Lessons from the Pitch | Brad Thomson | NZGDC 2025

Lessons from the Pitch | Brad Thomson | NZGDC 2025

by Brad Thomson

Humanities, Social Sciences & Thought Economics & Finance KNTMedia, entertainment, information and communication industriesKNTVComputer and video game industry
🎙 Brad Thomson 👥 1K 📅 October 9, 2025 ⏱ 32 min 👁 82 📄 expert opinion 🧭 2026-08-16
Available in: English (current) Français

Keywords

elevator pitchgate processgame designpublishertemplate

Summary

Brad Thomson, a producer at Blind Squirrel Games, shares insights from his experience pitching original projects to AA and AAA publishers. He emphasizes the importance of an iterative gate process to evaluate ideas efficiently, with a focus on failing fast. The core of the talk is a detailed walkthrough of the elevator pitch template used at his company, which includes an executive summary, key product data, player actions, game world, core mechanics, core loop, art and camera style, target audience, influences, and comparable products. He provides examples from a fictional Medabots pitch and the studio’s own project Cosmorons. The template is designed to be completed in a couple of days, ensuring that only well-thought-out ideas proceed to more resource-intensive stages. Thomson highlights the importance of targeting a specific audience and demonstrating commercial potential through comparable products. The talk concludes with practical advice on structuring a pitch deck to capture the interest of busy publishers.

154 words

Critical Evaluation

Value of the Information & Strength of the Argument

The talk provides valuable, actionable advice for game developers, based on real-world experience. The argumentation is coherent and practical, with clear reasoning behind each slide of the pitch template. Thomson effectively argues for the gate process by contrasting it with past failures and emphasizing cost savings. The use of concrete examples, such as the Medabots pitch, makes the advice tangible. However, the argumentation relies heavily on anecdotal evidence and lacks empirical data or case studies beyond the speaker’s own experience.

Scientific Rigor, Source Quality, Title Accuracy

The talk is scientifically rigorous in the sense that it is based on professional practice, but it does not cite external sources or research. The quality of sources is limited to the speaker’s experience and internal company practices. The title accurately reflects the content, which is a practical guide to pitching games. The talk does not claim to be a scientific study, so the lack of formal citations is acceptable for its purpose.

168 words

Title / Content Match

The title accurately reflects the content, which focuses on lessons learned from pitching games.

Quality & Reliability

7/10

The talk is based on direct professional experience in game pitching, with practical examples and a structured template. However, it lacks formal citations or empirical data, and the advice is anecdotal.

Key Moments

Markers derived by PSI from the transcript: the creator did not define chapters.

Contribution & Novelties

The talk provides a practical, ready-to-use template for game pitching, which is a valuable contribution to the game development community. It emphasizes a structured approach that can be adopted by small studios. The iterative gate process is not new, but the specific elevator pitch template is a useful tool.

Pour aller plus loin :

87 words

Radar Profile

The radar profile shows a balanced score across all dimensions, with slightly higher scores in information quantity and quality, reflecting the practical and structured nature of the talk. The technical level is moderate, suitable for a broad audience of game developers.

Reliability 6/10

💬 No comments were provided for analysis.