Following the postponement of GDC 2020 back in February this year, the GDC Relief Funds was created as a way of reimbursing developers who lost money due to the event’s cancellation.
The GDC Relief Fund, initially created on the 2nd of March, 2020, as a collaboration between WINGS Interactive and multiple games industry partners, has seen “remarkable and generous” support from sponsors, raising a total of $291,311, of which $81,646 came from gamedev.world’s public fundraiser.
Thanks to this support, the GDC Relief Fund has currently distributed $148,714 to 177 applicants, with an average payout of $697.59. The extra funds raised will now go to the ELEVATE 2020: GDC Relief Fund Accelerator.
ELEVATE 2020: GDC Relief Fund Accelerator, run by Code Coven in collaboration with industry partners and subject matter experts, is a 15-week global online incubator for indie game developers impacted by COVID-19 and the resulting cancellations.
Thanks to the remarkable & generous support from our sponsors and the gaming community, we've supported 177 developers recover from the financial loss from GDC's postponement!
Remaining funds raised will go towards ELEVATE 2020: GDC Relief Fund Accelerator. Run by @code_coven! pic.twitter.com/oqn1o4AUPr
— WINGS (@wingsfundme) June 4, 2020
ELEVATE will offer development guidance, mentorship, community, events programming and milestone-based stipends for struggling indie game developers, providing them with meaningful progression on their game, business fundamentals and valuable industry connections.
If you’re a developer and you’re interested in taking part in ELEVATE, you can find more information by following the link here.
For the curious, the GDC Relief Fund was only made possible with support from WINGS Interactive, gamedev.world, Google, Facebook Gaming, Oculus from Facebook, Redbeet Interactive, Landfall Games, Raw Fury, AMD, Nordisk Film Games, Double Fine Productions, Modern Wolf, Warhorse Studios, 11 bit studios, Those Awesome Guys, Versus Evil, Xsolla, Dear Villagers, United Label, Assemble Entertainment, Triband, Head-High, Makers Fund, iam8bit, Synch, Limited Run, Intelligame, the Games and Online Harassment Hotline, and Global Games Pitch.