Greetings GameDev.net community. My name is Curt Feldman. I produce the E3 Conference Program. I have created a session which _may_ offer a unique opportunity for a developer or dev studio interested in pitching their game/game idea to the session's panelists. I am considering (based on response to this post and consensus among panel members as to their willingness to hear such a pitch) inviting developers who are ready to put their game idea on the line and asking them to pitch it to the panel. The purpose of the session is to present a kind of tutorial (or protocol to follow) that will help game developers/aspiring game developers/dev studios pitch more intelligently. The purpose of presenting a "live" pitch is to present something more tangible, more reflective of the real thing (thing = pitch) than can be accomplished by mere discussion. Panelists are as follows: Tom Frisina, Electronic Arts; Bill Anker, Activision; Bob Bates, Legend Entertainment; American McGee, Carbon 6; Dave Taylor, Carbon 6. Moderator is Michael Stroud of WiredNews. (If you know the industry, many, if not all, of these names will be familiar to you. To a person, each has a substantial position within their own company -- and the industry at large. If you do not recognize these people by name, trust me...this is a very, very solid group that represents both the business and creative sides of the game industry.) I invite GameDev.net readers to contact me by e-mail if you are interested in presenting your game idea in a public forum and opening your pitch up to productive criticism (both positive and negative I presume). BTW: I cannot offer any fee for your time/effort. Hope to hear from you if this sounds appealing. Tell me who you are, a little bit about your game, and what stage it is in. I'll fire back questions I'm sure. The session is scheduled for Tuesday, May 21, from 1 to 3 pm, in Los Angeles at the L.A. Convention Center. Thank you. Curt cfeldman@e3expo.com Edited by - curt on March 14, 2002 3:21:56 PM

Thanks,

Anyway I don''t got enough financial source for this.

However thanks again for your representation.

I think this is an excellent competition where new aspiring game development studios can gain first hand experience in acquiring contracts in a “safe” environment where their mistakes aren’t going to cost them millions. There is an immense amount that can be learned from participating in something like this.

While it is great to see a member of E3 taking the time to address the gamedev.net community (as most official organizations seem to pretend we don''t exist) I feel that we may not represent your target audience for an event such as this. For the most part we are Independent Developers who fund our own projects and make the games we want to make. Most of us aren’t prepared for the type of commitment that a publishing contract entails. While many of us would like to someday be a player in the retail game industry, as a group most of us aren’t ready yet.

I would also have some concerns about Intellectual Property in a competition like this which I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on. If I was to enter a team in this competition to pitch a game idea (and why we were the team to bring it to market), I would be concerned that I would be sharing all my great ideas with the judges who represent established game development houses that would represent our competition if we were to bring the game to market.

The benefit for me and my team to enter the competition would be to enhance our ability to land a publishing agreement. However much of our value would be lost if one of the judging panel "borrowed" some of our unique features and brought them to market first. I realize this is always an issue when trying to get funding, but I would be nice to come to some mutual agreement between the teams and the judges about this issue.

As a whole this would be a very valuable opportunity, but I suggest you do not base your decision to go ahead with it solely on the response from these boards, as we do not represent the group of individuals that would benefit most from this experience.

The issue of protecting Intellectual Property is of concern to me as well. Very likely, there would have to be some sort of agreement (contract?) reached before this sort of presentation could take place. I hope my initial post made it clear that this component of the session has not been finalized -- and may not be part of the panel if it''s not the smart thing to do.

As far as the post being directed to the wrong constituency, it may be so. Before addressing this topic with some friends of mine in the game dev community, I was not familiar with GameDev.net. I''m a newbie to the site, learning on the fly about the core concerns and core interests of members. In spite of having never written a line of code, I find the content and mission both fascinating and admirable.

I''m happy to keep this thread alive -- even if the primary line of inquiry seems ill-targeted.

Thanks for your reply Ironside.

Curt,

Myself, I''d love to be involved in such an event, but I''m blowing my conference wad for the year by attending the GDC next week. Hell, I even have several pitchable ideas...

Ah, well. Maybe next year I can hit both conferences.

I hope it all works out. This sounds like a good idea.

-David


DavidRM
Samu Games

I would love to do something like this it sounds very appealing, who can apply?
Is it only aimed at : proffessional game developers?
Could a group of students be accepted, or is this out of the question?

I believe anyone who is attending E3 would be able to participate in the panel (provided you have panel access). For myself this is cost-prohibitive, otherwise I would jump on the opportunity.

Last year I attended E3, approached several people and made excellent contacts, but we were never in a good environment for me to pitch and them to receive my ideas. We had to do everything via e-mail after that.

I won''t be attending E3 this year, but it makes me wish I could. My team has a project for GBA in the coding phase. We''ll be tweaking the design as we go, but for the most part it is finalized. I''d approximate that we have about 6-8 months of development left before we finish (if everything goes well).

As for the target, I believe there are enough people on this forum that would be interested in such an opportunity that it''s wise to place the announcement here. If only 10 or 15 teams were interested, I think that would be more than enough. I''m not sure how much time you''re alloting for the panel and the presentations though.

Charles Galyon

In response to some recent queries:

I''ll consider any one or any group (students included) with code and/or an idea sufficiently fleshed out to legitimately support an intelligent presentation. It could be a project that has already been rejected even. What''s important is an element of sincerity on the presenter''s part and depth of product attributes. Ultimately, this will be decided through conversation rather than a strict checklist I''d be able to present here.

Access to E3 and the Conference Program is the one benefit I _can_ offer anyone included in the session. (Nice point, the full pass would cost you $425 otherwise.) So do not let the expense of entering the show stand in the way of participating.

And finally, the session is two hours in length. Figure on the "pitch" and pitch-specific dialogue to take up no more than 30 minutes of the session.

Please contact me directly if you''re interested. cfeldman@e3expo.com. Thanks.

Sounds great! And very appealing... now I just have to find a way to afford the airfare and hotel room...

Thanks for your efforts to be accomodating!

Charles Galyon