An Open Source Video Game Won Best of GDC. Here’s What Happened at Threadbare's Booth.
At this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, something unexpected happened at our booth.
The team from Game Developer stopped by to try Threadbare. They spent time playing the game, asking questions about how the project works, and watching what was unfolding around the table. What started as a quick visit slowly turned into a longer conversation about open source games, community collaboration, and how learners were contributing to the project.
Later that day they came back with news we didn’t expect.
Threadbare had been awarded a Best of GDC honor by Game Developer! That's huge!
For a project built as an open source video game, and for a team focused on learning and community-driven development, that recognition meant a lot. But what made the moment meaningful wasn’t only the award. It was everything that had been happening around the booth throughout the week.
Because without planning it, our space had started to turn into something else entirely.
Building something different at GDC
Three weeks ago we traveled to the Game Developers Conference, one of the largest gatherings of game developers in the world. Around 20,000 people come together each year from studios, independent teams, education programs, and creative communities.
People attend GDC for many different reasons. Some are looking for funding or career opportunities. Others come to share their work, learn new techniques, or connect with people who care deeply about games.
We came with a clear intention.We wanted to show what we are building and meet the people who might want to build it with us.
At the center of that was Threadbare, our open source, community-built video game, and the learning experiences connected to it through our programs. Together they represent a different way of thinking about game development. Instead of a small team creating a finished product behind closed doors, Threadbare is designed as a project that grows through collaboration.
Learners, developers, artists, and storytellers can all contribute and see their work become part of a real game.
As Sarah put it during the conference, “We wanted to meet other game developers who share our passion for open source and community-built games, and bring them into what we’re creating.”
The booth became something we didn’t plan
When we first arrived at our booth, the setup was simple. A table, a computer running the game, and a couple of posters explaining the project. It worked, but it didn’t yet capture the spirit of what Threadbare is about.
So we started shaping the space as the week unfolded.
Sarah reached out to local spots in San Francisco and shared what we were trying to do. A fabric store helped us find materials. A nonprofit that supports educators opened access to creative supplies. Little by little, the booth started to evolve.
What emerged was something interactive and unexpected.
People didn’t just stop by to try the game. They stayed. Some joined conversations about open source game development. Others were curious about how learners could contribute to a real project. At one point someone picked up yarn and started knitting, and before long a scarf began to take shape as different visitors added a few stitches before passing it along.
“It ended up becoming a community-built table,” Sarah said. “People would just show up, start knitting, leave, and someone else would continue.”
Without planning it that way, the booth became a reflection of what open source video games are about. Small contributions from many people slowly building something larger together.
Conversations that went deeper than the demo
GDC is full of incredible booths and presentations. Many spaces are designed for quick demos where people try something for a few minutes before moving on to the next experience.
Our booth created a different kind of interaction.
People stayed longer than we expected. They asked deeper questions and wanted to understand not only the game itself but the idea behind it.
Justin noticed it early in the conference. “People would hang at our booth long enough that they felt the desire to pick something up and start knitting. That only happens if the conversation is different.”
Throughout the week we spoke with developers, educators, students, and organizations from across the ecosystem. Some were exploring open source game development for the first time. Others were already part of open communities and were excited to see a game designed around that model.
For many educators, the connection became clear when they saw how Threadbare connects directly to our learning programs.
Learning through contribution
Threadbare is closely connected to our learning programs.
Each program offers a different level of engagement with game-making, but across all of them learners are contributing in some way. Some share ideas, art, or narrative concepts. Others build playable elements, experiment with mechanics, or contribute directly to the game repository.
Explore introduces learners to game creation through accessible entry points. Core builds collaborative development skills and includes challenges like StoryQuests where learners shape narrative and gameplay ideas. More extends the pathway into deeper contributions to the live Threadbare project through open source workflows.
The type of contribution changes at each level, but the principle remains the same. Learners are not only consuming content. They are adding something of their own.
Other community members can see those contributions, build on them, and sometimes even integrate them into the evolving game itself.
This is what makes open source game development such a powerful learning environment. It allows people to participate in a real creative ecosystem while developing skills in design, programming, storytelling, and collaboration.
Listening as much as sharing
Outside the booth, Sarah and Justin spent time in roundtables, workshops, and smaller group discussions across the conference.
Those spaces offered a different kind of learning. Less about presenting and more about exchanging ideas with people working on similar challenges.
“At GDC there’s truly something about everything,” Sarah reflected. “From how studios operate to how games are designed. But the roundtables stood out because you had to be there. Those conversations don’t happen anywhere else.”
Justin spent much of his time connecting with educators exploring game development as a learning tool. “Not everyone is as connected in this space,” he said. “Being in those rooms made it possible to meet people who are looking for exactly this kind of work but didn’t know we existed yet.”
Those conversations helped us better understand where Threadbare fits within a broader movement around open collaboration and learning through creative practice.
The moments that stayed with us
What made the week meaningful wasn’t the scale of the conference or the number of people we met. It was the moments where something clicked. A student realizing they could be part of building a game. An educator recognizing how collaborative game development could work in their classroom. A developer seeing how open models could expand how games are created.
“These weren’t quick interactions,” Justin reflected. “People came in already curious, and then stayed to really understand what we’re building.”
Those moments may not always show up in metrics, but they are what move things forward.
Receiving the Best of GDC recognition from Game Developer was an incredible moment for the team.
But the award also represents something larger. It reflects growing interest in open source video games and community-driven development models that invite more people into the creative process.
Threadbare is still evolving, and we are still early in this journey. But the experience at GDC reinforced something we believe deeply. Games can be more than finished products. They can be spaces where people learn, contribute, and connect while building something together.
And when those spaces are connected to meaningful learning pathways, they become something even bigger. They become a way in.
Join us!
Join our educator community in Discord
Want to play the game? Go here
With special thanks to:
- Sarah Spiers, our amazing Senior Game Producer
- Justin Bourque, our incredible Learning Programs Lead
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