GGJ Success Stories

We are very proud of all the games that get produced as part of GGJ. Below is a selection of games that have achieved notable success after being first created at a GGJ event.

Know of any GGJ success stories? Tell us about them here!

2017

Resonance, developed at the PONG site in Brazil uses your voice as the controller. Match your pitch and tone in order to clear the way in this tuneful platformer. They have a smashing trailer, and have been greenlit on Steam. It is also available to purchase on itch.

2016

A Normal Lost Phone was created at the Angoulême site and was designed to try and teach empathy to teens through exploring Sam’s story by looking through his phone. After a successful crowdfunding campaign, the game has a great trailer, and was released for iOS, Android and Steam.

Pentagrab, created at the Abertay University site is a chaotic local multiplayer game about ritual making and opportunistic backstabbing. They created a great trailer, and took the game to the Dare to be Digital festival. They also were nominated as a ‘One to Watch’ BAFTA in 2017.

Reflections at Sunset was created at the NYU site and is an introspective text-based game where players reflect on their personal thoughts and feelings by writing a letter to a loved one. It was shown at Different Games Toronto, Playcrafting Expo, and Play NYC, and you can play it on itch.

Curvish is a visually striking puzzle game made at the Glasgow Caledonian site. It received recognition at two IGDA Scotland Play Parties and ultimately won the grand prize in the UK-wide Transfuzer game development program. It has an attractive trailer and was greenlit on steam.

Magink is a game based on an entry at Taipei Tatung University site, Rachel's Ritual, which combined eastern ink painting elements with spell casting rituals. It received Golden Award in mobile game category at Vision Get Wild Exhibiton, and nominated at indiePlay for Best in Innovation and Best Student Games.

Projection: First Light - more details soon! Press here and here.

2015

Höme Improvisåtion created at the Atlanta SCAD site is a joyous multiplayer flat pack furniture construction simulator, which proved a big hit with alternative arcade events, as well as being released on Steam and itch. It won a number of awards and was selected for the Fantastic Arcade in 2015.

Hide-Dot(‧)-Seek is an online game of hide and seek, and was made at the Hong Kong site. It has since been converted into a successful online game with an active player base. You can try it out here. There is also a demo video.

Ablockalypse (now Blockpocalypse) was made at the Melbourne site. It is an explosive couch coop game where you must work together to try and survive the apocalypse (or at least outlive your friends). It got shown at IGDA Melbourne, iFest and PAX AUS, and after a successful greenlight campaign can now be purchased from Steam.

Paradox In Paradise (now Marooners) was created at the University of Applied Sciences Amsterdam site and is a crazy chaotic local multiplayer party game available on Steam, got features in a Humble Bundle and is soon to be released on PS4 and xbox one.

2014

Fru is a puzzle platformer that features an innovative use of Kinect, in which your silhouette becomes a "portal" between two worlds. It was created at the Breda site, and was part of the GDC experimental gameplay workshop (write up by boingboing) in 2014. It is published and available to buy on the xbox one.

Screencheat created at the Melbourne site is a split screen FPS, where everyone is invisible, and you must hunt down your opponents by sneaking a look at their screen. It since was published and released on Steam, PS4 and xbox one.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes was born at the Algonquin College jam site, and is an asymmetrical multiplayer game, where one of you has the manual and the other the bomb! It has a great intro video, and has been released on Steam, Playstation VR and Android. It also won a whole bunch of awards, including Excellence in Design at the 2016 IGF.

How do you do it was developed at the NYU game center and is the story of a girl trying to figure out how sex works using her plastic dolls. It is awkwardly charming, and was selected for Indiecade and shortlisted for the IGF Nuovo award in 2015. You can play the game in the browser, and download it on Steam.

Schlicht (now DERU) was created at the Dock18 site in Zurich, Switzerland. It is an artistic, 2 player puzzler where timing, teamwork and tactics are needed to complete the colourful levels. It has since won lots of awards including GDC best in play 2016. It has a lovely trailer, and is coming soon to the Nintendo Switch.

Come to See my House (now BLIND) was developed at the Turin site in Italy, and explores the idea behind the player only being able to see objects that they have touched. Since then, the team have developed the game further so that it now uses VR and binaural sound to enhance the experience. The game got some good press on VRFocus, and is due to be released soon.

2013

STARWHAL started life at the Carleton School of Information Technology site in Ottawa. A local multiplayer area fighting swim off, it quickly became a glowing success with over 1 million online plays, and featuring at a large selection of arcade events. It was released on Steam, PS3 and PS4, Humble, xbox one and WiiU.

Surgeon Simulator 2013 was created at the SAE institute site in London by a team from Bossa Studios. The game was an instant success, and was released to Steam where a number of followups have been made, including a VR edition and a Donald Trump edition. Steam Spy reports that over 1.8 million copies of the game have been sold to date.

Lub vs Dub** **created at the Glasgow site is a 2 player game about traversing a heartbeat. It was released on the Android platform (and is free to download!) and has a great introduction video. It also got some press and good write ups on Touch Arcade.

Tug of Gore was also made at the Utrecht School of Arts site, and is a silly and fun 4 player game for iPad where you have to pull as much green goo towards your monster as possible. It is available on the iOS app store, and has a fun trailer.

Emerald created at the Vancouver site went on to a successful Kickstarter (making nearly twice it’s goal) and got some good press from engadget. The game is currently still in development.

2012

Lovers in a dangerous spacetime created at the Toronto site is a couch co-op adventure into space, where only friendship can overcome evil, and rescue kidnapped space bunnies. It was very popular at arcade parties and was nominated or won many awards. It got a great write up on Kotaku, and was released on Steam, xbox one, PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

Mirror Moon was first created at the Genova site,** **The creators santa ragione invite you to explore an alien world. The game went on to win multiple awards, got some press over at Polygon and engadget, and was an IGF nuovo finalist in 2013. You can buy the game here.

Mushroom 11 uses super squishy fungal mechanics to create a delightful platformer. Created at the NYU site, it went on to be published on steam, iOS and Android, as well as being shortlisted for the IGF excellence in design award 2014, and being selected as part of Indiecade 2013. You can buy the game here.

Life goes on: Done to Death started it’s life at the Edmonton site, is a comically morbid platform game where you guide heroic knights to their death, using their bodies to help you solve puzzles. It got some good press from RPS and Gamespot. After some further demos and development, it was released for Steam and later an expansion was released for PS4.

Size Matters (now iO) is an abstract physics platformer about size and speed created at the Hilversum site. It was originally released on the OUYA, and later with the addition of 75 new extra difficult levels (225 in total!), it was released for Steam, iOS, Google Play, Vita and PS4 and xbox one. It was also nominated for a number of awards.

Catch-22 was created at the Amsterdam site and is a chilled out token collection arcade game taking place on the surface of a planet, where the toughest enemy is yourself. Gamesauce wrote a great article about the game, and DigitalSpy applauded the games simple and addictive nature. It was released for iOS and Google Play in 2013.

2011

GlitcHiker was made at the Hilversum site and labeled as ‘the game that was programmed to die’ by pcgamesn. The game was linked to the SYSTEM which added and subtracted lives depending on the performance of the players. As the number of lives decreased, the game became more glitched and corrupted. When the lives reached 0, the game was turned off forever. A gameplay video still exists, and it was covered as part of the GDC 2012 experimental gameplay session.

Proppa was made at the DePaul university site in Chicago, and went on to get funded in a successful Kickstarter. It was released on iOS, Google Play and Amazon.

LangGuini was created at the IDGA Philadelphia site, and is a card and word game for 3-8 players, where parts of words are played in order to make new words and meanings. The team went on to fund and produce the game with a successful Kickstarter.

2010

GNILLEY is a game about screaming really loud, and was made at the Sydney site. It got some great press with Kotaku, Rock Paper Shotgun, and engadget. There is also an excellent presentation and demo video here.

2009

Pulse came from the Hilversum site and was the very first game in the history of the GGJ to receive a publishing deal. It was launched on the appstore in March 2010 as a promotional game for Dutch DJ Ferry Corsten, and got great write ups on Gamesauce and Pocketgamer.