Pitching Your Game: The Panel Speaks
By: Bryan Finck
Tags: Videogames, Features, Marketing, Gaming, Business

Pitching Your Game: The Panel Speaks

The do’s and don’ts for indie devs pitching to publishers

As part of their Investment Summit Online this week, Gamesindustry.biz presented a panel with publishers and commercial-side experts on what not to do when pitching your game. Though it was titled ‘Don’t Do This! Worst Practices for Pitching’, it ended up covering a lot of salient points on how to put your best foot forward during the pitching process. This is a perfect follow up to the video from industry expert Jason Della Rocca which I explored earlier this week, and both echoes and expounds upon much of the advice that was given there. Feel free to leave any questions or comments in the responses, as I will be trying to reach out for interviews with a few of the participants in the panel and can include your thoughts. Enjoy!

Photo by Elliot Sloman on Unsplash.

The panel was moderated by Matt Handrahan from Gamesindustry.biz, and included the following experts:

Troy Horton, Head of Product Acquisitions for publisher and developer Team 17, best known for the Worms and Overcooked franchises

Des Gayle, with indie publishing label Fellow Traveller, best known for the game Orwell and its current release Paradise Killer

Ella Romanos, COO of Fundamentally Games, which provides services to developers and publishers of Games as a Service titles

Zac Antonaci, Head of Publishing at Frontier Development, developer and publisher of such games as Elite Dangerous and Planet Coaster, among others

Advice From The Panel

The discussion began with the moderator wanting to break down the discussion by sections including Research, Pitch Deck, the Meeting and Follow Up. The panel ran a bit short of time so they didn’t get to focus on the Follow Up as much, but a few bits involving that topic came up during the conversation so I’ll move those to that section for clarity. The panel agreed on many items so some of this will be without attribution, but when points are made specific to one of the participants, I’ll call out who said them.

Research

The entire panel agreed that research is the most important part of pitching because it is the foundation for everything that comes after. It is vital that you delve into the people who you will be pitching and base your communication with them on your understanding of who they are and what they and their companies need. Equally important is having a full understanding of your game. This may seem ridiculous as you are the one who built the game, but this doesn’t mean knowing the intimate details of what every button press does, it means understanding where your game fits into the market and what value it brings to the person you are pitching.

Differentiation is the key to the process, which you will express in your Unique Selling Points (USP). Remember that genre isn’t a selling point, but what makes your game stand out from the rest of the games in that genre certainly is. One of the ways to do this, as mentioned in my previous article, is to get social proof for your game. This can include mentions on social media, press coverage for your game, and if your game is on Steam a great way to track the interest is through Wishlist adds and followers for the title.

Remember that genre isn’t a selling point, but what makes your game stand out from the rest of the games in that genre certainly is.

Ella then pointed out that many of the pitches she receives have research that is based on the developer’s opinion of the game, and are not rooted in evidence from market data. She also pointed out that many games pitched to her seem to be made because the developer wanted to make them, without having a target audience in mind. To be sure, many wonderful games have started that way, but Ella’s point is that in a crowded market, a game needs to begin with the targeted player and audience in mind. Every decision made about the game should evolve from knowing what that audience will want the game to eventually be.

Des pointed out that it is a good practice to not only research the company but also the person you will be pitching because your goal should be to turn them into an ‘internal champion’ of sorts. They are the ones who will be going to their managers and fighting for your game to be funded, so getting buy-in from them is a crucial part of your goal. He also said that good market data is hard to come by so most of what he sees is wrong, but what’s more important is for you to be clear with the relevance the data has to your game and how you came up with the conclusions you reached.

…it is a good practice to not only research the company but also the person you will be pitching because your goal should be to turn them into an ‘internal champion’ of sorts.

Photo by Lweendo Hachileka on Unsplash.

The Pitch Deck

The next part of the discussion centered on the pitch deck you will build to use in the actual presentations. Many of the basic details lined with Jason Della Rocca’s presentation, but there were a few specific points that add key strategy and depth to how you should plan your pith decks. Troy pointed out that it is important to have an idea of the specialties of the publisher you are pitching to in order to focus your offering. A company like Team 17 which has an internal analytics department will be able to really dig deep on market analysis, so you wouldn’t need to go too much into the specifics of that when pitching them and could concentrate on other spots. Every publisher has their own areas of expertise so it helps to know that going into the pitch.

Ella stated that only a very small fraction of the games she sees pitched have a complete set of information on offer as far as the money aspect goes. She said that developers need to have a deep understanding of their own expectations for the game and the publisher’s involvement, and what will be needed to make that happen. The important parts she singled out were the revenue forecast, how you will fund the game after it launches, and the budgeting and processes that will apply to the post-launch window. Essentially, they want you to do your homework and know exactly what you want and how the money will be used. No publisher or investor wants to throw money at something with no plan on how that money will be used.

Every publisher has their own areas of expertise so it helps to know that going into the pitch.

Des had an interesting point about how the ‘pitch deck’ should actually have multiple versions for the different stages of the presentation and follow up. You should have a 2-page executive summary type deck that you can send ahead of the meeting, giving the main points so the publisher knows what they are looking at during your presentation. You should have a 5-pager that you will read from during the presentation itself, which is the 10-slide version that we discussed in the previous article. Then have a 10–15 page deck that has all the details and answers all the questions a publisher may have. This is what you will send after the presentation if the publisher wants to move forward and get more info.

Des says he shouldn’t have to explain everything to his boss when he goes to bat for your project, he should just be able to send along the deck and the video so others can get all the info easily. He even points out that if you are pitching to an investor, you should have different decks based on whether you are asking for funding on a company level or for a specific project.

You should have a 2-page executive summary type deck that you can send ahead of the meeting, giving the main points so the publisher knows what they are looking at during your presentation.

Meeting

For the actual meeting, when you are doing your presentation, the advice was largely the same from everyone. Time management is key as you don’t want to take up all the time with granular details that don’t tell the whole story. Avoid getting bogged down in those and instead be sure to leave time for questions at the end. Before you get started you want to be sure to ask about the company, getting any info that you couldn’t glean in your research and showing that you have an interest in their products and company beyond just ‘give me your money’. This shows you want to build a relationship and partnership with the company.

You also want to be sure that the time left at the end of the meeting is enough for a back and forth between you and the publisher. They want to be sure that you understand what the company is looking for and expects from you as a potential partner, as well as what value they add to the process of publishing your game. It helps to remember that these folks are looking for great games just as much as you are looking for a home for your game, so there is interest on both sides and they want you to know what makes their company great.

Zac made a great point that you should keep in mind this is just the first step of a long process, and you need to clearly communicate what you believe will be required to bring your game to market. Be clear and concise, give that information to the publisher so they know exactly what they need to make their decision, and then let them get back to you.

Following Up

As mentioned above, there wasn’t a lot of time left at the end for discussion about following up after the meeting, but a few points were made throughout that apply here.

If the publisher wants to move forward, this is where they will tell you how to follow up and what to follow up with.

One of the most critical parts of the time at the end of the meeting is understanding what comes next. If the publisher wants to move forward, this is where they will tell you how to follow up and what to follow up with. You may need to get various email addresses and contact names from them so be prepared to write. They will also be clear about when to follow up, and there is surely no quicker way to ruin your chances then to annoy them with multiple emails well before they said to check back.

If the publisher wants to move forward, this is where they will tell you how to follow up and what to follow up with.

Along with this, you need to be careful to give the publisher everything they ask for in an easy and timely manner. Don’t make them go through 10 different emails asking for each document you may have forgotten. Take time to understand what they need and give it to them all at once. Other requirements may crop up, but the less they have to ask the better you look.

Finally, there were a few audience questions that added a bit to the conversation, so we will wrap up with those. The first was about how to define your target audience and what makes an audience targetable. Ella had previously stated that “men 18–35 years old is not a target audience’. She elaborated that her company typically identifies primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences for a game and that data company NewZoo had recently identified eight different gaming personas that help pinpoint this categorization. She pointed out that knowing how and where to reach your target audience is crucial as well. Troy added that it can be helpful to know what your target audience is playing, and the crossover between different game types they play.

Ella had previously stated that “men 18–35 years old is not a target audience’. She elaborated that her company typically identifies primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences for a game.

Stay tuned to SUPERJUMP for more coverage of all the meetings that happened at GI’s Investment Summit Online! Now that everything has wrapped, I’ll be summarizing it all for your enjoyment, so check back soon.

Stay tuned to SUPERJUMP for more coverage of all the meetings that happened at GI’s Investment Summit Online! Now that everything has wrapped, I’ll be summarizing it all for your enjoyment, so check back soon!