Work Sample

Crafting the Pitch Deck

Introduction

One of my many duties in Baby Robot Games was to pitch Ereban: Shadow Legacy to publishers. It was an ambitious project, so we knew from the start that we needed funding in order to establish our studio, expand our team and secure the development.

This was a long and very iterative process that required me to identify and crystallise the game's pillars, its USPs (Unique Selling Points), prepare all the biz-dev documentation required by the publishers/investors and have countless meetings and emails with them.

In this section, I'll cover how I approached these tasks and show you the final result.

Previous work

Before starting with the pitch deck itself, I had to prepare the following materials:

Playable build

We developed a small demo featuring the elements we considered the most important to convey the experience we wanted to create:

Shadow movement mechanics that let players experiment our main USP - the original twist this game offered to the stealth genre thanks to the combination between stealth, shadows and platforming.
Stealth systems and mechanics to support our game loop and experience. Detection, enemy vision, noise...
Enemy AI corresponding to our basic melee units, described in more detail here.
Level Example including multiple paths and possibilities for players to use our shadow mechanics in exciting ways. This level ended up being part of our final game.
"Beautiful corner" - small section of our demo level was dressed up by the artists to showcase our visual target.

Here, except for the beautiful corner, I was in charge of the design of these elements, as well as the prototyping and implementation in collaboration with the programmers.

This demo was the best way to sell our vision, but also very valuable to gather feedback from playtests and iterate since a very early stage.

High-level Design Document

I was in charge of writing and updating our GDD, as it was a living document during the whole development.

For publishers and funds (as well as for new hires, collaborators, etc) I prepared a high level version of the GDD, useful to get a grasp of the whole game: mechanics, systems, characters, enemies, levels, narrative... in a digestible way.

Along with the GDD, I mainly used Confluence for this, supported by other tools such as Miro and Google Slides.

Production Plan

I worked on the Production Plan with the help of the whole team, creating a detailed but still high-level timeline, with defined milestones.

The objective was not to get a granular, set in stone timeline, but to have an estimation of how much time, money and what hirings we would need, and which bottlenecks we'd find.

During development, I used this as a starting point for creating and maintaining our epics and tasks, to track delays and roadblocks, as well as perform informed modifications or cuts when unexpected work arose or delayed.

I used Excel and MS Project for the overall view and pitch, then Jira for the day-to-day use.

Budget

In parallel to the Production Plan, I was in charge of the Budget. This required identifying and estimating all possible costs during development, including hirings, outsourcing services, taxes, office expenses...

Unlike the production plan, this final number had to be definitive (it's very hard to ask for more when the contract has been signed), so from the start I included some contingency to cover the unforeseen expenses that could arise. And good thing we did, as we had to make use of that.

I used Google Spreadsheets for this.

The Process

With all documents in place, it was time to start with the pitch deck.

Goals

Short for in-person pitches (≈ 15 min)

The deck was structured to support live presentations at events and meetings.
In those, I would go faster in certain slides and provided additional spoken context in others.

... but above all, self-contained for email reviews

Most of the time, this was the case.
It therefore had to be self-contained and work on its own.
To reduce friction, I'd send it along with an in-game overview GIF, trailer and the biz-dev documents mentioned above.

Highlighting our strenghts

Strong playable build with a clear twist
- I focused on showcasing the core mechanic and its possibilities as clearly and visually / dynamically as possible.
- Wherever relevant, gameplay spoke first, not just screenshots but movement and interaction.
Young, passionate team willing to do things right
- I made sure every document, build, and communication reflected a high level of care and professionalism.
- The goal was to communicate reliability and commitment through quality of execution.

... and addressing our weaknesses

Limited track record
- Addressed by focusing heavily on the build, prioritising tangible proof over promises.
- And putting extra care in business-development materials (production plan, budget, etc.).
Lack of recent comparative games (starving genre)
- Addressed by shifting comparisons from market performance to feature set, scope, and positioning.

Tailored to the receiver

Not only to create a more personal connection, but also to adapt the budget and production plan to each publisher’s or fund’s scope.
- Some publishers and funds operate at different scales, so I prepared multiple versions of the project (A, B, C), varying in size and cost.
The content itself was also customised (presentation title, cover, etc.).
- I built a master pitch deck in Google Slides, along with a dedicated version for each recipient.
- Using the "link to slide" feature, shared slides were synchronised across versions, while customised sections remained specific.
- This ensured that updates to the core deck were automatically reflected everywhere, while personalisation remained intact.

Structure

1. Customized cover (optional)

For selected publishers and investors, I created customised covers addressing them directly.
Since they review a high volume of pitch decks daily, this personalisation helped create a strong first impression, demonstrate genuine investment in the outreach, and signal a thoughtful, targeted approach.

2. Cover

Displaying our most awesome art (at that moment) representing the game.
The goal was to create a strong first impression and convey the tone, aesthetics and type of game we were pitching.

3. Elevator pitch

"Become a stealth agent with ancestral shadow powers in a sci-fi universe"

A single sentence communicating the game’s core concept.
In our case, the key elements were:
- Stealth genre.
- Shadow powers as a player power fantasy.
- A blend of mysticism (ancestral shadow powers) and science fiction.

4. GIF: Our mechanical twist in movement

.Showing our main mechanic (and USP) in movement.
- "Traditionally, stealth games encourage you to hide in the shadows. What if you could literally merge with them?"
This comparison served two purposes:
- Illustrate the shadow merge mechanic better than with words.
- Incite the reader to start imagining all the possibilities this new mechanic could bring to the stealth genre.

5. Playable Trailer

<1 min trailer
Main goal: showcase some of the possibilities of the mix between stealth and our main mechanic.
- Move unseen, climb walls, pass through small spaces, use moving shadows...
- The previous GIF was meant to incite the power fantasy, the trailer goal was to confirm it.
Secondary goal: see the gameplay, tone and art-style in action.

6. Game Features

List of the main features of our game:
- Unique blend between stealth & shadows with the Shadow Merge.
- Original universe that combined ancient architecture and sci-fi.
  - Represented as well in gameplay, using shadow powers and gadgets.
- Multiple ways of approaching each situation. Avoid/kill, multiple paths...
- High-pace platformer stealth.

7-8. Gameplay Pillars

The three gameplay pillars that formed our game: Stealth, Platforming and Puzzles.
- Puzzles was later changed to Exploration, as during development we saw that aspect was more interesting.
I included in-game GIFs supporting each of those promises.

9-10. Narrative Slides (Optional)

I included these slides only when presenting to a narrative-focused publisher.
The goal was to provide the synopsis and main narrative pillars of the game.

11. Production Roadmap

Very high-level, including only key information:
- Completed / remaining milestones.
- Remaining months.
- Target release quarter.
Added note to indicate we had a detailed production plan available on request. That way the pitch deck remained simple while starting a conversation if receiver was further interested.

12. Budget Overview

Same as the production road-map, very high-level.
Included only the key information:
- Total in-house / outsourcing / other (office, licenses...) expenses.
- Total dev budget.
- Burn-rate (€ per month)
As with the production slide, I added a note indicating the detailed budget was available on request.

13. Target Audience

Small slide covering which was our target audience.
Publishers/funds expect this kind of data on the deck, even though they will later perform a market analysis with their better data / tools / expertise.

14-15. Reactions in Social Media

We had some success in our publications in Reddit, Imgur and Twitter, so I included a couple of slides showing this traction.
This was a way of compensating our lack of other metrics (was our debut game, no early access, no kickstarter).

16. Similar Games

3 relevant games acting as references / competitors.
The stealth genre has been starving for quite some time, so I had to include older and not-so-relevant games (ideally they should have been more recent).
As with target audience, publishers / funds will later perform a research on their side.

17. The Team

List of every member that participated on the playable prototype so far.
As it was our debut game, I intentionally left this slide for the end, focusing on the game first.

18-19. What we offered / what we looked for

We were selling not just a game, but a collaboration.
The "what we offer" section served to showcase our values as a studio, our promises, and what the publisher/fund could expect from us.
The "what we look for" slide included the funding discussed in the budget, but also the rest of services we would need from them.

20. Final Slide and Contact methods

Included another beautiful key-art image of our game.
As well as our contact details for continuing the conversation.

Final Result

[Education] - Project Atlas Pitch Deck

Bonus - 2024 Pitch Deck

The previous Pitch Deck belonged to >2021, when we were still in pre-production. After releasing the game in 2024, I started pitching the game again, this time looking for a console publisher. I thought it would be interesting for you to see the progress during those years, as well as all the changes the game had during development due to iteration and feedback.

Here's my latest Pitch Deck:

[Education] Ereban: Shadow Legacy - Pitch Deck (2024)

Special Thanks

While this was a team effort from start to finish, I want to give special thanks to Alex Alonso for making the slides look far better than my initial layouts ever did.

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