Tips on crafting a compelling pitch to game developers and investors
A compelling pitch is crucial in securing funding and marketing for your game. Below are tips on crafting a compelling pitch to game developers and investors that you need to know.
Understand your audience
Firstly, you need to have a clear understanding of the developers and investors you are targeting in the gaming market. Specifically, gather information on::
- The types of investments they focus on
- Previous projects they have invested in
- Their investment preferences and interests
- What are they currently looking for in the market?
Following this, you prepare a compelling pitch tailored to their interests. This thorough preparation will enhance the success rate in persuading investors or game developers.
Start with a strong hook
A strong introduction is crucial to capturing the audience’s attention.. Here are some tips for creating interest in the opening that you can consider:
- Statement: Start with a powerful and concise statement that arouses interest.
- Question: An intriguing question can stimulate curiosity and exploration.
- Story: Begin with a brief summary or a compelling excerpt from your game’s storyline. This helps the audience imagine and connect with the game better.
- Illustrative Summary: Another way to attract attention is by providing a concise illustration of the plot or the gaming experience.
Here, you need to avoid using jargon, technical details, and overly elaborate descriptions as they can make it difficult to understand and may become tedious for the audience. The key is to use simple yet powerful language to create vivid images in the minds of the audience.
Present the market potential and the highlights of your game
Next, articulate your game’s market growth potential. This requires presenting factual data obtained from thorough research and surveys. Examples include:
- The size of the gaming market.
- Anticipated growth.
- Market trends in the future.
Additionally, don’t overlook highlighting the unique features and distinctive qualities of your game. If possible, consider creating a demo that investors and developers can experience firsthand. Furthermore, address the following questions:
- What makes your game stand out and attract players?
- In which aspect is your game more appealing than competitors?
- How do you monetize your game?
To summarize, the goal is to convincingly convey to investors that your game holds promising potential for future development.
Founding Team
Typically, investors and game developers highly value a project with a capable leadership team. Therefore, do not hesitate to share information about your team. You can focus on the following aspects:
- Skills of team members
- Education level
- Experience
- Specialized knowledge
- Past achievements
For example, a newly launched game developed by experienced individuals. In this case, investors or game developers would have confidence in your project. Clearly, the human factor is an essential consideration in any project.
Budget
The financial report of the game is a crucial factor in crafting a compelling pitch. Provide clear information about the budget of your game project, including:
- Development costs: Summarize expenses such as team salaries, outsourcing costs, hardware, software, necessary technologies, office rent, etc. Provide the average development cost per month to ensure transparency and accuracy.
- Expected revenue: Forecast the expected revenue from your game by aggregating sources like game sales, in-game purchases, in-game advertising, or other forms of revenue, such as licensing or partnerships.
- Return on investment (ROI): Calculate and present the expected ROI that investor and game developers can anticipate from your project. Evaluate the ROI based on the investor’s investment and the anticipated revenue of the game. This may include profit margins, payback period, or any other metrics that they find significant.
Ensure that your financial assumptions are realistic and transparent. To enhance credibility, you may invite experts to assist you in providing detailed figures in this section.
Game development roadmap and marketing plan
In this step, you need to present the roadmap that you will implement for investors or developers.
- Outline the goals and objectives of the project.
- Identify key milestones and phases: Consider specific revenue milestones.
- Define the key products to be developed in each stage.
Present everything succinctly and focus on the essentials. Note that everything you present should be realistic and carefully considered based on the available resources.
For the marketing plan: Demonstrate that you have a marketing plan to promote and distribute your game, such as user acquisition strategies, community building, and your marketing channels. Additionally, you can highlight any supportive partnerships for the marketing process.
The core issue in this section is to show investors or developers that your project has a well-thought-out development plan. In summary, you can control everything.
Mitigating potential risks
Certainly, every project comes with inherent risks. The key for you is to openly acknowledge and provide solutions.
- Identify and assess risks in various aspects of the project.
- Present risks based on priority and impact.
- Propose solutions to address them.
When sharing this information, I believe that investors or game developers will highly appreciate your transparency. The most important aspect remains honesty and clarity throughout the collaboration.
Mistakes to avoid when crafting a compelling pitch to game developers and investors
- Too many technical details: Discussing excessive technical details can make the pitch boring and hard to understand. Solution for you: Present only necessary technical details and explain them clearly and comprehensively.
- Spending too much time on each slide will lose the audience’s attention. Solution: Keep each slide concise and focus on the main points. Avoid scrolling too quickly or lingering for too long.
- The next mistake is not preparing a script for the Q&A session. In such cases, developers and investors will not appreciate your pitch.
- A presentation lacking logical coherence is a serious mistake that can lead to an unsuccessful pitch. Solution: Organize the content in a logically sequenced manner, paying attention to the connection between ideas and sections.
- Preparing too many slides results in unnecessary information overload. The solution is to keep it simple and focused. Around 10 slides are appropriate.
- Pitch without illustrative images: Makes it difficult for viewers to visualize. Solution: Integrate text, images, and videos in a balanced and reasonable manner.
In Conclusion
Overall, achieving a successful pitch involves many factors. With the tips provided above, I hope you now know how to craft a compelling pitch to game developers and investors.