Can Game Jams Boost Confidence and Sense of Preparedness?

Many aspects of game jams have been studied as their popularity continues to grow. Their lingering effects on learning, motivation, and social interaction has been documented over the years. In this paper, we observe the immediate effects game jams have on participant confidence in game making skills, and preparedness, as they change over the course of the jam. We conduct surveys on three different jams held from 2016 to 2019. We collect a total of 107 surveys with 26 full sets (subjects) for the confidence questions and 17 for the preparedness.