gamescom qa 2024

so Jason's the man so Jason uh if I assume everybody in the call is Gamescom curious maybe they're going for pitching maybe they're going just to make friends maybe they're there to show a game um I just want to turn the show over to Jason and uh ask him hey how do your games come how do yeah it's F and and and Chris despite uh having been to all of the Gamescom so far uh I don't know why they usually you know don't use a capital G for uh for I'll I'll like ask them this time I never thought to ask I you know every time I was typing it out I was like what I I I kept checking maybe I was making some mistake but nope so yes what is Gamescom yeah so I mean G I mean I'm I'm guessing many people in the chat are at least aware or know of Gamescom it is actually the biggest gaming event uh in the world uh I mean preco numbers was close to 4

400,000 uh and I do think last year they probably got back up to 300,000 uh of course Gamescom is split between a consumer like a ComicCon style convention uh for fans and Gamers and and families and stuff uh and then the business or B2B side as they call it uh which has both a developer conference called devcom and then has all the you know the B2B business matchmaking area um Gamescom is quite the experience uh in that there there there's just endless endless amounts of people and Gamers and fans and everyone floating around a lot of people doing cosplay uh it really is you know as a as as a a gamer as a fan myself ourselves uh it really is kind of a an amazing experience but uh you know postco if you're not a big fan of huge crowds and all that kind of stuff you can kind of stay away from the con side

of things the convention side and just stick to the um stick to the uh the business area but even then the business area is still you know 30,000 plus people so it's kind of a GDC scale and because of that it is a very very critical event in the calendar each year uh to meet Publishers to meet investors to meet platforms and partners uh and and do the you know game developer hustle uh and I I would say for for most uh uh Western uh developers so those kind of in the Americas or or or or most of Europe uh Gamescom and GDC are like the two most important events uh in the year to go to go do uh hardcore uh hustling and pitching and stuff um you know it's crowded but it it means that all of the Publishers investors and all those folks that you want to meet they're all there in one spot so you can do kind of the one the one trip get on the ground uh and then uh you know try

to try to line up a bunch of bunch of meetings um earlier this year we launched the the pitching and funding master class we had done that just ahead of GDC on the Assumption there was going to be a bunch of folks bunch of developers heading to GDC uh and pitching to Publishers and so on and so we thought it'd be a great time to you know drop that knowledge onto developers to help everyone increase their chances of having some some good uh good pitch meetings uh and so because Gamescom is is you know one of those critical events as well uh we thought it'd be a good idea to do a little a little push again uh for the class uh and actually we have some specific modules uh about Gamescom and how to navigate the show floor and what's important what's not important you know how to how to get meetings and handle things uh appropriately just uh you know ju just in time for for Gamescom um and you know in many ways you know pitching at Gamescom is no different than pitching uh anywhere else

uh and obviously putting in the time and effort uh to make a good pitch deck to really think about what your goals are to uh you know find and prioritize for the right Publishers right Partners is is very important um actually what what we'll do is if you have uh specific questions uh drop them in the Q&A tab I know folks are are are saying uh uh you know dropping a bunch of comments and stuff but but if you have a if you have a question specifically about how to navigate Gamescom or devcom please drop that in the Q&A uh and then also if you have just sort of a more uh generic question about pitching uh or publisher deals or whatever by all means you can drop that in the Q&A as well and we'll we'll take some time to uh to dig into that um what I would say is that we're we're about two weeks out from Gamescom at this point actually let me check my I think it's two weeks yeah well it's

exactly two weeks uh ahead of Gamescom uh and so now I mean if you if you have not already started to reach out to Publishers now would be the time so uh really good timing to be able to dig into this Chris yeah uh one thing that they do offer a meet to match um and that's often a common question I know there's going to be a question in in the Q&A tab about this one um any tips on how uh meet match Works anything that that helps there yeah yeah so so I I guess the well I'll step back a little bit uh there's a whole week going on there in Germany and cologne the first two days the Monday Tuesday is devcom which is a developer specific uh or Focus conference and then Wednesday through the Sunday is Gamescom the big convention which has all the BTC

stuff um you have meet to match at both components so you can show up do the developer conference you know go to some sessions meet other developers make new friends and connections all that good stuff and there's a meet to match and you can you know you can use meet to match to do some speed dating with with Publishers and such and then you can also you know then the next day show up at Gamescom which is the much larger convention and then within the B2B or business area there's also a meet to match that you can sign up for and then meet Publishers and stuff you know via the meet to match speed dating system so there's actually like two two portions so some someone who's never gone to cologne before that it's a bit disorienting because there's kind of like these two components and people don't realize there's the two days of devcom before uh but but yeah I mean meet meet to match is the same that that folks should be familiar with sign up for ticket you go through the system request meetings Etc

and um you know is there any um uh you know just top of the head biggest tip that you think really that kind of trips up folks uh pitching here at Gamescom anything that you know that they could kind of the mistake not to make before they head in there yeah I mean there's there's sort of a couple of things one is ideally this is an event where you really should be trying to book your meetings ahead of time uh despite the fact that everyone you want to meet is there because Gamescom is such a big such an intense event there there their schedules tend to fill up so these folks are not like floating around they're not just like hanging out at their booth and you can just walk up and like pitch to them um so the people you want to pitch to tend to be caught up in meetings uh um and their schedules fill up so it's one of those events where if you just if you just like walk up to cologne and say okay I'm here

it is a bit overwhelming and there's it's just so huge and so many people that if you haven't taken the time before getting there to line up a handful of meetings and pitches or use meet to match to kind of schedule some things it could it could become overwhelming uh and then and then the other piece is really focus on the timing of your pitch I know this is something we cover extensively in in the in the master class you know we have the whole 10 slide system or 10 10 page uh uh system as a means to condense all of the important knowledge into a fairly quick you know five to seven minute pitch because the Publishers are so busy and so overwhelmed they don't want to listen to you go on and on about the backstory and the the the World building and each character bu like they're just they're gonna be like I don't have time for this because they've got another 30 me meetings you know back to back to back that day so so there really is a

pressure on the developer to to synthesize and condense all the knowledge and have discipline to be able to deliver an effective pitch in that kind of five minute sweet spot so that the the publisher right away can say okay this is what the game is this is what the game play the player doing these are the genres this is the budget this is the timeline you know all the things we cover in the 10 10 slide system uh you really have to have the discipline to do that and not you know go on and on and on about backstory and whatever for 30 minutes the the the Publishers are going to they're not going to be pleased so uh Chris I think I think those are probably the two things is really just take the time to book meetings ahead so you actually have a productive time while you're there and then in those meetings really have the discipline as a developer to kind of deliver the key data and and you know be be conscious of the time pressure of the Publishers doing a ton of meetings back toback the whole week yeah yeah and and I've got the the course uh back here the

the behind the scenes of what what you'll be getting if you get the course it we have a section just on contacting publish so if we have that two weeks you know it's tight but um you know one of the things we find is Word of Mouth in other words like hey you you were published by this publisher oh I I'm your friend hey can you introduce me to the publisher so that could be an Avenue when we kind of go through some of these these uh the means to to how to get these actual connections here and then as Jason said we've got um the pitch deck how to get in there uh you know all the key Mo key kind of slides you need to get in there and then um we've also reached out to developers who've had successful pitches they've won pitch contests at GDC and we got them to send us their pitch deck so you could just see it now we we block out all the dollar amounts and all that sort of thing uh but you can see just what does a pitch dick look like what what are you talking about when you say oh put the unique selling proposition what is it um we kind of we have examples right in the course so um one thing I should mention

well speaking of uh getting right to it um let's go to questions in a minute but I just want to step in because because it's gamecom um to get in there I've got um uh I put the course on discount 30% off which is what I did during the November or during the summer sale just for a brief window for Gamescom I've open up the course for discount so if you check the offers tab you know it's like the QA tab there's an offers tab you'll be able to see that you got to use the coupon code Gamescom and then you'll get a a a pretty deep discount on our course uh so that if you are headed to to Gamescom for um um for the for the pitch or something or you you you're you're pitch curious you know you can kind of get that information before you head over there maybe on the flight over if you're from the US change change some things up based off of Jason's excellent teaching so um with Jason anything else you want to add about uh anything

special that might be appropriate don't don't make changes to your pitch deck on the plane right over see I don't even know how the games come that's the worst thing no no you want you wantan you want to be making those changes now because you have to practice your pitch a hundred times before you get on the airplane to Gamescom so you're you're kind of you know you're in trouble if you're making changes to your pitch deck on the plane ride over so all right it happens all the time happens all the time so let's answer some questions um post them in the QA tab uh Jason you want me to read them to you or you fine reading them picking the ones yeah yeah I I'll go through them and and just to uh someone in the chat said there's no tab for discounts there's a tab for offers so it's not actually called discounts it's called offers yeah uh all right so let's uh let's take a look at the QA tab we got a question from Phillip how much time is

there to talk to people at devcom between talks yeah I mean so at devcom you can go to the their website I think it's Dev devcom dog Global uh and they have a pro their program listed out I'm actually giving a talk on funding models and um I think the talks are back to back you know 9:30 10:30 11:30 12:30 Etc um but but not everyone is in every class every hour you know so I I I'm I I kind of flow through the day I'll go give my talk you know I'll take a break for lunch I'll have a meeting with someone I'll go see you know Chris's Chris is not there but I'll go see someone else's talk uh you know then I'll do another meeting then I'll go you know get a coffee uh so most people kind of flow around the day it's not like they're sitting in every class back to

back um so I mean it's a bit hard to answer that question Philip because each person sort of manages or or sort of treats their schedule a bit differently uh but but usually you everyone goes into a classroom listens to the talk and then kind of leaves the classroom there's usually the chance to like grab the speaker if you wanted to you know swap business cards or say ask a question to the speaker if there's other people you were sitting with and they're flowing out you can kind of like talk to them then what people will ten do at devcom is you know if they're not attending a lecture they'll go kind of wander around the the Indie exhibition area well there's another area for like tools and Tech and they'll just kind of like wander around a bit there's a little cafe area so people go get a coffee uh so I'd say it's a it's a fairly loose and flowing kind of vibe and devcom there's about 2,000 or so attendees so still a decent number of people um so so as an attendee I would be very picky about

what lectures you go to like don't feel the need to sit in a classroom every hour on the hour you know all all day long or all both days long you know be be picky if you see a couple cool things you know go see them do that learning and the rest of the time you know feel free to kind of wander around mingle uh and just just chill out uh all right question from uh Nora uh what during the pitch during the 30- minute meeting makes it stand out the most is individuals the numbers the person how can you make yourself memorable all right well Nora this is this is a a great great question uh and and it's kind of subjective because it could be any of those things uh right often times when you come in and you you know you as an individual are very Dynamic very passionate you seem like you know just someone who who's going to change the world that can get people really excited is I I I need to work with Nora Norah

has such a great energy like like I I just I just want to I just want to back back what what Norah's doing um you know so that that kind of energy comes across conversely uh you know a lot of game developers do tend to be a bit Shyer a bit more introverted a bit more chill and if you go into a pitch meeting and you're kind of like n non BL like you're Blas it's like yeah here's my game you know it's some ninjas and swords and thing and and like you're just not bringing a good vibe a good energy like that could ruin the pitch for like that was such a great game but Jason was so boring and had no passion and didn't even seem interested in his own game like why are we even gonna bother doing that even though we want that ninja game and look cool like ah forget about it Jason you know that that's you know boring and and and no energy so so you do need to be mindful that your presence your energy your passion does make a difference that being said you know if you come in with great energy and and

the game looks like crap they're going to be like well Nora awesome energy but that game like like it's not going to find an audience it's just not beautiful you know it's not it's not uh compelling enough um often times it's it's the uh genre fit right so if you go to pitch uh I'll say Paradox you know Paradox as a publisher really really focuses on strategy Grand strategy Forex strategy you know if you book a meeting or request a meeting with them and you're working on a I don't know like a cozy farming Sim or something like like if it's just not a match for the kinds of games the genres that they normally do then it doesn't matter if you had great energy if the game is beautiful if the numbers make sense they be like ah it just doesn't fit with what we're doing um so that that the the genre is often like the the most important thing or call it a genre fit relative to the to the publisher um

and then listen at the end of the day the numbers also have to make sense right you know okay I'm pitching a strategy game to Paradox I come in with good energy the game is looking beautiful but I'm asking for a $55 million production budget and uh you know the LA the last five games in that category that uh that that Paradox did only made 10 million well I mean like the numbers just don't work right I'm obviously I'm exaggerating uh but the numbers have to make sense and Publishers tend to know uh uh you know um sort of Target Revenue ranges so for example if you're making a puzzle platformer I know we pick on these ones often it's not because they aren't good games or aren't fun or beautiful games is that the revenue expectations of a platformer these days is relatively low so if you go into a publisher and say i' like $2 million to make this awesome platformer they be like yeah sorry that that budget doesn't make sense sense we know Platformers are

not selling that well on average that's too big of a risk so again you come in with energy the platformer is beautiful the game looks F but then the numbers don't make sense so I mean nor I I kind of gave you like an all the answers non-answer to your to your question because it's kind of a combination of of of all of those all of those things so um yeah tough not not not easy to kind of nail everything but from Lucas you mind if I take this one so this I mean again it depends on your situation I mean if you're living in Cologne Lucas and all you got to do is stumble out of bed and you're at Gamescom so G Lucas's question is hey I'm not a commercial Game Dev I don't know anything uh should I go to Gamescom does it make sense my thought is no I remember when I first started doing games like you know 2009 I think it was 2010 I was like I'll go to GDC I've never made anything I think I made half a game Jam game and there was a journalist that i' followed and he was like like I love this

journalist and it was just like this moment and I like walked up to him and I was like I'm a Game Dev and he's like oh yeah would you work on and I was like nothing really but I'm I got this great idea and I could just see the guy's face just like fall and I was like what am I doing here like I it was San Francisco was expensive I spent a couple thousand dollars to get out there I mean it was good to kind of get the spirit but it if you got to spend money I don't know I don't think it's worth it until you you kind of got some that's just my take there these are expensive again I don't know Lucas if you're just in Cologne and you just walk there sure do it it's fun to see the scene but or if you're there to look at some cool things sure but I I kind of think that it's not worth your time and money until you've you kind of have built something for a little while I don't know what's your thought Jason yeah I mean I I mean obviously if it's in the neighborhood and it's like a a quick let's say if Lucas is in Europe and it's a 1-hour train ride okay then then go have some fun meet

some folks learn some things and I think it'll contribute to that that early stage Journey but if you're on the other side of the world and you're going to lay out you know thousands of dollars I mean it's still valuable to learn but but if you're in that learning mode and you're not in a commercial mode then you know all the frenzy around the pitching and all the B2B area and all the like you know you're kind of wasting your time because you're not ready to engage in that level but you know spending two days at devcom learning from other developers taking notes getting inspiration you know that's valuable and then Gamescom is a convention so just being a gamer a fan a geek you know spending a day hanging out at Gamescom and seeing all the cool stuff I mean that's still fun so I think I think it really is a like like how much would it cost you for that fun and that learning versus you know you know do you live down the street and you can just walk over so I I think that's the

kind of the ratio you want to you want to balance nothing magic happens though if you're expecting to come out of this like a game designer it doesn't necessarily happen that's not what these events typically do to you yeah and and I I mean just sort of abstracting it I what I would say to anyone in the room that's like Lucas a bit earlier in their Journey you really want to take advantage of any opportunities that are quote unquote in the neighborhood to connect with other developers to talk to your peers you know do game jams just sort of be part of the community I think there's there's Great Value and that accelerates your learning and also opens doors down the road where you can help people people can help you uh uh but that's like you know go going down the street for meetups and and things like that or like the next town over where you're not outlaying huge amounts of money to fly across the globe Etc um so so I'm very Pro getting out of you know away from the keyboard going out into

the real world connecting meeting mingling learning I think that's extremely valuable and and to the extent that you know a GDC a Gamescom or any of these other events a packs uh is sort of within your budgetary means then I'd say go for it have some fun make some friends learn but yeah as Chris says it's not like all of a sudden you'll have a blessing and then now now you're a professional you know designer and everyone will throw money at you or anything anything uh you magical like uh like that um all right let's see let's move on question read Adrian with should you put a range on your ask section in your pitch deck or should just put the highest amount you can you can consider yeah so so Adrian we actually have a module on this in the in the in the class uh I'm not a fan of ranges uh because it sort of shows uh uncertainty on your part right

it's like I I've seen the way the way this often manifests is developer will say well uh basic version of the game 1 million if you want the the online co-op version you know that's a million five and then if you want the deluxe version which is the co-op plus you know two more chapters that's two million and what what that does is it it makes the publisher think that you don't really know what version of the game you want to make uh and also the publisher now will only want the deluxe version so so they well well I want the deluxe version I want all the chapters and I want the online co-op and and but I don't want to pay 2 million because that's beyond my budget range so can we make the deluxe version happen for the 1 million and so you end up in these awkward discussions negotiations um so so what I would recommend is only show the deluxe

version with that 2 million budget and then let them say hey uh Adrian I like what you're building but you know what this style of game we don't think it needs uh online co-op uh can we cut that out and save a couple of bucks what would that cost and then you say oh well if I took it out then and we're only doing single player okay that's a million five okay let's do that so so I I would sort of put the deluxe all the topping everything you know full budget and then and then sort of negotiate from there uh or or the reverse will happen sometimes let's say you were not even thinking about Co-op and you're just you know it's just a million-dollar game and then the publish says you know what Adrian this style of game if it had Co-op sales will go up 5x how much would it cost us to redesign and and re architect to add Co-op and then you come back and say oh well original budget was 1 million to add the co-op that'll be a million five and then the publish is okay let's do the million five um so I I

wouldn't offer the ranges in the deck itself I I would be more confident and and and um certain in terms of what you want to build and how much it will cost you and put that there and then let sort of other ideas and thoughts be part of the discussion as opposed to on the slide uh on the slide itself that's normally okay next question is from David um what is the current Trend regarding the Rog likee game genre do you think it's a good idea to publish a Rog like right now and what do you do in the pitch um I'll I'll kind of start I'll start this one because I I always study genre and then I'll I'll hand it over to Jason for the pitching side of it um regarding the genre the word Rog likee now just means like the way levels work it's like it's like a metal layer on the game it's like saying our game has levels you know like everything is Rog likee because Rog likee just means for the most part and it's there's so many subg genres of Rogue like it just means

if you die you lose a lot of progress but there's a second bankable kind of resource that you can improve your character and so there's this this miss this push and pull of what happens in a short run what happens in the long run it's basically at this point a meta structure so if you say hey we're making a rogue like you've basically said we have levels that's essentially where the word Rog like is at this period yeah now there are some things like Rog likee deck builders there's sub genres where it's clear but for the most part just saying Rog likee so in your pitch this is where I'll hand it over to Jason you gotta you gotta tell what Rogue like means you can't just say we're making a rogue like you gotta go deep so Jason what do you think yeah well I mean to your point Chris it is a bit um I don't want to say it's meaningless but but a publisher probably gets a dozen Rog likee pitches a day uh and and yeah so I agree in that you

know Rogue like now just sort of means oh our game includes that kind of you know replay cycle that that meta you know meta replay cycle and Resource Management cycle um and so on the one hand I would say that Publishers are Keen for games that are inherently highly replayable uh you know whe whether that's because it's Rog likee or whether because it's like uh PVP match basee so every time you play it's a different experience um you know so inherently PVP match Bas is highly replayable Rogue likes are highly replayable uh survival crafting are highly replayable so you know so there's there's definitely an interest from Publishers and investors for games that are highly replayable using emerging systems etc etc so rikes fit into that in that they are designed by their very nature to be highly replayable so on the one hand there is a a positive disposition towards

roguelike you know structures but there is also this numbing effect that that you know every other game that gets pitched them is some kind of Rog like whether that's a Rog like deck builder action RPG you know whatever whatever so you you do need to be mindful that that your game still has to have something special something unique something different a hook of some kind and so you know Rog like kind of become the anchor where okay I understand what that means that style of game okay but what's the hook what's the thing what's the twist that you're doing uh do doing new and so yeah I mean David it's it's a bit hard to say whether that's story or the visual effects Etc um but but just be mindful that Publishers are seeing a lot of Rog likes but again the Chris's point it's kind of becoming a bit of a wishy-washy term because you know it's being applied to all kinds of games and all kinds of sub

genres uh and stuff like that so yeah yeah and just just a one other thing like favorite one of my favorite Publishers is um hooded horse like in the last six months last year they've published two maybe possibly three depending how you define it Rog likee city builders so it's like the same publisher has published Rog likee city builders which one that means it's a hot genre if they can sell and make a lot of money because hooded horse knows what they're doing they've they've sold three of these but if you were to do the pitch you're like we're making a Rog likee City Builder they're like okay we've got a list of them here's our list it's not buy a part not like oh my God you you've cracked the case of Rog like City Builder so that's no longer a selling point That's Unique you got to get in line which is not bad I'm just saying like and it's a very popular thing to have a Rog likee City Builder now it's just saying like you have to prove it in other ways that this game is something magic something special is what we're saying so all right let's go to the next one from J Jandy um any tips for meeting

people who are not in the meet to match system and I assume they mean just not like hey I met this guy at the bar you're talking like how to meet Publishers outside of meet to match I'm assum I'm gonna put words in your mouth johy but um I'm not I'm we're not here to to to do uh make friends and enemies but uh how how would you meet a publisher outside of meet to match Jason yeah so there there's a there's a few sort of tactics uh one is they might be at the bar I mean obviously Gamescom there are a bunch of different social events and networking activities uh if you are registered for devcom with a meet to match ticket I believe on both evenings the Monday and the Tuesday uh there are um uh you know like like mixers or happy hours and stuff so uh you that that's one way to do it and that kind of you know social happy hour type context um Chris hinted at one earlier which is you are friends with other developers in other Studios and

they've worked with a given publisher and you're not finding them in the meet to match and you really like to meet them then you can you know call in a favor from one of your buddy developers that is friends with that publisher and say hey can you introduce me can you you know make a connection um sometimes the Publishers are on stage at devcom so they're going to give uh you know they're going to give their tips on pitching or update on how deals are done or latest trends or uh you know if you go through the devcom program you'll see some of those Publishers are like sort of you know sprinkled uh around the different lectures and things and so we can sometimes do is go to that lecture and at the end of the lecture you know as they're kind of coming off the stage you you you can go and approach them and say hey I'm Jandy I'd love to pitch you you know do you have any availability this week you know this kind of thing um and then also in the business area of Gamescom many of the Publishers not

all of the Publishers but many of the Publishers have their own stand uh and those stands are usually kind of they're like more closed in they're not the usual like pxs style consumer stands that are very open for gamers to come and play games the the business stands tend to be sort of like you know a closed in booth and you and there's like a welcome desk and then and then let's if you have a meeting then you go inside the booth and you have your meeting but but if you don't have a meeting schedule you can go to the you can go to the the the welcome desk and say hey I'm an new developer I'm publishing my game uh I'd like to meet someone from the scouting or business development team of you know devolver or Team 17 or whoever the publisher is um and and and you might be able to sort of get on get on the agenda there I would say that's lower probability because as I said earlier often times the scouts and the Business Development folks their schedules fill up ahead of time because Gamescom is so

big and so you're risking that if you just sort of show up at the welcome desk and ask for a meeting the response may be oh sorry but that person's schedule is already full uh sometimes you can get lucky but oftentimes uh you know but I would say that that'd be like my last ditch effort right I couldn't find them in the to match they weren't a speaker so I couldn't sort of jump jump jump on them as they got off the stage I didn't have any friends that were connected I have no other way no other means I didn't bump into them at the mixer at the happy hour okay tomorrow I'm going to go to the booth and go to the welcome desk and see if there's someone available to talk to me so that's kind of usually the LA like the last uh in in the triage yeah yeah yeah that's great yeah and uh we what part of the master class we interview developers who've had successful like they got funding and I did interviews with them just said like how did you meet it and it was overwhelmingly hey friend of a friend they introduced me they said I was cool they I was legit and that that is like I

know it's like all this technology apps and websites and stuff but the good thing is it comes down to humans it's like hey I know I trust this person they they vouched for me and then we carried on there so it's so you know we mentioned making friends but it it is like hey friend of a friend recommending me hey here I am and that's that goes a long way so uh there's no there's no Magic app all the time so let's go from Leon um are there any events or activities you would highlight at the event you mentioned publishing speed dating for example uh okay I'm going to put a link in the chat which is a cheat sheet for a bunch of the uh social activities parties networking mixer events uh let me see where's the where's the chat to everybody all right so now everyone gets to see this is put together by it's someone from scopely so one of one of the big studios uh her name is

Grace uh and she kind of tracks a bunch of the parties and things it doesn't have everything because there's there are some you know private dinners and you know more more exclusive things but this is kind of a a good start uh to see some of the stuff that's uh that's going on uh and then at uh the devcom uh website itself I think there's a let me just see if I can grab it quick um there is uh I think there's a a section for like their different uh activities Oh side events here we go let me just grab that link so here's where they have info on the different uh um they called the sunset mixer and there's there's a dinner and um ex is hosting a game night and uh there's a b there's a bunch of different stuff so I think I think between the the devcom side events and then the and Grace's kind of spreadsheet of all the different mixers and happy

hours and other activities and breakfasts and coffee breaks and all that kind of stuff that that'll that'll give you pretty good coverage on the different things that are that are going on great great um from uh Jad we've got first time at Gamescom how do you maximize the meat to match opportunities should you just go straight into the pitch like as soon as the door closes or do you kind of do a little sweet talk beforehand oh [Applause] oh yeah I mean I mean we we have we have a a module in the master class specifically on meeting uh Management on the time time management uh chis you're so good um it's the mo like Mo minute by minute Jason breaks this down of how to do this it is Let Me Tell You Folks the master class we go deep yeah yeah yeah so so yeah so there's a module exactly on this question um I mean my advice is always to be a

human uh and despite you know the the pressure the the you know the the the tension the the stress you know be a human say hey how's the show going for you it's my first time hey did you go to the exola mixer last night I thought this was interesting did you see anything cool like like spend a few minutes just to like break the ice uh and get the publisher talking a little bit um if you've done your homework I always like to kind of ask an open-ended question to the publisher just to kind of get them talking a bit so I don't know that's I'm having a meeting with devolver hey I played Cult of the Lamb what an amazing game was such a huge success for for for devolver like like how did you find that game like where did that come from and then let the publisher say oh well you know we were at this event and a friend invited a friend and then we met that and and and one it's kind of building rapport with the publisher they they think you know

you're genuinely interested in them and what they're doing it's very it's a very human exchange but at the same time they will sometimes give you little Clues and hints into how they do business how they Scout you know what they prioritize all this kind of stuff so you kind of ask an innocent uh curiosity style question you know it uses up about five minutes of the of the meeting but it's actually very valuable uh five minutes and then you're like oh great story wow congrats again all right well let let me show you what we're working on and then you open up your laptop and you got your slide deck ready to roll and then you you you go in and and we talked about discipline before so you've practiced a hundred times you can deliver your pitch smoothly within five minutes or so and then that still leaves you half the half the meeting to have a discussion for them to ask questions I mean if you have a build you can offer to let them play the build sometimes folks are too busy so they oh no no it's okay send me the build next week um but you always want

to leave a lot of time for discussion for those questions around the budget and the timeline and this design feature and this technical question all that kind of stuff and and one of the biggest mistakes developers will do is is uh they're so eager they're so excited they'll take up all of the time just to deliver the pitch and then the publisher is like okay well thank you I've got to go and then they leave and you got no feedback you have no there was no time for discussion you have no idea what the next steps are action items all that kind of stuff you you you were just you know spewing spewing spewing and then thank you and they left so uh so yeah so I I I would sort of break it down like that but again there's the module in the master class that has that in the you know minute by- minute detail great great tip on the open-ended question there that's that's a pro tip right there all right um You Gotta Have a this is a question from kit you got to have a few games first before pitching right they need to know you can produce some

quality right what do you think uh NOP no uh I mean it helps right I mean kid if you've already shipped four roguelike city builders and they've all performed decently and now you're on to your fifth and you're going to pitch hooded horse and they like Rogue Rog likee city builders and you've got a really cool one with a unique twist you know there's certainly a confidence from the public side that like okay kit kit knows how to make city builders this is the fifth one uh and that that helps you I mean it doesn't guarantee you get the deal it still has to be a great game look like fun cool build you know unique twist you know Etc ETA like all those other factors play into it uh but being an experienced Dev for sure no question it means you've proven your ability to ship games that being said if you're a firsttime developer and you've got a compelling pitch an interesting hook the numbers make sense you and the team are

full of passion and energy the build is compelling and you've never shipped a game before I mean you you can still you know score a deal but I would say the pressure is on the quality of the build so so if you've already done four city builders and this is your fifth the four previous city builders are kind of evidence that you can build it if you've never built one before then the evidence is only in the current demo current you know Alpha whatever the state is in so the pressure is on that current build to be awesome so if you've never shipped a game and all you have is like a napkin drawing and an idea okay fine it's you know forget it you have no chance but even if you're you know younger fresh out of school you know bunch of rookies but you walk in the door and you've got

an amazing build you you you can score that deal uh because the publisher will say listen you're a bunch of kids straight out of school but my goodness this is the best Rog likee City Builder I've played all year I want it so I I I there's definitely a slider there and if you don't have that the pedigree to lean on that then the pressure is really on the quality of the build if you walk in the door and you're a bunch of rookies and the the Prototype is kind of janky and ugly and even if the idea maybe is cool then the Publishers will always say sorry kit you're too early come back later when you've made more progress and because the because the evidence is on the quality of the build so if the build is crap and early there too early but if that build is amazing and really compelling then the fact that you're rookies does not preclude you from from getting a deal great great okay so I'm just going to time check we got about 10 minutes left

um I was gonna Hammer through these last ones just a a reminder here um I just put the course on sale for it's only going to be for the next 24 hours kind of get that Gamescom boost you can find a link to it down there there's an offers tab but I also put it in the chat just you can't find the offers tab so uh look at that um we offer a 30-day no questions asked guarantee so if you you you open it up and you're like ah it's just not for me then you could just say Chris like a refund I mean we're so I'm so confident about the course you can even go to Gamescom take the lessons it's in two weeks return it no questions asked but I mean that's on you and uh and your maker if that's ethical thing to do I don't ask any questions ask zero questions you could totally do it so uh just check that out again 30-day guarantee if you're not happy with it we will last for um you could just ask for a refund um but yeah we even uh to Jason's last

point about um you know we even do a section on what the feedback means in other words like at the end uh the followup when sometimes those Publishers will say hey you're a little too early or thanks you know we have a whole lecture just on interpreting what it means depending on what the response is the published it is so um we go deep on everything um this is really like built to give every answer you could possibly need when doing your publishing right here getting a publisher right here um we like I said we do we have pitch decks we have interviews with real developers who've gone through this process uh we really try and cover everything so with that um I'll leave that thing up again it only lasts 24 hours um so check that and then what I'm going to do is I'm going to hammer through uh these last questions here with Jason so from Ivan would you Miss Francis oh Francis sorry sorry sorry um wondering what the best

way to find impromptu meetings is is there the equivalent of Eur Wenda Gardens at at GDC which is that awesome mingle Place yeah FR fris uh actually they're changing the the the structure of the building that devcom is in this year so I don't actually know the lay of the land because the Gamescom the campus is like massive and so they always move things around normally there is a kind of a communal area uh and there's also these like walkways between all the halls and so the walkways tend to have little cafes where people go have a coffee sit and chill out and stuff um so yeah it shouldn't be too hard to navigate it's just this year they're changing the position of of of the devcom so I don't actually have a good answer because I haven't been to that new structure so uh but yeah it shouldn't be hard to find some spots all right next from Ivan would you pitch at Gamescom if you still are in pre-production and don't have a

functional vertical slice so Ivan the quick answer here is no because the the most likely outcome of a good pitch is the publisher will say Ivan that's an amazing game send me the build next week I'll have it I'll play with my team and if you're like oh sorry it's not ready or or it's going be ready in six months then it's like dude why why'd you get me so excited so so normally this is covered actually in the in the master class like like what's the checklist for the things that you need to go do effective pitching and one of the things you need is a solid build because if the pitch goes well they're going to want to play it and if it's not ready to play then you probably went out to pitch a bit early this rule changes if you're a very seasoned developer and you've already like like the example before you've already done Four City bilders already and so you know you have that as your reference point like but if you're a fresh developer and the build's not

ready then you're probably too early to PCH all right next one from Michael could you elaborate on some details on the difference between pitching a steam game versus a mobile Focus game and these days with crossplatform games yeah I mean the master class really is focused on on PC console um I mean a lot of the sort of general rules of pitch deck and so on can still apply for mobile but mobile is a completely different world uh mobile publishing doesn't work the same way uh mobile publishing is really just uh dollars for user acquisition and it usually means that you produce the game on your own you've soft launched into specific geographies to validate that there's good retention monetization conversion all that kind of stuff uh and then if that sort of loop is working well then a quote unquote publisher will come on board which just means they're going to spend millions of on user acquisition so you rarely rarely see

production funding happening on the mobile level the one exception to this is if you look at Netflix or apple arcade which are the subscription wall Gardens uh where you're not doing the normal free-to-play monetization but that's a completely different ball game where you have to have the connections at Netflix and apple arcade and then they normally fund production U and so so if you were pitching to Apple arcade or Netflix it would look very much like what we're talking about in the master class if you're doing a true mobile free-to-play game then that's a whole different set of rules based on uh um you know retention metrics all that kind of stuff so separate all right next question from Stella when pitching to investors to raise funding with the intention to self-publish and your studio is doing the Outsourcing to supplement development what should be part of the should that be part of the pitch oh Stella that's a good uh good question um yeah I mean it's a whole other equation

when you're going after uh Equity based investors uh normally they do not want to see that you're distracted with other activities so I think it's it's part of reality that today you you're doing service work just to kind of pay the bills keep food on the table keep your staff engaged but the pressure will be if an investor uh backs company and say okay now I believe in your original Ip they're likely to say Okay I want all your best people focus I don't want you spending half your time you know working on Mickey Mouse games for for Disney because that's not going to bring real like long-term value to the company because it's a low margin business you don't you don't own the Mickey Mouse IP Etc so so there's definitely some like reality of I gotta keep my business alive versus the expectations of equity investors that only want you to focus focus on the most valuable things which will be your self-published IP so so

there's a bit of a dance to do there I would not focus on that on the pitch you know you you you just have to pitch the game you know your vision the team behind it uh and and you can just say that you know you're self-funding your efforts to date and now you're looking for X dollars to scale and you know do what you need to do uh and if they ask you can say you don't have to hide it but there definitely will be some tension there there uh if you get the funding yep okay next from um Iman is it is buying meat to match worth it I I would say in general yes um I I mean if you're if you're coming to uh devcom and Gamescom and you're there to pitch and you are not already very well connected with the Publishers you want to meet then meet to match can be a very effective and efficient tool to do that you know if you've been in the industry 10 years and you're already friends with all the scouts and all the bis Dev

people okay fine skip the meet to match you just message all your friends directly and schedule your meetings you don't need this the speed dating system to assist you but if you're coming at it relatively fresh uh and you don't have that deep Rolodex of contacts then then the meet to match system is really quite uh quite effective uh so yeah in general I would say yes especially if you're kind of newer to the all right from Phillip is a laptop recommended for showing your game or would a steam deck suffice yeah yeah steam deck fine yeah yeah of course yeah no problem perfect Darius say uh how much sense does it make to only have a pitch without a prototype we're just before the release and want to start talking with Publishers about the next game oh yeah I mean I kind of answer this before where where if you don't have a build to show you're kind of like

wasting the pitch I mean if if you're not a firsttime developer I mean I mean that that to me is more like a catchup meeting right that that's not a pitch meeting that's like hey you want to sit down with your friend from devolver kind of just get an update uh share some thoughts on what you're working on next to get their feedback of what they think of the idea I mean I mean to me that's like a catch-up meeting it's not a pitch meeting uh and and I think it's fine to do those kinds of meetings uh especially if you've already released a couple of games or a game or two you know if you're if you're just a kid out of school and you're like hey devolver I'd like to have a meeting to catch up they're like who the you know who are you like I'm too busy uh but if you've got some games on your belt and you're working on the next thing and you want to book a slot with with one of these Publishers just to kind of get their feedback I mean they might Decline and say oh sorry we're only taking active pitches

but but I but I would be clear and say this is not a pitch meeting you know we're working on the concept of our next thing I'd love your feedback and to pick your brain and just sort of sync up I think it's a valid request and you're also setting expectations correctly all right next up is Sage do you have any tips on getting more TR uh traction with influencers are professionals to your Gamescom Booth oh yeah yeah I mean this is actually s this is interesting because we didn't talk about this side at all um some developers go to Gamescom to be in the convention Park uh uh um and there's in fact showcase areas like called IND Indie Arena and a few others that are like Indie zones and you can like buy a kiosk in the Indie Zone and then have you know thousands of Gamers and fans that pass through Gamescom come to your booth um I mean some of that stuff

happens naturally uh in other cases you can engage uh some of the European uh agencies whether it's a PR agency or an influencer campaign manager style agency uh but that but that costs money I mean that's you know money um admittedly I'm not a big uh I mean that's not my area of expertise like engaging influencers and stuff like that so I don't have a really good answer there uh but um but yeah so so developers who are much later stage and or often who are self-publishing will opt to buy a kiosk within one of the zones like the Indie Arena to Showcase their game to get wish list to you know build community uh and uh and yeah I I I don't really know if there's specific tools to get more influencers to come by your booth sorry one time there was a um at GDC there's always this room called the like press room where the Press can like get snacks and hang out and stuff and then

you turn around that corner and there's a long hallway to the convention and there are zero Indies there staking it out I'm always like Indies you got fresh fish coming right down the gutter they can't turn around you can just be like here's a card my booth is 35b heads out there you know why I'm always like Indies where's the hustle so this I've never done this but find that little break room where the Press can hang out give them some space let them get out of there come around the corner but on the you'll know their path they come out the room they go down the hallway to the escalator down to the the show floor you got an open audience nobody's hting up there so I I do that I call the respawn point but I do that for food at the at the happy hours you know you're you're busy all day you're in meetings and you go to you know one of the happy hours like my I'm starving and then you look for where the waiters are coming out with their like orders and I go stand over by the

respawn point and like like got a spawn Camp what do they call it spawn camping yeah yeah yeah all right so I think that's all the questions great one um oh we got two more that popped in right at the last minut let's answer these two uh but remember 24 hours we've got the sale up it goes away at that point you're going to miss out on this sale uh 30% discount off of what the normal price is and so um great great resource everything that we could possibly figure out about how to pitch your game in that course again 30-day money back no questions ask guarantee um um if you're not happy with the course um and all that so uh let's do the last two questions um take it away Jason we got Phil yeah Phil missed a question by kits I saw that kid was saying like what like like what of the main reasons that a pitch fails and uh yeah I mean kid it's a it's a it's a it's a great question I

mean we kind of touched on this a little bit uh but you know if you're coming in you don't have energy passion for what you're doing you know if you've not done your homework uh and and market analysis competitive analysis cover in the in the class and and sort of you know what's my budget versus what's the usual expect expected Revenue potential of that genre and and is there an opportunity there for everyone to make a profit because at the end of the day you know Publishers are businesses and they're there to make money you know with you with your game and so there has to be a sense that there is commercial potential uh you they're not there to just fund your dream it has to be you know a win-win um you know if you're too early uh often now we're seeing is that if you have no Community traction right if you've been hiding in your cave and you have no social media following no posts uh no which list no trailer view no like no nothing it's just Blank Slate that often

makes Publishers a bit nervous versus if you've already kind of teased things publicly and you've got a decent uh you know response and likes and follows and those kinds of things we have a whole section in the master class on evidence and traction building and so on um and then and then the big one is is we talked about this earlier genre mismatch right I booked a meeting with Paradox they do strategy games and I'm pitching them an action RPG and okay clearly this is not going to fit our portfolio sorry we shouldn't even be meeting and like you know and and you're done um so yeah those are some of the key reasons but uh and then the last here from from Jandy uh Jandy I I would encourage you to get the course because every question you've been asking we have modules that go deep dive on all this uh but uh does it always make sense to show a build during the first meeting or even if I have a build should I just make the pitch and show a video uh instead the bill after so um in the pitch deck my

recommendation is slide number three is always the trailer gameplay video slide right you have the you have a cover slide with some nice art second slide is an overview what the gameplay is and the genre so so the publisher knows okay what is this game and then you show them the the video either it's a teaser trailer or you know a 30 seconds of gameplay video uh and then you move on to USPS and budget TR you know other stuff um and then in the meeting you should have the build with you and then you say hey we've got the build I can boot it up if you like if you want to play and then some will say yes I'd love to and often they'll say no because Gamescom is so busy and they have back to back to back meetings and they said no no no it's okay just send me the build next week when we're all back from from the show so so you you should have a build you should have the build with you the build should be compelling and strong stable and good if they want to play it on the spot then it's there to play and if

they're too busy then you send it to next week it's ready to go so that that's kind of my super quick answer on but the pitch deck itself should always have a little video clip so they see the game in Motion in action uh and and and that it's real and all that comes Stu yep and again this is all in the course we go Slide by slide Moment by moment minute by minute what to do I mean I think we've kind of answered Kit's question I saw it was about build versus the demo yeah it's just your it's just like a vertical slice it doesn't it can be kind of smoke and mirrors right Jason your your demo build it it has to be a playable build whether you call it a prototype a proof of concept a alpha whatever but but it still has to be compelling it still has to demonstrate the fun it still has to look decent uh it still has to like drisk some of the key innovations that you're doing uh call call it whatever you want but it can't just be like oh I boed up Unity last week and I've got some squares and circles bouncing around a Terrain here's

my prototyp like well that doesn't do anything so y there is some pressure on having a compelling build yep and he kind of he goes into like what should be in that build like what makes it worthy for that build that you show a publisher so all right with that Jason I think that's it thank you so much for your time Jason um I hope you all pick up the course any last thoughts Jason before we say be Zay games right yeah uh I mean Gamescom is massive so just make sure you wear good shoes and hydrate and shower each day and you know just good hygiene and and don't don't get too drunk at night like it's a big circus and if you don't you know Focus stay focused it's easy to kind of get uh crushed by the the the intensity of it uh and if you see me I'll be floating around I'll be there of the whole week running around doing meetings I'll be at some of the mixers I'm giving a a devcom

speech on Monday afternoon if you see me just grab me and and say hello all right sounds great well thank you so much have a good one everybody