Pitching an idea to a publisher

JO420

Hi has anyone had much experience on this process?? i have 2 ideas i have developed for years and would like to shop them around to see what responses i will get and i would like know what sort of preperations i will need in terms of documentation and legal issues in terms of where i would stand if an idea was accepted.

thanx

Toomas

Good luck!
If they dont like your idea, they will not pay you.
If they do like it, they will steal it and still not pay you.

pogonip

Seriously it's not even worth wasting your time . There are small studios who have a working game up and running and they are having a hard time finding funding . A good example was that game Horizons the MMPG . They were looking for a publisher for a long time not that it helped them any when they found one , but the point is they had a small team of people working on a fuctional game before they found a Publisher . Now if you were an established game designer with a Big title under your belt I would say you had a good chance at pitching an idea but that's a whole other boat.

Kevin Albers

Having a studio and a team is probably a lot more important than having a game to pitch to publishers. It's relatively easy to come up with a good game idea. It's pretty darn hard to have a team that will be able to make a great game. Publishers generally want to hire developers who have already made commercially succesfull games, in order to avoid huge risks.

hawken

If you're really willing to follow this through, I'd say there's no harm in trying. I've thought along similar lines before.

Make sure you have a lot of documentation to back up any and all questions they might have. An idea is an idea, but they'll need to see that you can make it work. Plan the financial aspects of your idea, along with the target demographic.

It's not impossible if you're willing to go for it. Are you pitching with the idea of starting your own team or as a game to sell to a company?

As far as the legal aspect go, they won't even let you through the door if you start throwing "copyright this", "copyright that" around. Leave that to one side and concentrate on pitching an interesting game, that will sell, with every financial aspect to it's development planned out. Legal issues will rarely arise, and even if they do, there's nothing you can do about it.

snemmy

maybe you would want some form of legal document signed by both parties to prevent IP theft ?

:shrugs:

skankerzero

All I can say, is good luck.

Generally, a publisher won't even look your way unless you have money or a team with a reputation. If you have no experience, then chances are, you'll be doing something they want you to do. Only until you build a rep can you begin to do games you want to do. That's how it usually works.

Also remember, you have these cool ideas that you've been working on for years, but so does everyone else that's in this industry.

Heck, I've written up about 5 game docs here at work, and they're in our pitching queue. While lots of the people here and I think they're awesome, the publishers probably don't because they aren't real-world, you can't free-roam, and it's not some kind of realistic war shooter. (that's what's 'in' currently)

Anywho, with the amount of people that come up to me and want me to make their game ideas, I can't imagine the amount publishers get.

Do your best to stand out. Good luck with it.

nitzmoff

If you don't have an established team, or at least one whose individual members have a good pedigree, then you need a demo. However, you stand a far better chance with both.

Ninjas

If I were you I would learn to code, model, animate and write music. Maybe then you can get your game made... by yourself. Otherwise you may as well give up now, since there is no way anyone will care what your ideas are (this doesn't mean they are bad). You are not a unique snowflake.

EarthQuake

Yeah i wouldnt even BOTHER unless you have a WORKING game prototype and atleast a small team of people already working for you on the project.

FatAssasin

Like many others have said, I wouldn't even bother pitching to publishers. If you have a really good game idea and you're passionate about seeing it realized, you're best bet is to self-publish. Depending on the type of game it is, you can use pre-existing engines, like Unreal or even Flash, and sell it over the net.

PaK

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Seriously it's not even worth wasting your time .


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That's not true. We just pitched an ikdea to a major publisher and got picked up.

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Generally, a publisher won't even look your way unless you have money or a team with a reputation. If you have no experience, then chances are, you'll be doing something they want you to do. Only until you build a rep can you begin to do games you want to do. That's how it usually works.


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He is right, but that doesn't eman yopu shouldn't do what you can to realise your idea and then try and sell it. This is what Piranha games did, and they had no expierence, yet their first game was what 'they' decided to do.

-R

-R

hawken

A lot of people here are just regurgitating what they have read or heard. Don't let it dissuade you, however we do need more info to go on to advise you better.

This is after all how new games pop up, and it is totally possible. A working demo would help you 10 fold

nitzmoff

I'm regurgitating what I know from experience. Of course, never give up hope as there's always a chance for anything to happen. But if you were to pursue this in the most practical way possible, you would either have a team, or create an mazing demo in your spare time. It's just how these things work.

That is unless of course you know someone in the business that can get you in the right place at the right time. Who you know is often times just as important as what you know.

But the bottom line for any publisher is 'does this game fit into our portfolio at the moment?' Folks can love you but it all comes down to what they're looking to publish and when.