You stand there, in front of your computer screen and see five pair of eyes looking back at you. The share screen-feature is bit of a hassle, but you just take a deep breath.
This is going to go great.
You are great.
And here are the 3 steps you followed to make it great.
1. Tell a story - not an idea
Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools you can use to keep your listeners attention. As an listener to a pitch, we want to be engaged! Even if numbers and graphs are great, storytelling create context and a red thread through out the pitch.
In our event The Great Winter Pitch last February, one of our pitchers started their pitch with the story of their visual impairment. How older games that had bigger and bulkier models, made it easier for them to play games, but as the graphics got more detailed, the harder it was for them to play. So they took that this as their mission to create a game that can be played by people, both with and without visual impairment.
By starting their pitch with this story, they set the mood, the intent and the engagement level. They worked towards a niche market (which in no means is wrong) but by connecting this game pitch with a strong emotional experience like this, you create a hook that keeps the investors engaged.
So what are your and your games story?
2. Try it. Time it. Try again.
When your pitch deck feel finished, try it out. How long is the pitch? How many slides? There is not right or wrong number when pitching, but maybe the pitch have a time limit and your pitch is just simply too big.
👉Start a timer and do a test run.
👉Put away your timer-device (in my case it's usually a phone) and pretend that you are pitching.
👉If you get stuck, don't start over, just take a deep breath and push through.
👉When you are done, grab your timing device and see how long the pitch took. If it is to long, then go back into your pitch deck and try taking slides out.
👉Do it again!
By doing this you both practice your pitching game and you tighten up your pitch deck.
You can even pitch in front of your friends or other game devs to get a better understanding and feedback on both your pitching technic and pitch deck.
3. Know your shortcomings and address them
Okay but now you might have been taken away slides with crucial information or you feel unsure since your team are missing a a crucial teammate.
GREAT!
By knowing these things you can start prepare and solve them. If the investors for example ask you "Your game is depending on a lot of programming and you only have one programmer, how are you going to tackle this?" you tell them all about how one of the first thing you are going to do is to take in another programmer and you already have a few in the pipeline, because you foresaw this question and have done the preparation for it. This shines you in a professional light and can ensure the investor that you know what you are doing and where you are going.
So sit down and look at what you have taken away from your pitch, be honest with what can be kind of is an obstacle and turn that into an opportunity!
Oh and also look over your pitch deck, we all know presentation makes the difference!
Thank you for reading it through! If you are interested in pitching your game and win funding, we at The Great Journey hosts ☀️The Great Summer Pitch☀️ June 4th, so check it out over at our website!
More sources and tips!
30 Things I hate about your game pitch - GDC pitch by Brian Upton
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