ATLANTA, March 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Spelman College welcomed over 85 students from 10 HBCUs to compete in the fourth annual HBCU Game Jam, a 24-hour hackathon competition where students work in teams to create original video games from scratch. Hosted by Spelman’s Arthur M. Blank Innovation Lab, HBCU Game Jam is designed to expand opportunities for Black creators in the global gaming industry.
During the event, teams worked against the clock to ideate storylines, code gameplay and design visuals. After the hackathon, students pitched their finished products to judges for the chance to win up to $10,000 in prizes. Prior to this year’s Game Jam, over 62% of the student contestants had never made a video game. By the end of the competition, the students produced over 20 original games.
For the past two years, a team of Spelman students have led the planning for Game Jam. This year, the event was co-chaired by Devyn Washington, C’2026, a game design and development major, and Trinity Royal, C’2026, a computer science major. According to Royal, events like Game Jam are integral to ensuring the gaming industry reflects the diversity of its consumers.
“The gaming industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry, but there's only about five percent of professionals that are Black,” said Royal in an interview with CBS Atlanta. “Our skin tone is not seen. Our hair texture is not seen."
The Innovation Lab’s Director, Jaycee Holmes-Nguyen, C’2016, and Assistant Director Eric Thompson, echoed Royal’s sentiments and emphasized the importance of pushing diverse talent pools into tech careers.
“I think it’s important for Black people to be making stuff and building things because we have so much to offer and such a unique perspective,” said Thompson in an interview with Capital B News. “The stuff that the students come up with in [the Innovation Lab] is incredible. When the facilities and resources are made available, we see the amazing things that can happen.”
"If we don't have Black designers, Black engineers, Black game developers, we're missing such a big part of our population's voice," said Holmes-Nguyen, professor of arts and visual culture at Spelman. “Part of the reason I created HBCU Game Jam in 2023 was to help nurture the next generations of Black techies to enter the industry. More seats at the table means more quality gaming and experiences. At Spelman, the goal isn't just to play the game. It's to change who gets to build it."
Winners included:
• 1st Place: Famished — Howard University
• 2nd Place: Erika & Me — Alabama A&M University, Clark Atlanta University, and Spelman College
• 3rd Place: Lost Souls — Spelman College
About Spelman College
Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a leading liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, the College’s picturesque campus is home to 2,300 students. Spelman is the country's leading producer of Black women who complete Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The College’s status is confirmed by the U.S. News & World Report, which ranked Spelman No. 39 among all liberal arts colleges, No. 19 for undergraduate teaching, No. 2 for social mobility among liberal arts colleges, and No. 1 for the 17th year among historically Black colleges and universities. Recent initiatives include a designation by the Department of Defense as a Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM, a Gender and Sexuality Studies Institute, the first endowed queer studies chair at an HBCU and a program to increase the number of Black women Ph.D.s in economics. New majors and minors have been added, including documentary filmmaking and photography, data science, refugee studies and gaming. Collaborations have been also established with MIT’s Media Lab, the Broad Institute and the Army Research Lab for artificial intelligence and machine learning, among others.
Outstanding alumnae include Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, former Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Rosalind Brewer, political leader Stacey Abrams, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa D. Cook, former Acting Surgeon General and Spelman’s first alumna president Audrey Forbes Manley, Harvard University professor and former Dean Evelynn Hammonds, actress and producer Latanya Richardson Jackson, global bioinformatics geneticist Janina Jeff and authors Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones.
To learn more, please visit spelman.edu and @spelmancollege on social media.
Media Contact:
Brijea Daniel
brijeadaniel@spelman.edu
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