What's Behind All Those Masks?

Since we traditionally gather and take part in Game Jams, skipping this year was never really on the table, especially now that we have our own game division, Isotope Games. So one year later, we showed up again at Global Game Jam with more teams and bigger expectations.

The jam started on January 30th and ran for 48 hours straight. That is two days of building from scratch, running on coffee, stubbornness, and real willpower. The kind of weekend where we run mainly on coffee, and every quick fix slowly becomes a two-hour setback. There were noticeably more participants this time, but Base42 came prepared. The space was bigger, the setup was better, and the overall atmosphere felt more focused. People were obviously not there to kill time. Most teams got straight to work and stayed locked in.

As you can probably guess from the title, this year's theme was "masks." Compared to last year's "bubbles," it felt heavier and more layered, pushing everyone to think twice before jumping into their first idea. Once the brainstorming started rolling, though, it was full steam ahead. MGI's posts also made it clear that this year's Global Game Jam was massive. One of the biggest in the world, with an absurd number of prototypes made in just 48 hours.

Masquerade Exorcist - Vasilaki Totsili

Maybe the boldest move this year came from going solo.

Vasilaki, our embedded software engineer, switched to solo mode and built a game called  Masquerade Exorcist. At one point, he worked nearly 18 hours straight without stopping, fully immersed in development.

Masquerade Exorcist drops you into a cursed mannequin masquerade where demons blend in, and one wrong move ends the run. Using a rapid-fire MaskBow, you must read micro-twitch tells, correctly tag enemies, and avoid killing innocents before they hit the stage. Miss a demon or grief an ally, and the screen bleeds to black: game over, show's dead.

Check out the game:

Over the 48 hours, the game was built almost entirely in Unreal Engine C++. Vasilaki handled everything: enemy logic, combat mechanics, level events, audiovisual feedback, difficulty balancing, and a final cinematic, delivering a polished game by Sunday.

Best Game at the Global Game Jam 2026 - Tomislav Ingjatov & CBT

Across the space, another team was building something much louder.

Tomislav Ignjatov and his team CBT, consisting of three developers, two artists, and one game designer, won Best Game at Global Game Jam 2026 in Skopje with S.A.M. Spirit, Animal, Machine. Built completely during the jam, the game stood out for its tight combat design, clear mechanics, and multiplayer execution. The award came with a 300-euro prize, enough for one proper kafana night for the whole team.

Some pics from the winning team:

Another one with the prize and the art itself:

S.A.M. is a server-based online arena battler for Windows and macOS where masks define your abilities. Players choose between Animal, Spirit, and Machine masks, each following a rock-paper-scissors logic. Animals counter Spirits, Spirits counter Machines, and Machines counter Animals. Combat revolves around throwing your mask to strip or damage opponents, creating fast-paced matches that reward timing and positioning.

Developed in Godot, with assets created in Aseprite and Blender, the game delivers short but competitive sessions built around skill and smart decision-making. You can learn more and play the game here: https://lorddeathunter.itch.io/sam

Rising Star Award to our team Lab Rats

Some teams were stepping into their first Game Jam, while others treated it like a tradition.
Dimitrij Krstev, Teodor Angeleski, and Aleksandar Filipovski from Team Lab Rats won the Rising Star Award at Global Game Jam 2026.

More pics, screenshots and details follow:

For everyone except Teodor, this was their first game jam, making the recognition an important milestone for the team. They built their game Masked Descent using Godot and Aseprite, learning and solving technical challenges live during the event.

Masked Descent is a roguelike dungeon crawler featuring procedurally generated levels and a mask-swapping combat system, melee combos, ranged attacks, and stealth-based mobility. Boss fights appear every five floors, with powerups shaping each run and encouraging different playstyles. The game blends fast decision-making with classic dungeon progression and pixel-art visuals.

Gjorgji Dimeski - Multiple Projects, Won Audience's Hearts

Gjorgji Dimeski participated in Global Game Jam 2026 with two projects.

His solo project, Bits, or "Wordle for Hackers," was built in just three hours using SvelteKit with Discord integration. It's a logic puzzle based on binary operations, where players manipulate inputs to match the Goal Pattern shown at the bottom.

The game is available here:
https://bits.dimeski.net/

The game has been gaining popularity among tech enthusiasts, and many are playing it on Discord. Gjorgji continues to improve the game and regularly shares updates and new iterations on his LinkedIn.

MikroShpajz - Gjorgji Dimeski again with the team

At the same time, he collaborated with the team Mikro Shpajz (7 members) on “Maskakar,” developed in Godot. You can see the game here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzRXUK2YT-4

Once again, Gjorgji won the audience's hearts, as he has consistently done. This marks his fourth consecutive year participating in Global Game Jam.

Team Elon Mask,  Not That Elon!

Pixel Perfect for Best Art

No, not that Elon. Just Elon Mask, and honestly, the name already sets expectations.

Andrej Slavejkov, Andrej Mickov, Nikola Dinevski, Martin Dinev, Ilija Boshkov, all software engineers from CodeChem, featuring Goran Petrushevski, an embedded software engineer also from CodeChem, and their team member Gagi (Viktor), teamed up under this slightly suspiciously familiar name and built Mask of Life using Unity, while Gagi handled the art on a tablet. Six developers coding, one artist carrying, and they won Pixel Perfect for Best Art. They openly admitted it: the award wasn’t just about the programmers.

They went all in. Full 48-hour focus (realistically 30 effective hours, but who's counting). Everyone treated it like work, not just a jam.

Mask of Life is a 2D storytelling platformer set in a shattered monochrome world. You play as the Colorless One, restoring color and meaning by collecting powerful masks. The more masks you reclaim, the more the world comes alive. Clean mechanics, strong atmosphere, and apparently, some great music, as multiple people pointed out.

Play it here: https://maskoflife.codechem.dev/

Gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxePk7Rc6GQ

Soundtrack highlight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWYrm_XZSOM

Now some visuals, which are ridiculously good, considering the fact that they were drawn on a tablet in what looks like a paint app:

Also included: A snapshot from the jam, when a colleague from CBT went to see what the team Elon Musk was building, or the other way around...

Sarmakedonci – Isotope Games

They didn't just participate in the Global Game Jam, but also sponsored it. In a gaming industry like ours, that kind of support genuinely means everything, and so does it to Isotope Games.

The name Sarmakedonci wasn't random. It comes from the main character of their game, Astral Match, so the team name was actually very on-brand.

Matej, Martin, Filip, Manuel, Boris, Ekaterina, and Nikola created a rhythm-based theatre game built around masks and emotions. You perform on stage, matching masks to target emotions, keeping musical notes in tune, and managing the audience's happiness. If the crowd turns on you, tomatoes start flying, and you get one last chaotic mini game to save the show.

It's hypercasual, fun, and one of the most conceptual and finished games at the jam. Everything was built during the event in Unity, with all visuals originally drawn by Nikola and animations handled by Martin Stoilov.

Compared to last year, this one simply felt more complete and more enjoyable.

Stefan Ivanovski, part of The Unfortunate 7" - Dalewood's Masquerade

Epic Coding Award  🏆

We were called “The Unfortunate 7.” There were six of us. We don't talk about the seventh.

We built a VR horror-puzzle game for the Meta Quest 3 using Unity and C#. The 3D modelling was done in Blender and Maya, music production with FL Studio, and UI/story mockups with Figma. You play as an invited guest to a masquerade party, and quickly find out that not all is as it seems. The goal is to escape this cursed mansion with powers gained through pieces of a cursed mask.

It was our first time working together, but we clicked fast. Strong 3D work, quick iteration, solid level design, and original music came together naturally. As a programmer, it’s always impressive to see the unbounded creativity of artists and how they turn rough ideas into something fun, quickly.

The vibe at the Skopje Game Jam was great as always. The organization was amazing, we had constant support, and developed our game in a welcoming atmosphere.  It was especially nice to see more kid and teen teams this year.

We started Friday night, pushed through Saturday, and finished Sunday at the ceremony. I had to sit out the final day because I was sick, but I had full faith in the team to carry it through.

Final Thoughts

Forty-eight hours is short until you try building a game inside it. This year felt bigger and more serious, with more teams, more young participants. Knowing that everything you see was built from scratch in those two days changes how you look at these games.

The theme was “Masks,” but by Sunday night, nobody was hiding much. You could see the lack of sleep, the stress before submission, the relief when something finally worked. Across all the games, there was real effort. Different engines, different styles, different ideas, but everything was built from scratch in those two days.

Some teams took home awards, some won the audience, and some simply proved they could finish, but that counts too. We say every year that next time we will rest more.

We won't!

See you at the next jam.