From Cultural Game Jams to Applied Jam Models: A Longitudinal Evaluation

This longitudinal evaluation examines the Applied Jam Model (AJM), a structured framework for applied game jams, as implemented across four Óbidos Cultural Game Jam (ECGJ) editions held in Óbidos, Portugal, between 2024 and 2025. The study covers 146 participants, 95 university and 51 secondary school students, who collectively produced 40 game prototypes. The model formalizes pre-jam preparation, roughly 52 hours of extended on-site development, facilitator integration, and post-jam continuation, and it was progressively refined across editions, with cultural heritage facilitators integrated from the first edition onward and secondary school participation added from the second.

The central finding is that the model's effectiveness depended on the continuity linking preparation, facilitation, thematic immersion, and implementation rather than on any single activity. Usefulness ratings for pre-jam preparation varied markedly by edition: they reached 100% in ECGJ#02, after a full-day lagoon field visit, but fell to 52.6% in ECGJ#03, when preparation was compressed to a single day, with ECGJ#04 at 76.0%. The second edition also produced the series' highest prototype output, fourteen prototypes, and the projects selected for further development consistently originated from the stronger-performing editions.

Continuous cultural facilitation proved a significant factor. Three specialists participated in ECGJ#02, which improved thematic integration. By contrast, a mandated EPIC-WE Game Jam Kit in ECGJ#04 disrupted workflow among experienced participants, suggesting that structured tools must be matched to the expertise of the cohort. The authors conclude that immersive preparation, domain-expert facilitation, and a balanced participant cohort operate as an interdependent system rather than as independent variables. The study's limitations include its single-institution context and a 46.6% return rate among Lusófona University participants, which constrain the generalizability of the conclusions.