Great games made fast are leaving Florida due to Covid, LGBTQ+ laws

The next big Games Done Quick event, Awesome Games Done Quick in January, will be an online-only event, according to the show’s organizers released a statement say, “We don’t think so [Florida] is a safe place for our community” in light of the state’s lazy policy towards Covid and marginalized people.

While the summer games are quickly settled triumphantly returned to a crowded live event in JulyAGDQ – whose last live edition was at Orlando’s DoubleTree Hilton in 2019 – had “secured a deal with a Florida venue” for 2023, an agreement that has now been dropped in light of the promoter’s decision.

Here is their full statement (emphasis mine):

AGDQ2023 returns live and online January 8-15, 2023 to benefit the Prevent Cancer Foundation!

While we’d love to return in person, we’ve decided it’s best to move away from our originally planned Florida location to provide a safe and welcoming event for everyone.

Given the state’s continued disregard for the dangers of COVID-19 (including anti-mandatory vaccination guidelines) and increasing aggression toward LGBTQ+ people, including the law colloquially known as “don’t say gay,” we don’t believe that it is a safe place for our community at this time.

Immediately following the success of AGDQ 2020, we inked a deal with a Florida venue to return in 2021. As the global pandemic has been declared, we have postponed in-person events until it is safe to return.

We examined several options that would allow us to remain personal by moving to a safer location. Unfortunately, the cost of terminating our contract is too high to justify moving from AGDQ and paying the termination fee at the same time, and we cannot delay our contract any longer. This ultimately prompted us to put the AGDQ 2023 online.

While moving to the Internet can save us some costs, we still have significant costs to cover. We try to recover this money whenever possible, also with community support via Twitch subscriptions. We thank the community for their support!

It’s a shame the move cost them something, but hopefully the 2024 event will find a place where the team can call home more comfortably. Note that this does not affect the Summer Games Done Quick, which has been held at the DoubleTree Hilton in Bloomington, Minnesota since 2018.