How to Pitch Your Game

How to Pitch Your Game

Use this guide to learn how to submit your game pitch for evaluation.

Team Registration

• First register your team here.

Contextualization

For those who have not worked in the industry commercially before, now is the time to mentor each other by reading this article, watching the videos and discussion each point together. That article is only relevant if you are making a game. 

Pitch Creation

Note: If you are re-entering ignite jam for the 2nd time, you should ignore the rest of this and use this checklist instead. 

Length

Your pitch must be under 5 min long or your team will be disqualified.

Format

Your pitch can be in whatever format everyone on Discord can see together, a Youtube video, a playable demo with you talking or a power point seen when you share your screen. 

Warning

Don't write a speech, use visuals. 

1 sentence pitch 

Each pitch should contain your USP. One sentence summarizing the genius behind your idea or its special value.  

PowerPoint

Although you are not limited to a power point, we are going to go over how to make one to give you an idea of the requirements. 

1. Proper text formatting: Use small bursts of text with big headers and attention-catching simplicity when using text. Take inspiration from https://samuel.leaflet.ink/values.
   1. Always make fonts uncomfortably large as it will show up small on a screen-share. 
2. Images are worth 1000 words. You should have them on each slide and demonstrate the feel for the game. 
3. Test your presentation on someone who does not know about your project. Do they get a clear picture of your idea? Can they describe it back to you? Feel free to jump in another team's voice chat and ask. 
4. If you're making a game project, cover: Gameplay loop, genre, similar games, similar themes, art styles.
5. Draw a direct line between your idea and how you will make an impact. It's not good enough to say you are going to "teach physics" through your game, you need to explain your distribution plan so people will actually play and learn through your game. 
6. Cover what your team's needs are and why the game fits with your needs. 

Remember, you're creating a prototype for a project feasible within 180 to 250 days by a team with similar skills. Avoid overscoping, or you'll risk losing the pitch. You're more likely to fail the pitch with a big project if you lack years of experience, compared to someone highly experienced proposing a large project. We excel in matching people with similar skills, so your pitch should mirror your experience level. We strongly advise reading the provided article for context.

Design document

• Game loop & mechanics
• Art style document
• Technical design document
• Level design document

10 pages max. Use bullet points and avoid paragraphs. 

The old method detailed everything before starting, but now, a living, ever-changing document that evolves with new ideas and flexible to feedback is preferable. Use a light touch and visuals, as lengthy texts aren't popular anymore. 

Judging Your Pitch

Here are some key questions to ask yourself when making a pitch: 

• Is the game idea viable considering your abilities/resources?

• Does the project, if created in full, help my team get into the industry if that is their goal?

• Will the project contribute to our open source asset library? 

• Does the pitch show off a viable game loop if it includes a game? 

• Does it make an impact for good?

  • Less ads or better privacy? 

  • Better business model?

• How well-scoped is it?

  • Avoid making multiplayer 3D games -- it's not doable in the timeframe. 

Deadline

Teams which don't even have registration up in Day 4 may be disbanded. If you join after Day 4 and would still like to set up a team, feel free. 

Copyright

Don't worry about copyright in your pitches. 

When to Pitch Your Game

Each team will have the opportunity to pitch twice, see: The Process of the Contest.