Week six was all about the practice pitch, with last minute preparations and discussions being had within the team. We would be presenting our pitch to a variety of UX and game industry professionals, as well as other participating teams and relevant academic. Personally, I dread public speaking and it's one of the only things that gives me true anxiety.
However, I felt like I had made enough preparation and would be able to answer any questions directed my way. I also had complete confidence that the rest of the team would be up to the task and the presentation would go well.
According to Bob Etherington (2018), when presenting, 75% of nerves disappear with adequate preparation and rehearsal.
I believe a group rehearsal would have been beneficial for the team, as additional feedback would have polished things some more and would have helped alleviate some nervousness - which would have slowed down my part of the presentation, as the pitch ended up finishing sooner than anticipated.
Despite the increased contact and discussions with the rest of the team over the previous week, there was a mis communication over the timings - as I was under the impression that the gameplay demonstration was part of the given ten mins for the pitch.
The team each presented their individual parts of the pitch and I initially thought it went well enough with everything we had discussed and planned covered, despite feeling it was slightly rushed and perhaps a bit vague in places.
I ended up omitting some of the gameplay examples and factual information I wanted to explain. This had the effect of diluting the impact of slides and making points less clear.
Feedback
It was noted between the group, that there appeared to be some confusion with the industry professional's expectations, as it felt like they were expecting more development progress to have been made with our product.
We received a lot of similar observations and feedback from each of the three professionals, which indicated that large of the pitch would need to be expanded upon or reworked;
Firstly, the opening wasn't clear enough and didn't explain how the features and core gameplay loop would work (although this was made a bit clearer further in the pitch).
There was also little explanation of how the fire worked and no real walk-through showing what you can do (visual or otherwise). There was a lot going on, so a smaller breakdown of and average session would have been things easier to understand.
Another point for development was the use of comparable games and references. We had assumed that our audience would know the games we were refencing, if we are going use these, we need to be more specific and show and explain the influences more clearly.
Some positive feedback was also given, in that the presentation looked good and it was an interesting concept with an unusual setting.
Feedback reflection
Upon further reflection and discussion with the rest of the team, it was evident that our pitch deck was far too general and did not include or show enough relevant information on the the core gameplay loop and USP's.
Despite that, I believe deck was well made and presented well. The information taken from our research was comparable with the industry professional's expectations for the most part. Although this was only a practice run and we would be able to make change to our final pitch, it felt like a missed opportunity as the lack of real-time rehearsal practice and discussions ended up with obvious (in hindsight) elements missing.
Moving forward, it is clear that the final pitch deck and presentation will to be re-ordered and be expanded upon with more in-depth explanations of the the USP and core gameplay with supporting visuals. More thought and detail will also need to given to the comparisons we've used, so that it is obvious how our game fit into the market.
I believe that this will be perfectly achievable given the time we have to complete the final pitch, however, it will be important to adjust the team communicates and works together as we approach this.
References:
Etherington, B. (2018). Presentation skills for quivering wrecks. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Business.
GDC, Brian Upton (2017). 30 Things I Hate About Your Game Pitch. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LTtr45y7P0&t=2s [Accessed 22 June 2021].
Jason Della Rocca (2020). SWISSGAMES Pitch perfect : free online lecture. [online] Available at: https://swissgames.ch/2020/11/03/pitch-perfect-free-online-lecture/.
[Accessed 22 June 2021].
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