JamJam 2026 – 5.6 – 7.6


JamJam is a festival and retreat for game jam organizers and anyone interested in learning, discussing and sharing ideas on game jams. Jam Jam 2026 is organized by the Finnish Game Jam and located in the middle of a Finnish forest, on top of a mountain called Sappeenvuori – about 2 hour car ride from Helsinki (see details in Arrival section). JamJam begins on friday the 5th of june and ends on sunday the 7th.

The event consists of talks on game jams and jam games and workshop day. During your visit you can decide what you work on – bring your jam organizing team and work with planning or debriefing your jams or come without an agenda and talk with other jam organizers and jam-organizers-to-be, brainstorm new jams and share lessons on organizing events.

In the evenings we gather around the grills, go to saunas, and soak in hot tubs, accompanied by karaoke. Bring your beer pong, favorite board game, crafting materials, or anything, or nothing but yourself. There are plenty of activities for everyone!

For absolute latest timetable, see info letter & discord sent to participants.

Friday

  • 12:00 Bus leaves from Helsinki in front of Kiasma
  • 14:30 Bus leaves from Tampere bus station
  • 16:00 Cabins available
  • 16:30 Talks
  • 20:00 Talks over
  • 20:00 Saunas & hot tubs open
  • 20:00 Grills heat up
  • 24:00 Saunas & hot tubs close

Saturday

  • 09:00 Workshops start
  • 13:00 Lunch
  • 17:00 Grills heat up
  • 19:00 Saunas & hot tubs open
  • 20:00 End of workshops
  • 24:00 Saunas & hot tubs close

Sunday

  • 12:00 Lunch
  • 14:00 Closing ceremony
  • 15:00 Cabins empty.
  • 16:00 Cabins closed & bus leaves to Helsinki.

Friday seminars

Swapping keyboards for cardboard – the case for analogue game jams
Joe MacLeod-Iredale

Small Images, Big Impact: Icons & Banners That Sell Your Game
Anna Zibrova

Building Indie Studio with Game Jams
Eelis Koivusaari

Praxi2026 Paper Jam
Annakaisa Kultima

Saturday workshops

Retro Game Jam planning
Discussions on next the retro game jam, where we make games for old consoles and PCs. Going through feedback from last year and planning the next jam.
Samuli Jääskeläinen

Puzzle design ideas & tips and How to make Old school PC beeper style music
Examples of games I think accomplish many aspects of good puzzle design (alternative solutions, letting player get a feeling of “”beating the game dev””. etc) & what are the tricks to get music rocking even with 1 channel and 1 sound with no velocity variety
Ville Saarenketo

Jewelry Crafting Jam
Come check out what you can make with beads, pliers and metal wires. Join this free-style jewelry crafting jam and make yourself a nice shiny memento!
Rama Hannula

Doodle Photo Booth
Come by the Doodle Booth and get a quick, fun portrait made just for you! Instead of photos, I’ll draw simple and playful doodles of each participant. You can watch the process, chat, and have a cute little drawing to keep. Just a friendly and creative space to enjoy art and take home a small, personal memory.”
Anna Zibrova

EMUUROM POSTMORTEM
You read that right: by the time JamJam 2026 hits, the solo indie game / jamjam meme / an exercise in scope creep, a.k.a. EMUUROM… is finally out! Come celebrate its ascendance to an actual finished product, and tread with me the path of EMUUROM, from a tiny jam game for an obscure fantasy console in 2018, to a my first commercial release! DOWNLOAD EMUUROM!
Perttu “Borb” Tuovinen

VJing workshop
What is VJing, how it’s principles can be applied in other artistic endeavours, and why a gamedev should bother
Irko Kekman

Get started with speed puzzling!
Are jigsaw puzzles games? Yes! At least when you speedrun them!
If you like jigsaws, pattern recognition, team sports or just a good challenge this is for you. We’re going to have short introduction to what is speed puzzling and then you get to try it solo, pairs or as a team.
Iida Toimela

Bracelet Jam
At this workshop, you make a Jam Jam themed bracelet together with others (kids and adults welcomed!). Limited amount of materials are provided, but you can also bring your own.
Annakaisa Kultima

Sea Shanty Jam
In this workshop we will sing together and learn some songs of the sea in a campfire guitar twist! Bring your own instruments along as well if you like!
Jani Gröhn

Taitaja2027 Workshop & Brainstorming
In this workshop we will discuss the Taitaja2027 (Skills Finland) Game Production skill. Taitaja2027 will be held next May at Helsinki Messukeskus. We will go over the Game Production skills 2026 assingments and criteria and would hope to have some small improvements made to them with your ideas!
Olli Juhola

Lindy Hop taster
Dance!
Teemu Kokkonen

Help me plan a BIG Kajaani game jam!
I’m planning a BIG Game jam for autumn 2026 in Kajaani and need some ideas and brainstorming from other jam organizers! The jam is supposed to showcase all the cool things KAMK students can do (we have a bunch of toys from VR stuff to old motion sensors and a motion platform for example) and entice people to apply to Kajaani Gamelab.
Joonas “Jones” Manninen

1 hour Jam Jam game jam
Make a game in 1 hour during jam jam.
Henri Sarasvirta

And lots of on-site formed workshops!

  • Jam Jam Bus from Helsinki – the bus ride departs at 12:00 from Helsinki city center in front of Kiasma on Friday and returns Sunday evening (leaving Sappee at ~16:30). The bus ride takes about 2,5 hours. Your contact person for the bus ride is Christopher Hamilton (phone: +358 40 660 1160).
  • Jam Jam Bus from Tampere – The bus leave from Tampere Bus Station at 14:30 on Friday and returns Sunday evening (leaving Sappee at ~16:00). Contact person Lauri Komulainen (phone: +358 40 516 9924)
  • Reserve your ticket at Eventbrite.
  • Arriving by car – Use your map application and set “Sappeen matkailukeskus” or “Sappeenvuorentie 200” as your destination and locate “Sappeen Tähti” cottages from this map: https://www.sappee.fi/fi/aluekartta. Alternatively use this exact pin:  https://bit.ly/2X1pEXF
  • You can park your car in the festival area as long as there is space. If we run out of space for cars, there is a large parking area nearby. The expenses of your own car is on you. 
  • Arriving by regular bus – Regular buses operate daily to Pälkäne (https://www.palkane.fi/), a nearby small village. Take a look at the schedules at https://matkahuolto.fi/. Let us know well in advance if you are joining us with a regular bus, so that we can try to get someone to pick you up from the village (it takes about 20 min. to drive from Sappee to Pälkäne). The regular bus ticket is on you.

Few spots are still available: Eventbrite