What is a Game Jam?

A Game Jam is an event where a community of people get together and make a game from scratch within a very short time – sometimes a few days, sometimes a few hours. The short time spans allows participants to move through their creativity unencumbered, just taking ideas and running with them!

What's the focus?

Vector Festival's 2023 Game Jam World-building Towards..., curated by Bracy Appeikumoh, encourages participants to consider the implicit biases that have become the defaults for our society and create worlds that actively go against these standards. In doing this, we encourage game jammers to think critically about issues affecting them and their communities and create scenarios for problem-solving – instead of thinking outside the box, we are asking ourselves “Why a box?”

What do I need to do?

Show up! Make! Collaborate! Over the course of the festival (July 6 - 16th) participants are invited to explore utopian world-building through game-making. This can be done in whatever software or format you'd like, and does not need to be a finished product at the end of the game jam. Above all else, we're encouraging participants to explore the concepts presented through the panel, manifesto, and reading list through games as a medium. At the end, we'll hold a showcase ceremony where participants can share their work with other game makers, interested audiences, and invited guests from the Toronto indie gaming community.

What support will I have?

InterAccess will provide all participants with IRL, remote, real time, and asynchronous support.

Keynote Panel

We'll kick off the Game Jam with a panel featuring narrative designers and game-makers, discussing the idea of utopian world-building. Available in-person and online.
↗↗ July 7 | 5:30 - 7 PM

Conceptual Support

Participants will be provided with a manifesto and reading list by curator Bracy Appeikumoh.

Studio Support

InterAccess's studio will be open for dedicated in-person and remote support over Discord in three sessions:
↗↗ July 10 | 1 - 4 PM
↗↗ July 12 | 1 - 4 PM
↗↗ July 14 | 1 - 4 PM
Participants are welcome to work on their projects outside of these dedicated support hours.

Showcase Ceremony

All participants are invited to take part in a showcase at the end of the game jam. Work is encouraged to remain present for the Vector Festival's closing party later that evening.
↗↗ July 16 | 3 - 6 PM

Please note that while we're happy to provide support, our team may not have experience in all software. We will do our best to help within our knowledge and point you in the right direction when we've reached the limit of our skillset!

We'd love to have you! Please sign up below to take part.

Please note given our team's capacity, we have a maximum number of participants that will be accepted on a first come, first served basis. Once full, we will leave the form open for those interested in joining the waitlist. If you have signed up and can no longer take part, please let us know at art@interaccess.org or over Discord so we can pass your spot to someone else.