The games industry has come together to help developers affected by GDC's postponement with alternative events and relief funds.
Gamedev.world, an online-only conference headed up by indie developer Rami Ismail, will be hosting a fundraising event from March 27th to April 3rd. This will include talks from speakers around the world, a game jam, and a pay-what-you-want games bundle.
The money raised from the event will go to the GDC Relief Fund set up by Wings Interactive, an investment fund for marginalised developers. Along with Gamedev.world, it has partnered with Redbeet Interactive, Landfall Games, Raw Fury, Modern Wolf, Makers Fund, and The Games and Online Harassment Hotline.
Meanwhile, Reboot Develop is offering its own GDC relief efforts. The conference will provide 50 standard passes and 20 Indie Expo slots at either of its Canadian or Croatian events in 2020. Both conferences are still planned to go ahead at this time.
Making other plans
Alternate conferences are still planned to go ahead. AltGDC is scheduled for March 16th-18th, and is offering a single track for former GDC speakers who still want to give their talk.
However, organisers have advised that attendees should only come if they have not already cancelled their GDC plans and if they are not concerned about the possibility of catching the coronavirus.
Similarly, a new event run by a team including former IGDA director Kate Edwards will run between March 16th-20th. Dubbed the Plan B Project, it is currently looking for speakers who were planning on attending GDC and cannot cancel their plans.
As an additional measure, the Plan B Project will be asking all attendees to submit to a body temperature scan on entry. Any attendees with an "abnormal" reading will be turned away.
Finally, online-only alternate conference #notGDC will be running from March 16th-22nd. It will host talks on its website in a number of forms, including videos, written articles, Twitter threads, and more.
GDC 2020 was postponed until summer on February 28th, following a string of cancellations from major companies such as Unity, Epic Games, Facebook, and more.
