A game jam is an event in which artists, makers, poets, and storytellers make a video game entirely from scratch in a set amount of time. Since 2025, VSW has hosted an ongoing series of Saturday afternoon game jams as part of its commitment to support media art and interactive games. This series encourages collaboration and experimentation in a low-stakes, supportive environment, and is in direct response to the contemporary crisis around access to education, information, and third spaces.

Designed for beginners and experienced makers alike, each game jam begins with a demonstration led by games artist and VSW Curator Nilson Carroll, followed by time to experiment, create, and share. These events promote game-making as an inclusive artistic practice, open to diverse makers and anyone who is curious about games, interactive new media, or digital storytelling. Game jam events empower makers to create and share expressive digital art outside of the boundaries of large, algorithm-driven, corporate-owned online platforms. Makers, artists, indie developers, and poets of all experience levels and ages are invited to participate.

After each season, game jam participants are able to publicly display their games in an in-person pop-up arcade at VSW as well as online at itch.io.

Typically, the game jams center around a specific, accessible game-making tool, which often incorporate other forms including drawing, photography, writing, poetry, video, comics, or performance. While each tool is different, they all allow artists to create through improvisation with no or little coding. Most of these tools were designed by artists or DIY collectives, are usable in-browser, require little processing power, and can export projects to HTML for simple sharing.

For any questions relating to game jams or games programming in general at VSW, please email Nilson at nilsoncarroll@vsw.org.

The Game Jam Fall 2026 – Spring 2027 series is co-sponsored by ArtsBloom, part of the City of Rochester’s Percent for the Arts Program.

Upcoming

Previous Game Jams