I like jams!

Back in March 2002, developers Chris Hecker and Sean Barrett created a game engine capable of rendering a massive number of sprites. To test their creation, they invited a group of game developers to their offices to try it out and experiment with new ideas, thus spawning Game Jam (read more about it here). Today, there are hundreds of events, held across the globe every year. Game Jams are a great chance for game programmers, designers and artists to get together and create exciting and innovative projects, without the pressure of the real world.
The term Game Jam is comprised of the words ‘game’ and ‘jam session’, a way to describe the collaborative act of producing something with no prior preparation in an effort to develop new material or simply to practice (not the sweet and sticky crushed fruit that you would normally spread on your toast!). Although the original intention of a Game Jam has never been to create a complete, polished game and ship it off to its respective store, many successful breakout games do spawn from Jams.