CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Game jam

Video game production contest limited in time

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 22, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

A game jam is an event where participants try to make a game, usually a video game, from scratch. Depending on the format, participants might work independently, or in teams. Event duration varies widely, commonly lasting 24, 48, or 72 hours, 1-2 weeks, or a full month. Participants are generally programmers, game designers, artists, writers, sound designers and others in game development-related fields. While many game jams are run purely as a game-making exercise, some game jams are contests that offer prizes. Some submissions were eventually released as fully-developed games.

Editorial summary

“Game jam” enters the record as video game production contest limited in time. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Game, Video and game can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current 90-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Game, Video and game.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Game jam” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Game, Video and game provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Game jam”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Game jam primary sources, Game jam archive and Game research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Game jam”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Game jam” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.