by Maureen Berho 26/02/2019

Tips to achieve your best video game pitch!

One of the greatest challenges an indie game developer must face is pitching their game to press, publishers, or other relevant contacts. In that moment, they must place all the cards on the table, connect with others with their speech, and above all, sell their game (both figuratively and literally). That’s why today we’ve prepared this Dev Blog Post with tips and resources based on our own experience to help you prepare your best pitch.

1. Describe your game precisely.

First off, it’s fundamentally important for you to know all the aspects of the game you’re developing: its genre, the core game mechanics and gameplay experience, target platforms, current development stage, and the funding you need to finish it. This may seem obvious, but it’s very important to be able to clearly state this information so that there are no gaps in your pitch.

That’s why we recommend that you write all of them down in a detailed document or presentation, and use it to prepare the “script” of your pitch.

2. Make clear what sets your project appart.

It’s important to clearly state what sets your game apart from others. While you may mention other works or references that inspired you, you must point out the things that make your game unique in its genre, especially the innovativeness of your project.

Both press and publishers want to know the “Key Selling Points” of your game. What makes it different from what’s already available?

3. Know Your Audience.

Be sure to know who’s in front of you when you’re making your pitch. Adjust the content, format, and length of your speech according to who’s listening. There’s a large difference between speaking to players, other developers, press representatives, or publishers, so be sure to focus your pitch accordingly.

In the event of pitching your project to press representatives or publisher, it’s highly recommended to study up on their work beforehand and understand if your project is a good fit for them.

4. Prepare your visual aids.

It’s very helpful to have visual aids to support your pitch. Depending on the current state of development, you should prepare different types of material:

If you’ve only got an idea or a basic prototype, you should prepare a slideshow that includes concept art and models, mockups of how you hope your game will look, or even a video that explain what makes the game fun. The material you choose will mostly depend on the strong points of your project.

you should prepare a slideshow that includes concept art and models, mockups of how you hope your game will look, or even a video that explain what makes the game fun. The material you choose will mostly depend on the strong points of your project. If you’ve got an advanced project, you should show a trailer or gameplay footage that shows off the variety and quality of the contents within your game.

Whatever the case, don’t overwhelm your listeners. Choose the flashiest and most relevant material.

5. Mention all the achievements of your project.

Does your game count on support from an institution? Has it been selected at festivals or other competitive instances? Has it received recognition or been mentioned by specialized media? Don’t leave these achievements out of your pitch, since they speak volumes of your project’s quality and your team’s capabilities.

6. Don’t be afraid to practice your pitch and share your idea.

You might not achieve the perfect pitch straight away. Therefore, practice whenever you get a change. Bit by bit, you’ll incorporate all the information, become more confident, focus on points that need reinforcements, and find the formula to make your speech appealing and special.

If possible, we recommend you listen to other developers’ pitches and take note of the strengths of their presentation, and see how to improve your own.

Above all, don’t be afraid to pitch your game to other devs! Their feedback will allow you to polish your pitch and even improve parts of the development process. It’s unlikely that others will try to steal your idea, since the true value of your project comes from your team’s ability to pull it off.

7. Follow up on new contacts.

In most cases, the pitch is the first step in creating new opportunities for your project, which is why it’s important that you have the proper material to follow up with new contacts. Depending on the type of contact, you can email them the written version of your pitch, including complementary material such as press kits, project presentation, trailers, gameplay videos, and even a playable demo.

Here are some articles that go into further detail on some of these concepts:

If you’re up to it, you could sign up for a Pitch Contest to put yourself to the test, help spread the word of your project, gain relevant contacts, and possibly win interesting prizes. To get a better idea of what Pitch Contest are all about, you can read about Niebla Games’ experience in this interview by Pocket Gamer.

Some video games pitch competitions:

The Big Indie Pitch: http://www.bigindiepitch.com/

GDC Pitch: https://www.gdconf.com/gdc-pitch

Game Pitch Championship en Dreamhack: https://dreamhack.com/dallas/activities/game-pitch-championship/

Games Startup Competition: https://competition.gamebcn.co/

We thank you for reading this article, and hope it was useful to you! For more useful tips and updates on our project ‘Causa, Voices of the Dusk’, we invite you to subscribe to your newsletter and follow us on our social networks:

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