I’m meeting with someone from a game studio today to show off a little bit of Disco Candybar.

I’ve shown the game to plenty of people with ties to tabletop game publishers, but mostly informally. Not “formal pitches”, per se, but more casual “look-sees” where I’m just showing people what I’ve been up to, and getting feedback from designers and insiders who can provide experienced feedback on the direction and concepts within the game.

Today it’s sort of “formal”, in that someone who saw the project informally mentioned it to a contact at a publisher, and some curiosity came from all of it.

The last time I did this, it was all done online, and crammed into about 20 minutes. You may recall it was disastrous, and put me in a minor creative and emotional spiral briefly. After a little time to reflect on it all, I recovered and carried on, but not without learning a few critical lessons: how to pre-message it, who to seek meetings with, which elements to focus on and which ones to zip through without getting bogged down in.

Today’s meeting is in person, with someone who has already gotten some of the low-down on what to expect, and is scheduled to allow more than 20 minutes. My plan is to give a quick overview of how the Prologue and its tutorials work, and then spend more time on the deeper game engine, which has shown to be much more engaging with experienced gamers. By putting the game on an actual table between us, rather than playing it online on a simulation of a table, we’ll be able to circumvent technical issues that add fiddliness and slow things down.

Despite all these improved conditions for the show-and-tell, I still don’t really look at this as a true, formal pitch. Why? Because I know the game isn’t finished, not by a long shot. There isn’t a full narrative arc, the mechanics of character growth aren’t as deep as they would be in a final product, and the Prologue pacing is in serious need of editing. What I have is maybe 5% of what I project the finished product to look like.

I see this more as an opportunity to share what I do have with someone in a who might find value in the concept. Someone who may have needs or goals that dovetail with the path Disco Candybar explores. Not quite formal, not too casual. A demo with purpose, and a chance to do some Q&A with someone who will have their own strong, purposeful questions.

I have to hit the road shortly to get to this meeting. Wish me luck. And grace, and enough thoughtfulness to give good answers to questions I might not have anticipated.

Fingers crossed, and may the dice be agreeable. I’ll give you some of the highlights later.

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