Best way to sell a game idea

One way to sell it is to make your game so great that it goes viral. Publishers will be clamoring to buy your better mousetrap if you manage that!

You can't sell your idea to development teams - they don't have money like publishers do. A developer who was sold on your idea would have to pitch it to publishers. That said, an established development house would have a better chance of success pitching it than you would.

I wrote an article on how to submit a game concept to a publisher. https://sloperama.com/advice/lesson21.html​ - I think you'll quickly find that NO publisher accepts submissions from anyone who isn't an established game professional.

Tom Sloper said:
… I think you'll quickly find that NO publisher accepts submissions from anyone who isn't an established game professional.

What do you mean by “established game professional”? I've seen at least one indie publisher make a point of noting that they take first-time developers, I believe. (Looking over a short-list of indie publishers, most simply don't say one way or another whether they take first-timers.)

From said publisher's website:

Whether you're a first-time developer or an industry veteran, making a video game on your own can be a daunting challenge. This is where [publisher name elided] comes in.

(Elision mine.)

Are you perhaps speaking specifically of “big” publishers--the likes of EA, Ubisoft, etc.?

Thaumaturge said:
What do you mean by “established game professional”?

Someone who is credited on more than one or two released games.

Thaumaturge said:
I've seen at least one indie publisher make a point of noting that they take first-time developers, (Elision mine.)

I suppose some percentage of people who ask this frequent question might be interested in knowing about said indie publisher.

Thaumaturge said:
Are you perhaps speaking specifically of “big” publishers--the likes of EA, Ubisoft, etc.?

Yes, most people who ask this frequent question have said big publishers in mind. I speak from my experience at Atari and Activision. It's very rare for big publishers to accept submissions from industry outsiders.

Tom Sloper said:
Yes, most people who ask this frequent question have said big publishers in mind.

You see, I wonder how true that still is.

Once it was very true, I daresay! But now, with the proliferation of indie publishers, I wonder whether people aren't more likely to at least include indie publishers in their thoughts…

In any case, even if most are seeking to pitch to such big publishers, might it not be more fruitful to steer them towards indie publishers, rather than asserting that no publishers will take them…?

(Especially should they subsequently discover indie publishers, and then on that advice assume that those, too, will take only devs with experience shipping titles.)

Thaumaturge said:
even if most are seeking to pitch to such big publishers, might it not be more fruitful to steer them towards indie publishers

Go right ahead and say that each time someone asks.

Tom Sloper said:
Go right ahead and say that each time someone asks.

Sure, but that means that I have to sit on each such thread that you might take part in, against the possibility that I might have to make contrary claims again.

Not to mention that, as a established and experienced voice on the forum, your word might carry more weight than mine. Or that I might see a thread too late, when someone has already taken on your advice before I have the opportunity to give mine.

On top of which, I might not want to stay on this forum forever.

So… let me suggest, rather, that when you advise people regarding publishers as you have been, you take into account the existence of indie publishers. Instead of claiming that “no publisher will take a first-timer”, maybe suggest that “no AAA publisher will take a first-timer”. (Hmm… Or perhaps better “no non-indie publisher”--I'm not sure about AA publishers, myself.) And so on for other such matters.

Thaumaturge said:
So… let me suggest, rather, that when you advise people regarding publishers as you have been, you take into account the existence of indie publishers. Instead of claiming that “no publisher will take a first-timer”, maybe suggest that “no AAA publisher will take a first-timer”. (Hmm… Or perhaps better “no non-indie publisher”--I'm not sure about AA publishers, myself.) And so on for other such matters.

I took a look at that indie publisher you cited earlier:

Thaumaturge said:
I've seen at least one indie publisher make a point of noting that they take first-time developers, I believe. (Looking over a short-list of indie publishers, most simply don't say one way or another whether they take first-timers.) From said publisher's website: Whether you're a first-time developer or an industry veteran, making a video game on your own can be a daunting challenge. This is where [publisher name elided] comes in.

It wasn't hard to find the source of that quote. Meta Publishing is in Cyprus. I looked at each of their tabbed pages. The Press Hub was particularly interesting; a lot of the links there lead to Google Drive 404 errors. Two of their "press kits" reside on Google Drive, where there are no press releases or written materials, but rather just sample art and trailers.

Not exactly confidence-inspiring.

But I think their Blogs page is full of great information that anybody wanting to pitch to them should read and act on before submitting. They describe in detail how to write a pitch, and they accept unsolicited pitches by email. A fairly rigorous read of the various portions of their website shows that they aren't looking for "idea guys" but rather teams of skilled individuals with realistic plans. Just as with major publishers, they're not looking for paper concepts to buy outright. They're willing to receive unsolicited submissions, which is something you can't really say about AAA publishers. But from what I see, they're not about to throw money at idea guys with limited skills and unrealistic dreams. I also looked at their 8 games on Steam. I don't know if any of those games are on any other platforms, although they claim "we can easily distribute your game to the world through all major platforms" and "We can handle all aspects of porting, so you don't have to choose where to publish anymore."

I understand that you want me to change what I say to idea guys. I'm sorry that I'm not likely to satisfy you in that regard.

(On an unrelated note: one of the spammers who posted in this thread posted a link to a marketing company in Cyprus where you can get advice on how to earn money from gambling ads and adult ads. Cyprus is the same country where Meta Publishing is headquartered. Coincidental? While I was reading up on Meta Publishing and composing this reply, another mod flagged that poster as a spammer and removed the spam link.)

Not so much best way to sell a game idea but things to look out for are in this video from GDC: 30 Things I hate About your Game Pitch I'd suggest giving it a watch, the host talks about all kinds of cliche's they come across and what just doesn't work and should work instead for example the people you pitch to won't care about your inventory system so there's no need to go overboard explaining it.

spookyghausts said:
publisher

Are those still a thing?

10-15 years ago, i just simply flooded my stuff into online forums with a description and a link, where the users were able to download the demo and buy the product.

Sometimes up to about 200-300. Of course from two third of these, it got insta deleted for spamming - even if none of them was spam, i always posted the topics to the appropriate locations. Lately, the environment got even more harsh. Now they would probably delete it from 5/6 of the places. We are heading to more hostility against capitalism.

spookyghausts said: publisher

Geri said: Are those still a thing? 10-15 years ago, i just simply flooded my stuff into online forums with a description and a link, where the users were able to download the demo and buy the product.

Publishers are absolutely still a thing. But it's pretty much impossible to sell a game idea.

Tom Sloper said:
Publishers are absolutely still a thing. But it's pretty much impossible to sell a game idea.

I agree. From his opening message, i assumed he means an already half-done game as game idea.

If its really just an idea, then i dont understand what he wants, or what he assumes how the world works.

I remember when in hungary we had a gamedev site (closed a couple of years ago) i was one of the lead members, and i have suggested to open a topic for game ideas, where people can share their ideas in hope someone will find it interesting, and make a game out of it once. A lot of people were against it, harshly, saying ,,why would i submit my idea, its mine, i will earn the profit from it'' etc etc etc. After a year or two, the topic got opened, hudreds of ideas got posted in it by various people, after they realized they will never be able to profit from the idea/write the actual game itself. Sadly, 99% of the ideas were totally nonsense, and its more reflected the ideal game wish of the various individuals rather than an actually marketable game.

Tom Sloper said:
I took a look at that indie publisher you cited earlier:

Tom Sloper said:
Not exactly confidence-inspiring.

Okay, fair--that one specific example was perhaps not ideal. I just remembered them for specifically mentioning that they take first-timers.

But there are a great many indie publishers, and, of those that I've looked at, they tend to either have a submission form on their site for pitches, or an email address to which to send pitches.

(See for example: Raw Fury, Thunderful, and PID Games)

(And to be clear, that's not from an assiduous search; that's just from a quick look through a few publishers, and three pulled out as a good number.)

What's more, Raw Fury not too long ago released a sample pitch-deck for people to use as a template, and made various other such resources available--something that, while not conclusive in this, seems to point to empowering the inexperienced--perhaps including first-timers.

Tom Sloper said:
I understand that you want me to change what I say to idea guys.

Who said anything about “idea guys"? I don't believe that I mentioned them, and the original poster stated that they were “developing a small game”, which seems to suggest that they're not an “idea guy”.

I'm not asking you to change what you say to “idea guys”.

I'm asking that, when you give people advice regarding publishers, you take into account that (A) indie publishers exist, and that (B) in certain matters they don't operate on the same rules as AAA publishers.

Tom Sloper said:
Cyprus is the same country where Meta Publishing is headquartered. Coincidental?

Possibly not, indeed; it's possible, for example, that Google caught your traffic somewhere--either on the Meta Publishing site or elsewhere.

Thaumaturge said:
But there are a great many indie publishers, and, of those that I've looked at, they tend to either have a submission form on their site for pitches, or an email address to which to send pitches.

So go ahead and say so next time somebody asks where to send a pitch. The OP of this thread said

"I am developing a small game and while I'm nowhere near finished… What are the best ways to pitch a new game or game idea, to a publisher or development team? How would I go about trying to sell my idea if it was ready?"

He acknowledges that his game is “small,” so maybe he's not expecting a lot of money from selling his idea.