🏆 Student Challenge Winners Announced + G4C Festival 2026

Meet the winners of this year’s Challenge, grab your ticket for #G4C2026, and more!

Author

Games for Change
June 18, 2026

Welcome to the June G4C Learn Newsletter! In this edition, we’ll introduce the winners of the 2025-2026 G4C Student Challenge and share exciting updates and highlights. Keep reading to discover how you can Reimagine Play with us at the Games for Change Festival in July, celebrate our first international Next-Gen Summit in Türkiye, and our first cohort of Game Plan Fellows. 🎉

- G4C Learn Team

And just like that, the 11th year of the 2025–2026 Games for Change Student Challenge officially comes to a close! 🎮 🌍

Over the past few months, young creators ages 10-25 from around the world dedicated their innovation, creativity, passion, and voices to designing social-impact digital and tabletop games, character designs, and media inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

This year's themes covered a variety of important topics, including ocean conservation, rainforest protection, safer driving practices and roads, and sustainable food systems.

📊 The Student Challenge’s Impact at a glance:

  • 🎮 1,283 submissions from 53 countries

  • 🌍 23,016 young creators participated worldwide

  • 🏆 632 viewers tuned into the G4C Student Challenge Awards Ceremony on May 28, celebrating finalists, partners, educators, and community members

  • 🕹️ 91 finalists and winning projects were selected across this year’s Challenge categories

  •  🎉 212 Game Jams brought together almost 8,000 students around the world

🌟 Student Challenge Highlights 


🏅 Winning Game: School ABC by Winnie & Amy

Welcoming Younger Changemakers
We launched the G4C & Harmony Student Challenge Pilot Program, expanding the G4C Student Challenge to welcome students in grades 3–6 for the very first time! Through this pilot, younger learners had the opportunity to explore game design, creativity, problem-solving, and social impact while developing their own original projects.

Through this pilot, younger learners had the opportunity to explore game design, creativity, problem-solving, and social impact while developing their own original projects inspired by the theme Everyone Belongs Here.


Oleksii Izvalov, a game jam organizer and educator in Ukraine, facilitates learning and game design activities with students amid ongoing air raids.

A Global Year of Game Jams
Students and educators participated in 212 game jams across 71 countries, contributing an incredible 103,342 hours of engagement as they explored this year's social impact themes through game design. These collaborative events brought together 7,722 participants worldwide and inspired 614 submissions to the Challenge, showcasing youth creativity and innovation.

  • Whether you're an educator, student, parent, or community leader, now is the perfect time to start planning for next year's G4C Student Challenge. Get a head start on brainstorming your next social impact game or how you will bring game design and social change to your classroom, campus, or community.

  • Open to young creators worldwide, the G4C Student Challenge empowers youth to use game design as a tool for learning, creativity, and positive change.

Register today to receive updates, game design resources, event invitations, and early announcements about next year's themes, prompts, and opportunities.

Our annual 2026 Games for Change Festival is just around the corner, taking place on July 21-22 at the brand-new venue, Glasshouse in NYC! 🎉 🎮

We invite you to join us for discussions centered around this year’s theme: "Reimagining Play." We will explore how play has evolved beyond traditional games into a dynamic force for change. Our speakers in 2026 will bring diverse expertise across game development, education, healthcare, sustainability, and technology to examine how we can reimagine play.

🎤 ✨ Featured speakers include:

  • Steve Isaacs – Director of Secondary Education, Epic Games

  • Stephen Reid – VP of Learning Experience, Creative Director of Threadbare, Endless Access

  • Chris Dede – Senior Research Fellow, Harvard Graduate School of Education

  • Jesse Schell – CEO, Schell Games

  • Sara Dewitt – Senior Vice President and General Manager, PBS KIDS and Education, PBS

  • Rachel Kowert – Researcher, University of Cambridge

  • Tom Smith – Senior Manager, Game Design, Roblox

  • Alan Lewis – Head of Global Corporate Communications, Take-Two Interactive

And many more from Minecraft, Roblox, EA Sports, Harvard, and leading organizations and changemakers making significant strides in gaming and learning across various sectors.

🎟️ We have discounted tickets for educators, non-profit members, and indie game developers! While in checkout, select the “Standard: Non-Profit/Edu/Indie” to get your discount!

We can't wait to welcome you to #G4C2026! 🎮✨

G4C Türkiye's Next-Gen Summit brought together 142 students and educators in Istanbul for three days of workshops, game design sessions, panels, and networking. Students discovered how games can serve as tools for creativity, expression, collaboration, and social impact. As we look forward to hosting more Next-Gen Summits globally, we are thrilled to continue empowering youth through game design.

Stay tuned for updates from the upcoming Next-Gen Summit in Lagos, produced by G4C Africa!  ✈️ 🌍

G4C Learn recently wrapped up our first Game Plan Fellowship! 🏛️🔬

What is G4C’s Game Plan? Through immersive professional development and a collaborative community of practice, Game Plan equips educators with the tools to bring game-based learning into classrooms, museums, and community programs.

This year, five Game Plan alumni and leaders in bringing games and play into their museums’ halls and galleries were selected as Game Plan Fellows. In the program, they deepened their expertise and prepared to lead Game Plan workshops for future cohorts of educators interested in game-based learning.

Meet the 2026 Game Plan Fellows! ✨

Stay tuned for upcoming opportunities to connect with these fellows and join the Game Plan community!

Our friends at Wicked Saints Universe just launched their new game, World Reborn, free and available on iOS and Android! 🎮

World Reborn is an interactive story game that blends real-world quests with in-game activities to enhance players' well-being, social connections, and sense of community. Backed by behavioral science and positive psychology, the game features interactive quests and meaningful gameplay designed to help players improve their real-life well-being, relationships, and contribute to making the world a more positive place.

Do you know educators who would be interested in bringing games and play with the professional support and community of G4C Learn? Share this newsletter with them!