Securing Investment & Compelling Pitch Deck

In my case, you evaluate about 20,000 of them.

I’m Bobby, one of the Partners at Nocturne. I’ve been in the game industry since 2009, covering various disciplines such as QA, Production, Corporate Development, and Business Development.

Here, though, it’s my experience as an indie game hunter/gatherer that can be useful. During my time searching for the next great indie hit, I’ve signed games such as Two Point Hospital, As Dusk Falls, Enshrouded, the upcoming and highly anticipated Dungeons of Hinterberg, and many more. Unearthing innovative, exciting games that will be loved by players around the world is a huge thrill.

The process, though, can feel like it happens at lightspeed. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’ve evaluated over 20,000 game pitches; when I sat down to write this article, I realized I was looking at about 3500 games per year. And that’s definitely not the only thing I’ve been doing, so that should be the first critical piece of information you take away from this piece:

Any game scout worth their salt is going through thousands of game pitches every year. So your pitch needs to really grab their attention, leaving them wanting more and putting your game up at the top of their potential hit list.

A compelling pitch deck can give you a leg up on the competition. It should be a structured, pertinent visual aid that creates a solid understanding in the reader regarding the game you’re building and the reasons why they should invest.

A pitch deck should quickly reveal whether or not there’s a potential “fit” with an investor. Even though you might think “money’s money”, there’s no point in pitching your F2P game to an investor who only invests in premium titles. Plus, establishing a lack of fit early can have real benefits: the investor might know someone who is potentially a good partner for your game, and they could be willing to make an intro.

If there is a potential fit that’s established early in the presentation, it has the benefit of further engaging your target. People are more likely to pay close attention when they know that the overall game context matches what they’re looking for.

Creating a compelling pitch deck

The guide below is structured so that you can quickly establish whether or not there’s a fit while also ensuring that the deck covers all the pertinent points that are important when there is a fit. So let’s start by going over the basic information that you’ll need:

• Studio and Team members experience
• Studio Team Size
• Game Genre
• USPs
• Development Status (Ideation, Prototype, VS, Pre-Alpha, etc.)
• Total Development Budget and funding ask
• Release Schedule
• Target Platforms
• Community size and momentum (if you already have these)
• Images/GIFs/Videos of the gameplay

Too many decks get things wrong from the start by not including all of these points. But with this info, most investors can see what they need to know if there’s a good chance of a fit. And even if it’s rare, having this plus a playable build could even be enough to secure the investment you’re looking for!

You can also use that information to create a short 1-pager version of your pitch, ready to be given out as needed.

Now, though, let’s get into the pitch deck structure and details 👇

The overall structure

In my view, the ideal pitch deck goes like this:

• High-Level Project Overview
• Studio Profile
• Product Information
• Commercial Details
• Post-Launch
• Longer-Term Strategy
• The Ask

High-Level Project Overview

Again, you want to establish the potential for a fit right from the start. So we open with

1) Key art, including your game’s logo

On your first slide, your reader should visually understand what your game is about, how it imprints on the player’s mind. Nobody’s lingering on this slide for long: it should just be used to give the reader the overall visual image associated with the game. If you’re presenting orally as well, you’ll pretty much just say the name of the game, hold for a second or two, and then move on.

2) High-level info

The second slide is your elevator pitch/executive summary. You should have a 2-3 sentence description of your game as well as a table outlining key information:

FUNDING REQUIREDPLATFORMSEST. RELEASE DATECOMMERCIAL MODELGENREDEVELOPMENT STATUSEXPECTED AGE RATINGENGINEPLAY TIMEMODES

3) Trailer

In the third slide, hit them with your trailer. Aim to showcase gameplay and exciting features, not just cutscenes. The recommended trailer length is 2 minutes, max (and ideally shorter).

If your trailer doesn’t include narration, plan to speak over it during a presentation, including pertinent info about what’s happening on screen. Give them context: What’s the trailer demonstrating? What parts aren’t yet final?

And an important detail: Be sure to have the trailer fully embedded into the presentation or easily available on your local drive so that there’s no need for an internet connection – at conferences/events, the WiFi can be dodgy!

Studio Profile

Now that we’ve teased the game, I recommend talking about the team that is making it. You want to quickly build credibility, showing that you’re the best team in the world to make this particular experience. The games industry is a people business at the end of the day, so you want to show that you’re able to deliver on this game concept. You’ll need to cover a few different areas here.

4) Studio info

One slide should give the key details on your studio: location, age, size, experience. You can also use this slide to include status updates on Development, Publishing/Marketing, and Commercial Background. An example could look a bit like this:

5) The founding team

Include a dedicated slide on the founder(s). Investors want to know more about the team leaders, so make sure they develop a sense of confidence here. You should include names, a blurb on background, and show off the gaming track record (ideally including games you’ve contributed to and roles played on those projects).

All of this info will be dug into during any Due Diligence, so be straightforward and take the opportunity to show off, so long as it’s truthful. If you’re in the privileged position of having employees/contractors in your studio, you can have a separate slide that shows them off as well. (Your employee slide might not be able to include all of the info included for the founder(s); showing their names/roles and a team photo can be enough in that case).

6) Studio track record

Your next slide should show off your studio’s successes to date. List titles your studio has released, including details like release date, platforms released on, units sold, revenue so far, and community/press reviews.

If your studio provides co-development or WFH services, you can include info on titles/work your team has contributed to. If you’re a new studio working on a debut game, include titles your team members have previously worked on. Remember the goal is to show that your team has the chops to deliver on the game concept.

6a) [optional] Awards & Recognition

This information can be on its own slide or incorporated into previous ones; wherever it goes, it’s well worth listing out any awards or notes of recognition that your studio has received from the industry. You might have been nominated for an award, received a grant, or have strong testimonials from people in the games industry. Showing that other people are noticing your hard work and that you’re part of the ecosystem reflects well on you.

Product Information

To be honest, this is the part of the pitch deck that most people actually get right; most of the problematic stuff comes up in the other sections of the deck.

But with the game itself, you’re building something you really love (hopefully!) and there are lots of ways to talk about it. Here I’ll run through some fundamentals to keep in mind, all the while showing off The Game in the way you think is best.

7) The Game

Use the first product slide to go into more detail about your game, its lore, story, features, USPs. (You might need to make an individual slide for the USPs.)

Some words of caution:

• Try to avoid having more than one slide on lore and/or characters.
• Don’t make a slide that’s a big wall of text: make 3 points, max, per slide.
• Less is more; make your points impactful and ensure the reader can take away the essence of what makes your game special.

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8) Game pillars / Key features

This could be two separate slides, or structured so that one slide covers both. For me, the “game pillars” are a list of core statements that set out your game’s creative aspirations, and thus relate to the game’s key features. An investor wants to know the scope & feature set of any game they back, so make sure you outline the core mechanics and fundamental building blocks of the game’s design.

9) Inspirations

This is optional, both as a slide on its own and in general, but it can sometimes be helpful when trying to understand the game concept to have its inspirations. Be specific with these, for example noting the key elements of any game/movie/TV show that might have inspired you and how they impact the game.

10) Game loop

Outline the core game loop to give the reader an understanding of the primary systems that define your game. For the pitch deck, don’t get complicated – you can show off your detailed game loop in your game design document (GDD). Here, keep the message simple and easily understood.

11) Community & Engagement

You’re probably already aware that it’s harder to find financing for games now than it was a few years ago. The bar is higher than ever. So now a lot of investors want to see that you’ve “validated” your concept with its community. Create a slide that showcases any stats that can give a sense of the community/following you’re building for your game: which channels are you using (Discord, Reddit, Tiktok, etc.), how big is the community (by channel), what kind of engagement activities have you been doing so far?

12) Audience

For an investor to evaluate the game’s marketability and market fit, they need to know who your audience is. Outline your primary and secondary audiences: how big is the addressable market? Where are your targets hanging out, spending their time and money? How can they be reached? Show how your key game features fit with your target audience.

13) Positioning

With your target audience(s) in mind, the positioning slide lets you display where your game is situated with regards to the competition. The ideal is to show that there’s a gap in the market, and that your game will supply that missing experience; alternatively, you could be doing something better than any other existing game. A positioning slide could look something like this:

14) Risk register

Most pitch decks don’t include a risk register, but guess what? Every project has risks. If you say that you don’t know what those risks are, or worse that there are no risks, it gives the feeling that you don’t have a good handle on the project.

Making a great game is hard. If you’re already in the polishing stages, then sure, maybe you’ve mitigated a lot of the mission-critical risks already. But even then, you’re still putting out fires. So be upfront about the challenges, and the right investment partner could even be able to help you face some of those risks. This is an opportunity to add to your credibility and demonstrate a level of maturity that people really respect.

A good risk register is essentially a table showing:

a) the key risks

b) your mitigation plan for each

c) Mitigation date (you can use a key milestone for this instead)

d) who in the team owns the risk

In a pitch deck, there’s no need to try to estimate the likelihood/severity of each risk; having 3-6 risk items is adequate here.

15) Production timeline

Provide a visual of your production timeline for the game, including key milestones. You can include when key features are due to be ready, community activities, playtesting goals, early release date, etc.

(“Early Access” is always a big question people have, namely whether they should have one or not! Some investors (= traditional publishers) don’t like Early Access releases. We at Nocturne Games love Early Access releases.)

Commercial Details

Your studio may or may not have founders who are just as happy with the financial management/business side of things as they are with the creative side. Whatever the case, you’ll need to buckle down on the commercial details, because every investor is thinking about returns, not just “this is a cool game”. Over the coming slides, you’ll show them that your game isn’t just a pretty face, but a good investment.

16) Budget breakdown

While you had a big number funding ask much earlier in the deck (see slide 2), now you need to get into the details and explain how you intend to use the funding you’re seeking: equipment, salaries, licenses, etc.

If the game’s total budget is different from what you’re asking in terms of funding, make sure to explain why.

Don’t forget to mention how much you’ve already invested in the project and where that money came from. Remember that the time you and your team have put into the game is an investment as well, referred to as “sweat equity”. You want to show all pre-investment value that has already gone into the game.

If you’re eligible for other funding (government grants, etc.), note how much you’re eligible to receive and when you expect to receive it.

Finally, do include whether the budget includes any post-launch support and whether it takes into account porting costs as well as publishing costs (QA, localisation, marketing, etc.).

17) Staffing plan

This slide can be a simple table showing headcount by department by month. If you have planned additional hires for production, point this out (and mention if you already have specific people in mind). A team that is planning to double or triple its size is seen as a risk – not a major risk, necessarily, but a risk nonetheless. If you already have earmarked the vacancies you’re planning to fill, especially for hard-to-hire roles, an investor will see that as reducing the risk.

18) Key competitors

List any competing titles, being careful to include those that are a fair comparison. There is little sense in comparing your indie game to the next GTA release, for example. Try to pick games in the same space as yours, with a similar scope and feature set.

When listing these titles, there are some super useful tools that let you get a real sense of commercial viability on Steam:

• GameDiscoverCo (top-tier BI)
• Gamalytic (free)
• VG Insights (free + premium for extra)
• SteamDB (free; go to the charts tab to see PCCU and CCU)

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Include any key facts and figures you can find, such as release date, units sold, revenue, unit price, PCCU and CCU. These can help demonstrate that your game has a sizable market, justifying your investment ask. And the CCU shows the appetite for games in the same space in today’s market.

19) Release details

Give information on your (realistic!) earliest possible release date. You can also mention that you’re open to moving the date back if needed (if, indeed, you’re open to moving it).

You can use this slide to show your expected price point and launch platforms. If your launch plan includes different release dates for different platforms, include those dates here. You can also add other key details that you feel are important (post-launch content release dates, etc.).

Post-Launch / Longer-Term Strategy

Many investors are now looking for long-tail opportunities, so it’s a good idea to provide some thoughts on what will happen following launch.

First you can think about the kind of post-launch content you can provide to your community. Do remember, though, that this doesn’t just have to be about further monetising your player base. For example, some studios use post-launch content as a marketing beat that lets them keep promoting their game on digital storefronts.

So while this section has often been missing from the pitch decks I evaluate, I see it as a no-brainer (assuming you’re pitching a game that is suited for post-launch support!).

20) Post-launch breakdown

You can include updates, live ops, and any DLC that will be added to the game post-launch. You might take into account a period as short as 3 months and up to 12 months after the initial launch. Anything beyond 12 months is purely optional.

If possible, you can structure this as a roadmap. The various points can include any costs to deliver, as well as a suggested price point for the content updates.

21) Franchise plan

If your studio has a longer-term vision for the game, it might be best articulated in a franchise plan. I would recommend making your franchise plan “realistically deliverable, but ambitious”.

That could mean that your initial pitch of a 2D, single-player game for PC has a post-launch vision that first brings the game to consoles. You might then plan for a 2nd installment, with a 3D single-player game that leverages the features and tools you used for the first game with sim-ship. Then on the 3rd installment you could have a 3D multi-player game that again takes all the knowledge and experience of your first two games with a super cool IP license that really suits your game mechanics.

Many pitches don’t include a franchise plan, but they do propose taking the game to other media, such as film/comics/books. My opinion is to steer clear of that kind of pitch. Most game investors are specialists in the field, this is where they’ve cut their teeth. Some publishers could have the ability to leverage things and get your game into different media, but that’s still not their main revenue driver. So keep your franchise plan within the gaming world.

And while you could again have a roadmap for this slide, you can even keep things simple by just showing key art for subsequent releases, including some key details (release dates/platforms, features, rough budget, studio headcount, etc.).

Requirements & Contact Details

We’re pretty much at the end of your presentation. If they’ve gotten this far, they’re not uninterested. So it’s time to give them a wrap-up that leads towards the next steps.

22) Requirements

Here, summarise your needs from the investor. If you need financing, repeat here how much you need. I’ve seen too many pitches that just plain forget to include a funding ask.

If you have services that you need, include them here, too. Sometimes developers need access to platform holders to get dev kits or platform deals. You might also need access to QA, localisation, community/marketing, PR, porting partners, guidance scaling the team, etc.

Your requirements are a must in a pitch deck; otherwise, you’re just doing show-and-tell. Clearly outline the support you need from an investment partner, even if it’s just a series of bullet points.

23) Contact details

This might seem obvious, but you’d be amazed how many pitches don’t include a closing slide with your contact details as well as your studio’s social media channels. Maybe people think it feels redundant to include contact details, since surely this investor got your deck in the first place because you sent it to them?

But in reality, having an investor decide to back your project involves lots of different people. By including your contact details, it ensures that anyone who has your deck also has the ability to reach out to you for a discussion. This can save you time and, most importantly, keep momentum up.

So that’s it - everything you need to create a compelling pitch deck for your indie studio’s game. Once you have it, you can make sure you have a range of materials that fit various situations: a shorter, more visual deck for in-person meetings; a 1-pager to help investors see if there’s a high-level fit.

Just remember that the real thing isn’t about having the right pitch, it’s about having the right game for the right investor. After that, focus on delivering a truly great game, and you’ll end up with a game and a studio that’s worth backing.