When your enemy is a virus
The most discussed topic in recent times, Coronavirus (COVID-19) is becoming more and more widespread.
Of course, the gaming industry is not an exception in this case. Already, several drastic measures have been taken:
- E3 2020 was officially canceled
- Game Developers Conference was postponed
- Nintendo Switch production was delayed
- Overwatch League events were canceled
- EA suspends all competitive gaming live events
- Plague Inc game was dropped from Apple App Store
- Even Play Station 5 and Xbox Series X development is in danger.
These are just a few examples of how the virus affected the gaming industry. For an extended list of actions that were already done regarding this topic please refer to the following links:
- https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/coronvirus-gaming-delays
- https://www.androidcentral.com/coronavirus-games-industry
- https://time.com/5793862/coronavirus-video-games
What about Indie game developers?
While big companies are definitely shaken in these times because their employees are working from home now, people’s attention is oriented to other topics and the money flow is languishing, indie game developers may have an advantage here.
Most of them are already used to work from home. There is no news for them and they are already good at this. For an employee can be hard to change the job from an office to a working program from home in his pajamas.
Furthermore, for an indie game developer, most of his audience is now at home, trying to stay away from other people and other activities. Most probably, they are using their phones, laptops, tables or any other gadget to stay entertained. And this can be good for a game developer. For sure, if you have your own apps on the market already, you know that at the weekend when everybody has more time your games have the best results in terms of downloads, ads impressions or revenues. Imagine a longer period of time like this.
Most probably the eCPM (effective cost per mille) from your displayed ads will go down in the next period, but you will have more users who will discover you and this is more important. Also, the IAPs (in-app purchases) will generate more money because of this.
What to do next
Now is the perfect time to work at your passion! Just continue to develop your games as fast as possible (but don’t forget about the quality) and publish them. People are waiting to play them these days. Wish you the best results!
In Italy, some guys already started a “Quarantine Jam” event. It started yesterday (Friday on 13th of March) and will last until Monday. The event organizers ask people to stay safe using the slogan “Be safe, make games!”. Over 205 persons joined the game jam and they will be connected using a Discord server. We are happy to see that the interest in game development is increasing even in these conditions. Together, we continue to entertain the people and make the world a happier place.
You can find more information about Quarantine Jam at the following link:
In the end, our advice is to stay safe at home to protect you and other people. You can start your journey in app development in this way or you can play one of our games from https://wyverin.com/games. Don’t forget to stay in touch with us on our social media channels because we are preparing many surprises for you this month. Stay safe and play more! Times are asking for this.
