On January 29, the video game development and research laboratory @gamelab_kbtu held the closing of the global game jam game Jam within the walls of KBTU. On the platform of our university, as part of this year's theme “Make me Laugh”, 8 games in various genres were created during the jam. In addition to the general nominations from the GJ platform itself, there were nominations from local laboratory partners.

Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the largest game creation event that takes place around the world and gathers tens of thousands of participants (jammers) at hundreds of physical and virtual venues in more than a hundred countries around the world. In 2023, during a time of 40,000 people at 800 venues in 108 countries, 7,600 games were created in 48 hours around the theme of "Roots"!

A game jam is similar to a hackathon, where people gather for a short period of time to create games around the central theme revealed at the beginning of the jam. Usually, everyone gathers at GJ, watches a short video with key tips from leading game developers, after which a secret topic is announced. Then all jumpers around the world are called upon to create games based on the same theme, with the games to be completed by the end of the jam.

GGJ invites people from different backgrounds to participate and contribute to the global spread of game development and creativity. GJ is based on the idea that in today's world we can unite, be creative, share experiences and express ourselves in many ways using the universal language of video games. Game jam promotes the emergence of new friendships, increases confidence in the ambitions of novice game developers and creates opportunities in local communities.

There are only 2 GGJ representatives in Kazakhstan: KBTU in Almaty and @astana_hub in Astana.