[casual_games] Meet Publishers & Distributors AND Protect my IP ? ... and other questions!

[Jeremy Snook]

Good, timely questions. I'll chime in from a publisher perspective, even
though you asked for dev responses.


> 1- Should I make them sign and NDA before the meeting? How does that

work usually?

No. Requiring an NDA will probably result in zero meetings with the bigger
names.  Game concepts are cheaper by the metric ton; the secret is
production quality and execution.  If I like your game, I'll distribute
your game.  It doesn't make sense for me to feed the ideas to another
studio and have them build it from scratch.


> 4- What do publishers and distributors want to know during those meetings?


Don't show me a trailer, powerpoint, or design doc - show me the _game_. 
I want to see a playable build.  Your goal should be to get me to play
your game for 3 minutes and make me want to keep playing.


> 5- Any dos and donts?


Realize that I'm looking at games from the perspective of what my
customers like & buy; I'm not judging your game in an absolute light. 
Just because I don't think the game won't sell well to my customers
doesn't mean that it's crap or won't sell like gangbusters on other
portals.  If I tell you "no, thank you", I'll explain why.  It's not
personal - it's me making (hopefully) sound decisions for my business.

Relationships are important.  While a good game is ultimately the selling
point, I want to work with devs that are pleasant, polite, and aware of
the industry's hits, trends, and hot points.  But relax and be yourself -
I can smell a phony. :)


~Jeremy

Jeremy Snook
Producer, RealGames
206.926.5743