Game Pitches
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ธ.ค. 2023
- I talk about game pitches to publishers, including what they should contain and what I used for game pitches in the past.
You might want to watch these videos first:
• Design Pillars
• Game Production Stages - เกม
0:11 I guess this makes you Ernest Timingway.
Staying paused at 0:02 and just laughing my ass off at 8 am, pretty good start to my day. Thanks for the vids, Tim!
i had a dream today morning where i met tim cain for some reason, he was helping me develop a game, and was an advisor
I'm not a game developer, and I never will be, but I enjoy these videos on a regular basis. Getting to hear from the people who worked on some of my favorite games is just so interesting. I never would have guessed 20 years ago that this would be possible.
I beat the outer worlds when it came out and then forgot about it. When you mentioned the idea of the outer worlds being a "pre-apocalypse", it caught my interest and I went back for the first time in years and I got SO much more out of it. I realized I had accepted the game at face value and didn't do it justice. Supernova difficulty, the excellent DLC, embracing the Flaw system, and reading into things more really made a huge difference and I now love the Outer Worlds
I tried going back to see if my opinion of it had changed like a week ago. As i started i thought yeah the intro is decent. Then slowly but surely the boredom and the soulless feeling set in. It is not for me.
After the advertising, I has New Vegas in my mind, so playing it I compared it to Vegas, which it wasn't even close.
I keep thinking about trying it again, but I never finished it, just watched the end on TH-cam.
@@kyoujinko gotta agree. Outer worlds isnt even fit to carry the water for new vegas
@@fredrik3880 It was never fair to expect it to. New vegas is a game years in development after a setting was established and themes could solidify after several years. Outer worlds can get there but it will take a bit.
@@kyoujinko yeah I think that also affected me. Once I put aside expectations and just experienced what the game was trying to tell me, I really enjoyed it
Hello Tim I played Fallout 1 since I was 10 years old. Your world building is incredible. I think to develop my own game now listening your wealth of knowledge.
Thanks for this Ernest! I've been working on my pitch deck for my game Alula in time for an event this week and this one really helped me out. :)
8:34 its really funny hearing Microsoft said no when they are now publishing outer worlds 2
I had this epiphany today watching your channel. Your intros remind me of tim the toolman taylor when he was doing his show spots. What a happy memory and you are kinda the tim the toolman of programming and game making. So its nice to get a walk down memory lane and it makes me want to atch your vids even more. Thank you for all this content. Its been very helpful.
I like the part about not only revealing the game doc but also convincing people that we are the best team to make the game. Thanks for this tip.
The pipe is just the icing on the cake i always thought he looks like a old fishermen all missing is a blue overall and a fishermens hat ... Look up "Lightkeeper" from Escape from Tarkov he even wears the same pullover then tim :D
Sorry to be offtopic but it makes me happy to see you have such a visual glow at 58!
Haha I left a comment earlier regarding your choice of shirts on another video and seems like I found another one where you had chosen the shirt :)
I first read the title as "Game pictures" and I was like "Maybe Tim will talk about art, like the posters in Fallout" and then I read the title correctly :D
Now that I think about the media, I wonder how the sound and music was done, especially the sound effects and voice acting is really interesting. Sometimes people just punch raw meat to produce a punch sound etc.
That would be wonderful. ^.^ Sound design is, I think, woefully underappreciated in such a (now) visually intense medium. Aurally-oriented to begin with, I distinctly remember a long and interesting interview with Ben Burtt on NPR years ago about Star Wars' sound effects and, (of course) especially, the lightsaber sounds and how he came up with them mixing the mundane sounds we hear every day. I recall him saying the sound of a light saber being swung through the air just didn't sound quite right to his ears until the recorded and mixed in the sound of his own television set stuck between channels. :)
Good sound design is probably imperceptible to most players unless something goes wrong. I recall playing a triple A studio's game a few years back in which potential attackers several floors above my character's head in a huge industrial complex nonetheless sounded as though they were sitting right next to me and thinking, "Okay. How does that happen in a game with a budget like this?"
A lot of proprietary sound effects are mixed on a musical keyboard at this point and others borrowed from sound libraries, e.g. the iconic Wilhelm scream. :) Guessing Tim has supervised sound design as a game director, but probably not dabbled in that much himself. Must have some interesting stories to share, though.
It is funny how almost no games have visceral audio. The graphics might be high fidelity or even photorealistic, but the sound is very compressed. The games that made an audible impact on me were the first two Brothers In Arms games, not for the quality but at times gunfire has startled me, on the other hand Codemasters with their DIRT/GRID series is quite impactful, together with NFS SHIFT1/2. When the noise makes you feel tired, that is the real racing experience.@@lrinfi
The look is working 100%! :)
Hey Tim, great video as always! 😄
I know you already have a video covering questions that you like to be asked when being interviewed, but it would be amazing to hear your thoughts on game design job interview questions. Both from the interviewer and interviewee point of view.
Some more specific questions would be:
- Do you have a favourite, go-to game design question that you always ask?
- What has made interviewees really stand out from others throughout the process?
- How do your questions differ for various levels of seniority? (Junior, Mid, Senior, etc.)
Appreciate all the time you put into making these videos! Cheers! 😄
Good look Tim! Remind me of my Dad mixed with Hemmingway. Would be a dream to design a game with you! You are one of my favorites in game dev! Legend!
Cant thank you enough for the year worth of knowledge
Can you talk about some of the pitches that you did but never happened in the end? I'd love to hear them.
There’s Lord of the Rings: th-cam.com/video/HKu5FiMt3UE/w-d-xo.html
Or Troika's Post Apocalyptic Demo:
th-cam.com/video/_tSpo6gX1BE/w-d-xo.html
Awesome@@CainOnGames
@@CainOnGames Were you on board when Obsidian pitched an interim Elder Scrolls game to Bethesda? Could have been a missed opportunity; could've been Bethesda couldn't get the image of a dark and gritty Elder Scrolls game out of their heads long enough to imagine it; could've been any number of things that resulted in that not happening; but now that I've heard about it, even I can't get the image of a dark and gritty Elder Scrolls game out of my head. lol
thanks Tim, i love your work
The pipe for the win!!
Another all-time favorite Tim thumbnail.
You do look like Ernest Hamingway Tim. Happy Holidays
For the games that were pitched to multiple different publishers, did you pitch the exact same thing each time, or gradually make tweaks to your pitch/designs after each unsuccessful pitch based on how you felt the pitch went & feedback received?
We did modify the pitch a little, based on feedback. But some publishers had very specific feedback for their own situations, like wanting more achievements or wanting online play through their own services, and that feedback was not acted on.
Mr. Tim!!!!!!!
I wonder if 90 days is an industry standard for vertical slices? I'm a software engineering student at Metropolia University Helsinki, Finland, major on Game Development and we constantly do 3 month vertical slices and prototypes. Just got a feeling they're making us ready for something...
Not gonna lie, the Hemingway inspiration adds to the theme of timelessness lol, so whoever said that was playing 5D chess
Thank you very much! Imagine how good you have to be as a relatively new studio for Atari and Activision to come and ask you to make a game 😁
Do you think you could ever publish the arcanum pitch? I just can't get enough of that game 😊
Thank you again for all these great insights ideas and stories Tim!
Have a great day and a very Happy Christmas!!!
I think that Arcanum document is covered by NDA, and I’m not even sure who to ask about it. Usually the default answer from any legal department is “no, you can’t release it”.
@@CainOnGames Thought as much thank you anyways :) Have a great holiday!
Hi Tim! Was wondering about your thoughts on edutainment style computer games that teach maths or engineering or something else useful while also being fun?
I played maths blaster as a kid and liked it until i discovered commanderkeen, warcraft 1 and fallout.
Do you think there are opportunities in this genre or does the learning get in the way of the fun?
Thanks for your terrific videos.
Awesome thumbnail :D
What I really need to know is, why do you have a pipe?
if you need to know that badly then try guessing. you'll probably guess correctly
Every RPG dev over the age of 50 has a pipe.
Working on a personal game project trying to capture the feeling of Fallout I love that series. Do you have any personal projects that you have worked on/are working on?
Would you be able to show some of the pitch decks or design docuemnts for some of the stuff you have been working on? That could be super insightful :)
Those are usually covered under NDA. Instead I’ll post some IP idea from my notebooks.
@@CainOnGames I understand; that could also be nice! :)
Hey Tim, just wondering, what is your favorite donut? Hope you have a great Christmas!
Hey Tim! Do you have any insights on how to write a good mystery quest for RPGs? What kinds of things must one keep in mind when creating a mystery compared to other kinds of quests, and is the process any different when creating one for a videogame and a TTRPG?
Oh my, have you ever seen the Channel 5 News video on the Hemingway Days? I think you could win that seeing you here.
Classy AF
6:27
"A game that can have anything in It really doesn't have a setting" and Fortnite has proved why that does not matter.
i dont mean to be rude to anyone who works on games for a living, but the games that are coming out now a days seem to be lacking. maybe its because people change over time. perhaps its the big wigs pushing crap just to make money. or maybe its just the progression of the industry. i dont know. but im really dissapointed in the current wake of trash that somehow makes it out. and i dont mean "lower budgeted indie type games", i refer to the bethesdas and blizzards of the world that used to make quality content. but hey, thanks TIM for your work. we all appreciate the dedication and effort to all of those who work with a hanging head and wish for days of old.
I wanted to ask about maps. Not from an artist standpoint, but from a game design one- things like organizing cities position and distance, etc. that have a direct impact on gameplay and player experience. Could you also share some opinions you might have with maps in different games, based on your experiences as a player and developer?
Hi I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you had seen Rebel Moon. Several of the hand guns in the film seem to be inspired by the hand guns of classic Fallout.
The protagonists gun looks a lot like the 10mm.
A side character played by Charlie Hunnam has one which looks similar to the 223.
And I’m a flash back one that looks a lot like the 14mm appears.
Tim, what are your thoughts on jagged alliance 2? it had some similar gameplay to your fallout one title and I’d love to hear your thoughts on it
Tim, you talked about how Fallout's OST was created. But I don't think you ever mentioned how Arcanum's OST was born. What were the references, who provided them, etc?
Hi Tim. What are your thoughts on the rather significant number of layoffs in the video game industry? It is a side effect of the recent buyouts/consolidations by large publishers and subsequent "cutting of the fat?" Are the days of medium sized studios over? Are we moving towards small indie developers on one side of the spectrum and large studios on the other?
iow, the same thing happening in every other industry, including the healthcare "industry"? I would certainly think so and further imagine there is some concern and cause for alarm among people still working in the industry, but how free can they feel to talk about it when their livelihoods are on the line? Those not in a position to retire or break away and try to start up their own studios are in just as much as pinch as workers in every other industry. Best they can do is say things like, "Well, when you're working in a corporate environment," this or that comes with the territory type...stuff.
'The Privatization of Everything', including everything formerly public, is the order of the day. (I had no idea a book with that title had been written until this very moment, btw.) It just seems to make "good business sense" to automate and streamline processes to the point that no one is actually in control of them. "Efficiency at all costs" seems to be the mantra of what Gebser called "the mental-rational structure". In the case of the recent buyouts/consolidations, the processes being streamlined are the negotiations between studios and publishers and console manufacturers: the very processes being discussed in the video. If MS and Sony own the studios, they don't have to worry about getting their "exclusives" and the studios don't have to worry so much about the possibility of going out of business. But at what cost?
We need more sassy cain 😏
Have you played Kingdom Come Deliverance, what do you think of how it's RPG aspect is done?
Hello Mr. Tim Cain ,
I have couple of informations i would like to know , if anyone from here would like to answer i would glady take those answers :)
First of all some 90 days time limit on presenting prototype , soo does this means that if you have an idea first of all before interviewing with any companies , would it be good for making it's basic prototype , then present them your idea ?
In the timestamp on 11:00 " Do it something they haven't seen it before , but if it's too different they scared "
I just wondering , does that mean first of all , the project you and your team are going to present into those companies , you or your team members at least one of them should have some general knowledge on games and movies or stuff that helps you to explain them ?
And also there might be some problems can cause a kinda problem into this situation , soo in order to sell your idea , your idea would be unique or special in some sort of ways but also it has to have some features on some other previous sucessfull games , soo it would increase it's sellability .
Wouldn't this thing is cause on gaming industry that , you see some most likely same particular game types , soo each games in some ways looks like it's earlier sucessfull version . isn't this thing the companies most likely looking for kinda makes gaming industry stucks into some particular game types ?
To make it more understandable i would like to give example on 1 particular game type which some players are now likely to play , the people calling it Dark Souls like game , soo whenever some ideas comes up with an idea with dark souls game series features in it , it has like more chance to become published and approved from gaming companies . soo recently people are seeing more Dark Souls like game recently and some big gaming studios not giving more chance on new ideas ? wouldn't be some of the problems on gaming industry right now ?
Thanks for this wonderfull topic .
P.S : You also looked like Captain Haddock from Tintin :) .
I love the pipe.
I noticed you said Southpark was pitched. So to my understanding your studio was working on a concept and pitched it to the owner of the ip? Or was it a commission from the ip owner that you pitched to a publisher? Perhaps a video on how that works and how to get published for your own ip verses making a game for someone else's ip would be interesting. I have been enjoying your videos Tim. Very inspiring.
Or you purchased the license then pitched it. I forgot you could.
I started on South Park over a year after the project started, so I don't know the details of its pitch.
Hello! I have a question!
I'm developing an RPG that is much more about the experience and choices/dialog, as opposed to the minute-to-minute gameplay. Similar to Bethesda games in a way.
I know that marketing usually decides to really push the explosions, killing, combat, etc - I saw this in the New Vegas trailers, and the Outer Worlds trailers, for example.
Do you think this is the correct strategy? How have you seen RPG's sell themselves when it's more about choice, dialog, etc as opposed to "wow look at me blow this guy up!"?
Outer Worlds did have some mentions of choices though - the "who are you going to shoot" gag is a great example of this, and the text with different player types. Great stuff! But still, lots of explosions, lots of guns, etc
hey im guessing this has been asked but now that arcanum 2 is possible thanks to the Microsoft purchase of Activision do you think its going to happen?
Where do you ask questions?
Here. I read the comments
@@CainOnGames Ah, thanks!
Wasn't Fallout pitched as a metaphor for the Old Man and the Sea?
So today is "let's talk about" and not "today I want to talk about"
You're just dripping with daddy bear energy and I'm very much here for it.
2:49 How much money can I pay for a bound copy of Arcanum's design document?
"System mechanics that have never been in any other game."
YOU WERE NEVER INVOLVED WITH ANY GAME THAT HAD SYSTEM MECHANICS THAT WEREN'T IN A PRIOR GAME. Hi. Wake up.
What an utter joke.
Why are you so angry mate?