Writing Pitch Docs and Exec Docs - Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing - page 24

Budget & Schedule
In the last section of your pitch document, you'll seal the deal by outlining the staff
size and development period for the project. In all likelihood, you, the writer, will
not be completing this section, but you may polish the basics for presentation in the
total pitch.
Depending on the phase of your project, the “budget� discussed here may not be
a real budget. That will be hashed out in in-person or phone negotiations specific to
the executives involved. But your budget and schedule breakdown should indicate
the number of team members (broken down by role and “unit,� where one developer
equals one unit) and the length of time they will spend on the project. In an ideal
world, this gives a natural budget as the hours devoted to the project result in direct
quantifiable costs to the studio. This section will form the framework for a future
production plan.
Additional Sections
Depending on the nature of your game, you may have select additional sections,
such as a technical summary detailing specific technology your company will use to
complete the project. If the game utilizes highly innovative graphics technology, a
separate section on graphics can be warranted. Pitch documents are flexible and will
differ by project and by studio; what you've just read are the basics for a core pitch
template.
3.3 Executive Documents
Executive documents are documents frequently requested by the publisher or licensor
after a project has been landed and/or is in development. These documents detail
or clarify the design approach and are not always written by the game writer. As the
project progresses toward attaining funding, the documents will get longer. Before
a contract is signed, a publisher will want to see a detailed game design document
(GDD) with milestones laid out and agreed to with delivery stipulations and dates,
as well as a technical design document (TDD) laying out how, exactly, the team plans
to achieve the objectives set out in the pitch. These documents represent the next
step in the pre-production process.
During production, if any changes are made to the game's design, these docu-
ments can be revised, or new summaries issued. While the GDD and TDD are in the
purview of the specific departments that use them, later-phase executive documents
can be more language-oriented than technical documents and more geared toward
communicating the creative intent of the project. Conciseness always counts, but
solid, evocative executive documents can improve publisher-developer and licensor-
developer relations substantially by conveying the competency of the studio and
team. This side of game writing, similar to pitch writing, benefits most substan-
tially from studying the art of succinct nonfiction. William Zinsser's On Writing
We l l is a superb resource for this.