s4story -- Adroit Studios welcomed nearly 80 contestants, some in teams and some as solo developers, to the 10th annual Adroit Game Jam February 20 through 22 at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Sine Nomine Associates once again proudly supported this educational and fun event. Principal Engineer Scott Courtney from the 3D Interactive Services team assisted students with technical questions and video graphed the presentation of their games for a panel of judges.
The game jam has three categories: College Student, K-12 Student, and Indie (Professional). For 2026, each of the categories offered a first prize of US$1000 and smaller prizes for second and third place. The Grand Prize for the best game regardless of category was US$5000.
This year's Adroit Game Jam attracted nearly 80 people (a new record) forming over 20 teams.  At the opening ceremony on Friday of the Game Jam, competitors gather at Townsend Hall on the University of Missouri campus to learn the competition's theme, which changes every year and is secret until the contest begins. Competitors form teams of any size they wish, including solo, and create a video game based on the theme. For 2026, the theme was "Quantum", and the reveal was followed by a short technical overview of quantum physics and quantum computing by the University of Missouri's Quantum Computing Club.

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The teams have about 48 hours -- to design, develop, and test their games before presenting them to the panel of three judges. Teams are allowed to use third-party artwork and programming resources, including generative AI, but must comply with copyright law and must disclose third-party or AI use to the judges, who consider this alongside the team size, team category, and the scope and difficulty of the game. Games are judged on technical, gameplay design, and artistic merit. Winners in the categories were "Waveform" by Evie Davis [K-12], "Haze" by UMKC Games Development Club [College Student], and "Tunnel Knight" by Triple Fault Games [Indie/Pro]. Evie Davis, a high school age solo developer, also captured the Grand Prize with "Waveform", a game she developed from scratch in C++ and GLSL programming languages. Judges were impressed by the game's beautiful animation and polished gameplay and by the technical achievement of creating it from scratch as a solo developer.

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Adroit Studio is a fully operational game development studio within the Department of Education at the University of Missouri. The studio researches how interactive games can achieve educational goals for students, and they create "serious games" such as Mission HydroSci which teaches middle school students about water conservation and the use of scientific reasoning to support fact-based decisions. To learn more visit https://itch.io/jam/adroit-game-jam-2026.