, usually 48 to 72 hours, often around a theme announced at the start.

In Turkish: game jam, oyun geliştirme maratonu

How it is used

Events like Global Game Jam and online jams on sites such as itch.io bring together thousands of developers, including many in Turkey. People join, enter or host a jam, form teams and submit their game. Some jam games later become commercial titles.

Example sentences

  1. We met at a game jam and started our studio a year later.

  2. This year's game jam theme is 'roles reversed', and we have 48 hours.

Common collocations

  • join a game jam
  • jam theme
  • host a game jam
  • jam entry
  • jam game
  • prototypeA quick, rough version of a game or feature made to test whether an idea is fun or works, before the team spends time on final art and polish.
  • indieDescribes games and studios that are independent: usually small teams that make games without the money or control of a large publisher.
  • postmortemA review held after a project or release in which the team discusses what went right, what went wrong and what to do differently next time.
  • scope creepThe slow, uncontrolled growth of a project as new features and ideas keep being added without extra time or people, which often causes delays and crunch.

More terms: Production, QA & Playtesting

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