As the fears of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 becoming a pandemic are rising, companies have been on high-alert when it comes to traveling and attending conferences. This caused the Game Developers Conference, which was to be held on March 16, some major issues. Many companies pulled out from the event, causing the event to be postponed.
Although the postponement didn't cause many issues to the big developers out there, it certainly did hurt indie developers. GDC is refunding all its passes, but there are several other higher costs involved when a developer goes to attend such events. Additionally, developers also put great effort into preparing presentations and demos for their creations.
In response to the troubles that developers are facing, Wings Interactive has collaborated with several companies to create the GDC Relief Fund. Any developer can apply for the relief fund through the official Wingsfund.me website. The recipients will be picked based on how much the event postponement might have financially affected them.
"The postponement of GDC at such short notice is completely unprecedented, and we’ve been blown away by how quickly the games industry has come together to help independent game developers suffering hardship as a result," said Wings co-founder Cassia Curran. "More companies are donating to the GDC Relief Fund all the time, and gamedev.world is moreover launching a fundraiser between March 27th and April 3rd with all donations going to the fund. Our hope is that the GDC Relief Fund will make it easier for individuals and small teams that have been disproportionately impacted to deal with the recent developments."
In addition to the GDC Relief Fund, some publishing partners are also offering online meetings for developers.
It is saddening to know that several gaming conferences have been hit pretty hard by the coronavirus outbreak, but some conferences like E3 2020 are said to be going ahead full speed. Even though the ESA has assured that E3 2020 will be conducted without any issues, it has also stated that it is very vigilant on the current virus outbreak situation.
