URGENT: COVID-19 Impact Survey and Program Updates

Dear Hand Eye Society members, game curious folks, and friends:

Although this may seem like a familiar refrain, we wanted to reach out to everyone and let you know what’s going on with us, check in how you’re doing, and talk about what is happening related to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the videogame and arts sector. Check out the following updates for more information on how we’re dealing with current events, and how you can help!

Tracking Impact

First and most urgently, the arts councils have asked organizations like HES to document the impact that COVID-19 is having on our community. This data can be shared with funders and granting partners as a way to measure the financial impact of the pandemic on the interactive media sector, as well as advocating for stimulus and relief measures. The more people and organizations that participate in these efforts, the better we can collectively address the needs of the sector going forward.

To facilitate this, we strongly encourage anyone who self-identifies as a member of the interactive digital media arts/industry sector to please fill out the following survey before the deadline below:

SURVEY DEADLINE: TUESDAY, MARCH 31

[button size=’large’ style=” text=’Take the COVID-19 National Impact Survey’ icon=’fa-align-center’ icon_color=” link=’https://na1se.voxco.com/SE/114/COVID_Interactive/’ target=’_self’ color=” hover_color=” border_color=” hover_border_color=” background_color=#ffffff” hover_background_color=” font_style=” font_weight=” text_align=’center’ margin=”]

This survey is funded by the CMF and produced by Nordicity, and promoted in partnership with Interactive Ontario (you can also read IO’s preliminary recommendations to government here). It is intended for anyone who works in or is adjacent to interactive digital media, and is not limited to those who make videogames, so please share this as widely as possible within your networks. The results will be available by province as well as at the national level. Your answers will remain anonymous and confidential. Responses will be combined and will only be shared in aggregated format with key decision makers in government.

Our Programming

Hand Eye Society extremely saddened to announce that Comics X Games and TCAF 2020 have been cancelled due to the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, although we all believe this to be the best decision for everyone’s health and safety. We are currently exploring contingency plans for our regularly scheduled programming, including Comics X Games, Game Curious, WordPlay, and Camp Make-a-Game. Our Annual General Meeting has also been put on hold while we research options for holding meetings remotely. We are also looking into the viability of platforms such as Discord or Twitch for delivering certain types of programming, so if you have experience with live-streaming and broadcasting content to large groups of people over the Internet, please get in touch!

We also want to take this opportunity to ask you, our community, how we can best support you during this challenging time. Virtual events, increased promotion of local artists via social media, a special Twitter hashtag to spotlight underrepresented works, remote game jams, bedroom-based festivals, fundraisers we should be signal-boosting, anything goes. If you have any thoughts on what you would like to see, let us know! We will continue discussing with our Board, partners, funders, and all of you about how to facilitate our operations in the weeks and months ahead. Hopefully, we will be able to continue our regular programming later in the year, but we would like to be prepared for any eventuality. You can contact us at any time at info@handeyesociety.com or via Twitter @HandEyeSociety, but we will also be reaching out more proactively as we continue to to research our options.

Our monthly newsletter will be going ahead as scheduled, so please continue sending your game news, job postings, submission deadlines, and anything else we should be aware of to calendar@handeyesociety.com and we will include it in the April 1 edition (and yes, you are more than welcome to submit fun tips and serious resources for dealing with the increased pandemic restrictions, such as those linked to below). In the meantime, watch this space for further updates, take care of yourself and those around you, and Play Safe!