Not so much best way to sell a game idea but things to look out for are in this video from GDC: 30 Things I hate About your Game Pitch I'd suggest giving it a watch, the host talks about all kinds of cliche's they come across and what just doesn't work and should work instead for example the people you pitch to won't care about your inventory system so there's no need to go overboard explaining it.

spookyghausts said:
publisher

Are those still a thing?

10-15 years ago, i just simply flooded my stuff into online forums with a description and a link, where the users were able to download the demo and buy the product.

Sometimes up to about 200-300. Of course from two third of these, it got insta deleted for spamming - even if none of them was spam, i always posted the topics to the appropriate locations. Lately, the environment got even more harsh. Now they would probably delete it from 5/6 of the places. We are heading to more hostility against capitalism.

spookyghausts said: publisher

Geri said: Are those still a thing? 10-15 years ago, i just simply flooded my stuff into online forums with a description and a link, where the users were able to download the demo and buy the product.

Publishers are absolutely still a thing. But it's pretty much impossible to sell a game idea.

Tom Sloper said:
Publishers are absolutely still a thing. But it's pretty much impossible to sell a game idea.

I agree. From his opening message, i assumed he means an already half-done game as game idea.

If its really just an idea, then i dont understand what he wants, or what he assumes how the world works.

I remember when in hungary we had a gamedev site (closed a couple of years ago) i was one of the lead members, and i have suggested to open a topic for game ideas, where people can share their ideas in hope someone will find it interesting, and make a game out of it once. A lot of people were against it, harshly, saying ,,why would i submit my idea, its mine, i will earn the profit from it'' etc etc etc. After a year or two, the topic got opened, hudreds of ideas got posted in it by various people, after they realized they will never be able to profit from the idea/write the actual game itself. Sadly, 99% of the ideas were totally nonsense, and its more reflected the ideal game wish of the various individuals rather than an actually marketable game.

Tom Sloper said:
I took a look at that indie publisher you cited earlier:

Tom Sloper said:
Not exactly confidence-inspiring.

Okay, fair--that one specific example was perhaps not ideal. I just remembered them for specifically mentioning that they take first-timers.

But there are a great many indie publishers, and, of those that I've looked at, they tend to either have a submission form on their site for pitches, or an email address to which to send pitches.

(See for example: Raw Fury, Thunderful, and PID Games)

(And to be clear, that's not from an assiduous search; that's just from a quick look through a few publishers, and three pulled out as a good number.)

What's more, Raw Fury not too long ago released a sample pitch-deck for people to use as a template, and made various other such resources available--something that, while not conclusive in this, seems to point to empowering the inexperienced--perhaps including first-timers.

Tom Sloper said:
I understand that you want me to change what I say to idea guys.

Who said anything about “idea guys"? I don't believe that I mentioned them, and the original poster stated that they were “developing a small game”, which seems to suggest that they're not an “idea guy”.

I'm not asking you to change what you say to “idea guys”.

I'm asking that, when you give people advice regarding publishers, you take into account that (A) indie publishers exist, and that (B) in certain matters they don't operate on the same rules as AAA publishers.

Tom Sloper said:
Cyprus is the same country where Meta Publishing is headquartered. Coincidental?

Possibly not, indeed; it's possible, for example, that Google caught your traffic somewhere--either on the Meta Publishing site or elsewhere.

Thaumaturge said:
But there are a great many indie publishers, and, of those that I've looked at, they tend to either have a submission form on their site for pitches, or an email address to which to send pitches.

So go ahead and say so next time somebody asks where to send a pitch. The OP of this thread said

"I am developing a small game and while I'm nowhere near finished… What are the best ways to pitch a new game or game idea, to a publisher or development team? How would I go about trying to sell my idea if it was ready?"

He acknowledges that his game is “small,” so maybe he's not expecting a lot of money from selling his idea.