Summer Slow Jams 2025 is ready and waiting for you!
Each summer, game makers get together to make projects with friends and community members in just over a week, and you can too! Summer Slow Jams is a collection of game making events happening once a month every summer, providing structure and networking opportunities for creatives in Portland and remote participants. Join us this summer at PIGSquad events for team forming, theme reveals, brainstorming, workshops, coworking, jamming, showcasing, and more!
In 2024, developers in the PIGSquad community made just over 143 games for our tenth year of Summer Slow Jams! Subscribe to updates on our Newsletter for when new jams (summer and otherwise) arise! Non-Portland developers are always welcome to participate, as we also hold activities on twitch.tv/PIGSquad and on our Discord.
Summer Slow Jams 2025:
Puzzle Games: June 13th - June 23rd
The Creative Theme was “Chain Reaction!”
Party Games: July 7th - July 21st
The Creative Theme was “The Secret Ingredient!”
Parody Games: August 6th - August 25th
The Creative Theme was “Cheat Codes!”
How to Jam:
Block out your calendar to join us at the opening and closing events! It's important to meet people and share your work to make better games. If you can't make it to the opening presentation, that's no problem - reach out online and organizers can help connect you!
Consider the Technical Themes to prepare your approach. 2023’s tech themes are June: Idle Games; July: Narrative Games; and August: Crafting Games.
Decide on your jam team by meeting people at events or online, committing to jam by yourself, or joining in the jam with a pre-made group.
Challenge yourself to make a game within the dates of the jam. Technical and Creative Themes are loose. The goal is to finish something, learn new things, and meet new people. Share progress and participate in support events along the way!
Share your game! Upload your game to share with other jam participants! Submission links are listed above. We'll be hosting showcase events for SSJ, but keep in mind that PIGSquad has many showcase opportunities over the course of the year and that we love helping people share their work online when we can.
More Details:
Participation is open to all, including people who have never made a game before, people who want to make a game alone or with a pre-existing team, and people who want to work remotely (including non-Portlanders), though we heavily encourage joining us for our event dates to showcase your work and meet community members! We take our Code of Conduct seriously and allow no room for harassment during PIGSquad events or online channels, so know that you are welcome.
Keep an eye on the event calendar by subscribing to PIGSquad’s Newsletter and PIGSquad’s Google Calendar! You can learn more information about our opening & closing event agendas and find more events to help support you in jamming, including team forming meetups, workshops, and work sessions.
We have lots of opportunities to engage with PIGSquad and community members online via our social channels.
If you are a PIGSquad Patreon supporter at the $1 level or more, you can contribute to each jam's Creative Theme.
Summer Slow Jams 2025 is MADE POSSIBLE BY Wacom, geek week pdx, and OUR PATREON SUPPORTERS!
Summer Slow Jams 2024
Summer Slow Jams 2024 was our TENTH year and run both in-person and online, bringing together developers to create 143 games based on the following themes:
June Resource Management Jam,
Creative Theme: "Wait, THAT'S a resource?"
”Come up with ways in which currency, characters, and other resources can mesh with each other to make an interesting management game!”July Random Generation Jam, Creative Theme: Taming the Chaos
"Random generation can be used anywhere in your game or project, including generating numbers & stats, art assets, music tracks, physics, story... however you want to use randomness to make your game special!"August Sports Jam, Creative Theme: The Future of Sports
"Challenge yourself to make a game that accurately represents a sport, that completely subverts an existing sport, that explores what a sport could be like under different circumstances. Or, make up a completely different sport!"
Special thanks to Gawan, Hologram 0, and Davis for suggesting our creative themes via Patreon!
Summer Slow Jams 2023
Summer Slow Jams 2023 was our NINTH year and run both in-person and online, bringing together developers to create 360 games based on the following themes:
June Idle Jam, Creative Theme: Mutation
”Make a game that feels automated but requires player choice and input at meaningful intervals, make an app that rivals your favorite clicker game, or make a game with a simple idle subsystem!”July Narrative Jam, Creative Theme: Doomsday
"Make a game that focuses on story, character, world, and the interaction between those elements!"August Crafting Jam, Creative Theme: DIWhy
"Make a game that gives players the opportunity to combine elements to make new things, allow players to influence the game world with what they create, try to make a game with lots of content, or let players mash things together that would normally not mesh!"
Special thanks to TanukiToken, Sophy, and Dylan for suggesting our creative themes via Patreon!
Summer Slow Jams 2022
Summer Slow Jams 2022 was our EIGHTH year and run fully online due to the pandemic, bringing together developers to create 124 games based on the following themes:
June Character Creator Jam, Creative Theme: Unintended Consequences
"Make a game that uses a character creator, a game about character creators, or a game that IS a character creator!"July Stealth Jam, Creative Theme: Critters
"Make a game that encourages the player to act without being seen, tell a story about a sneaky situation gone wrong, or flip the theme and create an experience where the player must unveil the most secretive secrets!"August Boss Battle Jam, Creative Theme: Dreams and Nightmares
"Make a game with a big, special encounter with a formidable foe! Games do not explicitly need to be about fighting, but use the concept of a ‘Boss Fight’ to make an epic endcap of a scenario to wow your players."
Special thanks to Qristy, Miranda, and Alex for suggesting our creative themes via Patreon!
Summer Slow Jams 2021
Summer Slow Jams 2021 was our SEVENTH year and run fully online due to the pandemic, bringing together developers to create 116 games based on the following themes:
June Exploration Jam, Creative Theme: Forgotten Places
"Make a game that encourages exploration! Make something about finding new places, learning new things, or furthering a relationship with a new acquaintance!"July Remix Jam, Creative Theme: Unreliable Narrator
"Make a game that adds to an existing game, modifies an existing game, or remakes an existing game!"August Cliffhanger Jam, Creative Theme: This isn’t even my final form
"Make a game that is ‘to be continued!’ Interpret the theme as you'd like: end your game on a suspenseful and suspicious note, leave open an intriguing mystery that keeps your players guessing, or give your players a reason to root for a character without knowing their fate!"
Special thanks to Pete, Marty, and Merlin for suggesting our creative themes via Patreon!
Summer Slow Jams 2020
Summer Slow Jams 2020 was our sixth year and run fully online due to the pandemic, bringing together developers to create 138 games based on the following themes:
June Turn-Based Jam, Creative Theme: Alternate Timeline
"Make a game where players take turns! Strategy games, tabletop or videogame RPGs, analog or digital card games, puzzle games, or anything else you can come up with!"Music-First Jam, Creative Theme: Ghost Notes
"Make a game inspired by music! Start off with a song that your team’s musician makes, make a game based on a favorite song or genre of music, make a rhythm game, or make a game where your actions generate music!"August Horror Jam, Creative Theme: Don’t Let It Out
"Make a horror-themed game! Spooky stories, jump scares, Halloween games, cute games inspired by horror-themed subject matter, classical monsters, and cosmic horror are all on the table!"
Special thanks to Jon and Qristy for suggesting our creative themes via Patreon!
Summer Slow Jams 2019
Summer Slow Jams 2019 was our fifth year, bringing together developers to create 120 games based on the following themes:
June Arcade Jam, Creative Theme: Occult Classic
"Make a game that follows arcade mechanics but with a unique twist, make a piece of arcade hardware to host a game on, make a game that takes place in an arcade, or make a game while adhering to software limitations of the classics!"July 3-Button, 3-Color Jam, Creative Theme: One More Time
"Make a game that limits your creative endeavors in threes! Try making a videogame that only takes advantage of 3 inputs and a limited, 3-color palette. If you're making a tabletop game, limit yourself to three available actions, card types, or board pieces. If you're making a live action game, limit your players to three choices or three behaviors. Restrict yourself as a game maker and see what comes of it!"August Edutainment Jam, Creative Theme: Ancient History
"Make a game that aims to train or educate the player on a subject matter by ‘making learning fun’ (whatever that means to you!), focusing on something new you'd like to learn and share, something unique that you know a lot about, or something completely made up!"
Special thanks to Cory and Qristy for suggesting our creative themes via Patreon!
Summer Slow Jams 2018
Summer Slow Jams 2018 was our fourth year, bringing together developers to create 75 games based on the following themes:
June Minigame Jam, Creative Theme: The World Is Alive
"Start small and stay small! Make a tiny playable game loop, challenge yourself to make as many micro games as possible, make a mini game and focus on polishing it as much as possible, or make multiple small games that accent a larger one!"July Location-Based Jam, Creative Theme: Urban Legends
"Make a game with different environments, travel, and exploration in mind! Make a purely analog game that uses real world spaces, experiment with location-based AR, make a traditional videogame that focuses on bringing the player deep within the aesthetics of another place, or anything in between."August Parody Jam, Creative Theme: Bootleg
"Make a game that references or twists your favorite characters in media, make the game version of your fanfic, create something overly self-referential, express satire through gameplay, or make the bootleg fangame that you've always dreamed of! How will it feel to play Hyperlink Drifter, Super Meet Boy, or Pokemon Burnt Sienna?"
Special thanks to Brendan, Cory, and Marlowe for suggesting our creative themes via Patreon!
Summer Slow Jams 2017
Summer Slow Jams 2017 was our third year, bringing together developers to create 47 games based on the following themes:
June Gadgets Jam, Creative Theme: Unconventional Pets
"Make a game that doubles as a gadget! Enhance your idea for a tool or device with the things that make games great!"July Performance Jam, Creative Theme: Incomplete Instructions
"Make a game that focuses on an audience watching or interacting with the player!"August VR/AR Jam, Creative Theme: Change of Perspective
"Make a virtual reality or augmented reality game!"
Special thanks to Cory, Wesley, and Dylan for suggesting our creative themes via Patreon!
Summer Slow Jams 2016
choose from 30 games to play from our 2016 Summer slow jams!
June Co-operative Multiplayer Jam,
Creative Theme: "Best Friend, Best Weapon"July Narrative or Comic-Inspired Jam,
Creative Theme: "Start at the End"August Alternative Control or Tabletop Jam,
Creative Theme: "The Illusion of Control"
Special thanks to Christian, Mo, and hagen for suggesting our creative themes via Patreon!
Summer Slow Jams 2015
June Theme: Build a game that you can market
July Theme: Build a game using Twine or Scratch
August Theme: Build a multiplayer game
Special thanks to Ragon, Jenelle, Marlowe, Bynine, picogram, and Nyssa for our Summer Slow Jams branding!
