Writing Pitch Docs and Exec Docs - Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing - page 19

3
Writing Pitch Docs and Exec Docs
Erin Hoffman
3.1 I've Got This Great Idea for a Video Game
With rare exception, commercial video games get their start in the form of a pitch
document , a very brief (usually under ten pages) description of the game that a studio
proposes to create. This can also be called a concept doc or a vision doc ,though
those terms are usually applied to internal documents. A polished (and usually
reduced) form of a vision doc will go to the prospective publisher and contain
budgeting, team, and corporate information that a pitch doc doesn't need. But
the two are closely related, and a pitch doc can serve as a core vision point to
which the team returns for focus mid to late in the project phase when develop-
ment can evolve away from its original concept. The vision or pitch doc also serves
to communicate to the team early on what the project's core goals are. The larger
the project, the longer its pitch or vision document will be, but the focus is on
conciseness.
Understanding the techniques and standard formatting of a pitch document
can help you present your project in its most crucial nascent phase as a profes-
sional product worthy of respect and consideration. With the growing roles of
writers in game production, Pitch Writer has become a standardized job title, and
particularly as games extend into other fields such as medicine and social services
(a.k.a. “serious games�), wherein non-“game people� will be reviewing a project, a
good pitch can mean the difference between landing a competitive gig and
missing out.
Pitch documents are frequently collaborative, depending on a studio's struc-
ture, and can follow a brainstorming session including writers, designers, program-
mers, and artists. They frequently contain design mockups or art concepts, but
in this chapter we'll focus on the communication-focused text produced by a pitch
writer.