Game pitch competition

[CaptainD]

Some great ideas here, 9 wins my vote.

[Durq]

Number 9 ("One of the world's biggest game creators has gone missing") gets my vote too. It reminds me a bit of Ready Player One.

[Stupot]

Damn, I totally forgot to send a pitch. Hope there's a new round soon.

My vote went to #9. I love the idea of playing games within a game but for an actual purpose that serves the main plot.

My runners up are #2 and #10. I'm currently playing Life is Strange and #2 is basically that. But I liked the pitch anyway.

[Andail]

Before I share my own thoughts, how do people feel about the results - are you fine with having the poll made public, or should I just announce the three 'medalists'?

[Snarky]

Oh, are the results not visible to everybody (who has voted)? I assumed they were, but maybe I only see them because I'm a mod...

[Andail]

I've checked the setting "show after poll expired" so it shouldn't be visible. Maybe a non-mod can comfirm this, might be good to know for future reference.

[TGames]

Yes the results don't show. It just shows all of the numbers, with the choice you picked in bold.

[Snarky]

Well, I think people should get to see the scores once voting is over, at least.

[Blondbraid]

I ended up voting for 5, since it had both a potentially fun story as well as lots of potential puzzles and gameplay, plus I love games with historical settings.
With most of the other pitches, they either had a good story but were very vague on how it'd be translated into gameplay or the story was just an excuse to string some fun puzzles together, but number 5 felt like it had both.

[Mandle]

plus I love games with historical settings.

I was actually thinking that was probably your pitch.

[Cassiebsg]

plus I love games with historical settings.

I was actually thinking that was probably your pitch.

+1

[Blondbraid]

plus I love games with historical settings.

I was actually thinking that was probably your pitch.

+1

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but my pitch was:

Spoiler

[redacted]

[close]

[cat]

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but my pitch was:
...

I thought so
It's a nice setting but like Snarky, I couldn't really imagine what the gameplay would be like.

[Monsieur OUXX]

#3 Ha! ha! ha! ha! I couldn't stop laughing. 5 to 10 years later, the spector of Icey Games early works is still haunting these forums! Who wrote that? Is it monkey_05_06 or someone else? Come on!  :-D

[Snarky]

The entries are supposed to be anonymous, so please refrain from identifying them while voting remains open. I've redacted Blondbraid's post.

There's fierce competition for both the first spot and the third spot, so get your vote in before it closes tomorrow!

[Creamy]

I voted for #5 too because I'm a sheep.

I'd like to think that I made this choice freely but I don't know how much I've been influenced by others.
Next time, I'll cast my vote before reading the comments.

[cat]

I also want to point out, that if #5 is ever made into a game, it has to have graphics by Matt Frith

Spoiler

[close]

[Stupot]

Well done to number 5.

I was going to guess that the author of 5 was Creamy but I just saw his comment above so it can't have been him.

So I'm guessing Selmiak.

I'll update this post later with some more guesses.

[Creamy]

I was going to guess that the author of 5 was Creamy but I just saw his comment above so it can't have been him.

Like you, I forgot to submit a pitch on time.

Because of the setting, I'm going to take a wild guess at lorenzo for #5

[Snarky]

Congrats to #5 and #9, who are clearly the people's favorites!

I think when I made my vote I had a very definite, though not quite articulated, view of what a "good pitch" means, but the more I think about it the less certain I am. You could certainly make the case that the only thing that matters is grabbing your attention so you're interested in hearing more. In that case, giving any sort of idea of how the game will actually play may not actually matter at all. Saying too much may even be a mistake.

I guess what I'm saying is that there's a difference between e.g. pitching a game concept internally at a game studio (for something like DoubleFine's Amnesia Fortnight) or to potential collaborators, or pitching a game-in-development to potential investors, and pitching a completed game to potential players. Your audience, as well as what kind of credibility you bring to the table, makes a difference.