“So, what’s your game about?” Until now, we’ve only had awkward and ambiguous answers to this question, so last week we started writing an elevator pitch. In short, an elevator pitch is a concise explanation of what your game is about and why anyone would want to play it.

Having a solid elevator pitch can help reduce the number of awkward encounters we may face throughout the process of developing a game. It will also better prepare us for when someone asks what the vision for our game is and be useful when we start looking for a publisher and marketing our game.

Our logic when developing our elevator pitch is to try and sell the game concept and provide some detail about what the player will be doing when they play the game. There are aspects of our game that we do not want to reveal until the player experiences them on their own; however, we also want to avoid being too vague regarding the gameplay. So we began the writing process by making two lists: what we wanted to say in our pitch, and what we didn’t want to say. Next, we wrote a few draft versions of our pitch, refining and reworking it over time. And since most resources around elevator pitches recommend keeping the pitch short and sweet (between 30 seconds and 2 minutes long), we’ve also been reciting our drafts aloud to see how long they are.

We’re still working on the elevator pitch, but we have managed to create a logline:

Survivors of a societal collapse must go on an epic adventure to find a new home. Lead the survivors through a vast wilderness and battle fearsome foes while uncovering the mysterious past of your ancestors.

Our logline doesn’t focus on gameplay, but instead aims to entice potential players with the game’s themes and premise. Save yourself the awkward explanations of your game idea. Write some pitches!