Post

Only 4 more days to put your game into the game industry hardship fund! Please add your games (and TTRPGs are okay too) so we can make some money for out of work game devs! Do it over the weekend! itch.io/jam/game-ind...

itch.ioGame industry hardship fundA game jam from 2026-06-10 to 2026-06-24 hosted by Necrosoft Games. PREMISE: The game industry has a problem. Too many people are out of work (reports say 33% of the industry lost their jobs in the la...
Brandon Sheffield@brandon.insertcredit.com

1/3 of the game industry has lost their job in the last two years. Ubisoft closed two more studios today. Everyone is out of work. To that end I'm starting a new bundle to benefit a layoffs hardship fund. Game devs: please consider submitting your PAID games to the bundle, which will launch in July.

205 reposts247 likes

Oddly we've got about 3x fewer entries than usual for a bundle of this type so far. Maybe my rules were too stringent, or maybe somehow developer hardship doesn't resonate with other devs!? But I would like to get more games in this bundle if possible!

OK, I have had thoughts about the organization of this bundle, that might shed some light on why that might be. See, I am quite left leaning to say the least, and all for international solidarity generally. I’ve also left « the industry » after a burnout several years ago

Since then I’ve put some of my works on itch to very little success (not complaining, that was expected) like a lot of others (while switching occupation altogether), participated in a couple bundles, and kinda got a feel of what itch is.

The feeling I get is that it is a platform that embraces non-merchandization, games for the sake of games, often made by marginalized people who charge very little or don’t even charge a fixed price for the work they offer to the public.

I mean, what the hell? Professional game designers need a hardship fund, because publishers can't pay 'em. Maxwell Atoms (the creator of Billy and Mandy, a cartoon distributed worldwide) is doing commissions online like he's a DeviantArt newbie. The American economy is fucked up something fierce.