Earlier this month, the Game Developers Conference had to be canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Forced to move online, the cancelation of the event put a great number of developers out of funds.

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While the event certainly had to be canceled, the cancelation still had an incredibly negative impact on the independent developers that were traveling to the event. These companies generally work with extremely limited funds and staff, and dedicating time and resources to attend these events can be a make-or-break scenario.

Above all, the financial loss on these sorts of events need to be recuperated and normally are through an increase in marketing and sales by their physical presence. With the event canceled so late, all that money had still be spent, but there weren’t many ways to make it back.

There were a few attempts. GDC 2020 was still held for example, though it was moved online. The organizers are also going to be holding a smaller event once the world starts spinning again, called GDC Summer. But these couldn’t compare to the physical event, and with such financial losses, many independent developers were in danger of being sunk.

One gaming organization, Wings, stepped in to do what they could. Wings began the GDC Relief Fund to help fundraise donations towards these developers and supplement the considerable financial loss. The movement has gained considerable ground, as well as a great amount of support.

Gamedev.world has jumped in to help with the GDC Relief Fund however they can. They’ll be spending the next couple of days raising funds to help the fundraiser, streaming via Twitch with some great events to raise donations.

Today was the first day and included some wonderful events, like live music from Jukio Kallio and some discussion from a variety of figures. Notable names in the gaming world like voice actors Ashly Burch of Borderlands and HAWP, Erika Ishii of Destiny 2 and Gundam NT, and plenty of others joined for some Q&A.

There are plenty more events coming over tomorrow and the next day as well. Rami Ismail will be holding an event titled “Call Me Ismail,” as well as some streams of titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Sayonara Wild Hearts. Wednesday will have a tutorial on game creation, discussions on saving the history of games, and a music composition session to tie it all off.

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The events begin at 4:00 PM GMT and continue until 8:00 PM Tuesday, 6:00 PM Wednesday. If you want to do your part to help support independent developers, join in and help the fundraiser!