Reports of the sudden GDC postponement are still fresh, but fellow conference Gamedev.world has announced an initiative to offset the damage. Though GDC 2020 itself was rescheduled to later in the year, the damage is done. Some would-be attendees have non-refundable flights or lodging arrangements already in place. Investments they put into attending GDC as scheduled are likely lost. That can hit developers from marginalized communities or less-wealthy countries particularly hard. In a post on Twitter, Gamedev.world announced the GDC Relief Efforts, a week-long public fundraising event.
The event, scheduled to take place from March 27 to April 3, 2020, will feature a public game jam. A game jam is an event where groups of game developers quickly put together original games in a limited span of time or under themed rules. Games produced during the jam, as well as any other games participating developers opt to donate to the bundle, will be sold on the indie game storefront itch.io. The pricing of the bundle will be “Pay-What-You-Want.” The GDC Relief Efforts will also include free online talks from various speakers and question-and-answer sessions, all translated into multiple languages. Interested sponsors and participants are encouraged to email [email protected] to learn more. Direct donations to the GDC Relief Fund will also be opened at a later time.
Gamedev.world bills itself as the “Global Game Developer Conference” and aims to gather developers and participants from around the world, beyond the traditional strongholds of North America, Western Europe, and Japan. It held its first conference on June 21-23, 2019.
