One of the biggest annual events in the gaming world, the Global Game Jam, draws thousands of participants worldwide who compete to create a fully functional game over the course of 48 hours. That’s just two days for developers to plan, design, and produce a game that follows the competition’s theme. This year, the theme was simple, yet it covered a broad range of creative input: Bubble.
Champlain College hosts Game Jams not only on its main campus in Burlington but also at its campus in Montreal, collaborating with other local colleges. Champlain College has a strong focus on the game studio, bringing in many students hoping to participate in the various Game Jams the institution hosts. This year, two game jams have already taken place at Champlain.
Max Schroeder is a third-year student majoring in game design. He studied abroad in Montreal during the fall semester of 2024. “My favorite part of the game jam was working alongside my peers. Planning out our game and spending time together made it so much fun. We ran into many problems, but we all had a great time trying to find solutions and attempting to make the game work. At the end, we presented our work and shared our experience with our professors and the other groups. The stress we had built up during the jam melted away during that time, and we had a lot of fun just talking to each other,” he recalls.
Schroeder attributes part of his successful experience to the professors in Montreal who supported students during the jam. “The professors who ran it—Kaermack Polewska and Alexis Morin—used it as a way to teach us teamwork, how to plan out a jam, and the process to make sure we got through the jam successfully,” Schroeder comments. “Kaermack and Alexis were both present for most of the jam, along with Nick Kornek, another professor at the Montreal campus. They helped us when we needed them, guiding us through our problems while still allowing us to create our solutions.”
Students who participated in the 2025 game jam affirmed Schroeder’s sentiment. Luca Petrosso, a third-year game sound design student, experienced a game jam for the first time during the spring semester in Montreal. He also worked alongside Polewska and Morin. “They gave us great advice on things like building our team, getting enough sleep, and understanding the rundown—pretty much everything else. They were really helpful, and I’m glad they were there for our game jam experience.”
Schroeder recounts his experience and offers some helpful insight for anyone considering participating in a game jam or studying in Montreal. “Every professor was fantastic and engaged with the subject matter and our work within the course. Both of my core classes got us outside into the city. We toured different areas and got to meet people who lived there. For someone like myself who was not used to big cities, it helped me get more comfortable.”
His advice to students who are nervous about participating in a Game Jam is this: “The best thing I can say is just give it a shot. It might seem daunting, but once you’re in there making something with other people, it is a blast. The game we made in the Game Jam had a lot of bugs and we couldn’t finish some features, but that was okay. In the end, it wasn’t about making the best game—it was all about learning and having fun!”
