Pitching a Concept
Before this:The Creative Brief
Standards (2)
13.2Pitching Creative Concepts
Pitch an original concept with a visual presentation and narrative that clearly communicates the idea and engages the audience.2.3Oral Communication & Presentation Skills
Apply extemporaneous speaking skills by adapting language and approach in real time to address questions, solve problems, and manage audience or client needs.
What you’ll be able to do
- Write an elevator pitch in one or two sentences
- Order a pitch so the strongest thing comes first
- Show a concept instead of describing it
- Present under time pressure without reading your slides
Video
Read
The elevator pitch
One or two sentences. Vivid. It is the line someone repeats to a friend when you are not in the room, which makes it the most important sentence you will write about your project.
A working elevator pitch names three things fast: the genre, the core mechanic, and the experience the player is supposed to have. Industry guidance is blunt about the opening: do not start with lore, backstory, or your studio history. Start with what the game is.
A one-button climbing game where every handhold you use crumbles behind you, so the only way down is up.
That is a genre, a mechanic, and a feeling in one sentence. Compare it to “an atmospheric exploration experience about loss,” which could be almost anything.
Write yours, say it out loud, and cut every word that is not doing work.
Order matters more than content
Most bad pitches contain the right information in the wrong order. A pitch is a sequence that moves someone from “interesting” to “I want in,” and the standard order is:
- Vision — the elevator pitch and the hook
- Overview — a short paragraph on premise, tone, and gameplay
- Gameplay — the core mechanic and the loop, one slide each for major features
- Visual style — mood board, key art, sample UI
- Team — who is making this
- Business — where it goes, who it is for
You lose people in the first thirty seconds or you do not lose them at all. Everything you saved for the end will not get heard if the opening was vague.
Show it
The single biggest shift in how games get pitched is that talking is no longer enough. Publishers now expect a playable prototype, ideally with the core mechanic working and one area brought to a polished visual standard, sometimes called a “beauty corner.” Some will not look at a concept-only pitch at all.
Screenshots, a short gameplay clip, or a build someone can actually touch will do more than any paragraph you write. If you cannot show the game, show the closest thing: concept art, a mood board, a paper prototype, an animated mockup.
Comparables, honestly
Two or three released games in a similar scope. A common convention in real pitches is to name one that did well, one that did average, and one that underperformed, and then explain how yours is positioned differently.
That last part matters. Naming a failure and saying why yours is not that shows you have thought about risk, which is more convincing than confidence.
Presenting it
The pitch is a performance, and the same rules apply as any other speaking:
- Do not read your slides. The audience can read faster than you can talk. Slides carry images and a few words; you carry the sentences.
- Rehearse out loud and time it. A 90-second pitch is about 200 to 240 words. You will find the problems on the second run, not the first.
- Know your one sentence cold. If everything falls apart, you can still deliver that.
- Expect questions and welcome them. “I don’t know yet, here’s how I’d find out” is a strong answer. Making something up is not.
Try it
You have 90 seconds. Your first 40 seconds explain the world's history and how the kingdom fell. What is the cost?
- A. Nothing, story context helps the audience understand the game
- B. You spent your best 40 seconds before saying what the player does
- C. Lore should always be the last slide
- D. You should have opened with your team’s credentials
Show answer
B. Attention is highest at the start and drops from there. Standard pitch guidance says specifically not to open with lore or backstory, because the audience cannot evaluate a story until they know what kind of game it belongs to. Lore is not banned, it just cannot go first. D is worse: nobody cares who you are before they know what it is.
Terms
Elevator pitch · High concept · Hook · Core mechanic · One-sheet · Pitch deck · Vertical slice · Comparables (comps)