Just like a traditional sales proposal, a video game pitch includes a summary that highlights a game’s selling points to a prospective publisher.
It details how profitable the game would be if ever the publisher agrees to develop or fund it. For an independent game developer pitching a game idea to an established publisher, a technology PowerPoint can help communicate any concept more effectively.
Select the X Meets Y Formula
To grab your prospect’s attention, creating a very short version of your pitch would be a great idea. It gives you a way to set the stage for a longer concept pitch.
The best shortcut for this would be the formula: X meets Y. For example, Warcraft is Dune II meets The Lord of the Rings. Got it? Another example: Max Payne, which is any John Woo film meets The Matrix. Mash-ups of well-known properties or genres may be a bit unimaginative, but it allows your audience to grasp your idea much faster.
If you can’t explain the concept quickly, your prospect might assume that your game isn’t ready yet for primetime and reject your proposal. A short pitch offers a great way for you to explain what your game is all about.
Level Up with Visuals
Technology PowerPoint presentations work best when they feature graphics and imagery.
When pitching to gaming companies, we can’t stress enough how important visual aids are. Compared to the way it handles textual data, our brain processes graphic information way faster.
Additionally, people in the industry are visual thinkers and communicators. When you use visual aids, you are speaking their language and thus, giving your idea a chance to be assessed in a better light.
It would be great if you can come up with a professionally produced pre-production art to accompany your technology PowerPoint slides. It creates the impression that you put so much thought into your proposal.
Structure Your Proposal
While it is great to prepare a short pitch, it also pays to have a more detailed proposal handy. It should include all important details about your game.
The following are some of the information that you shouldn’t forget:
The High Concept – Pretty much like an elevator pitch, the high concept explains your idea as accurate as possible in a short sentence. Take note of the following gaming high concepts and learn:
- Minecraft: Construct a 3D world with other players.
- Unreal world: Survival game set in the Iron Age.
- Super Mario: A platform game with a surreal world setting.
- Sonic: A fast-paced platform game that features a fast hedgehog
- Pacman: Navigate a maze while grabbing all the dots and avoiding bad guys.
- Angry Birds: Slingshot birds at enemy pigs in this physics-based game.
Genre – The concept of genre in the gaming industry often has more to do with a game’s position in the shelves than its design or story. In general, a game’s genre is classified based on their type of gameplay.
Some of the most common video game genres are the following:
- Adventure – Legend of Zelda, Tomb Raider
- Strategy – Warcraft, Age of Empires
- Role Playing Game (RPG) – Diablo, Final Fantasy
- Shooter – Doom, Half-Life
- Platformer – Super Mario Bros. Sonic the Hedgehog
- Fighting – Street Fighter, Tekken
Other elements that you should include in your game technology PowerPoint are the in-game story, setting, target audience, hardware platforms, marketing, and risk analysis. You should also tackle the gameplay description and features. If there’s still time, focus on the mechanics to show how players will interact with the game. You can start by describing the story to capture attention.
Then, shift your focus on what makes your gameplay different from other games of its kind.
Pitching a video game idea is not all fun and games. So be sure that you practice. A lot. For the win.
