When we pick games for the program Fastaval, we aim for a broad selection of good games to match all the varying tastes of Fastaval participants. In order to achieve this, we need to know how the games that are pitched will play out.
In other words: We really want to understand your game. What is cool about it, how does it match the players at Fastaval, how far are you in the design process, which experience do you want to give to the players, and how do plan to do it?
To this end we have some general advice:
- Pictures, pictures, pictures!
- Skip the component list
- What is your aim and the mechanics?
- How far are you in the design process?
- Have someone read it through
1. Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!
If you have tried to make a sell-sheet to convince a company to publish your game, you may be used to having to limit yourself to a single page. That is not necessary with us! In fact, you may send as many pages as you wish… as long as the majority of it is pictures ☺
We do not want 3 pages of all text, but we love to see informative images that show us how your game looks (it doesn’t need to look pretty and polished, just functional enough for us to see how the game is supposed to work). Close ups of components, a picture of the board, maybe a situation halfway through the game or an overview of your cards… Make sure that the picture resolution and size is big enough to make it clear what is going on, and make a short, descriptive text to go along with it. Spending half a page on an image is perfectly fine.
2. Skip the component list
A list of all the components needed for your game is important if you are pitching to a publisher. But we have no use of it, and if you include it anyway, it will mainly leave us with the impression that you have just taken an existing sell-sheet and sent us a copy of it without really looking into what Fastaval is.
3. What is your aim and the mechanics?
Which experience do you aim to give the people playing your game? Which feeling should they be left with? And then… how do you intend to achieve that aim? What is it about your mechanics that will take your game there? Where are the dilemmas and the interesting choices?
We can’t really use general terms like, ”Easy to learn, hard to master” or, ”Funny and interesting game!” Instead, describe what players are supposed to actually do, and what it is about the game that makes it easy or fun or whatnot. Let us know which kind of systems/tasks/procedures should be figured out during gamedesign@fastaval.dk Side 2 af 2 the game, or how you intend to use this particular mechanic to put the players in a meditative mood or give them a sense of paranoia.
It may be beneficial to compare with other (well known) games and explain how you use parts of the mechanics from those games and how the way you put them together makes your game new and interesting.
4. How far are you in the design process?
We actually don’t want you to be completely done with your game when you pitch… the process about boardgames for Fastaval is also about building community where all the chosen designers develop their games in parallel in the months between pitch deadline and Easter, helping each other out and hyping together along the way.
Let us know what stadge you are at, how much you have tested and what you believe still remains to be done.
5. Have someone read it through
Have someone who doesn’t know your game read the pitch and tell you if what you have written is also understandable to an outsider. Your description may seem intuitive to yourself because you know your game, but others may need more explanation. If there is something your reader feels is missing or doesn’t understand, then add or change it.
You can see some examples of good pitches from previous years here: https://www.fastaval.dk/eksempler-pitch
If you have any further questions, you are always welcome to write us at gamedesign@fastaval.dk
We look forward to reading your pitch.
Best regards,
The boardgame organisers of Fastaval
