A recent survey conducted by the GDC shows the extent to which COVID-19 has affected game development. It should come as no surprise that a large number of games saw delays of some sort as a result of the worldwide pandemic.

This disruption has, surprisingly, had both positive and negative effects on the industry, though the survey didn't appear to address the issue of job loss among developers. That being said, it appears that while the changes in working conditions have led to delays, the experience of working from home for individual developers as a result of COVID-19 has increased productivity in select cases.

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The big takeaway from the survey appears to be that 44% of game developers stated that their in-progress projects saw delays in 2020 as a direct result of COVID-19. This survey takes into account more than 3000 developer responses and looked into not only the state of development for current projects, but also the productivity of these studios and their perception of the changing environment on games.

Interestingly, roughly 49% of developers claimed that they suffered no delays due to the pandemic, with the remaining 7% not having any active projects in development over the last year.

In addition to these widespread delays, COVID-19 has changed how media is made from film to gaming, with a huge number of developers working from home instead of at the office, as they did before the pandemic. While 32% of responders saw little to no difference in creativity and productivity during this time, 35% reported at least some benefit to working from home during 2020. Another 32% did report a decrease in productivity, however, so while this type of work environment might work for some, it isn't the best for every developer, though it's something for companies to look into.

The survey also covered a number of other trends in the industry that have excelled over the course of 2020, including subscription programs like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Now. While this has been a point of contention for developers for a long time, essentially giving away their games for pennies, more companies are starting to get on board with these programs. Altogether, it looks like 2020 has done a lot to reshape the way that games are being made, and it's difficult to say if that process will be reverting back to before COVID-19 once countries start opening up and things begin to return to normal.

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Source: GDC (via Gameindustry.biz)