Iceberg Interactive‘s Raymond Snippe sat down with us for this week’s Publisher Profile, talking in-depth about the pitching process and how a developer can walk in ready for anything and prepared to impress.
Who are you?
Raymond Snippe, Iceberg Interactive: My name is Raymond Snippe and I’m the Business Development Director for Iceberg Interactive.
Can you tell us a bit about your company?
Iceberg Interactive was founded in 2009 by an international group of industry veterans – so it’s our 10th anniversary next year. Our headquarters is located in the lovely city of Haarlem in The Netherlands. For those not familiar with the geography of our little country, it’s pretty close to Amsterdam 🙂
What work do you do to help developers reach an audience? How do you make developers’ lives a little easier?
As a publisher, we want developers to do what they do best: work on their game! They shouldn’t worry about time-consuming activities like age rating submissions, setting up and monitoring Quality Assurance, EX, localization, sending out pre/review codes, managing social media, filtering key requests from Youtubers or streamers, etc. – that’s our job. These are all services that we bring to the table when publishing a game.
What is it that you’re on the lookout for (genres, content, etc.)?
We are basically open to any genre or content, really. A lot of people know us for our (4X) strategy games, simulations, and adventure games on the PC, but recently we’ve signed quite a number of multiplatform titles across a range of genres: Racing, Puzzle and Action Adventure, just to name a few!
What do you look for in the games you choose to publish? In the developers you want to work with?
Well, our company philosophy is simple: At Iceberg, we sell unique titles – games we personally would like to play because of one obvious reason: we’re players too! 🙂
As a developer, if you can channel your energy and love for games into your own project, then no worries – we will notice your enthusiasm and would be happy to review it.
Is there anything developers do to make themselves more appealing to publishers? Anything they do that makes them less appealing to publishers?
This really depends on where and how you’re meeting publishers. If you’re sending a pitch via email, you want to keep the introduction short, then elaborate in a pitch document or Game Design Document. The same thing applies if you meet face to face at an event – don’t overload a publisher or investor with too many details too soon.
Then, if you’re invited to pitch, keep your presentation concise and leave room for questions. Most meeting slots are around 30 minutes, so 20 minutes would be optimal for your part, leaving you plenty of time for a conversation. Expect to be asked about more than your ideas – a publisher will want to know about finance and management. We could be blunt and ask you straight away what amount of money you need before getting to the “what are we looking for” slide of your presentation. Be prepared!
Always present from a laptop or tablet – do not use your phone! Do make sure you have a power bank available in case there are no power outlets nearby. Your meeting might be outside the venue or last minute at a meeting point instead of a booth. After the pitch, be sure to hand out the whole presentation (printed or on a USB), together with your business card/s and a build or demo. Also; always follow up! Publishers are meeting a lot of developers, (especially if an event spans several days) and your email might get lost in their flooded inbox.
When following up, be sure to give your contact a week or two. Particularly when it’s an international event. Include your original pitch, a link to a gameplay video or build just in case they don’t have it on-hand. Then, if you don’t get a reply after your first follow up, don’t panic. Just send a friendly reminder after a couple of days and another if necessary.
Do not feel burdened to send a cold email to a publisher. It’s great to meet up during an event, but unfortunately you are not the only one pitching an idea – especially during matchmaking events like Game Connection. If you have a solid build or demo, and you are comfortable showing your game or project, just reach out to that publisher. 🙂 Most publishers will have a special section or contact form dedicated to game pitches on their website or portal.
If you want to reach out to our assessment team at Iceberg, feel free to send us an email via development@iceberg-games.com and we will get in touch!
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