Submission Details

Please ensure you are also creating an account on https://g4cstudentchallenge.secure-platform.com/a/organizations/main/home to complete your GGJ Next submission process! All games must be web-playable, and you will be asked to include the link to your game in your submission. It is not required to submit your game to this itch.io jam page, but we would love to see your work if you do!

For the first time, college students and young adults under 25 are now invited to submit their digital games, and students in middle and high school can showcase their creativity with digital, analog, or character design projects centered around this year’s social impact themes that focus on creating solutions for a better tomorrow through #GameDesign! 🎮 

Now is your chance to submit your social impact games and projects for a chance to win cool prizes such as a $10K scholarship, funded by Take-Two Interactive, education tools, support, and more! 

🚨 The deadline to submit is April 18, 2025! Submit your project NOW ➡️ bit.ly/G4C-Competition

To participate, teams can select one of the three G4C diversifiers to incorporate in their game. 

From February through April 2025, the Global Game Jam will provide support to participating teams through webinars, access to content areas experts, serious games experts and office hours with mentors so that jammers can develop their GGJ games into competitive G4C challenge submissions. 

 The winning G4C University Game of the Year team will receive a $10,000 USD scholarship to be shared among team members. 

 Student Challenge Handbook available here: University Student Challenge Handbook

Themes

Peaceformers - Design a web-playable game where players take action about how resources are shared and divided. Keep the peace among all groups in a fair and equitable way. (more info)

Nurture yourself with Nature - Design a web-playable game that tries to boost the mental health and wellbeing of players by connecting and deepening personal bonds with nature, and easing eco-anxiety. (more info)

Outplay Hunger - Design a web-playable game to encourage actions which encourage players to reduce food loss and waste, and/or how to achieve a healthy food diet in your school, community, or country. (more info)

G4C Student Challenge Game Requirements  

• Games must be playable on a web browser and accessible via a URL
• Games must be created using a free or open platform (ex: Scratch, Unity, Construct, Co-Spaces, Game Maker, Twine, Godot, etc.).
• Games must be about one of this year’s 3 themes
• Games must be original work created by 1- 4 students
  • University Student Challenge teams can have additional "mentor" team members who are over 25. Those mentor team members should be indicated on the submission. While a team with mentor team members is eligible to win the Game of the Year prize, the scholarship money would only go to the student (ages 18-25) team members. 

 Submission Details

Please ensure you are also creating an account on https://g4cstudentchallenge.secure-platform.com/a/organizations/main/home to complete your GGJ Next submission process! All games must be web-playable, and you will be asked to include the link to your game in your submission. We would love for you to include your game in our itch.io jam page in addition to completing the G4C portal submission.

About Global Game Jam

Global Game Jam is a 501(c)3 nonprofit with a mission to empower all individuals worldwide to learn, experiment, and create together through the medium of games. Entering its 16th year, Global Game Jam hosts the world's largest game creation event, The Global Game Jam. We annually bring together 40,000 game developers and designers across 800 sites (90% participating at in-person sites) in over 100 countries, and last year, we had 10,000 games made during the 48-hour jam. 

About Games for Change

Since 2004, Games for Change (G4C) has empowered game creators and innovators to drive real-world change, using games and immersive media that help people learn, improve their communities, and contribute to making the world a better place. G4C partners with technology and gaming companies, nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies to run world-class events, public arcades, design challenges, and youth programs. G4C supports a global community of game developers using games to tackle real-world challenges, from humanitarian conflicts to climate change and education.

About The G4C Student Challenge

The G4C Student Challenge is a game design competition that invites youth to create digital games inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The program uses youth interest in video games to develop coding and digital design skills, as well as problem solving, collaboration, creativity, and other critical STEAM skills. The Challenge is also a platform for amplifying student voices, empowering young people to imagine creative solutions to social problems, and to see themselves as engaged citizens and changemakers.