Over 80 developers joined Game Republic in Liverpool on 25th September at Pitching to Investors and Publishers event supported by Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and created to support FORMAT. Talks included a presentation by Helen Cross from Liverpool Combined Authority about the opportunities in the region for game developers including educational programmes and support for game studios. Jamie Sefton MD of Game Republic gave a special thanks to Marek Smagala for encouraging and promoting the event to his Liverpool Game Dev Network. He also encouraged developers to join the Great Northern Games Discord and to come to GaMaYo on 21st November to show off their games to publishers, platform-holders and investors. The event was supported by our Official Partners Red Kite Games, Escape Technology and Barclays Games and Creative.
Vampire Survivors
Chris Jones from Poncle provided fantastic insights about the journey of the ‘accidental’ game hit success of Vampire survivors and announced that the company is also looking to fund games too, which created a lot of interest and excitement from the developers at the event.
After some more networking, there was a very honest and insightful panel with Pete Smith (ex-Sony / Tencent), Dr Gina Jackson OBE (Pitchify), Matt Southern (Mint Games and pitching veteran ex-Sony, Firesprite, Lucid Games) and Bobby Wertheim (Nocturne Games, Kando Factory) about pitching to investors and publishers.
Commenting on the current landscape, all agreed it was not easy, as Bobby outlined saying that investment was nowhere near levels found previously – but added that it was coming back slowly.
Pitching your game
On discussing pitches Pete Smith said “It’s more than the pitch, it’s the game. It is about the idea – the X statement. A nice simple statement that sums up the game, why it is special. Everything has to support that X statement. The X is what it is, the next is why – why is it good for them to give you money…”
Matt Southern said that a good perspective would be to think of the pitch as something that leads you to the next step, not just to the big deal at the start. He also raised the concept of Nemawashi – a Japanese word that means digging and working around the roots but could also be likened to socialising your idea, talking to people and ensuring it had a good foundation.
Gina Jackson from Pitchify urged developers to try to get a quick no if there is not an interest and explained how there was a significant emotional toll on game scouts. Pete Smith agreed and highlighted that “you need to make it easy for them to recommend your game. They want to sign something, remember that, so make life as easy as possible for them and give them the info they need.”
Bobby reminded the audience that “pitching is a craft, you can get better at it and pitch it to everyone.” Pete Smith added “Sometimes the boss is not the best person to pitch the game too.” He recommended developers start with “key art and then do a short video of some game play footage before going into detail.”
On getting deals, Bobby said flexibility was important and Matt added, “don’t be afraid to say no, if what is being suggested does not fit with the vision for your game.”
Ending the session, Gina encouraged developers to be more imaginative on where they pitched their game highlighting non-traditional games funders as possible routes. “You don’t need to just go to usual funders and investors, there are brands out there wanting to get into games.”
At the end of the session, guests headed for more networking, drinks and music at Re:Format.
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Featured Image courtesy of Corrupted Lens
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