Every year, the Phaser Game Jam reminds us why investing in young developers matters. This year's edition, held on March 13–14 in Baronissi, Italy, brought together over 25 high school teams for two intense days of building, pitching, and competing — all using TypeScript and Phaser.
The theme for 2026? (r)EVOLUTION. And the students delivered.
What Is the Phaser Game Jam?
Organized by I.I.S. Margherita Hack in collaboration with HackFarm E.T.S., the Phaser Game Jam is a two-phase educational competition aimed at high school students with a tech focus. Participants first complete a 60-hour online course covering game development fundamentals, then the top students from each school advance to the jam itself: one day to build, one day to present to a panel of industry experts.
Games are judged on graphics, sound design, gameplay, theme adherence, and presentation quality. The stakes? Up to €1,000 for first place.
The 2026 Winners: Games That Impressed the Judges
🥇 1st Place — The Essence by Pull'n Fork (€1,000)
Pull'n Fork, from IIS M. Hack in Baronissi, took the top prize with a two-player strategy game inspired by Conway's Game of Life. Players take turns placing cells on a shared 40×20 grid, using special "revolution cards" to bend the rules — erasing sections, converting enemy cells, or teleporting entire colonies. Deep, replayable, and beautifully on-theme.
🥈 2nd Place — EAT FORWARD: NeoLution by Quantyx Breakers (€500)
Quantyx Breakers, from ITI Enrico Medi in San Giorgio a Cremano, built a survival-evolution game where you start as a single primordial cell and evolve through increasingly complex life forms — until a rogue AI brings civilization crashing down. Bold concept, strong execution.
🥉 3rd Place — Line By Line by The Fun Gang (€400)
The Fun Gang, from ISIS Tassinari in Pozzuoli, went brilliantly meta: you play as a terminal cursor absorbing lines of code to power up. Some lines are buffs. Some are bugs. Literally. Creative, quirky, and surprisingly fun.
🏅 4th Place — Neutraled by Neutraled (€300)
A top-down fantasy game with both story and multiplayer modes, built by LS E. Fermi students from Aversa. The protagonist must venture into a monster world to rescue his sister — neutralizing enemies without killing them, because violence only breeds more violence. Thoughtful game design with a real message.ç
🏅 5th Place — Monkey Industry by EDGE-FORCE (€200)
EDGE-FORCE, from ISS Manlio Rossi Doria in Marigliano, delivered a tycoon game where a banana-pressing jungle monkey evolves step by step into a full modern civilization. Simple premise, addictive loop, perfectly on-theme.
Why the Phaser Game Jam Matters for Young Developers
Events like this do more than hand out prizes. They give students a real taste of the full game development cycle — from learning a framework to shipping a playable product under pressure. The fact that these games were built in a single day, by high schoolers, using Phaser, speaks volumes about both the quality of the training and the talent of the participants.
The 2026 edition was held at Pala Unisa and received patronage from the Municipality of Baronissi and the Faculty of Computer Science.
What's Next? We Can't Wait for Phaser Game Jam 2027
From everyone at Phaser, we have to say it: events like this make us genuinely happy 🙂
Seeing young developers take a framework, a theme, and a deadline — and turn it into something playable, creative, and original — is exactly the kind of thing that reminds us why we do what we do. The enthusiasm, the effort, the pride in the final presentation. That energy is infectious, and it's what keeps the game development community alive and growing.
The Phaser Game Jam is doing something special in southern Italy, and we're rooting hard for it. Congrats again to every team that competed in 2026 — winners and participants alike. You all shipped a game. That's already more than most people ever do.
We're already looking forward to Phaser Game Jam 2027. See you there!
Play the Games Yourself
Every game built during the Phaser Game Jam 2026 is available to play online for free. From cellular strategy to monkey tycoons, there's something for everyone. Go see what these students pulled off in just one day.