In a heartwarming move, a host of game developers, artists and other creators are joining together to help out some of their fellow developers. When Game Developers Conference 2020, originally scheduled to take place earlier this month, had to be cancelled last minute, it left a lot of game developers in a precarious spot. They’d already paid in advance for flights and accommodation for this year’s conference and were relying on a host of meetings both scheduled and unscheduled to help them in their careers going forward.
With the conference cancelled due to the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of developers were put into a precarious financial position, having laid out money upfront that they might not be able to get back, at least not entirely.
That’s where the GDC Relief Bundle steps in. Organised by gamedev.world and hosted on itch.io, over a hundred creators have come together for this Pay What You Want bundle, to raise funds in order to lend a helping hand to developers from all over the world facing financial hardship in the wake of the cancellation of this major gaming event.
The bundle contains a grab bag of games, elements that can be used for making your own games like music and sound effects, interactive fiction and more. Some of these are highly polished games years in the making, like Vlambeer’s wonderful wasteland action roguelike Nuclear Throne, and others have been made in recent weeks that are directly based on the pandemic crisis that’s still unfolding, such as Corona Shopper, a game about scavenging for toilet paper. A relatable game scenario if ever there was one.
There are tonnes of items included, and the price of entry is simply whatever you can spare, so it’s absolutely worth a look if you want to grab some interesting games at a discount, and want to help out a few developers down on their luck.If you can’t spare anything right now, to coincide with the bundle there is also a twitch stream packed with music performances, gameplay streams, Q&As and other interesting shows. Worth a look, and doesn’t cost a penny.
