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Plan for Greg Findlay

Name:	Greg Findlay
Date Posted:	Aug 19, 2005
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How do you design games with publishers in mind?

As part of my final portfolio for school I'm required to make 5 pitch documents for games. These are simple one page docs that describe the essence of what a game is, gives a list of key features and breaks down the major feasibility issues. When I start with a game design I like to break down the restrictions of a game and come up with some questions that need to be answered to understand how you play the game. By answering these questions I want to know the goal of the game and who the intended audience is. So my idea for this project is to come up with the 'perfect' set of restrictions that publishers are looking for in a game and build 3 game ideas from that. For an example, here is what discussion in class has brought up so far (a lot of these are from the instructor):
- dynastry oriented (ie. can make sequels and/or sell merchandise from)
- is somehow community oriented (player extendable content, fanboism, etc)
- has some type of online feature
- has a potential economy beyond the game (publisher can sell additional content for the game)
- team based
- has some type of sandbox feature
- cinematic feel
- incorporates lisenced IP (has an existing fanbase)

The idea is that the more of the things in the list that get hit the more appealling the idea is to a publisher. This is by no means a comprehensive list and I'm welcome to any ideas anyone has that they think should be added.

The goal of this project (for me at least) is not to come up with some crazy game idea that I'm going to pitch to people, it's to impress a company enough to get a job.

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MrPhil (Philip J. Ludington) (Aug 19, 2005 at 18:38 GMT)

Your forgot the two most important things:

Cutting edge graphics <-- "Oooooo, Aaahhhhh" effect
No interesting game play <-- The "Well, it looks pretty" effect a.k.a "No surprises please where spending REAL money here."
Edited on Aug 19, 2005 18:39 GMT

Eric Roberts (Aug 19, 2005 at 20:21 GMT)

If your goal is to attract the attention of a company or publisher, I might be of some help. I attended an IGDA meeting in Toronto on January where it was event basically discussing atrracting publishers, companies, and starting your own viable business.

There was a panel of game developers and publishers alike. This is what I got from the discussion.

Here's a couple of key things that publishers and companies look for.

1. A finished game. If you write your own tech - great. But nothing beats making a game. It shows that you stuck it through and finished the entire project. Nothing impresses a company/publisher more than commitment to a game (at least that's the impression I was given). This means developing with Torque doesn't seem like a bad route when it comes to attracting attention.

2. An ONLINE resume and webpage. That means if your going to sell yourself to publishers or a company, make sure it's electronic. Do NOT send tapes or something silly like that. They'll give it a toss. If you have a game, make sure it has a webpage featuring a demo, screenshots, etc.

3. The ability to handle business. This is a lesser requirement, but usually one person out of any team seems to be thrown into being the "buisness" guy (or gal). Being prepared for that sort of situation can't hurt. Being on time, reliable, confident in yourself and generally gaining trust with a potential employer and publisher is key to your success.

Hope it helps,

- Eric

Greg Findlay (Aug 19, 2005 at 22:03 GMT)

@ Philip - Agreed, flashy graphics will only help the cause.

@ Eric - Thanks for the tips. Goes a bit beyond what I was getting at here but it's definitely good advice.

The idea behind this self imposed excersize is to try and show developers that I have some knowledge of the industry and some interesting ideas to boot. Whether or not I'm successful we shall soon see. I'll be posting my result on the web once I'm done so anyone interested can take a quick read. If you've never done one of these before it might be useful just to check the format (I didn't invent it, our class got from a developer who pitches game docs to publishers). There's really no standard format but apparently this particular style has had some positive feedback.

Phil Carlisle (Aug 20, 2005 at 12:27 GMT)

You want to be able to explain the game in a single paragraph.

You want to show that you have a "hook" that is, a single or perhaps a couple of unique selling points that are the cornerstones to the game

You want to show WHY a publisher would want YOUR game rather than another one in a similar genre

Explain who the audience is and perhaps look up any historical sales figures for games of your genre.

There are lots of other things really. :)

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