End of May the annual SAZ game designer convention was once again organised in the German city Göttingen. Around 160 designers congregated in the venue of this year and close to 40 publishers had an editor/scout come by. It is quite an event, impressively organised. So thank you SAZ and publishers for making the effort. It was nice meeting and chatting with fellow designers and publishers.

The goal of designers during this day is of course to pitch your games to publisher, have them take a serious look and consider it for publication. Someone said to me a more fair expression to state you will meet fellow designers and maybe have a publisher over at your table. While this is a way to lower expectations to a fair level, I have experienced you can optimise the odds of having visits of editors/scouts. Suggestions:

• Make sure you have good games that are developed enough. Yes this is obvious, but still worth mentioning: one editor commented there are lot of bad games, which apparently on first sight have issues that make it a bad design or product. The second is harder to address but it seems a game should be well tested and iterated before you show it (this is why we have so many awesome playtesting events). If it is in development, you can indicate that and still get feedback whether there the publisher thinks it might make a for an interesting product.
• It is about now and the future: One prototype was considered a good game by a few, but not a fit with them. They did take note however and one publisher requested my contact information for their data base, in case I contact them again with a concept fitting their portfolio.
• To get visits it seems very important to create pitch/sell sheets of any prototype you have. It forces you to consider the core and the hook of each, which helps for pitching them as well. Send the sheets to the publishers beforehand. I was on the late end of that, sending out mails days before the event, yet it made one scout come by right from the start (while still setting up, whoops >_< ). It also might make an editor not come by (right away), but that probably is a good thing. This event works if it is a win-win for all parties and knowing where to go and where not is helpful for channeling the effort for all.
• During this convention there are also folders the publishers pick up, bring printed version of the sheets and put them in the folders for relevant publishers. Doing it shotgun method, putting it in all folders, is not a win-win and the SAZ asks you to consider which publisher.
• A list of publishers coming over is shared prior to the event. Besides knowing who to email, it is useful to check out their portfolio and what submission guidelines they communicate, so you can narrowcast your pitches, as stated above.
• We teamed up as 3 designers from the lowlands (Netherlands and Belgium), and when someone visited one we recommended the others. Editors will however have their to do list, and might just skip someone. That happened to all of us as well, and we also all 3 had focussed visits.
• Of course you can team up with new people next to you as well. My left neighbour discussed with a new designer which publisher might be interested in their type of game, and mentioned to the publisher (politely) the potential fit.
• Make your table presentable: bring a tablecloth, use pop-up plexiglass to showcase (especially if you have more than 1 prototype). My left neighbour had a portfolio book a visitor could browse throught to see what might be interesting to see and my right neighbour had foamboard stacks whereupon each game was set up, so he could take one and discuss it right away.
• Be ready to explain the premise of the game, the hooks or twists that make it interesting and be ready to jumstart playing it if they want to get a bit of experience. I did not do this perfectly and luckily the editors seemed to be ok with that.
• True as ever, also in playtesting: listen and take all feedback you get. Being too or upfront defensive or argumentative is a red flag for further collaborating together. This does not mean all might be true what they say about your concept: make sure you understand their reasoning. There always is value in that. I sometimes do explain a bit the design considerations, but always with the intent to enhance the shared discussion. This is not hard science, there are few hard truths, but publishers do have much experience about the market and what product they look for.

Not perfect, but the pitch/sell sheets below did do the job. I took advantage of the fact I could mention a few co-designs that are already published to signify a level of experience. And it would be a win-win for our publisher and us when this leads to current or future sublicensing abroad.

Hopefully this helps you in deciding and preparing for such events. If you have tips and tricks, relevant experiences, please add them in the comments!