Nexon said on Sunday it successfully held the “2026 Nexon University Game Jam Jaemmatnex” over three days from July 24 to 26 at its Pangyo headquarters to foster future game talent.

Now in its fourth year, Jaemmatnex is a university game jam Nexon has held annually since 2023 to discover and support aspiring creators in the game industry. Participants form teams and complete a game over 2 nights and 3 days.

The biggest feature of this year’s event was a complete overhaul of the format on the premise of using artificial intelligence. Nexon removed distinctions between roles such as planning, programming and art and recruited participants for a single position. It also newly set up 400,000 won per team in AI support funds to back infrastructure that allows student participants to freely and actively adopt the latest AI tools during development.

The 56 university students who took part formed teams of four at Nexon’s headquarters on July 24 and began making games using this year’s official theme keyword, “context.” Participants used AI tools to flesh out ideas and raised development quality with on-site mentoring from Nexon staff. On the final day, July 26, they demonstrated and presented their finished works.

Final judging was conducted by a panel of Nexon employees, who comprehensively evaluated theme fit, completeness, creativity and fun.

The grand prize, with 3 million won in prize money, went to the team that made the strategy game “Yongsa Mawang Mujjireunda,” which implemented language context as a core gameplay element. The excellence prize, worth 2 million won, went to the team behind “Little Token,” which features battles using combinations of word cards. Merit prizes, awarded to 2 teams at 1 million won each, went to teams that presented “Sinabro” and “Yeonieum,” respectively.

Lee Soo-chan (이수찬), a 24-year-old student from the grand prize-winning team behind “Yongsa Mawang Mujjireunda,” said, “By incorporating AI technology into game production, I was able to focus more on exploring what makes the game fun rather than compromising when I hit limits during development.” He added, “It is meaningful that making the game with sincerity while happily collaborating with teammates led to a good result.”

Kang Deok-won (강덕원), head of Nexon’s AI division who took part in judging, said, “It was impressive that participants implemented ideas with a high level of completeness using AI technology, but what also stood out was that their eye for games itself has risen to another level.” He added, “The experience of putting their heads together with peers and watching each other’s ways of working will be a big asset on the road ahead.”

Nexon has sponsored the university game development club “Nexon Dream Members (NDM)” since 2007. It also continues support to nurture young talent and aspiring creators in the game industry, including operating a 3-night, 4-day camp-style program called “Metoring” that provides job training and mentoring from MapleStory staff.