The producer must represent the game and the team in many different situations. They work at the front of the team for the outside world and present the game for publishers, potential investors and new team members. Showing confidence in their game, the team, and themselves is the key.
Pitching is a tremendous skill to have when looking for new partners, funders, or even gamers. Here are some tips you should remember when practicing your pitches.
Knowing Your Audience
The contents of your presentation rely heavily on your target audience. Investors, players, and potential new team members are interested in different aspects of your game. Investors want to know your team size, budget, and schedule, while players want to get excited about a new game.
Confidence
Your aim is to evoke feelings in your audience. To get them excited about your game, you must show that you can’t wait to play it either. Relax and focus on your speech since you'll likely talk faster than normal when you're nervous. Pay attention to your body language and practice in front of a mirror and your team.
Place
Your presentation should be different based on the situation. You could talk in front of an audience, in a business meeting, or in an elevator, and different situations call for different lengths and formality when pitching.
Presentation
Often, you'll have a chance to present something while talking about your game. Prepare a set of slides to accompany your pitch. Screenshots and videos catch attention better than walls of text. But be ready to work without your slides if technical difficulties arise.
A pitch is a short sales speech, lasting a few minutes, where you market your product, team, or something else. As a producer, you'll likely pitch your game to publishers and investors. Next, let’s look at what a pitch should entail.
What is the game about? Don't assume things. Your audience might not know what "souls-like rogue-lite action platformer" means, for example. Don't be too vague, but don't go into too much detail either. Remember that you're trying to sell the concept of your game to someone who has never heard of it before. Videos and gifs are great help, so use them if you have any.
How does your game stand out? You should know your biggest competitors and be able to differentiate the game from them. What is your unique selling point? What is your target audience?
Who is making the game? How many programmers, artists, and other people have you got in the team? Have you developed or published games previously? Mentioning the size of your development team gives perspective on your development goals and timeframes, for example.
How will you make the game? What is your schedule, what are the major tools you'll use, and what platforms are you going to aim? What is your general scope, how much content will the game have? Having these things in your pitch gives an idea that you've planned things ahead instead of jumping headfirst into the pool without thinking.
Prepare for questions! What will you do if you do not have the answer to something? "We are looking into it" sounds more convincing than "I don't know", you don't want to give off the impression of not preparing for the questions. Before the pitch, you should go over the material and think about the potential questions.
Images and videos are a great way to excite your audience and make your pitch better. Let’s look at an example of images used while pitching. The game pitched is called CONTINUE.
A common alternative for the “formal” pitch is an elevator pitch. It's a short pitch, lasting only around 30 seconds, in which you try to summarize your game and its selling points as quickly as possible. This is the type of pitch you will be giving most often. How do you get someone interested in your game in the duration of an elevator ride? Due to the time constraint, you really need to choose the most vital information as you don't have time to go over everything.
The video below goes through some of the most common mistakes game pitchers make. What were the most useful reminders for you? Are there points you disagree with? If you had to pick just five of the points mentioned, which would those five be? Thinking about these questions may come in handy when planning a pitch in the future.
Answer the following question.
Have you already started planning your own pitch? It’s never too early! Networking is also crucial, and that’s what’s in store for us next.