Play & Innovate 2025, a national conference for young game makers
Three days at the University of Jordan to close the year of Empowering Education in Jordan, under the patronage of the Minister of Education and Higher Education. School and university teams built games from scratch in a 48-hour game jam, and pitched their projects as products to a jury from the industry. I produced it.
How it ran
Day one
The opening ceremony, then the game jam begins.
Day two
A full day of building. Submissions close at midnight.
Day three
Judging, the pitching competition and the awards.
Three tracks
Game jam, schools
For the programme's high-school cohorts: put the year's curriculum to work in a playable game.
Game jam, universities
A harder tier for older learners, judged on more complex mechanics and polish.
Innovation pitching
Teams present their projects as products to a business jury.
The top three in each track won 300, 200 and 100 JOD.
Judged by the industry
Game jam
Judges from Endless, Kufitech Venture, Dananeer, Shusmo Games, Madhook, Mouje Studio and BeeLabs.
Pitching
Judges from UJIEC at the University of Jordan, S3i, Orange, String and The Core at HTU.
From the conference
Photos are from the programme's final report, January 2026. The schedule is from the conference's event pack.