Writing Pitch Docs and Exec Docs - Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing - page 20

3.2 Parts of a Pitch Document
Most pitch documents follow a standard format. Individual studios may have their
own style templates, but the basic components remain the same:

•

Executive Summary

•

Audience Analysis

•

Story

•

Competition Analysis

•

Market Analysis

•

Gameplay

•

Budget & Schedule

Tips
• Use bulleted or numbered lists wherever possible. A pitch doc is not the place for your

deathless prose—that goes into backstory documentation that in all likelihood no one will
ever read.

• Skim your document. This is how your audience will likely review it. Does it communicate

when read quickly?

•

Break up the text. Keep your paragraphs short and, if you have a long section of text, such
as in your gameplay or story sections, place concept art or design diagrams inside the block
of text to break it up. A pitch doc is highly visual.

• Don't use a paragraph where a table will work. This is particularly true for any analytical

section of the doc, e.g., competition analysis. Use language-free comparison charts where
possible, but be careful of how this can expand your page count.

• Read your executive summary aloud. Does it sound exciting and new? Does it sound like

the description of an existing game? If the answers are “yes� and “no� respectively, you're
ready to go.

Executive Summary
The executive summary (ES), or alternatively overview (though the two are some-
times separated, with an overview being up to a page long for larger projects), leads
a pitch doc. This is a two- to three-sentence description of the proposed title, and
some consider this to be the most important part of the pitch as it may be all that
certain portions of your audience, i.e., publishing executives, hear about the project.