Get Your Game Funded! Introducing the “Rising Tide Challenge”

Global Game Jam is excited to announce its partnership with Blue Ocean Games, a brand-new $30M early stage game fund backing indies, to launch the “Rising Tide Challenge,” a monthlong competitive “trailer jam” running May 1–31, where participants will produce and submit a short, polished, in-engine Game Concept Trailer. The trailer should be a creative video showcasing the core gameplay idea they want to develop into a full game.

In addition to cash prizes, the top 20 teams will have their applications fast-tracked to be considered for up to $300K USD in investment. The Rising Tide Challenge invites participants to produce and submit a short, polished, in-engine Game Concept Trailer.

Developers can choose any theme and platform they like. The jam is open to teams or solo developers, including first time founders, currently working on an indie game as long as it has not yet been released. Rising Tide Challenge will have a global reach and strongly encourages participation from developers from regions underserved and overlooked by the current investment landscape.

Blue Ocean Games seeks to connect with indie devs at every stage and from every background. Developers can choose any theme and platform they like. The jam is open to teams or solo developers, including first time founders, currently working on an indie game as long as it has not yet been released. Rising Tide Challenge will have a global reach and strongly encourages participation from developers from regions underserved and overlooked by the current investment landscape.

Founded by Damian Lee (former Head of Investments at KRAFTON Inc.), Blue Ocean Games is a venture fund focused on supporting early-stage developers with big ideas who might not fit traditional funding models. The fund seeks to invest in 100 indie games from across the globe over the next three years. See the full story and timeline on GGJ site(https://globalgamejam.org/) or go to the Blue Ocean Games site (https://blueoceangames.com/) to sign up.

Rising Tide Challenge Timeline

Starting Now: Create an account on the Blue Ocean Games website. (Trailers will be submitted through their portal.)

May 1–31: Jam period: Create and submit your Game Trailer.

June 3-17: Voting period: Community and judge voting.

June 20: Winners announced.

Post-jam: Winning teams will receive ongoing support to help turn their ideas into fundable, commercially viable games.

About Global Game Jam

The Global Game Jam® (GGJ) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit registered in the state of California and our mission is to empower all individuals worldwide to learn, experiment, and create together through the medium of games in a safe and welcoming environment.

GGJ seeks to drive innovation, experimentation, and collaboration in games. The annual event is held the last week in January. The GGJ encourages collaboration and its events are not a competition. Anyone can apply to host a jam site as long as they have a dedicated jam organiser who agrees to follow a few GGJ rules, and a venue with internet access.

The GGJ is the world’s largest game creation event taking place around the globe boasting tens of thousands of participants (jammers) at hundreds of physical and virtual sites in over one hundred countries around the world. In January 2025, we had a great year which saw 35,000+ people at 803 locations in 97 countries create 12,000 games in 48 hours around the theme of “Bubble!” GGJ Consistently maintains a 90% satisfaction rate year over year among our participants. Of 2025 participants, more than 99% said they would definitely or probably participate again. Lifetime, Global Game Jam has had over 485,000 jam participants and resulted in the creation of over 100,000 games.