Taking the Challenge: An Exploratory Study on What Motivates Jammers to Participate in Game Jams

Game jams have been attracting an increasingly diverse audience, with thousands of professionals, students, and hobbyists getting together to build game prototypes every year. However, little is understood about about peoples’ motivations to participate in such events and, most importantly, how their motivations differ according to their type and extent of involvement with game development. Through a large-scale survey with attendees of a global-scale game jam, we found that students, hobbyists, indie and professional developers participate for distinct reasons and favor motivations for participation differently. Indie developers are the ones most influenced by social motivations, while students and hobbyists favor the opportunity to strengthen technical skills more than other groups. Finally, game professionals attend game jams to experience teamwork with people other than their regular teammates. Our findings characterize the aspects that influence the attractiveness of game jams and provide a set of recommendations to organizations willing to engage people in their events.