Gamespot has a great write-up on how games get pitched — both internally inside a publisher and by independent developers. I’ve now personally done more than a dozen pitches, and I have to say that I’m probably masochistic because I actually like the process; I suppose it’s the thought of going after something for the chance to create a product you’re passionate about. I’d probably loathe it if I was forced to pitch a match-3 game.

My first experience pitching was, technically, a complete failure. After building a PC prototype, I flew to a half dozen publishers to pitch our game as a PS2 / Xbox 360 / PSP / DS game — in reality, we were grasping for whatever we could get. The only reason we had these meetings at all was thanks to our agent I was working with for this product (incidentally, Warren is also the agent for N+ and Everyday Shooter). I believe our failure was justified — we had a polished demo, but an incomplete team and the market was such that a game like Eets was highly risky. From my point of view, however, this first product was a launching pad for the company — and indeed that’s exactly what happened. We continued to self-publish the game for PC online, secure a European retail distribution deal via Warren’s prowess, and we continue to sell the game online to this day.

Since then we’ve successfully pitched and signed three new games (Eets: Chowdown, N+ and an unannounced project), and each time it gives me a great sense of accomplishment in formulating the pitch and preparing the delivery. Going through the process so many times, however, has definitely altered the way I think about a pitch.

For the sake of simplicity, I’m using our decision to want to make a game and to pitch it synonymously, and in general, this is indeed what happens. I believe the vast majority of game development start-ups do one of two things:

1) Create a game and then find a market for it

2) Develop an idea you think could do well in the market, determine how much it’s going to cost to develop, and then try to find funding for it.

The first is obviously flawed, but it’s certainly understandable. Most independents, us included, started by making the game they wanted to make — economics be damned. For the record, I love this style of development — I just wouldn’t recommend anyone to depend their livelihood on it The second happens all the time, but in my experience it’s almost always an uphill battle. The thing is, without starting with the constraints, the idea always balloons to include everyone’s favourite features, each one pulling down the chance of the game actually being financially successful, and thus pulling down the chance of a successful pitch. Also familiar is taking that idea, and applying an aggressive schedule and lowering the costs to meet it. As one colleague once said “You’ll always find a buyer if you keep lowering your price, but at what cost?” This ends in the familiar massive overtime and feature cuts which burns everyone out.

Instead, I believe more and more developers are following the third path:

3) Start with the constraints, and then develop and idea from it.

My decision to create a game now starts with the resources constraints and then expands to how we can make the best possible game out of those constraints. That is, we may start with a pool of game ideas we’d like to explore, but for the most part they are totally undeveloped. Then, for each platform we’re considering, I give a narrow range of budgets and minimum expected ROI, and then ask “what can we build to achieve this result?”

Obviously, underlying to all of this is the notion that we’d be proud of the game, and that we won’t simply go for the cash grab. However, by starting with the constraints, I believe we actually build better games. This is because we’re forced to focus on the strengths of the game, and ignore everything else — creating a purer, better play experience. And guess what? This method has a way, way better chance of success in the pitching channel — and in the market place.

I realize I’m still only grazing the surface here, but if anyone wants me to delve into this in more detail, feel free to contact me or simply comment here.