The day of the pitch is upon us! Feeling like an overall bag of nerves, I drummed up my flash cards and slide input to be included in the overall presentation fairly quickly over the last week. I sent this off to Bryan who was putting the whole pitch slideshow together. Went over my part again and again while timing it. We read the brief once more to ensure we were heading on the right lines. 15 minute pitch plus questions. cool. 5 minutes each for us to rattle off our parts and hopefully secure the backing of a financial backer for our game.
We met up today a couple of hours beforehand to get everything straightened out, and I found that the more I talked, the more the time went on, the nearer the deadline for our presentation came, I was starting to get a severe case of the jitters worse and worse. My neck broke out in a rash, I was sweating, my stomach was churning, I was eh-ing and pausing in places I shouldn't have. It was official - I was terrified.
I can't say the same for the other team members but I find public speaking truly frightening. It's like the dream you have where you're doing a presentation in front of people and suddenly you have no clothes on and everyones laughing at you.
The pressure was on! I had to hold it together long enough to ensure I remained on track, and confident enough so as to not screw up my teams chances at a great presentation. The pressure was added by the fact that when we got to the room we were a bit early and no one was there, so every moment we waited I was checking who was walking down the corridor to see if it was our potential clients. From the moment I clocked eyes on them walking down the corridor I was in meltdown mode. I was able to collect myself quickly and made general small talk as we set up.
Boom. Intro video is in motion. The pitch had started. The longest 30 second wait I've ever had. Oh...it's finished? Guess that's my queue then. I rattle through the introduction of our company - Wrang Again Studios, and proceed to inform the backers of our game, the target console and explanation why, as well as a brief understanding of our influences. After prattling on about this for what felt like an hour, but was actually 2 minutes, I moved on to describing the overall story. This led into Tom's part, which was an utter relief as I could start to relax, but still remain cautious enough to see what sort feedback we received. Tom had no sooner started than he stopped. That's what it felt like at least. Tom had covered the characters, and the key zone shifting elements of the game and explained how it came about. This then led Bryan on to explaining the gameplay and why we though it was a good model for making money off.
I was waiting for the inevitable which never came about. The feedback we received was great. The questions thrown at us - we're easily answered and we got through it due to brilliant team work. I'm very happy with the way things turned out. This has been a real eye opener as to what to expect from the real world when I come to work in the industry and has provided valuable insight which will remain with me for a lifetime. I'll definitely practice speaking in front of a group of people though. My nerves nearly got the better of me this time. Without a solid team, I really don't know what would have happened.
Scott
