My Experience At The Noodle Goose Game Jam: Building HomeBound
May 30th of 2026 officially commenced the start of Noodle Goose’s first-ever game jam. The You Can Play this Game jam, presented by Unity, highlighted accessibility in games and focused on the five senses for its main theme. The goal of the Jam was to design a game focusing on the five senses and featuring accessibility for different play types. The participants would submit their game submissions alongside a PDF document explaining their game on the game publishing platform itch.io. Participants could either craft a prototype to test out their game or fill out their ideas for a game in a game design template. All participants were given two weeks to deliver on their projects.
Participating in this game jam was an exciting and memorable experience that brought together creativity, collaboration, and rapid problem-solving under time pressure. On the first day, the event officially began with an in-person gathering in Toronto, where participants could meet, share early ideas, and kick off development together. At the same time, a live online stream ran for remote participants, helping connect both in-person and online communities so everyone could feel included in the start of the event. To top it off, the game jam had an immense collection of resources, ranging from online forums, documentation, and experts within the game development industry for mentorship.
I participated online, and despite the physical distance, I had a great experience working with my team. Communication was consistent and easy to maintain, and we quickly organized ourselves using shared channels to brainstorm, assign tasks, and track progress. This made collaboration smooth and allowed us to stay aligned throughout the jam. We worked together to build a prototype for Homebound, a game about a spider continuously trying to rebuild its web.
Overall, the experience was challenging but extremely rewarding to watch our efforts come to life.
On June 16th, Noodle Goose hosted their in-person event for the awards, which I missed, but they made sure to let us know the award winners on their Instagram page @noodlegoose.ca. While we didn't win any of the main awards, the event gave me valuable lessons on game design within time constraints and a focus on accessibility.