Devolver Digital and indie devs help finance failing GaymerX convention

UPDATE 29/07/14 1.22am: After initially bailing on its agreed upon sponsorship after the fact, publisher NIS America has decided to honour its original agreement and pay the GaymerX event organisers the agreed upon $3K.

"Everything is all settled - @NISAmerica has explained the poor wording of the email which I misinterpreted very poorly, apologies and hugs," tweeted event organiser Matt Conn. "I'm just happy that they have cleared up the confusion and confirmed that they will fulfill payment."

"Please note that @NISAmerica unlike most AAA companies was willing to sponsor and be at @GaymerX, which takes extreme courage," Conn noted.

Yet the brouhaha surrounding NIS America's original reneging of the offer inspired even more devs to donate to the event. In addition to the already announced Devolver Digital, Mike Bithell, and Coffee Stain Studios, we now have Tinsely PR and Gunman Clive developer Bertil Hörberg adding their offers of $3K a piece to the pile. That's a total of $15K altogether.

"Tinsley PR will also be donating 3k to the @GaymerX event next year. Let's make this happen, industry," tweeted Tinsley PR founder Stephanie Tinsley Schopp.

"Like @devolverdigital, @mikeBithell, @Coffee_Stain and the other cool kids I'll pledge 3K for @GaymerX 2015. Regret missing it this year," added Hörberg.

When asked if these pledges would still be collected now that Conn has settled his beef with NIS America, the event organiser told Joystiq that he still needed to reach out to these devs and publishers, but that will happen this week and he "wanted to resolve this [NIS America] situation first."

Assuming all the new backers stick to their word, will this extra $15K in pledges be enough to support a third GaymerX convention next year? "[It would] not be enough to put us in a comfortable situation to say 'we definitely are going to do another event,'" Conn told Joystiq. "But they certainly help us feel like, if we did, we would have a better chance of being financially sustainable."

ORIGINAL STORY 28/07/14 6.27pm: Earlier this month LGBT-focused gaming convention GaymerX was held in San Francisco, but the event's future was looking grim. Organiser Matt Conn stated as recently as Sunday that there wouldn't be a third GaymerX convention as the bill for this previous one was too high.

In an update to its successful Kickstarter, Conn noted that it cost $90K to set up the event at the San Francisco InterContinental hotel, while its $24K in crowdfunding and $16K in sponsorships still left the organisers in a $50K hole.

Adding insult to injury, publisher NIS America pulled out its $3K funding at the last minute. Ouch!

But there's a silver lining here: When Conn publicly tweeted about NIS America reneging on its deal, a slew of indie developers stood up and offered to pledge $3K out of pocket in a show of support.

Hotline Miami and Shadow Warrior publisher Devolver Digital was the first to make such an offer, then Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell and Goat Simulator developer Coffee Stain Studios followed suit.

"We pledge $3,000 for a 2015 @GaymerX sponsorship and challenge other game companies that have the means to do the same," tweeted Devolver Digital.

"100 per cent serious. I'll match @devolverdigital's offer. It'd be an honour to help an awesome event like @GaymerX," stated Bithell.

"We'll gladly follow the good example of @devolverdigital and @mikeBithell by pledging $3k to help support @GaymerX," added Coffee Stain.

Conn even noted that he was "assured it was a mixup" with NIS America, and that "everything hopefully will be worked out tomorrow." He also apologised for some of his earlier tweets, insinuating that the publisher deliberately bullied the event organisers.

Does this mean we'll see a third GaymerX convention? I've posed the question to Conn, but have yet to hear back. Based on the finances noted in the Kickstarter update, it sounds like this money will simply help ease the financial burden from this year's show.

In the meantime, GaymerX is accepting donations.

GaymerX began in 2013 after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2012 managed to raise over $91K (back when it was pitched as "GaymerCon").