With the just-announced news of the cancellation of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) GameDev.World has announced plans for a week-long public fundraiser in order to help the GDC Relief Fund and marginalized developers affected by the cancellation.
The drive behind the fundraising effort is to help developers around the world that unfortunately most likely have little chance to refund costs for things such as their visas, lodgings, and travel that will be a major burden to those developers. While GDC has stated that all registered pass holders will be getting full refunds these other costs for smaller developers will hopefully be eased with this fundraiser.
The fundraiser itself will be a week-long public effort starting from March 27 until April 3. For that time GameDev.World will present "-for free, live-translated, and online- various talks from both marginalized developers and the sponsors that made the event possible." Donations will be raised throughout all of them and all money will go towards their partners at the GDC Relief Fund and the marginalized developers most affected by the cancellation. GameDev.World will also be putting together a bundle and game jam in collaboration with itch.io. Each submitted game from the jam itself or from developers that make their existing games available will be put together into a pay-what-you-want bundle with proceeds going to the same goals as before.
Rami Ismail, Executive Director at GameDev.World, had this to say:
Even in the early stages of organizing these efforts, we can tell from the response to the initiative that the entire industry is concerned about the repercussions that current events have had on marginalized developers in our international community. As we continue to organize these efforts, we’re heartened by the solidarity and excitement amongst all layers of the industry to support those who are affected most by the heartbreaking cancellation of such a central event in our industry. While there is no way to replace all the opportunities of the Game Developer’s Conference, we hope to help alleviate and minimize the loss of opportunity and the financial damage to those that had hoped to attend.
More information about the GDC Relief Fund, the GameDev.World talks, the game jam, and the game bundle will be coming in the next weeks, so stay tuned for more updates as they happen.
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Follow all the news of coronavirus related cancellations on TechRaptor on our evolving article of all the cancellations and delays due to the virus.
