Making the Right Game Pitch
Hal Sandbach, Head of Design at d3t Ltd, talked about the key features that make a game pitch to the students at the University of Bolton. First, Hal talked about the title, saying that it should be ”Vocative, understandable and individual” (Sandbach, 2017) , saying that both ‘Uncharted 2: Among thieves’ and ‘World of Tanks’ are both good examples as they’re both self-explanatory but also individual enough to be memorable. Hal then moved onto the other aspects that go into making a game pitch being the high concept, concept art, gameplay scenario and target player.
The high concept is basically a short but sweet string of sentences that are used to explain your game, this is also called an “Elevator Pitch”. These usually last less than 30 seconds and get straight to the point, keeping the attention of who you’re pitching to and catching their interest. “think of it as a mathematical function, the more you can simplify it, the less space it needs to take to communicate the same thing the better.” (Ismail, 2017).
Concept art is used to further get your game across to whoever you’re pitching it to. It’s used to support your game concept and give a visual representation of your idea. Concept art can range from environments and characters to scenarios and maps, it shows part of your progress, even the unfinished pieces. “The purpose of the concept artist is to quickly explore ideas and communicate them effectively as possible.” (Staff, 2017).
Next is the gameplay scenario, which can range from a few storyboards to a vertical slice of your game. When it comes to pitching to a publisher, the more visually appealing things you have the better, especially when it comes to presenting a scenario from your game. The earlier on in development you or the less visuals you’ll probably have to show, whereas if you’ve started developing a few assets alongside your concept art, you’ll probably be able to work on a vertical slice. A vertical slice is a small slice from the middle of your game, these are used to give a representation of what your game will potentially look like. “It is not the same thing as a prototype in that it is expected to look of final quality and play like the final game. It is like asking to see a piece of the final cake before agreeing to pay for the whole.” (Slice, 2017).
Lastly, the target audience for your game. The target audience for your game is very self-explanatory, if you’re game contains mature content then it’s target audience must also be mature, as children can’t purchase rating 18+ games. The target audience doesn’t necessarily just mean your age or gender, it can also mean a specific console. “The single biggest investment that a gamer has to make is on the console or gaming PC”. (Sepos, 2017).
Sandbach, H. (2017) Pitching your game. Employability & Enterprise. Presented at: University of Bolton, Friday 11 February 2017.
Ismail, R. (2017) The Game Pitch In Three Sentences: A How-To. Gamedonia. [Online] Available from: http://www.gamedonia.com/blog/game-pitch-how-to [Accessed 17 February 2017]
Creative, S. (2017) Just What Is Concept Art?. Creative Bloq. [Online] Available from: http://www.creativebloq.com/career/what-concept-art-11121155 [Accessed 17 February 2017]
Slice, V (2017) What Games Are. Vertical Slice. [Online] Available from: http://www.whatgamesare.com/vertical-slice.html [Accessed 17 February 2017]
Sepos, M. (2017) A Growing Gold Mine. Target Marketing. [Online] Available from: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/a-growing-gold-mine-39127/all/ [Accessed 17 February 2017]