Serious Video Game Pitch

Some broad wrote:
>I've been doing Pitch research and can't seem to find the information on how to do it.

Then you must not have found my FAQs 21 and 35.
http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson21.htm
http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson35.htm

>I found info related to "Personal Submissions" but this would be a serious pitch from our Company.

OK, well, I don't know what you were looking at before. But there probably isn't much of a difference in how to pitch, regardless of whether you're an individual or an "official" company.

I was waiting for you to respond eventually to something I posted. You seem to be on top of every form.

As for pitching it, I doubt there is a difference between personal and companywise, but was more looking for information to actually get the meeting setup since you have to prove to them that you're not some 16 year old trying to pitch some pacman spinoff they aren't going to care about to hear.

Every major video game had to have a start somewhere. All it takes is the one company to see in the project, to have semi decent sales once released, and the next title that has been arranged can be supported entirely without a parent company. It's a storyline that has never been done with twists just like any other good storyline, and it will have some of the best gameplay available. If you saw the paperwork that we have done so far on it and how it'll look in the end, you'd want to play it. It's going to be a hit, just have to get the parent company first.


Cute joke about the some broad, haven't heard that one 50 times before or being asked if I'm on a broadway show :P.

Some broad showed up and asked a way out question:

>was more looking for information to actually get the meeting setup [sic] ... since you have to prove to them that you're not some 16 year old trying to pitch some pacman spinoff they aren't going to care about to hear.

Only the first few words of your sentence matter. See the place where I inserted an ellipsis? The part of the question after that ellipsis nobody can help you with. As for the part before the ellipsis, here's what it says in FAQ 21 about how to actually get the meeting set up (note: that's two words):

1. Get a lawyer.
2. Select your target game publishers.
3. Determine the submission policy of your target game publishers.
4. Get the needed forms, addresses, etc.
5. Submit your game.

Which part of that are you having a problem with? Submitting a game is a straightforward business activity. Nobody will assume you're a pimply teenager unless you come across like one. There's no way to tell you how to make people think you aren't one, if you are one. And if you aren't one, why would anybody think you were one?

When you call a new dentist to make an appointment, he doesn't assume you've got a stinky mouth full of cavities and abscesses. He waits to meet you before he makes any judgments about your mouth.

Actually, FAQ 35 covers step four and a half - what to put into your submission. If you do that right, you don't come across looking like a teenager. You've read that FAQ, so where's the question? Just clarify the question (if it's not covered in the FAQs), and you'll get a straight answer.
Still standing by ...

I was taking a nap, been a really busy day. I have a Pitch Document, Design and Prototype Docuement, and just a random one (Has storyline, how it incorperates into the levels, character progessions, Primary Objectives, Secondary Objectives, Upgrades, sample dialog, multiplayer features, all that stuff). Working with my partner who is doing PR work and we're both working on creating the long and painful detailed story that will be used on the copywrite. It's going to take a good 1-1.5 months of our freetime to get it all smoothed out. The LLC paperwork takes a good 3-4 weeks to process anyways before the storyline can get copywrited under the company. After the 3-4 weeks the website should be up and running too. Not terribly worred about things right now, things are running extremely smooth. Been working with a lawyer to make sure papers everyone signs who works on the project free or not knows exactly what to do and what not to do with the information provided and what was created free or not.

Haven't read everything yet, but have been paging through your site. Saw it back in october when I first had the idea with this story. Just haven't done anything with it till the past 3-4 weeks.

You don't have to page through the whole site. FAQs 21 and 35 contain the answer to your question. After you read them, if you still have questions, you know where to get more answers.

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Original post by Broadway I have a Pitch Document, Design and Prototype Docuement, and just a random one (Has storyline, how it incorperates into the levels, character progessions, Primary Objectives, Secondary Objectives, Upgrades, sample dialog, multiplayer features, all that stuff).

You seem to be missing a working prototype. See... Preparing a pitch and Preparing a demo for more info.

We're combining a lot of steps. When the LLC is finalized by about may 1st, the storyline and all paperwork should be finalized and ready for copywrites, trademarks, ect. From there we were going to start setting up initial pitches with some companies we picked out and while doing that working on a demo. We can get a parent company without a demo, or they may want to see a demo before they parent us. Either way it doesn't hurt to pitch it while working on the demo, since they can just tell us to come back with a working demo and we'll go from there.

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Original post by Broadway ...We can get a parent company without a demo, or they may want to see a demo before they parent us.

What do you mean by "parent company"? That term normally means a company which owns another subsidiary company. Are you expecting someone to buy your company when it hasnt done anything (and thus has no value)? Or is it that you are using the term to mean a publisher?

Quote:

Either way it doesn't hurt to pitch it while working on the demo

Yes actually it will hurt (if you are talking about publishers). If you read that article I linked to you will know that the demo is the single most important part of the pitch and if you send a submission without one they will realise that you dont know what you are doing and won`t want to work with you. Once they have that opinion it is almost impossible to change it - even if you later send a demo.

Give it up, Dan. The OP doesn't have a question anymore - he's already figured out all the answers, and his mind is set.

Hopefully he'll come back and share his "lessons learned" with all of us, after he's gone ahead with his venture.

Meant a company that we would work with (thought the term was parent company). We would make the video game as a seperate company and they would fund it taking a % of the profits since they would have to risk 10-20mil depending on the final costs since I don't have that much money sitting in a bank account to fund it myself or will a bank give me a loan for that much.


Stroke your ePeen a little more Tom. Can't be encouraging at all can you (to anyone you post a reply for)

Tom may be a little harsh sometimes, but he's 100% correct on this:

- Noone will give you 10-20 million USD for a story and some dialogs. Not unless you happen to be JK Rowling.

- To find a PUBLISHER you'll need to have a DEMO and a DEVELOPMENT TEAM. The demo is to PROVE the abilities of the development team, and show that most of the technology and design risks of what you propose has been fixed

- A 'parent' company (in this case usually it refers to someone who owns a majority share of your company), will only bite if you have something they really desire; usually high-profile developers, proven IP or proven relationship. You have none of these.

There's a lot of dumb money around, but I don't think any of it is THAT dumb..

Allan

We have a plan on when to work on the demo, which the 3 of us can't do ourselves (well, we can but it'll take a lot longer than hiring a few programmers on top of things). I'm not worried about our abilities to make a demo, only thing that concerns me right now is that how am I suppose to get a full development team ready to work on a project without the money to fund it? It would be hard to get 20-30 people all ready for work then say it takes 3 months to get a company to bite at what we have.

Startup companies are usually funded by a bank load or private investors, or a combination of both. Starting a company is always (almost) a substantial risk, since it has to involve someones money. Usually that means that remortgaging your house or something like that is the only way to go to secure funding without having anything to show for it. So your options are quite clear; find someone who wants to invest enough money for a small team to complete the demo, or get a loan.

Oh, and you really shouldn't need 20-30 people to create a working demo, 4-5 should be enough for that. Saying you need 20-30 people makes me think you don't really know what you're doing, that you only have an extremely grand view of your end product, and believe it will take 200-300 people to finish the game.
Seriously, if the game is THAT BIG, put the design document back in your filing cabinet and make something smaller, and much cheaper, because NO publisher will ever invest that amount of money in a game produced by someone noone's ever heard of.

I didn't mean 20-30 to get the demo done, it sounds like when walking in to pitch it that it's recommended that you have a full team ready to get started on the game once the demo and all work is approved and all the legal paperwork. 20-30 would be the end team working on it, not the demo, didn't make it clear enough before.

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Original post by Broadway ......it sounds like when walking in to pitch it that it's recommended that you have a full team ready to get started on the game once the demo and all work is approved and all the legal paperwork.

Yep that is about the size of it. Were you really expecting some publisher to sign a 10 million dollar deal with a company that doesnt actually exist yet (as in doesnt have the staff to do the job)?

You have something I call "Grand Theft Auto Syndrome". Your a small start up company but your trying to be a multi-million dollar development company. That isnt going to work because publishers simply dont do multi-million dollar deals with three person start-ups. You need to come up with a game idea that a small team can create, then you need to recruit that team and that is what you pitch to a publisher.

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Original post by __ODIN__ - To find a PUBLISHER you'll need to have a DEMO and a DEVELOPMENT TEAM. The demo is to PROVE the abilities of the development team, and show that most of the technology and design risks of what you propose has been fixed

That is correct. However, what is more important is a track record. Publishers are very simple minded, when it comes to this point. Most will not publish your game, no matter how good (you think) it is, if you do not have a solid track record. What is more important for them is to see that you have experience in the biz and that your are able to develop under the limitations of a given timeline and that you do not waste their money just by 'trying things out'.

I know it is stupid and I now that a good game deserves to be published, but it is nearly impossible if you do not have a solid track record. Believe me, I've seen many good games going down this way.

However, this is not meant to discourage you. It is up to you to find that one company that will publish your game, even without the track record. Many startup companies do not have a track record and only a few of them get their games published. It's usually because the members of that company do all have experience in the biz, because they worked for another developer, for example.

And by the way, I always see more experience people on this board discouraging less experienced people when it comes to startups and pitches. Usually those, people are correct by saying that your chances are low, because in fact they are very low. However, I do not think it's up to them to judge if your game deserves to be published or not. What I like in this thread is, that you are at least given some valuable information. I've also seen people suggesting to not even try it in other threads - that's bullshit. Most of today's big companies first failed to have their games published. Take id Software for example or Crytek.
It's important for you not to give up. If you believe in your concept you should always keep on trying. Refine your game design, listen closely to what you are told during the pitches and even if a company denies to publish your game take their statements as valuable information and try to improve your game design and project concept. Be prepared for the question of your track record, because I can tell you with a 100% certainty that this question will be asked...

Good luck!

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Original post by ZMaster ...I always see more experience people on this board discouraging less experienced people when it comes to startups and pitches...

The mistake lots of people make is to think that when we say "that wont work because publishers dont work that way" that we are actually saying "You arent good enough to succeed". They think that if they have a great idea or they just work harder than someone else that this will be enough to get publisher funding when in fact it wont. Publishers dont NEED to take the risk on a start up so they wont and no amount of hard work will change that.

To succeed as a start up you need to find a different route to success that doesnt require a publisher to give you millions of dollars - hence my comment to the OP to come up with an idea that their existing team can do. You need to come up with a concept that you can do and which will succeed if you work hard, rather than one that needs you to change the way publishers do business (cos that is a fight you wont win).

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Most of today's big companies first failed to have their games published. Take id Software for example or Crytek.

id didnt start out by failing to get published. In fact they are an excellent example of what I am talking about. id didnt start out making huge million dollar Quake games. They started out making small 2D shareware games. They had some success and built up slowly (and also had someone insanely talented in the tech field to boot).

Marks and Spencer didnt start out with a department store, they started with a barrow selling haberdashery. Virgin records didnt start out with a receord label publishing super star recording artists.... Richard Branson sold records from a cart, then a small shop, then a bigger one, then started his own small label.

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Original post by ZMasterMost of today's big companies first failed to have their games published. Take id Software for example or Crytek. It's important for you not to give up.

Err... ID Software was self-publishing for most of their early career; like Epic they produced shareware; look up titles like Commander Keen and Jill in the Jungle.

For Crytek, Chevat originally developed the Dinosaur Island demo, and leveraged that into a publishing deal. The final game had little (except the tropical island setting) in common with the original idea.

In both cases, these are actually companies that had a very easy time clinching their first publishing deals (ID because of their track record with Wolf3d and Doom), and Crytek because of the internet buzz surrounding their NVIDIA backed dinosaur demo.

Apart from that, I totally agree with ZMaster that devteam track-record is hugely important. Crytek is actually interesting because it's one of the few recent AAA games where the vast bulk of developers had never shipped a title before (none of the guys that were working there when the game was signed, as far as I know).

It's all about risk, ultimately... the more risk a game project carries, the less they like it; that's where the demo, track-record, need for experience as a team, licensed IP, sequelitis, etc comes from.

Broadway, on the other hand, has only risks to contribute... not a good place to start negotiations.

Allan