Ask Mary-Margaret:
Proposing Your Game Idea

Contents

The Ins and Outs of NDAs Proposing to the Publisher Proposing to the Investor

"What is the basic structure to follow when you want to present a game proposal to a publisher or investors? Or is there an existing structure to follow at all?"
- Creatively Curious in Canada

Ellen says: There are two aspects to your question: presenting a proposal to a development studio or game publisher, and presenting one to an investor.

First, there is no generic industry template for a project proposal. Some companies have their own proposal structure, where they give you a list of questions and expect you to have an answer for each one. Having run my own development studio for years, I'm going to write up a list of similar questions that you can use for an initial template:

1. The basic concept of the game (a "high concept", no more than two sentences).
   
   
2. The game platform.
   
   
3. The target audience.
   
   
4. Several paragraphs describing the game in more detail.
   
   
5. The storyline of the game (if appropriate).
   
   
6. The gameplay: what the player is trying to accomplish, the kind of levels or scenarios they'll encounter, and a general overview of the campaign or flow of the game.
   
   
7. The basic required hardware (for PC games, get specific: CPU speed, RAM required, hard drive space required, etc.)
   
   
8. The technology that'll be used to build the game.
   
   
9. Short profiles of the production team and why they're qualified.
   
   
10. A budget estimate (you may not want to put this in the proposal, but you should know what you'll need to build the game!)

The "high concept" is important because it's how the project will be described by the people talking about it at your target studio or publisher. My husband always liked to use other game titles and movie titles in his high concepts, such as this one: "Prince of Persia meets Road Warrior , as written by Isaac Asimov and directed by John Huston." While you may say, "But my game has nothing to do with other existing games!", the fact is that publishers buy what they know, so it's actually helpful to liken your project to some existing game or gameplay style. I always did one sentence that succinctly described the game, and a second sentence that likened it to an existing game genre or actual products.

What I suggest is having a short version (one page only!) that very briefly describes the project and the team as well as a more detailed version of your proposal, no more than ten pages in length.

Expect to be asked to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement before any developer or publisher will be willing to look at your idea. Most companies will return a proposal unread without an NDA.

If your project is approved, you'll almost certainly be offered a short-term contract to do a "design phase," in which you'll work out the design of the project as well as a detailed budget and schedule, as opposed to starting on the full project immediately. A design phase usually lasts anywhere from two to six months, and may include building a working prototype as well as writing out detailed documentation and creating storyboards and other art. There is no guarantee that the project will proceed beyond the design phase.

________________________________________________________

Proposing to the Investor