To Organise, or Not to Organise...

I decided to write a blog post about organising the biggest game jam in the North in case you, the reader, decided that it could be something for you and you'd like to get some insight. If you don't know what Nordic Game Jam is you can read about it here or check out the Nordic Game Jam website. The blog post will have a short version followed by a much longer, more detailed version so you can get a feel for my personal experience of being an organiser for Nordic Game Jam 2025.

The Short Version

If you just want the short version, then here it is:

• First there was an introduction meetup. Hear about the different departments and general timelines.
• Then you attend Monthly meetings, bi-weekly meetings then weekly meetings. Meetings are often Physical, and they include food paid by Nordic Game Jam.
  • During that time, there was lots of emails, lots of Slack messages and lots of decisions to make.
  • A lot of chatting back and forth between team members for various decisions and information.
• Lastly getting everything sorted for the actual Jam
• Attend the Jam
• Retrospective

All of this takes place from circa August the year before the jam up until early April the following year. Most of the work kicks into gear from September onwards and the weekly meetings usually start around February.

The (Much) Longer Version

I have attended the Nordic Game Jam several times myself and created a few different games at various jams and in my sparetime. After the 2019 Nordic Game Jam had wrapped up I wanted to finally pull the trigger and sign up as a volunteer for the Nordic Game Jam in 2020. I had volunteered at some events before and even volunteered at a previous jam called KAKTUS jam. One of the huge benefits of being a volunteer at a game jam is not only that you get to work with really cool people, you also get to network a lot and make something really cool happen. As most of us will remember 2020 was the year that COVID-19 broke out and I didn't get to volunteer that year. Not because the event didn't happen, because it did, but because I was in a place in my life where I didn't have much time to attend online game jams and Nordic Game Jam had decided to do an online version instead. I also don't really jive well with online jams. I need the physicality, personally. Although, if you are the type who can do online game jams, head over to itch.io and check out the neverending all-year round list of game jams.

You might find one you like!

We move ahead to 2023. I worked with a great team of people on a game we called Dead End. It was an online multiplayer persistent shared world game about a legion of skeletons trapped in an old lair, long forgotten by their necromancer. The skeletons were now doomed to walk the halls forever unless they could find the necromancer's staff and end the spell. During play each skeleton might activate traps and as they do they die and leave behind a skull for other skeletons to see so they may beware of the dangers. You might be thinking to yourself "online multiplayer?? At a jam??". Yes. I was also skeptical but my teammate Ciro had started to work for the company coherence which produced a multiplayer framework for the Unity game engine and he was really itching to test it out at a game jam setting, so I gave in and we made a really cool project!

Ciro was also an organiser for Nordic Game Jam that year and I had a chat with him about what it was like. On top of that I also got to hear about some of the things they did together and what kind of organising they needed to do up to the jam. I have another friend, Jaime, who have also been part of Nordic Game Jam for a couple of years at this point and I have also talked to him about Nordic Game Jam quite a bit. So I decided that next time I got the chance, I'd consider being an organiser for Nordic Game Jam. That chance came after the Nordic Game Jam of 2024 where I filled out a form on the Nordic Game Jam website and then I was invited to an introduction meeting a while later in August that same year. Going forward I'll refer to Nordic Game Jam as NGJ.

First Meetup

While there was a meet and greet earlier than this meeting I went to, I missed out on going to it, so the first meetup I had was their first General Assembly of the year! General Assemblies typically has quite a bit of admin associated with it. Especially the first one. The Meet and Greet is typically much more relaxed where they meet up at a cafe, meeting room or somewhere else to give people a chance to ask questions and get to understand what it means to be an organiser.

The great people at PortaPlay and Bird Island let us use their offices in Central Copenhagen for the meeting and most of the organisers were there. We also were given some food while we waited for the meeting to properly start. Some people also joined in remotely. Once we were done eating we setup to have a few things squared away with the NGJ Organisation (NGJ is a non-profit) where some people joined the board and some parts of the NGJ constitution were questioned. It is not a requirement to join the board to be a volunteer nor an organiser. It gives you certain voting rights which makes you able to influence the direction of the non-profit organisation however it also carries other responsibilities.

The meeting itself, the ones that you will have repeatedly as you progress towards the actual game jam, always has a Moderator, a Notetaker and a Time Taker which is decided on the day just as the meeting is about to start. The meetings always aim to be around 2 hours, however if we can get away with less, we will. The meetings usually take place around 18:00 to 20:00 on weekdays. Every meeting consists of talking about what the latest updates are from each department, what the next most urgent tasks are for each department followed by whatever is on the agenda. Anyone from the team can add talking points to the agenda.

During this particular introduction every department talks about what the general responsibilities are for that department. The departments currently are:

• Sponsors - NGJ is driven by sponsors. Without sponsors, the event could literally not happen. The people who are part of this department tend to be the ones who find sponsors, talk to recurring sponsors (like LEGO who has had a big presence in NGJ for years), look at contracts and make sure sponsors actually sign their contracts and sends us the money for the event.
• Program - We have two days of talks which means that someone has to find speakers. The people in Program are those people. When you are in Program you have to find interesting people who will come and do talks for us from the games industry (or adjacent), look over form submissions from suggestions made by jam goers and then contact the people to see if there is interest for them to do the talk. However, you also have to do some other things such as get all the information about every talk and the speaker, help the speakers with transport and lodging (if need be) and help them with general questions. You will also be responsible for planning when events go on during the day like group forming events and icebreakers (although you are not responsible for making those). During the actual Jam you are usually also at least partially responsible for helping out speakers if the other responsible organisers are not able to help them out.
• Marketing - For marketing you have to help create marketing material, plan out social media posts, announcements and push for things like ticket sale. Basically, create the buzz that will get people excited about this year's NGJ!
• Location - While we often have the expectation that we know what the location is gonna be, Aalborg University in Copenhagen has been the location a couple of years in a row now, there are still many logistical questions to answer. What access to what areas, general rules about the venue, coordinating with on-site IT and faculty as well as figuring out security, access and similar questions.
• Community - The community department is a bit more loosely defined. This year's community people made contact with foreign schools to do collaborations, setup portfolio reviews with game industry people and similar tasks.
• Volunteers - While organisers might be the brain behind the operations, without volunteers there would be no brawn to actually do most of the work that needs to be done during the jam. The person in charge of volunteers need to sort through volunteer forms, pick out volunteers, get their preferences and schedule them for when and where they need to be at the jam. You will also serve as main contact person for all volunteers in case of scheduling conflicts, issues or otherwise.

While this list isn't complete it should give you an idea of some of the main areas of the jam at least. While some people tend to be more "in charge" of each department than others, everyone is encouraged to help each other out and weigh in on matters where it makes sense to do so. You get to have an opinion :-)

There is also generally an understanding that if you wan to see something happen at the Nordic Game Jam, you take charge of it and lead it alongside whatever else you have to do. You don't need to ask permission, but you should talk to the other organisers to be sure that it aligns with the organisations constitution and otherwise goals.

After the meet and greet you are asked if you want to join and from there you start going to regular meetings. The first meeting after the meet and greet you usually go over what you actually want to be responsible for and then we see if there are too many/few people for that. For example, you could be more than one person taking care of volunteers, but typically you don't need more than one person focusing on the job whereas it's good to have at least 2-4 people for program and location. Each of these deparments might also have individual meetings that are not part of the regular NGJ status meetings.

Status Meetings

As time went on from that first meeting I had to start attending monthly meetings, then bi-weekly meetings and then weekly meetings. The intensity of meetings increases the closer we got to the jam because the need to communicate what's going on in the group gets more crucial as last minute tasks come in and things are shaping up. Almost all meetings are physical (with the ability to join remotely) and usually lasts from 18:00 to 20:00 in a set location. Most of the meetings I attended was at PROSA headquarters in Copenhagen as they lend us meeting rooms. The head organiser also makes a Wolt order so that everyone can put their order in and then we eat together at the meeting and the food is paid for by NGJ. If you join remotely you can order food still and have the money reimbursed. After we are done eating (usually 30 minutes) we pick three people:

• Moderator - They are in charge of the meeting's flow that day. It can be a different person every time. You keep track of the agenda and who goes when in the event that multiple people need to share their opinions. This person is also in charge of cutting subjects short, breaking up repetitive arguments and moving the meeting along if it stalls.
• Notetaker - This person is responsible for doing the minutes. So you will write down on our Notion page what is being talked about. This also can change every meeting although it's usually the same couple of people who do it because taking notes live is a bit of a skillset. People do also help each other out though if the notetaker is struggling.
• Timetaker - This person is in charge of time. Every agenda item gets a set time before we start talking about it and it is the timetakers responsibility to set a timer and make sure we don't go over that time best we can so that we can keep meetings within the 2 hour window we set.

Generally speaking everyone gets to weigh in on everything during these meetings. We have an agenda that consists of the most recent status updates from each department then followed by the most urgent next tasks for those departments as well. Once that is out of the way we try to get throught the rest of the agenda. Anyone can add points to the agenda and get time to talk about those points with the team if you feel that it's important. Maybe you need help, opinions, clarification or something else and this is definitely the time to bring it up.

Work, Work, Work

Okay, maybe it's not that bad. I have spent many hours looking at emails to and from potential speakers and I still had time to run Dungeons and Dragon campaigns, look for jobs and volunteer in Game Workers Guild. You put in the time you have and want to offer. Some things will take more time than you'll think and that's just part of it. No one can force you to do anything, however hopefully you wanna organise for the sake of putting on a cool event, meet cool people and lots of networking opportunities. You also just gets moments you won't get otherwise.

Like sitting with people you work with one late night, making decisions, going over important details that just has to happen because something didn't go as planned. Or the last minute thing you had to come up with because the Jam hit a snag. It's stresful but it's also exhilirating to be in and unforgetable to look back on. That's not for everybody, however it's definitely the kind of work that I like to do!

And sure, there are the challenging sides like frustration of not hearing back from speakers, having to send chase emails, or not getting the information you need when you need it, however it's all worth it in the end from my point of view when you've experienced how great NGJ turns out. (and as a bonus we actually also do stuff together like outings to minigolf, christmas lunches, etc.)

One of the things I really liked by being in Program this year was to talk to people I've looked up to or wanted to meet in real life and I definitely got to. But I also get to meet new people who might have been in the industry for a while or people who just got into it or something in-between. This year I got to talk to and meet Emy Mylona, Brackeys, Freya Holmer, the founder of AI & Games Tommy Thompson, Lead Dev of Sea of Rifts Alexander Birke, Mix and Jam YouTuber André Cardoso, Baba Is You creator Arvi Teikari and many more! I don't know that I'd have had the chance to meet so many amazing people without having been an organiser of NGJ!

Especially because, and this is a perk that only organisers get to enjoy, of the Speaker Dinner we like to do as a tradition every year. It's a small dinner getogether during the jam where all the organisers and speakers are invited out to eat at a restaurant. We hang out, get some nice food, get a few drinks and then the organisers will go back to looking after the jam. It's a really cool hangout session and you get to know these people you've talked to for months a little bit better.

Conclusion

So, should you become an organiser? If you like to meet people, network, come together over a big event and help create one of the coolest jams in the world? Then yes, absolutely and you can do so today by following this link and sign up for our introduction meeting which will happen soon!

Hope to see you there :-)