It is one of the biggest videogame-related events in Denmark and one of the largest game jams in the world, with 900 participants as of 2016.

Before the jam begins, participants are given some time to meet and form teams, encouraging partnering with new people.

The main theme for 2008 was "Taboo" and three constraints: the game had to loop, had to be playable with a controller and was required to be multiplayer.

In 2014, Nordic Game Jam took place at Aalborg University Copenhagen again and had John Polson as the keynote speaker.

The winning game was called "The Wuuuuuuu" – as it was controlled only by shouting into a microphone, all the jammers played it together during the final presentations.

The Keynote speech was held by Kevin Martens & Jesse MacCree from Blizzard, the theme was "Leak" (and therefore, was revealed before the jam), and the winning game was "Random Access Murder".

The jam again took place at the Aalborg University Copenhagen, but the Award Ceremony was moved to Imperial Cinema.

In 2019, the Nordic Game Jam hosted Heather Kelley as the keynote speaker[14] for a second time.

It was held at KADK (The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation), Copenhagen.

[15] In 2020 the jam was again supposed to have been at KADK (The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation), Copenhagen.

The jam also featured a challenge to create physical-and-digital games with the aid of LEGO elements.