Games with a purpose? Make your own game through a game jam process

In this last section you get the opportunity to go through a similar process, either on your own or as a design team occupying different roles (Thinkers, Coders, Makers). How long you spend on the game jam is up to you - a game jam can take everything from a couple of hours to several days. But decide on a time frame before you begin and divide your time into the four phases of the double diamond design model.

Through moving though the phases of the double diamond design model below you move through the game jam. Furthermore, the model integrates and makes use of the knowledge found in Unit I and Unit II as well as in the videos of Unit III. You can always revisit Unit II if you want to know more about how to carry out the elements of the different phases in the game jam or Unit I and the videos of Unit III to get inspiration and ideas for the thinker role. In each of the four phases you will find activities for Thinkers, Coders and Makers. If you are game jamming on your own, you occupy all the roles, and if you are more than one game jammer you distribute the roles amongst you.

But first, before you start, decide on the length of your game jam - remember it can be a couple of hours or several days. When you have decided, divide the time between the four phases, and you are ready to begin to Discover ideas and materials for your game concept.

You can click around in the following graphic to see what different stages meant for this academic game jam in the double diamond model below. 


Below you will find some additional resources to inspire you and further your thinking if you would like to know more about how to create games with values and games for change. Concluding this unit you can see Associate Professor Rikke Toft Nørgård presentation ‘What can we learn from using game Jams in higher education? Perspectives from teachers, students and professionals’ from the IGNITE Digital Roundtable series.

This also takes us to the final unit of the course where we will get answers to this question and get to know a bit more about why one should game jam in higher education, also if you come from disciplines or take courses that have nothing to do with games.

What can we learn from using game Jams in higher education? Perspectives
from teachers, students and professionals





Further Readings



Last modified: Monday, 15 June 2020, 2:28 PM