Hey, I wrote this summary for a game publisher who might be able to help with the money involved with it, seeing as I don't have the skills required to program. Also for marketing and so forth, so tell me what you think and how I should go about taking this to a Publisher. WITCH-HUNTER In a World where Monsters, Demons and other Atrocities operate openly who will be there to save us? Executive Summary 2.1 Release Date Christmas 2013 Genre 19th Century England with Steam-Punk elements and supernatural entities. Category FPS/RPG Survival Horror Similar Titles Doom (ID Software), Deus Ex (ION Storm), Thief: The Dark Project, II: The Metal Age (Looking Glass), Fallout (Interplay), System Shock (Looking Glass), Setting Several Unique, Steam-Punk Britain, Some other parts of Europe Look 1st Person 3D, with some 3rd Person elements thrown in Plot Concept In an Alternate reality the supernatural forces operate openly and ‘modern society’ has to call upon the forces of the Inquisition’s most feared agents, the Witch-Hunters. These Witch-Hunters are dangerous, cunning and deadly. They pride themselves with the latest technology and power; this allows them to strike down their enemies with the utmost efficiency. 20 years after the great Sabbath Wars the world is wounded and healing from the scars caused by the heretical and monstrous forces which rained terror upon the world. Most people blame the Witch-Hunters for the world’s torn state, even though the Witch-Hunter’s eventually won the great war. The America’s are said to have hit it the hardest, they are ruined by a great plague pandemic and the southern and eastern states have seceded from the union leaving three waring factions fighting over the diseased land of Northern America. Europe is a burnt out husk with Eastern Europe torn by civil war and western Europe still fighting to hold the demons and monsters at bay. Spain is a great prison, Paris is destroyed, Italy is scared with memories of Demonic presence and England is left there being eaten away from the inside. Asia is the dominant power in the world with their magical barriers keeping the demons at bay they have claimed most of the world including Australia and Africa. The Inquisition has returned to their job of fighting the Demon Within, the Heretic and the Beast which is in all of us. They hunt down entire Brotherhoods of Werewolves, Bloodlines of Vampires and Cults of Heretics. Now years after the great Sabbath Wars another threat has awakened in the London Streets and calls for the most skilled of the Witch-Hunters to eradicate the threat. But one novice of the Witch-Hunters has been thrown straight into the thick of it, with a mysterious tattoo on his back and a forgotten past this Witch-Hunter is the man tasked with stamping out the threat. This Witch-Hunter is you. Recruited as part of a family you have grown up awaiting the day when you will be awarded with the title of Witch-Hunter. Your brother has always stood by you and you have admired him as he has been a Witch-Hunter for a few years now. The Witch-Hunters all have their specialities, your brother’s arm was severed in a battle years ago and has been replaced with a bionic one which he seems to always be tuning or upgrading. Some others have special weapons or suits and are called on personally for a different type of mission. You are tasked with recovering a missing Witch-Hunter only to be thrown into a journey where you will encounter famous characters from stories like “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, H.G. Wells “The Time Machine”, Secret Societies, Vampiric Bloodlines, Lycan Brotherhoods, and fellow Witch-Hunters plus many more as he searches for the cause of the threat which could change the world all-together. Competitive Analysis:  A Dark and mysterious 3d world played through a 1st person shooter and Role Playing view.  Absolute 3D freedom, explore Steam Punk London where you can take missions from contacts through out the city, NPC interaction includes Conversation trees, Killer AI and Faction AI.  In-Depth World Simulation allows players to solve problems in a variety of ways.  Fuses two popular fantasies; Van Helsing and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and more early fantasy/horror/steam punk literature.  NPC’s are detailed with rich back stories, habits, personalities and traits.  The Player can choose to get through obstacles a number of different ways, whether it be stealthy or aggressive.  Emphasis on Character Development to assure that the player character is in every way unique. This also counts for the various NPC’s which will have extremely deep psyche profiles.  Non-Combat interaction with NPC’s is common with the search for information, engaging in conversation or recruit them to your cause, what ever the reason for it being there the interaction will be realistic and intriguing in parts.  Clear goals, constant rewards, varied interactions with people and places as well as varied mission types (including Sabotage, Infiltration, Extraction, Rescue, Intelligence-Gathering, Thievery, Reconnaissance, Assassination, and all-out Combat) keep players coming back for more.  Goals can be accomplished through stealth, careful planning, undercover work or conversation, through the use of unbelievably high tech equipment or brute force combat tactics.  Many different types of environments from the ever changing environments of alternate realities, the ethereal world of ghosts, bone strewn catacombs beneath dark castles or the forgotten druidic tunnels beneath a Steam-Punk London. Technology:  Engine: ID Tech 4, 3D, Freedom Elements RPG, FPS  Characters: Real Time 3D models  Creatures: Real Time 3D models  Surroundings: Real Time 3D models, Sprites  Structures: Real Time 3D  Vehicles: Real Time 3D models  Interface: 2D models System Requirements:  Operating System: Windows XP/Vista  Hard Drive Space: 5-8 Gigs  Format: 1 DVD  Video: DirectX 9.0c or Higher, 64 MB GeForce 4 Ti or Radeon 9000 Video card, Monitor that can display in 4:3 aspect ratio  Processor: Pentium 4 1.7 GHz or Equivalent  RAM: 1 GB or more Recommended  Equipment: Mouse, Keyboard  Multiplayer: Broadband Internet or LAN  Sound: 16-Bit DirectX 9.0 Compatible sound card with support for EAX 2.0 Audience Witch-Hunter is dark, it is gritty and hardcore, but the hardcore is not over done. This isn’t for the horror psycho who is only in it for the blood and guts which seem to plague our computer screens to often these days, Witch-Hunter is for the one who likes to have fun in a mysterious dark world where monsters hide behind every wall and in every drain.

I think you'd benefit from this:

History vs. Mythology.


So, your idea is to pass this around to game publishing companies so they give you money to hire a professional team and manage the development of the game?

not that simple, I'm managing development and such, at the moment I've got people doing concept art, writing and I'm designing (Design Document is 79 pages so far) I'm using the soon to be open source ID Tech 4 engine, all I need are coders and programmers, I might be getting in touch with some but other than that none.

Mainly what I want from publishers is the marketing side of it, so really the publishing side.

If you seriously want money from the publisher, you will also need to tell them how much money you need and how you are going to spend it and at least a tiny bit of art (concepts or mockup screenshots).

A quick market analysis (this game would appeal to who and why) would be helpful.

You should introduce your core team members and previous works.

The more art you can show the better. A demo is even better. A (almost) finished game is best.

Finally, the specs you mention are pretty low end right now and will ancient by 2013. I'm not sure if this is intentional. Also Windows 7+ support would be nice. ;)

As for your chance of actually getting money, please refer to the table in section 5 of this page.

More info on getting a game published is here.

Good luck!

Edit:
One more thing:
I think it would help tremendously if you described a typical gameplay sequence in detail. Right now you have an outline of the setting and some vague bullet points on the gameplay. Nobody can imagine how this game will be like!

don't worry Gameplay is in the Design Document, this is supposed to be a sort of teaser, so to say look this is my IP and show them that its not just another World War II game or Zombie game. If I include gameplay more than I already have it will be long, and long means bad because it decreases the chances of anyone reading it.

I have included a brief market analysis under the guise of "Audience" also the team is rather small at the moment but it can be mentioned. As soon as I get enough concept art from my artists I'm going to make a mock-trailer with no real gameplay just small animations from flash (light flash, smoke etc.) and concept slideshow and small sentences explaining what Witch-Hunter is and a possible release date.

Speaking of release date, no publisher will sign a project today that's to be released in 4 years. They'll ask you to come back in 3 years...

The reality is that no one will give you any money unless you have a track record of successful titles, or you have a pretty-much complete game that proves itself. The document is a waste, it won't get you anything. My suggestion is to get the game more or less complete, THEN try to find a publisher.

My recommendations based on years as a professional designer?

Hire a proof-reader first, before you do anything else. The spelling and grammar need work and that will earn you a one-way trip to the recycle bin even if the design was good.

Seriously consider making this as a game-mod rather than an original retail game.

Get yourself some credentials; get a degree in games design or get a job as a tester in a local studio and work up to professional design, but don't expect to get any project signed as an unknown.

Keep an eye on the slightly awkward religious overtones. Your game could easily fall foul of certain religious discrimination laws and end up banned in the EU.

In fact, you might want to reconsider the 'Inquisition' angle entirely; the witch hunts and inquisition are still a sore point in many communities.

Most publishers will not bother reading beyond the first page of a 79-page GDD. In fact, most publishers will have so many changes to suggest that you will need to re-write it from scratch anyway.

If you really want to see this game as you envisaged it and you can afford to, skip the publisher; self-fund the project and sell it through Steam and other digital distribution services.