So You're Ready to Pitch to a Publisher? You're Not 

UP NEXT -> You don't need a F-ing Publisher. youtube made my day

The biggest issue she brought up is the fact people like her work at important positions in the industry while she is no gamer and didn't even play games herself. THIS is a major issue with all the "suit" kind of people in the business.

she says "don't show a budget unless you are asked for one"... literally every other speaker (publisher) says the exact opposite... the main thing that Publishers are interested in, is how much will it cost.

I'll tell you one thing, you successfully pitched Tunic and Overland to me, individually.

17:06 Explains the issue with the industry in a nutshell as a lot of games are getting frontloaded to be cool/interesting in the first hour, but then fall off sharply.

Nice talk Rebekah, thanks a lot! As part of an indie publisher myself, I appreciate to know how you're working!

Great talk

My wife's uncle spends a lot of time in Europe and says "Litrally" all the time just like this and it's literally all I can focus on in this talk.

44:20 Miniboss did Celeste's art, if I'm not wrong.

*Other folks:* "I know all this stuff, my game is too artistic for crass commercial concerns" *Me:* :takes notes eagerly: I love these "business of game dev" talks, especially when it's this kind of "school of hard knocks" experience. Even if you never play at the deep end of the pool (500K sales!), making a better pitch also helps you understand your game better, and how to better connect with your audience. Nothing improves without practice, and you've gotta be ready when that "golden pitch" opportunity comes along. Great talk (just a shame no time for Q&A).

It's a good talk, but her almost boasting that she doesn't know gaming terminology is on her not on the people pitching. You are a producer in a gaming industry, if you can't talk about games what are you doing in this business?

great talk, thank you so much

Lots of good information here, but I'm really hung up on the idea that people don't know, or even how to spell, very simple grade-school concepts such as "biome" and "crafting".

Yes I am

This why I'd rather make a project myself. . . Too many factors that take away my creativity and such. Our Games never get noticed unless we have money. Nice to know. . .

11:10 “Someone like YOU” okay wow, just called a room full of game devs adult children 😂

Oh shit her husband made Canabalt? That's a genre defining game right there.

i didnt get the Double Finji thing

46:53 link she shares on screen blog.adamatomic.com/post/172749451585/gdc-wrap-up-part-2-screenshot-theory-spring

Screenshot Theory Link: blog.adamatomic.com/post/172749451585/gdc-wrap-up-part-2-screenshot-theory-spring

GDC talk equivalent of "How to get into the same situation as No Man's Sky"

This "regular person" she talks about. Where do I find this?

Well I do have a prototype, and I’m looking for talent and I’m willing to pay but I can’t seem to find the top talent. What should I do?

Nobody is ready thats the problem

I thought people that brag about the amount of unread emails in their inbox are not a thing anymore.

I'm literally commenting on this right now.

I feel kinda bad now, as a indie thats not something I can afford

20:55 so that's supposed to be ugly ?

To be fair, I think that the industry's situation where 99% of indies sell 300~3000 copies isn't a sign of how competitive the industry is, but rather of how much it's filled with bad shovelware games.

She seems super knowledgeable and approachable... but this is yet another talk that starts by saying "everyone thinks they are going to be rich." and "its harder than you think." Speaking to the lowest common denominator isn't actually speaking to the individuals likely to succeed. I have never for one second thought I would make a game to drive a fancy car and I know I can't be alone in this.

Pitch is only for investors or publishers, include NDA.... But the people of the investor and publisher should be addressed in such a way that any of them can easily understand and arouse their interest, be it a player or a non-player (cringe-publisher), a developer, or a journalist.

I think I don't get it .. whats wrong with "Dear, DOUBLE FINJI" ?

blog.adamatomic.com/post/172749451585/gdc-wrap-up-part-2-screenshot-theory-spring the link she mentions at 46:44

I personally don't find it insulting, but just because something has good intention doesn't make it not mean

The amount of people in this comment section that don’t understand what the heck publishers/publishing is and for, it’s limitation, pros cons and use case is staggering.

the slides aren't moving at about 24:56... she's talking about something else but the slides just stayed...

Industry is so drunks with money there is no professionalism like in any other media. If you get the money you are right. Pitching is a totally random process handled by random people with lot of theories. But hey, I saw a video about pitching where a guy said “do not come drunk” so on the dev side too level are low. Things are changing as the medium is evolving but man, is so sad.

I feel like a person who doesn't play games can't be a very competent game publisher

"I'm a game publisher", "I only played a 3d game once", "I can't figure if the prototype is good or not, but Adam can". Why didn't you bring Adam to do the talking ?

Wow, she's not interested in prototypes (the thing that *proves* a concept), but she likes the low poly fox -.-

The fact that the CEO of a publisher of a video game company doesn't actually play video games is just so????? it makes me not want to listen to anything that you have to say because it implies no personal passionate investment in end-user experiences.

Overlands prototypes looked so much better than the final game, especially the pixel art one. Edit: The first trailer shown in this video is so much better than the one on steam currently.

Imagine needing a publisher

Wait what, since when is crafting a special word? It means the same as it always did, just in a different context but for the same goal. It makes me doubt what she's trying to say after hearing such things.

So basically, even if you're game is trash, you can get published because your pitch is perfect.

Coming a little late, but damn, what a depressing talk. I mean, yeah, what she says is probably true for many/most publishers, but coming here and saying "the industry is shit, I'm a piece of that shit, deal with it" is.. Thank you, I guess? I'm pitching to a VIDEOGAME publisher, not to a random rich dude I met at a party. I would say the minimum is that you know the basic videogame genres. You may not be a gamer and not know what attributes like luck usually do in an RPG, but you can't not know what a roguelike is (and actually, she knows they exist but can't be bothered remembering what they are). First time I was totally annoyed watching a GDC talk. A good publisher should care about the game they're publishing. If they don't even know the category they fit in, how can they even know if they want to publish it or not? Oh well, I guess just leave it to the husband who sounds like the one actually doing something productive.

Gonna be a prick here, but why do some talks have (relatively) edgy names to them? So, we are a small studio and we may fall into that category that does some aspects of pitching wrong, you really wanna grind that idea into us huh? don't mind me

This woman is why game developers should avoid publishers ie You should self publish, and if you want the marketing services a publisher provides, hire a marketer, on an hourly rate.

Literally... You keep using that word. That word does not mean, what you think it means.

Publisher: “we don’t pay for prototypes because it isn’t cost effective.” Dev: “I have to do it for free because I’m not an industry leech.”

I came here for a talk and ended up buying overland and a night in the woods on the spot.... Sigh....

Anyone else annoyed by how often she says “Literally”?

I stopped at "literally played games from supernintendo and never played a 3D game until my 20s" and "I dont have knowledge of everythiung that's been made...-" something like that. So what I get is that you evaluate game ideas but you were unaware of 3D games and not even play videogames? Only nintendo ? the company least userfriendly and most lawyer sharks there is? Maybe is not the best way to approach this kind of video, I started doubting all advice.

With all due respect, m'lady, you should know better than anyone about the genres of the industry. It's your job afterall! Nice talk, btw.

A blue hair chick who doesn't play games is in charge of picking what games are to be published.... Just a thing i want to hear after working on a project for 3 years without a pay

Aviod blue haired woman. Advice taken

Nice blue hair