How to explain your game to an asshole

You can switchout `game` to `startup` and the similarities are quite the same.<p>The four points that you discuss to explain your game as quick as possible is similar to the elavator pitch for startups, or even more accurately Adeo Ressi's MadLibs for pitching...<p>My company, __(insert name of company)__, is developing __(a defined offering)__ to help __(a defined audience)__ __(solve a problem)__ with __(secret sauce)__.<p>He did a video here. <a href="https://vimeo.com/16447520" rel="nofollow">https://vimeo.com/16447520</a><p>At a glance when I first saw those snapshots of you giving the talk I thought you were Sheldon Cooper for a split second! Perhaps you get that a lot!

I like the sentiment, and I would extend it to websites for just about anything. Often I'll use Wikipedia to learn about X instead of going to X's own website because Wikipedia will at least say <i>what it is</i> instead of blowing a bunch of marketing-speak at me and asking me to download a PDF whitepaper.

Even worse is when you describe your game by the technology it sues. This is something that tends to happen a lot in the open source world: “X is an SDL/Python platformer for Linux, Window$, Darwin and OS/2 licensed under the GPL (version 3!)”

I like this quote "But reasonable people still respond better to writing that values their time, and doesn’t waste it to gratify the writer’s pretensions".<p>Sadly the author doesn't take his own advice and regales the reader with about 6 paragraphs of text before getting to the point. Once we're at the point, it's all interesting. The lead up, not so much.<p>You see, I'm an asshole too. I don't really know who you are yet and don't give a flip about why you did or didn't go to GDC. So get to the point first and then add the details about yourself once you have interested me.<p>Excellent write up otherwise.

I buy a lot of Humble Bundles.<p>A lot of those games I haven't even tried, because I can't figure out what any of them really are. Their websites are usually terrible (one game even <i>shut down</i> their website during the bundle. How helpful!).<p>Why would I spend time on them, then, when I have a ton of games that I know what to expect with?

Interesting article. I like the provocative asshole.. with a nice conclusion at the end specifying that people are just busy and not being direct is just non-respectful to your audience.

Kinda wondered why it's "to an asshole"? It's a great set of tips that would make sense for explaining anything <i>you</i> are seriously passionate about to anyone who isn't quite as passionate about it.

From my experience.....this is how to explain your game to everybody. An asshole will just tell you to stfu if you waste his time. Which I guess is how the article concludes itself.

Maybe there's a series to be made here, a little like Zed Shaw's "Learn X the hard way", only it would be "Explain Y to an arsehole".

<i>Point number two, before you even finish your first sentence, is to tell us the coolest unique thing about it.</i><p>There isn't a cool unique new thing in one game. There is a cool unique new thing every 3-5 years. It's just a fact: most games are remake if you prefer. I'm not saying games are not enjoyable and if they are for you, it's very cool.