GAIN hosts first Sustainable Game Jam
From 7–10 November 2025, the University of Surrey’s Games Innovation Zone hosted GAIN’s (Games and Innovation Nexus) first Sustainable Game Jam. The event, organised in collaboration with Sustainable Surrey, brought together students and gaming experts to create sustainable games.
GAIN is a partnership between the University of Surrey, University of Warwick, and UCA Farnham, designed to connect education, research, and the games industry to drive innovation. The Sustainable Game Jam is just one part of GAIN’s efforts to foster an environment for innovation, interdisciplinary connections and growth within the game sector.
Over the weekend, 14 participants, including students from the University of Surrey, worked in four teams to create games based on the theme “Everything leaves a trace.” Leon-Paul Lynn (Industry Liaison & Event Support for GAIN) explained:
“[The theme] is based around the fact that there’s something more to sustainability – it’s not just about making a nature game.”
Teams had just three days to plan, develop, and test their games, supported by experts from GAIN. The resulting games were diverse and thought-provoking, tackling issues from pollution to the impact of individual actions.
The winning game, Plastic Pollution Pickup, will be ported to the University’s BSc Games Design arcade machine. All games created during the jam are available to play here.
Find out more about sustainability at the University and GAIN.
The Sustainable Game Jam supported several UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
The event provided a free and accessible opportunity to learn about sustainability (SDG 4 – quality education) and the role of games in raising climate awareness and encouraging climate action (SDG 13 – climate action).
Related sustainable development goals
