Welcome to Culture Jam: Legends & Lore, a game jam celebrating Austrian legends through video games! The event is jointly hosted by the Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw and the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology.
✨ Purpose of the Jam
Culture Jam brings together student teams to design and prototype games inspired by Austrian legends.
Check out last year’s Culture Jam to get an idea!:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZnGNLGtW_l/
Why participate?
- Develop a game in a professional, time-boxed setting.
- Receive mentoring and feedback from industry professionals.
- Showcase your project to a live audience in Warsaw.
- Build a playable portfolio piece that shows your creativity, technical skills and teamwork.
- Compete for the chance to present your game at Digital Dragons 2027 in Kraków, one of the biggest game development conferences in Europe.
🏆 Our Legacy
🗓️ Timeline & Key Dates
✅ Phase 1: 20 Oct 2026, Kick-Off
- Get to know the details, meet the teams, get your theme
Phase 2: Oct–Nov 2026, Preparatory Workshops @ PJAIT
- Led by Igor Sienkiewicz (Head of PJAIT Game Lab)
- Meeting #1 (Ideas): 29 Oct @ PJAIT
- Meeting #2 (Plans): 5 Nov @ PJAIT
Phase 3: 14–15 Nov 2026, On-Site Game Jam @ Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw
- Full development sprint with mentoring and playtesting
- Snacks, drinks, pizza and goodie bags provided
Phase 4: Nov–Dec 2026, Polishing
- Meeting #3 (Feedback): 19 Nov @ PJAIT
- Time to polish your game for the final showdown. Questions are welcome anytime!
Phase 5: 4 Dec 2026, Final Pitch & Awards Ceremony @ Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw
- Teams pitch their games
- The audience and jury playtest them
- The winner is announced
Phase 6: Jan–Apr 2027, Road to Digital Dragons
- Monthly mentoring and review sessions with design and QA mentors for the winning team
- Professional feedback to refine and polish the winning game
Phase 7: May 2027, Winning Team at Digital Dragons, Kraków
- Your own exhibition booth sponsored by ACF, where you can invite industry professionals to play your game
- Travel and accommodation for students supported by PJAIT
🧙 Themes of the Jam
Each team is assigned an iconic Austrian legend by a roll of the dice:
- Rosengärtlein at Aggstein Castle: a cliff ledge in Lower Austria with the innocent name “Little Rose Garden,” where a robber knight was said to leave his prisoners to starve or jump.
- Sunken Village in Lake Achensee: a wealthy Tyrolean village cursed for refusing shelter to a stranger and swallowed by a flood. Those born on a Sunday with a pure heart can glimpse its church spire beneath the water.
- Salige Frauen: mysterious women of Alpine folklore who live deep in the mountains. They are kind to those who respect their rules and fierce protectors of wildlife.
- Ötscher: a mountain in Lower Austria surrounded by tales of giants, spirits and hidden riches, including a treasure guarded below the mysterious “Wetterloch.”
- Donauweibchen: the Danube water spirit of Viennese folklore, who warns a fisherman and his son of an approaching flood.
- Haymon the Giant: a Tyrolean giant who atones for a killing by building a monastery at Wilten while a dragon destroys his work at night.
🎯 What’s Expected from Participants
- Create a playable prototype with an experience that lasts 2–5 minutes.
- Work together in interdisciplinary teams combining design, art, programming and narrative.
- Draw inspiration from your assigned legend while applying your own creative approach.
- Present your game at the final pitch and publish it on itch.io.
- Learn your topic, understand it, and when in doubt, ask! You can ask Igor anything during the prep workshops.
⚖️ How You’ll Be Judged
🎮 Gameplay & Playability
- Is the game fun and intuitive to play?
- Are the controls, feedback and mechanics functional?
- Does the gameplay flow keep the player engaged from start to finish?
🌍 Adaptation & Cultural Relevance
- How creatively does the game reinterpret its assigned theme?
- Are cultural elements represented with care?
- Does the story or world evoke meaningful cultural or emotional resonance?
🎨 Aesthetics & Artistic Quality
- Does the visual and audio design create a cohesive experience?
- Are the art direction, music and UI consistent and polished?
- How strong and original is the game’s overall artistic identity?
📣 Presentation & Product Potential
- Is the game presented attractively on its itch.io page and in the pitch?
- Do the promotional materials (screenshots, trailer, description) feel professional and engaging?
- Could this project have potential beyond the jam, for a wider audience or future development?
🎁 What You Get
- Goodie bags 🎉
- Snacks, drinks and pizza throughout the on-site jam
- Professional photos and videos of the event
- Mentoring and feedback from industry professionals
- A platform to showcase your creativity to peers, professionals and the public
- For the winning team: ongoing mentoring and a booth at Digital Dragons
⚖️ Rules & Ownership
- #beadecenthumanbeing: be respectful and kind to your teammates, organizers and fellow participants.
- The game is yours! You keep full rights to it, but the Forum and PJAIT may showcase it and proudly brag about it.
- We’ll be taking pictures and videos during the events.
- Keep the Forum crispy clean!
- Participation is reserved for PJAIT students.
📍 Practical Info
- Location: Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw
- Bring your own equipment (BYOE): laptop, peripherals and anything else you need.
- Tools: use whatever you like!
- Internet: LAN access is not available.
- Food & drinks: snacks, drinks and pizza provided.
🗓️ On-Site Jam Schedule
Saturday, 14 Nov
- 9:00 – Doors open
- 9:15 – Stand-up
- 9:30 – Jam starts! 🚀
- 13:00 – Pizza time 🍕
- 22:00 – Doors close
Sunday, 15 Nov
- 9:00 – Jam continues!
- 13:00 – Pizza time 🍕
- 18:00 – Submission deadline + playtesting
- 19:00 – Pitches
- 20:00 – Doors close
Final Pitch Schedule
Friday, 4 Dec
- 18:30 – Doors open
- 19:00 – Pitch presentations
- 19:30 – Playtesting
- 20:45 – Award ceremony
- 21:00 – Firestarter to your weekend 🔥
- 22:00 – Doors close
👥 Culture Jam Team
Organizers
Support
