Pitching your game, The Real Deal...

I flew into London Friday morning on a red-eye. I arrived early, had no hassles at customs, and the taxi driver was top-notch (and if you know my relationship with taxi drivers, then me saying that should tell you just how well things were going up to this point). Suffice it to say that when I arrived at the hotel to check in at 10am, they told me that check-in did not occur until 2pm. No worries. I changed into "business casual" clothing in the handicapped bathroom, stashed my bag in the storage room in the lobby and made my way over Vauxhall Bridge towards the Marble Arch. Almost 3 miles to get where I was going, but I had 2 hours, and that meant time to smell the roses as I walked...

Where I was going was a conference for financing MMO's and casual online games (or really any online games that could generate significant profit), and I had booked the flight less than a week prior. I didn't even know about the event until the day after Thanksgiving when I was sitting at home organizing my Linked In contacts from the VGXPO in Philly (the results of which I also blogged about) and saw this little shindig happening across the pond. Despite the expense involved in this (the dollar is up compared to the pound lately, but honestly, it's still $1.60 to the pound- it friggin' hurts) for both registration and hotels (the airfare was pretty cheap), I decided that I probably wouldn't see another opportunity like this again- sort of like seeing Amy Winehouse sober, or Britney Spears sane. Sort of like Bigfoot, or possum guts stuffed into bigfoot suits (because that's rare too). So I booked a ticket.

So anyway, I walk into this conference, where the suit-to-developer ratio is way higher than I've ever seen in any conference- and I've been to how many... Three? Four? Oh... Well, anyway, also to put this in perspective, there were about 30-40 people there, or about as many as there were at the first IMGDC in Minneapolis the year before last. Not huge, but a healthy size. It's at about this time that my excitement at having a chance to pitch my project to actual venture capitalists is giving way to extremely disproportionate gravity being invoked on my upper eyelids courtesy of jet-lag and the three hours of sleep I had obtained on the plane. Yay for Murphy and his Laws...

Now, rather than go into excruciating details about the panels and whatnot, I have to say this: Go read a book on body-language and presenting yourself. I did that, and I do believe that it helps. It's not trickery, or a how-to-lie-to-the-money-people book, but rather how to better project your confidence when that may not be your strong-suit. Because if you pitch your project with no apparent confidence, no one will believe in you. Pitching your project is not rocket science, no matter what anyone tells you- even me. Because I don't know crap about rocket science, and yet I pitched my project. How's that for logic?

So, between the panels, I went to work trying to talk to different people. I have to admit it was a bit harder than developer conventions, as the environment was that of investors surrounded by those who wanted money from them, and people don't always yield their conversations as quickly (would you?). Now these are not publishers, mind you, they are investors. So a bit of understanding on where they're coming from is in order: They want to make money, and they may or may not know the technical details of what you are doing. Don't throw your game engine in their face unless they ask. Don't show demos or screenshots unless they clearly show what you want them to see. Don't act like you're going to pass out or ruin your pants if they ask you a hard question (even if you do- don't let on, let it be a surprise, they like surprises!). Remember, these people are... People. You're probably going to screw up anyway, so just relax... That said, I pitched my project for the first time between one of the panels, and got myself a business card and a let-us-know-when-you're-ready-for-us-to-look-at-it.

Wait... What, no promises of unlimited funding and development? No falling to their knees to worship your genius? Yeah, I was disappointed too, especially when he asked me why I had that makeshift halo glued to the back of my head. The fact is that this is business. It was a great five minutes: I pitched Epic Frontiers like an insane chimpanzee with Tourettes Syndrome and a broken jaw, and still got a business card and a "call me" out of it. I passed the test, amazingly. And later in the day I would pass the test again and again. Even with a former Dynamix employee who grilled the shit out of me on every aspect of the game that I talked about- and he wasn't looking to invest, but it was great to have someone beat the crap out of my project and still pronounce it as "interesting" and having "a lot of potential". It counts for a lot when you can weather more and more of "criticism-storms" like that, and you sensitive-types out there need to go looking for more situations where that occurs instead of saying "don't say anything negative about my project", because like it or not, being able to withstand negative criticism is of more use to you in life than never getting any, and will only help you improve your project. Of course, those idiots who senselessly flame need to take a course in intelligent discourse before running out and saying "ur projekt iz crapz! LAWLZ- see? I iz helpin ewe!".

Oh yeah, let's get back to the "call me", because I think people can gain some business insight from this: You see, a VC (venture capitalist) wants to do what's called "managing risk". Part of this is done by look at the economy and markets to make sure that they aren't walking into an open manhole (though both Albert Einstein and the current economy shows that that does indeed happen in real life). Another part is what they call "due diligence", which is where they take a look at your company, its finances, progress, organization, and team, etc (ever been convicted of a pyramid-scheme? You're probably not getting any money). And another part, which I learned on the spot, was where they sit back and see both how far you get in creating the project (weeding out posers and projects that fail early), and also how the public reacts to the news of the project. This is actually very useful, because you don't want to fund a flop, and one indicator of that is the anticipation that the public has for your title. The short version of that is that my project should hit alpha/beta before I call anyone so that they know I'm serious about this.

OMGWTFBBQ?! Alpha?Beta?? They want you to actually do work before they give you the money you need to launch it? Yeah. Life's rough, ain't it? But they're also giving you a silver lining in that that most publishers won't give you: Freedom

You see, when a publisher gets its hooks into you, they can do things like market the product on their own timescale and then modify your development milestones to fit. They can also force you to add/remove features, cut budgets, and do other nasty things. So can a VC, in all truthiness. But a VC that wants progress out of you before committing is presenting you with a double-edged sword use can use. One side is not so great because you'll have to work on your project on your own without that funding, which is hard. But the other side allows you to work on your project from a point of strength whereas you have the freedom to develop it as you see the vision and not according to artificial deadlines or marketing, and then take that innovative project to them. Now, I cannot speak towards anything other than what I saw and heard at this conference (and if you even think of emailing me for names, I tell you right now that you will be spam-filtered, and for obvious reasons) but the VC's I met were, while enthusiastic about this market, cautious about it as well, due to the large number of failures. No one wants to lose money, especially those taking the bulk of the financial risk, and in that light, I believe that the "call me" approach is not only fair and reasonable, but generous.

Dude, you're a sellout! You're going to let some suit invest in your game when you're trying to be an indie? Damn straight, because those VC's aren't the only ones who like money, and if you're smart, you like money just as much as I do... Of course, this makes the path I have to take simpler and more expensive, but it also puts me in the position of knowing that self-publishing is not my only option now (and I've disabused myself of the notion of going to a traditional publisher years ago, so I don't even look at that possibility unless I get very even-handed clauses- the kind publishers just don't do).

Okay, good point... So, how do I become a sellout too, then? Go network with people at conferences. Go Google for information on VC's. Prepare. I came upon this conference by accident while scanning one of my Linked In groups and wondering why the site didn't send the notifications I wanted. Sometimes you come upon a chance, and sometimes you need to take it.

So to sum this all up: It doesn't take a super-duper refined pitch to get someone's attention for investment in your project, but you do have to do some work on areas other than the game, like pitching, presenting yourself, and schmoozing. If you fail at it, then just take notes and improve, and go back at it. I joke about the "anti-social" game developer, because honestly, that's how some of us come off. Some of us really are anti-social, which is fine as long as you can make that pitch when you need to. Some of us aren't, but can't pitch for our lives, which is fine as long as you won't need to. Go improve, because it's only going to get harder as this "MMO goldrush" feeling grows, and if you're not on your P's and Q's, someone else is going to get that money you want so bad, because they want it more.

Now, I'm back to the extra nine days I scheduled into coming out here (pshhhh, you didn't think I'd let this flight go to waste just for one day, did you?). On a personal note, if anyone out here in London wants to get a pint or some food (or both), hit me up by email and we'll see if we can hang out sometime later this week...