Pitching your game to investors and publishers is a make or break second for many groups, and constructing the enterprise know-how you want to finesse a pitch isn’t straightforward for many new to the method. Aiming to assist game makers develop their enterprise acumen and beef up their pitching abilities, Game Developer sat down with longtime funding advisor and GDC Pitch host Jason Della Rocca for a chat on precisely what devs want to know to efficiently get their game in entrance of investors.
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“I’ve been within the game trade for 30 years now, and I’d say the majority of that has actually been round developer success: serving to builders—significantly indies and startups—to succeed within the game trade, and an enormous a part of that’s considering by the enterprise aspect of issues,” says Della Rocca.
“Most game builders come to the craft from a place of ardour and creativity; they need to construct worlds and create experiences. They’re programmers and artists, designers and musicians, writers and all of those varieties of fantastic artistic roles. However not often have they got the enterprise acumen to actually perceive funding, pitching, advertising and marketing, and all of this stuff.”
“However you weren’t birthed into the world with a comprehension of C++ and a keyboard in your hand. These are all discovered abilities. The excellent news is that the enterprise and advertising and marketing stuff like pitching are all discovered abilities. You may study this and get good at it.”
First steps for creating your pitch
“You might have to actually perceive what you [are] really making an attempt to obtain,” says Della Rocca. “Once I’m working with startup studios, there may be some sense that they’re constructing a enterprise and making an attempt to make a profession of it and generate some income.”
“Publishers, investors, platforms… They’re not there to fund your pastime. They’re in enterprise and they need to earn a living too,” says Della Rocca. “If [your answer is] ‘I’m constructing a game that I believe has an opportunity to achieve success’ or ‘I’m making an attempt to construct a studio and generate income’, you then want to discover companions to make {that a} actuality.”
After who you might be and what your definition of success is, the primary space you’ll need to give attention to is product design.
“A variety of builders assume that making a pitch deck is the aim, however there’s an entire bunch of stuff that occurs earlier than that, particularly across the product and product technique. What game are you constructing? Is it viable?”
“The entire thing round product design is definitely, in some ways, an important enterprise determination you’ll make,” says Della Rocca. He presents an instance by a hypothetical new studio that units out to make a game in a style that’s oversaturated like ‘puzzle platformers’.
“There’s one which does properly each 5 years or so, but it surely’s not a wholesome style. So if I’m saying my definition of success is to pay my staff, be worthwhile, and keep alive as a enterprise, you’ve made the preliminary incorrect enterprise determination. You’ll be enjoying on tremendous laborious mode as a result of your probability of reaching your definition of success with puzzle platformers is sort of nil.”
Four tips for a profitable pitch
Do Your Homework
Evaluation and analysis are among the most vital issues you are able to do to set your self up for a profitable pitch. Realizing what undertaking to pitch depends on market evaluation and aggressive evaluation, which helps to determine what sorts of video games are viable and which aren’t. Della Rocca stresses that this analysis is crucial to all the pitching course of: “Why am I going to provide you with cash to make one thing everybody is aware of will not be going to promote?”
“Should you’re going to flip to folks and say ‘give me cash’, they’re anticipating to earn a living in return. So if you happen to selected a style and didn’t do the market analysis, it’s a [non-starter]. Regardless of how slick your slides in your pitch deck are, the reply will at all times be no.”
When you’re beginning to guide conferences, doing your homework turns into ensuring that you’ve the whole lot you want readily available and prepared for that pitch. Have you ever cleaned up the social media pages for you, your game, and your studio? Do you may have a second individual coming to the assembly with you as a devoted be aware taker? Should you’re assembly in-person, do you may have the information for your construct, trailer, and pitch saved on a neighborhood system?
Nurture & present proof of participant curiosity
“Extra and extra, the folks with cash need two issues: They need to have the ability to play one thing and they need to see some proof of participant curiosity,” stresses Della Rocca. “Your construct may very well be a proof of idea, a prototype, a vertical slice, a demo, or something. The vital half is that investors are in a position to play it and see [what makes your game stand out].”
“You might have to ask your self ‘is my construct playable?’ Sufficient the place I can hand it over to somebody and they perceive what the gameplay loop is, what the hook is, and that sort of stuff? Do I’ve a strong construct and do I’ve some sign from {the marketplace} saying that gamers need it?’”
That second bit of data extra and extra investors are requesting, participant curiosity, is your means of proving there’s an viewers for your game that’s already considerably engaged. That proof may come within the type of trailer views, Discord members, e-newsletter subscriptions, wishlists, viral tiktok posts, likes, feedback, shares, and so on.
“Should you stroll in and you’re like ‘right here’s the construct, we’re already at 50,000 wishlists, and we’re operating a playtest’, then hastily the folks with cash perk up and the chance is way more actual,” says Della Rocca. Should you’re a developer and it’s time to pitch, you may have to ask your self if your construct is playable and cool sufficient to be performed.
Don’t simply current your game
Della Rocca stresses that pitching your game is extra than simply ‘pitching your game’. You may land the pitch assembly of your goals and spend all the time speaking in regards to the game—its gameplay, the techniques, the mechanics, its artwork, the pipeline, the characters—however when all is claimed and achieved, the publishers thanks and run to their subsequent assembly.
This strategy makes two key errors: it focuses on the game content material over the game’s enterprise case, and it makes use of all the assembly time to current the game supplies.
“You need to embody among the enterprise and manufacturing parts,” says Della Rocca. “So this is the game, that is the timeline, that is the price range. Here is the staff that is making it, this is the market evaluation and gross sales projections.”
“The opposite mistake is taking on the entire time. Let’s say you may have a 30 minute pitch assembly. The precise pitch itself ought to be like 5 – 6 minutes. The remainder of the time is small speak; you’re getting to know one another, you’re asking them questions.”
He says that it’s crucial to not go away that 30 minute appointment with out deciding on the following step and motion objects from your pitch assembly. These can vary from sending a construct after the assembly to establishing a follow-up name, however regardless “you shouldn’t go away that pitch assembly with out having a transparent sense of what occurs subsequent.
Take part in GDC Pitch!
Discover and benefit from the assets out within the wild that may show you how to sharpen your pitching abilities. For these headed to the GDC Competition of Gaming, collaborating in packages like GDC Pitch can present a useful alternative to get suggestions on your undertaking and whole pitching strategy with out the added stress of your studio’s monetary future hanging within the steadiness.
GDC Pitch is a pitching competitors held stay at GDC that provides builders an opportunity to pitch to a panel of judges from the investing and publishing world and get pre-pitch teaching in addition to instant suggestions on how they will sharpen their presentation and supplies. This yr’s panel consists of judges from Innersloth, Uncooked Fury, Kowloon Nights, Hooded Horse, Finji, MIX, and Humble.
Della Rocca, himself the longtime host of GDC Pitch, says that the teaching members obtain plus the added observe go a great distance to make builders really feel extra assured and ready for the true deal. He goes on to say that, even past the teaching and judging course of, simply getting your game pitch in entrance of a panel of investors—plus the 300-odd builders, publishers, and investors watching from the viewers—can show a worthwhile expertise inside itself. Della Rocca goes so far as to say that it’s not solely unprecedented for conversations to begin proper after leaving the GDC Pitch stage.
GDC Pitch is held on March 19 and March 20 on the GDC Competition of Gaming in San Francisco, CA. These interested by collaborating within the 2026 version of the competitors can enroll proper right here. Submissions shut February 6.
This text was written in partnership with GDC Competition of Gaming. Game Developer and GDC are sibling organizations below guardian firm Informa.
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