One thing I've never understood, as someone who only has a passing curiosity in game design, is how people learn from them? It always seemed to me that the whole idea was 'Here's a theme, make a game.' But if you don't know how to make a game, where does the knowledge come from? I get you can do independent study, but you could do that without a game jam.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the appeal of game jams, I just don't understand why I see it offered as a learning experience so frequently, as opposed to a practice experience.

In my life and career, I've found deadlines make the best mentors.

In addition to the other commenter's great point about making connections and getting exposure to different paradigms, with a tight deadline you learn how to quickly research and implement new things, and how to make quick creative decisions.

You learn when something is "good enough", and after a few jams you start to understand the holistic process of conceptualizing, actualizing, deploying and collecting feedback on games.

After a couple years, you'll find yourself more knowledgeable than the average graduate in game design, and will either discover what you'd like to specialize in, or realize you enjoy and want to be involved with the entire process.

I learned an enormous amount from in-person game jams by chatting with other game developers at the event, most of whom were more skilled than I was. I've also found game jams made it easier find collaborators, easier to get feedback from other designers, and easier to see how other people approach the same theme.

> But if you don't know how to make a game, where does the knowledge come from?

If you're at the stage where you feel like you don't know how to make a game, you might find value in doing the exercises from the book "Challenges for Game Designers" by Brathwaite & Schreiber.