Proposing Your Game

How do you actually get a publisher to consider your game?

A sea of proposals

Even a small publisher will receive around three game proposals per day. They won't even look at most of them. Publishers will usually ignore your proposal. Sometimes, they will reply, stating that they're not interested. It's fine to propose your game to multiple companies at once. You don't want too many proposals going concurrently, however, as you may get multiple interested publishers. You also don't want to burn through your list of publishers too quickly, because you'll improve your proposal skills and the appeal of your game, during this proposal period.

If it's unclear, you can always ask a publisher "are you accepting submissions?" This is likely more polite, and often gets a response. It can be a foot in the door.

Contacting a publisher

Usually, a designer will create a "sell sheet". This is a page of pictures and information, spruiking and explaining the game.

If it's convenient, you can attend a board game convention, and show your game to a publisher there. If they like it, you give them the sell sheet.

I'm in Australia, so this wasn't an option for me. Also, I don't believe it's necessary.

The standard approach is just to email the publisher (or fill out the form on their website). You send them your sell sheet, or just put images and text in the email. If they like the look of the game, they'll typically ask you to send them a physical copy by mail, or play it with them on Tabletop Simulator.

As publication gets more difficult, it can be useful to have a personal contact. Ask your playtesters if they have a contact at a publisher. Often, you'll find a playtester knows someone, or is also a playtester for a publisher.

Writing the proposal

In general, the less you write, the better.

Do not tell the publisher how good your game is. Do not tell them that your playtesters and your little brother like it. Do not argue a case for your game.

No kind of pleading or story improves your chances.

Your game will speak for itself.

My simplest email was the successful one.

Here's my entire proposal email, that led to Roxley viewing my video, and then publishing Radlands:

I'm Daniel Piechnick.

[one or two lines of personal profile]

GAME PROPOSAL
Name: Delta Six [the name at the time]
Theme: Futuristic
Play style: Strategy
Players: 2
Duration: 20-30m
Components: 84 cards
Weight: Medium-light
Gameplay video: [url of video on youtube]

This is the kind of proposal someone makes when they don't have to explain or make excuses for anything. And it works. These days, I'd likely add a couple more lines to this, describing the game.

If you have a published game, or something relevant and notable to say about yourself, include it at the top.

This is the only way I propose games. Therefore, I have no need of a sell sheet.

The video

Make a video of your game.

When you propose your game, nothing can compete with a video. You can show the quality of your gameplay, and give the publisher an insight into your game almost as good as they could get from actually playing it. Companies are increasingly requiring videos. It's so much more effective, and so much easier for the publisher.

You don't need to make a high-quality video. Use your phone camera, or record your computer screen. Talk and give commentary as you play and explain the game. Don't bother trying to coordinate with a real opponent. Just play everyone's hand.

How to make a game proposal video

• Do not explain the rules. Just explain the objective, in one rapid sentence.
• Get to the gameplay at light speed. Some viewers will literally leave the video within seconds. Remember that this publisher got three other game proposals today.
• Obviously do not explain or do the setup. Just have everything ready.
• Briefly narrate the strategic thoughts of the player as you take the turn.
• Do not explain everything that's visible. Give little bits of rules explanation, only to explain what you're doing, while you're doing it. Do not stop playing, in order to explain things.
• Your first move should be something that is simple, and typical of the game, not some weird combo or action type. Do not play optimally. Play to show off the game. (The publisher most certainly cannot tell that you're playing suboptimally.)
• Weave in bigger strategy musings and other information, as you go.
• Do not explain maintenance. If you have to discard or replenish things, or get income, that's obvious. Just do it.
• Make the video 10-15 minutes long, and no more. Just play a few turns, and leave the viewer interested.
• Don't bother "stacking the deck". My random on-camera games were far better than ones I tried to "stack" off-camera. If the game goes bad during a recording, just start again.
• Do not worry about errors in the video. They won't notice. In most of my videos, I forget some step at least once. 

Technical details

Upload your video as a private YouTube video. This way, you can see who has viewed it, because you can see the viewer's country/state. You can also see how long they watched the video for.

If a company watches your video, and they don't get back to you soon thereafter, they're not interested, and you can move on.

Success!

After my proposal video piqued the curiosity of Gavan, the boss of Roxley, he got back to me almost instantly, and asked if he could play the game on Tabletop Simulator.

We played it the following day. I let him save the game. He went off, and played it with one of his colleagues. They played it twice, and wanted to play again.

The following day, Gavan got back to me, and offered to publish the game.