Our inaugural blogger Scarberia returns to The Puck Stops Here! to share key points on making an effective pitch at GDC. Scarberia has been an executive in and around the games business for almost 20 years, both in publishing and product development. "The reason for the pen-name is to protect plausible deniability in case I piss anyone too important off, since I still rely on them for deals, good gossip and expensive dinners...."
With GDC coming up, some of us are still trying to lock down our meeting schedules, reading about which sessions to attend, or working the phones to scam the best party invites. But more than a few of us are likely in crunch right now, trying to get a pitch build together. For these unfortunates, GDC means both hope and dread. As the economy keeps heading down the seemingly endless Sonic slides (the one’s with the loops and the long, slightly sickening flying jumps), you may have to be in possession of quite a large pair of audacities to still have much hope left.
And yet, the games business clearly isn’t going away. In fact, some numbers still show it growing. This might allow a lucky few developers to join a very small club, along with foreclosure attorneys and 99 cent stores, where there’s still a chance to turn things around in 2009. And GDC might indeed be the place to make it happen. That is, if you’ve got the right pitch.
Over the years, I have done my share of pitching; but more frequently, I have had the opportunity and misfortune to be on the other side of countless pitches. As a result, I was asked to write down some recommendations. Many of these will sound like homilies, or common sense platitudes, but if you haven’t had the experience of sitting on the receiving end of four long days of GDC developer pitches, then read this as either valuable insight, or the vengeful mumblings of a spiteful crank.
Know to whom you’re pitching:
It is impossible to exaggerate how little research developers generally do on the publishers (and their representatives) they’re pitching. For your own sake, do some homework before going to that meeting. A rule of thumb should be a minimum of twice as much research time as the meeting will likely take (one hour of research for a 30 minute slot). But in reality, you should be spending at least a day per meeting combing through the publisher’s latest products, strategy statements, quarterly conference calls, upcoming product buzz, etc. If you are asking for money, regardless of the amount, have some understanding for the strategy and issues facing that business before extending your open hand. There’s so much information on the net now that there is no longer an excuse for lack of preparation. And if you have an inside source at the target company, do not hesitate to find out the latest discussions, decisions or just general tone that’s going on over there. This is particularly important now, since last year’s strategy will not be a good predictor for what’s going on today.
Know thyself
Don’t assume you’re a good presenter, or the best representative of your company, or the only person who knows the product you’re pitching. Just because you’re president, or the producer, or the creative genius, doesn’t make you a good presenter. You wouldn’t have a junior artist lead the programming team just because they once took a course in Basic. Have respect for the fact that selling well is a rare combination of talent and skill. If selling does not come naturally to you, it doesn’t make you a lesser human being. Thoroughly check your ego before going to these meetings. Let the person who can present with the most authentic, well-spoken enthusiasm take the lead. This is good for your product, for your company and for the people having to listen. To whit:
Don’t be boring
You likely believe, and should, that your product is endlessly fascinating. But remember, no one outside the team is as interested in what you’re doing as you are. Many game pitches combine the same level of duration and self-indulgence to that of a slide show of someone else’s family reunion.
Try out your presentation first on outsiders who don’t have a stake in loving you. If they comment that the content or the personalities allow things to lag for any more than one to two minutes at a time, then tighten it up and/or get someone else to talk. This is not about hyperventilated speaking styles or bombastic visuals. It’s about being informative, engaging, polite and professional. Even if the publisher doesn’t like your product, you will have passed on a good memory. You never know when that may pay off.
The Demo
Take care of all technical problems before the meeting starts. Every Business Development person has barroom tales of how a team couldn’t get their demo to work. Watching people fiddle with monitors, cables and settings is both dull and insulting. Admittedly, we’ve all been there when things have gone technically wrong, which is why the person who can fix these things should never be the person presenting or driving the demo. In fact, the best number of people to bring to a meeting is usually three: the talker, the driver and the tech. The talker should be engaging the listener(s) right from beginning to end, filling in gaps with interesting information or answering questions while the demo is booting up, or getting fixed or just seeming to drag during the presentation. The driver should be focused solely on the visuals, showing game play or level variety or something that reinforces the talker’s points. He should not under any circumstance be trying to beat the level to show off his macho skill (this inexplicably happens ALL the time). And really, we all know that games sound good these days, so do not crank the volume just because you’re proud of the mix that just got in the build the night before. Keep the listeners engaged with what they’re seeing and what you’re saying, not pinned against the wall trying to evade the decibels.
The PowerPoint
There are two types of PowerPoint presentations: those that you speak to, and those that you leave behind to be passed around. During pitch meetings, you should be focused on the former, which should contain only key bullet points and as little text as possible. All of the embellishments to these points should be spoken, not written. There is nothing more turgid that having to listen to someone reading word-for-word what’s on their screen
Allow the viewer to burn an image in their minds of only the most important bits, while also keeping them engaged in a conversation with you. And if you can, have a second presentation as a leave-behind that includes the written details. But even in that doc, try to keep it brief. It will be passed around and read if it’s informative, entertaining and visually thought through. Big, fat decks are correctly looked upon with horror as indulgent, wasteful and unreadable by nearly everyone back at the publisher.
In Conclusion
The clichéd advice about any kind of speech or presentation is: First, be yourself. But unless you have gotten objective reactions to your speaking abilities, don’t believe it. Nearly everyone speaks too much or too little. To prove the point, just watch most politicians who actually speak for a living. But you don’t have to be perfect either. If you honestly go into a pitch wanting to entertain and inform your audience about your product in the best way possible for them, then that authenticity will allow you to adjust with whatever winds up happening. Some may prefer just to sit back and listen to you. Others may derail your pitch plan altogether to get to their agenda. So what? The goal is not the presentation itself, but the transference of your excitement and dreams about your game to someone who can help bring it to market. If you’ve done that, then everyone wins.
Our inaugural blogger Scarberia returns to The Puck Stops Here! to share key points on making an effective pitch at GDC. Scarberia has been an executive in and around the games business for almost 20 years, both in publishing and product development. "The reason for the pen-name is to protect plausible deniability in case I piss anyone too important off, since I still rely on them for deals, good gossip and expensive dinners...."
I had the privilege of attending the DICE Summit in late February in Las Vegas. It is a somewhat exclusive event for game industry high-rollers hosted by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS). I was curious as to what the vibe was going to be like, and to gage it is as a quick temperature read as to how GDC may turn out in a few weeks.
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