August 21, 2020 statement from founder Evan McIntosh:
A year ago we put GGW on hiatus to help preserve our team’s wellness and to consult broadly within our community. We sought the opportunity to rest and recharge while finding new ways to serve the community we’ve been a part of since 2011. We committed to ourselves to return in our best form — to change the discourse in all we do for the better — offering our service however and whenever possible to improve a scene we love.
Our original plan included returning to full operation — one with curation, job postings, events, advice, community, and beyond — this September while launching a vertical aimed at teens and those that support their learning. The pandemic accelerated our plan and we launched Liftoff! in May to get money into the hands of freelancers. It should be said we accelerated our launch by four months. We’ve been extremely happy with its reception so far and look forward to establishing it as a top tier indie gaming site and developing a unique voice.
Unfortunately, with the uncertainty around back-to-school, and with most of our team working in education, we are uncomfortable proceeding with the full relaunch of GGW at this time. There is more we don’t know about our returns to the classroom than what we do know and that reality frankly scares us. In order to be at our best, something had to give, and that something was the full return of GGW.
We’ll continue to curate the best writing each week with the Good Games Writing Weekly on Liftoff! while continuing to share media jobs, journo requests, and more on our Twitter account. We expect to fully relaunch GGW in early 2021 now. Indeed, much of that work is already complete, it’s the implementation that can’t be guaranteed at the high standard that’s expected of us.
In the meantime, we’re preparing for the potential return of our annual games media awards, The Goodies, and will continue investing into Liftoff! We’ll seek new ways to support our community from our socially distant classrooms and find new opportunities to engage and grow.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
-Ev