Brisbane Global Game Jam is BACK for 2024!

We are very pleased to announce that the Brisbane venue for the very wonderful Global Game Jam is back for the weekend of January 26th – January 28th.

Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world’s largest game creation event taking place around the globe boasting tens of thousands of participants (jammers) at hundreds of physical and virtual sites in over one hundred countries around the world. In January 2020, GGJ had a record-breaking year with 934 locations in 118 countries create 9,601 games in one weekend! The event has grown even more since that time and we are very proud to be part of it!

After a rather wonderful hybrid local Brisbane event in 2023, we are BACK! BACK! BACK!

We offer two options for registration:

Global Game Jam welcomes participants of all abilities – the jam is about enjoying making games together! We welcome both analogue and digital game makers as well as anyone who just wants to experiment and play with the form.

The Brisbane venue is an 18+ site. It is open for 24 hours but is not a ‘sleep over’ site. Come with a team or find folks to create with on-site. You can read more about our venue on our official Global Game Jam site (but please note the page redirects back to this post for registration). We recommend pre-organised teams choose either physical (on-site) or virtual via Discord (unless you have experience working together remotely).

Discussion and Updates: BrisbaneGGJ facebook page

Brisbane GGJ 2024 Placeholder Banner

Brisbane Global Game Jam is BACK!

Brisbane Global Game Jam Date Claimer and Heads-up!

The Global Game Jam® (GGJ) is the world’s largest game jam event (game creation) taking place around the world at physical (and virtual) locations over the same weekend! GGJ is a seriously fun event with big community vibes. Joining a site is about an adventure in game making (digital, analogue, whatever) and creativity. 

The Brisbane site for Global Game Jam is Back! We will be running a 48 hour site for the main weekend of the Global Game Jam from Friday February 3rd – Sunday February 5th

We are running a hybrid event this year. We have a physical venue with limited spaces and a virtual site via Discord. Register with friends and a pre-made team or come along and join a team during the event.

Please note: The Brisbane GGJ is an over 18 site. Our venues are open late but we are not a sleep over site. 

Registration Sites are now OPEN:

Registration is individual so if you have a team please be sure to organise everyone – and make sure your team members register via the correct site. We will be sending out participation details on January 27th.

Important: GGJ is a completely BYO computer and tech event (e.g. computers, monitors, power cables etc.)

* Registration via Discord will involve you in agreeing to our Discord server expectations about behaviour, rules and protocols. You will also be asked if we can use public aspects of your activity in the jam as (anonymous) data for a community research project. Don’t worry if you don’t want to – you will have the opportunity to ask that your data is anonymised or not used.

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Game On (GO423) Festival 2022 – Call for volunteers

Hello to all you emerging devs out there! This is an early invite and a call for volunteer helping folks for GO423 on Saturday December 3 at the Brisbane Powerhouse!

GO423 is our annual festival of locally made games with our own studios and makers showing off their work on the Turbine Platform. It’s on at the same time as the farmer’s markets and we get public flow though which means things can get quite chaotic so having volunteers wandering around directing and helping makes such a difference. 

Plus for those of you who do come and assist, what a good way of making yourselves known to to the local game development community!

Sign up for a morning and / or an afternoon slot, make sure you plan to stay on for our famous Loot Crate Debate event – hosted by the always amazing Dan Vogt and featuring a number of local game devs – and our final social / networking session!

Google form for volunteer sign up

GO423 2021

Game On (GO423) 2022 – EOI for games for the exhibition – extended dates

Call for EOI* – As usual, we hope to display a range of games made locally in the GO423 exhibition at the Brisbane Powerhouse. Do you have a game to show off?

We love to see:

  • Completed games – published and already out there
  • Works in progress – ready to play test or pre-release
  • Play experiments – something you have made that explores the possibilities of the medium

And all things in between! Digital and Analog formats are welcome.

Google EOI form here – extended due date to November 18th

GO423 is proudly supported by the Queensland Government through Screen Queensland’s Screen Culture Funding program.

GO423 2022

Game On (GO423) 2022 – We are back at the Brisbane Powerhouse in December!

Our annual GO423 festival is on again on December 3rd 2022 at the Brisbane Powerhouse – a chance to discover the rich creativity of the local game-making industry: With some of the world’s most played games coming out of Brisbane and South East Queensland, the local game-making industry is an important part of our community. This one-day event will allow you to get involved with hands-on workshops, play locally made games, chat with developers, and discover more about the folks who are leading this important creative industry.

Watch this space for our call for games for the exhibition, small sponsorship opportunities and calls for volunteers to help on the day

GO423 is proudly supported by the Queensland Government through Screen Queensland’s Screen Culture Funding program

GO423 2022 banner

Thank you everyone!

That was a wonderful GO423 thanks to everyone who came along an showed off their beauty games or ran a workshop or mentored like fury in the Emerging Developer’s Room … It was so wonderful to see everyone – <3 the Brisbane game dev community!

Especial thanks go to Dan Vogt and the brave noble teams who risked reputation in the grand Loot Crate Battle.

And the biggest hug to Liz Ballantyne who was the energy and support for so much this year!

Some of my usual rubbish photos from the day …..

GO423 2021

GO423 is proudly supported by the Queensland Government through Screen Queensland’s Screen Culture Funding program. 

What’s in the exhibition? Check out the Mosquito Foyer – aka Analog Alley

As always, we love our board and tabletop games at #GO423. Not only do we have the ever astounding Half Monster Games running a ‘Make your own board game‘ workshop but that same team will be showing off Xenohunters in the Mosquito Foyer!

We also have a card game from Mirror Forge and a tile game from Daniel Galbraith! Martin Wallace reckons he is just going to come and hang this year but who knows what he might bring along.

Come and play the games and chat with our awesome game makers.

More information about attending GO423 via the Brisbane Powerhouse page

Brisbane Powerhouse Mosquito Foyer

GO423 is proudly supported by the Queensland Government through Screen Queensland’s Screen Culture Funding program.

GO423 – Emerging developer room

Are you an emerging developer, game design student, or solo dev who would love to chat with an industry mentor?  

Do you have a portfolio or resume, but you have no idea whether it would get you work in the industry? Come along to the Emerging Developer Room to meet some of our local experienced game developers, receive answers to your questions, and meet some of our awesome Queensland game makers.

Mentor session 1: 11am – 1pm

Mentor session 2: 3pm – 5pm

An update on the Emerging Developer’s room is that our adored hosting venue has relaxed the registration requirements and told us folks can just rock up – aim for either a morning or afternoon session and our lovely volunteers will be on hand to help … I think it was a decision made because there are lots of lovely games to go and play while folks are waiting!

GO423 2019 – Turbine platform with Zed Games running the hot seat on stage and a glimpse of the Emerging Dev room up on the mezzanine level. Photo by Iain Anderson @funwithstuff

What else is happening at GO423?

GO423 2021 – date claimer

GO423 2021 will (hopefully and all things Covid willing of course) be taking place on Saturday November 13th at our always wonderful venue – the Brisbane Powerhouse!

GO423 banner

GO423 2021 will feature some wonderful locally made games in the exhibition – as usual we have a mix of PC, console, mobile and analogue. Come and join us to play the games and chat with the amazing devs who made them.

2021 will also see the return of our popular workshops, the emerging developers room and our very favorite Loot Crate Debate.

Watch this space for updates

GO423 is proudly supported by the Queensland Government through Screen Queensland’s Screen Culture Funding program