How to Prepare for Pitching

So you've determined that your end goal is to get your game published. To get to the point where you can pitch your prototype, you will need to prepare.

Collecting the Materials

The way I like to look at it, publishers need to be made aware of a couple of things about your prototype before they would consider publishing it:

• How it is unique
• How it plays, mechanics and theme wise
• The target age range, player count, and play time
• How it looks visually
• What components (cards, dice, etc) are used (which determines the price of the game at retail)
• How to contact you if they are interested

Designers usually impart this through pitch videos and sellsheets sent via emails or by playtesting at conventions where publishers are present. A publisher typically works in cycles of 2-3 years, so often when they are considering your game, they will contextualize it within their current line up.

The Sell Sheet

A sell sheet is a single page PDF document explaining your game as a product. Sell sheets are not walls of text, but are carefully arranged showcases of your game's unique features. It should include:

• The stand in game name
• A description.
• A component list
• A target audience
• A description of the game
• A description of the mechanics
• Images of the game in play, hopefully with actions being demonstrated

Here are two examples of sellsheets I found online:

Brass Empire Sellsheet

Super Snipers Sellsheet

I use Inkscape to make my sellsheets, since it's the art program I'm most comfortable with. Common programs for making sellsheets include Adobe Indesign, Affinity Publisher, and Canva. If I were making a suggestion, I would suggest Indesign or whatever program you are most comfortable with.

Your Pitch Video

A pitch video is much like a sellsheet but with a voiceover and moving images. While it isn't necessary to make an amazing video, consider these professional looking videos as examples of how to do it right.

New to video making? Consider watching Primal Video's Adobe Premiere tutorial, or if you're on a budget, their Davinci Resolve tutorial. I personally use Adobe Premiere.

If you're uncomfortable recording your own voice, consider using ElevenLabs to generate an AI voiceover. I used this when first experimenting with YouTube videos. While not perfect (it occasionally mispronounces words - like saying "pro-duce" instead of "produce"), it can be a good alternative to get started.

Your Rulebook

A rulebook is a document that contains all the rules necessary to setup and play your game from start to finish. Because you won't be standing over the shoulder of the publisher as they try out your game, you will need to be at the blind playtest level in the design process for this to work. Like sellsheets, rulebooks are typically made in Indesign or Affinity Publisher, but here Microsoft Word or Google Docs will do the job.

What happens if they want to try it out?

Say a publisher finds your prototype interesting and they want to try it out. You will need to get the prototype in their hands as quickly as possible, so you have a couple options.

A Print and Play

You can provide them what is called a print and play, which is a PDF document that contains the actual front and back art files of your game that is setup so that a home printer can print it out. You will need to take the art files that compose your game and assemble them onto letter/A4 sized paper. This is the cheapest option, but it's not the best quality. Indesign and Affinity Publisher are the best programs for this.

Here's Secret Hitler's print and play for example:

TheGameCrafter Physical Copies

TheGameCrafter is a website that allows you to upload your game's art files to print one-off prototypes. It creates more nicer looking prototypes than a print and play, but it's not free and it can take up to a month to get your game delivered. Typically you will have to order a couple prototypes ahead of time to have enough to send to publishers.

A prototype made on the GameCrafter

Tabletop Playground/Simulator

Tabletop Playground/Simulator are games that allow you to play your board game online. It's a great way for publishers to start playtesting your game today. Consider reading this crash course in Tabletop Simulator on how to use it if you are not familiar with it. You will need to not only create the save of your game, but also upload to it the Steam Workshop and make it public for Tabletop Simulator, and to upload it to mod.io for Tabletop Playground.

A Tabletop Simulator mod of the game SETI.

But this is tedious!

Yes, it is. That's why I created Templative to help you automagically export to all three of these formats. I had dozens of versions of my game, and painstakingly producing these packages of content while keeping track of what changed was mind numbing. Templative automagically handles all of this for you.

Where to List your Prototype

Rather that have my sellsheets and pitch videos all over the place, I created Board Game Prototypes as way to list all of them in one place.

Using this tool you can list your sellsheet, pitch video, images, rules, print and play, TheGameCrafter link, Tabletop Playground/Simulator link, and more. Here's an example prototype of mine:

The website includes useful filtering features so a publisher can find prototypes that match their catalogue with ease.

The website also allows you to generate business cards with links to your prototypes, like this one:

My Generated Business Card

It's free, so claim your unique link to your prototypes now

What's Next?

Now that you have prepared your prototype, it's time to pitch it to publishers. Consider watching Pam Wall's how to pitch and Adam in Wales's how not to pitch videos.