Written by Tool 5 of 5: The 30-Second Pitch — Your About Me, Weaponised
Someone asks you the question.
It might be at a game jam. A job interview. A Discord voice chat. A meetup where you’ve just been introduced to someone who works at a studio you respect. It might be the hiring manager who just opened your LinkedIn profile and is reading your About section for the first time.
The question is always some version of the same thing: “So — tell me about yourself.”
And for most people, what follows is one of two disasters.
The first disaster is the life story. “Well, I grew up playing games, and then I studied [X], and then I worked in [Y] for a while, but I always wanted to get into games, so I started learning [Z], and I’ve been working on this project…” By the time you get to anything interesting, the other person has mentally moved on.
The second disaster is the deflection. “Oh, I’m just a student.” “I’m still pretty new to all this.” “I haven’t really done much yet.” Every word of this is a door closing.
The 30-second pitch is the alternative to both. It is not a performance. It is not a script you recite. It is a structure — five components that, once you know them, let you walk into any professional conversation with clarity and confidence.
And it is, in the most direct sense possible, the culmination of everything in this series.
Why This Skill Is Non-Negotiable
Here’s what nobody tells you when you’re starting out: the people making hiring decisions, collaboration decisions, and investment decisions are time-poor and pattern-matching constantly.
When you walk into a conversation without a clear pitch, you are asking the other person to do the work of figuring out who you are and why they should care. Most of the time, they won’t do that work. They’ll move on to the next person who made it easy for them.
When you have a clear pitch, you do that work for them. You tell them exactly who you are, what you bring, what you’re building, and what you’re looking for. In sixty seconds or less. And you leave them with one clear impression: this person knows who they are and where they’re going.
That impression opens doors. Everything else — your portfolio, your skills, your Game Design Document, your transferable experience — walks through those doors afterward.
The Five-Component Structure
This is the framework. Learn it, internalise it, then make it sound like you.
Component 1: What you do (present tense)
Not what you studied. Not what you used to do. What you are doing right now.
“I’m a game developer working on my first commercial mobile title.”
“I’m studying game design with a focus on narrative systems.”
“I’m transitioning into game development from five years in UX research.”
Present tense matters. It signals agency. You are not waiting to become something — you already are it.
Component 2: What you’ve done (your transferable anchor)
One experience from your past that proves a relevant professional capability. This is where your skills inventory from Tool 2 pays off directly.
“Before this, I spent three years in customer service — which taught me more about user frustration and onboarding failure than any tutorial ever did.”
“I ran social media for a community events organisation, which is where I learned how to build an audience from zero.”
One sentence. One experience. One direct connection to what you’re doing now.
Component 3: What you’re building (your current work)
Your game project, your portfolio, your learning direction. Make it specific. Vague is forgettable.
Not: “I’m working on a game.”
But: “I’m building a mobile puzzle game for commuters — the core mechanic is about restructuring broken systems, which I think maps really well to the 90-second play session sweet spot.”
Specificity signals genuine engagement with the work. It also gives the other person something to respond to.
Component 4: What makes you different (your transferable angle)
This is the component most people skip, and it’s the most memorable part of any pitch. What do you bring that nobody else in the room has?
“What I bring that most game developers don’t is five years of data governance experience — I think about systems, rules, and failure states in a way that makes my design documents unusually rigorous.”
“I’ve been creating content online for three years, so I already understand how to build and keep an audience — which I think is the most underrated skill in indie game development.”
This is not bragging. This is accurate self-description. There is a difference, and the industry respects the latter.
Component 5: The connection point (what you’re looking for or offering)
End with a direction. What are you looking for from this conversation, this person, this community?
“I’m looking for a collaborator with audio skills for my current project.”
“I’d love to find a mentor who’s navigated the junior developer job market in the last two years.”
“I’m open to game jam teams — especially people who work in narrative or systems design.”
This is not desperation. It is clarity. And clarity makes it easy for the other person to help you — or to connect you with someone who can.
What It Sounds Like Put Together
Here is a full pitch using all five components. Read it out loud — it takes about 40 seconds.
“I’m a game developer working on my first commercial mobile title. Before this, I spent four years in project administration, which taught me how to scope complex work and document systems clearly — skills I use every time I open a Game Design Document. Right now I’m building a puzzle game for commuters, focused on a 90-second core loop that respects people’s time. What I bring that’s different is a background in structured system design — I think about constraints and rules in a way that makes the design unusually tight. I’m currently looking for a playtesting community and would love to connect with anyone working in the casual mobile space.”
That is a complete professional introduction. It is specific, honest, human, and memorable. It gives the other person four different hooks to respond to. And it took less than a minute.
The Connection Back to The First Minute
If you’ve been reading this series from the start, you’ll notice something: the 30-second pitch is The First Minute framework from Tool 1 — applied to yourself.
- Context = Components 1 and 2. Who you are and where you’ve come from.
- Intent = Component 5. What you’re looking for from this conversation.
- Key Message = Components 3 and 4. What you’re building and what makes you different.
This is not a coincidence. Every professional communication skill in this series is built on the same foundation: clarity about who you are, what you need, and what you bring. The frameworks change depending on the direction of the conversation. The underlying discipline is the same.
My Own Pitch — And What It Took to Get There
I want to be honest about something. I did not always have a clear pitch for myself.
For a long time, my professional identity was spread across too many domains — data governance, AI frameworks, vocational education, content strategy, community management. When people asked what I did, I gave them a paragraph. Sometimes two. I watched their eyes glaze and I didn’t know how to fix it.
What changed was exactly this process. I sat down and forced myself to answer the five questions. What do I do right now? What have I done that proves something relevant? What am I building? What makes me different? What am I looking for?
The answer that emerged was not a compromise between all the things I do. It was the through-line connecting all of them: I build frameworks that help people navigate complex, ambiguous systems — whether that’s data governance, AI ethics, or vocational education. That’s the pitch. Everything else is detail.
Your through-line is in there. The five components help you find it.
Practical Tips: Build Your Pitch This Week
1. Write the five components separately before you try to connect them.
Don’t try to write a flowing paragraph first. Write one sentence for each component. Get the content right before you worry about how it sounds.
2. Say it out loud at least five times before you use it in a real conversation.
Reading silently and speaking aloud are completely different experiences. The pitch that looks good on paper often sounds stilted when spoken. Iterate on what feels natural, not what looks impressive written down.
3. Time yourself.
Sixty seconds is the ceiling. If you’re consistently going over, you have too much in one component. Usually it’s Component 3 or 4 — trim the detail and trust that the conversation will invite you to expand.
4. Rewrite your LinkedIn About section using this structure.
Your About section is a written version of this pitch. If it currently reads like a resume summary or a list of job titles, rewrite it using the five components. Present tense. Specific. With a clear connection point at the end.
5. Use it at the next opportunity — even an informal one.
The next time someone asks what you’re working on, use the structure. Not perfectly. Just deliberately. The discomfort of the first few times is the skill building. It gets easier, and then it gets natural, and then it becomes simply how you talk about your work.
The Bigger Picture
Five tools. One arc. One goal.
You learned how to open a conversation with clarity and structure. You learned how to see and name the professional capabilities you already have. You learned how to make your work visible before it’s perfect. You learned how to build genuine relationships without performing extroversion. And now you have the structure to introduce yourself — to anyone, in any room, in any context — with confidence and precision.
None of this is about becoming someone you’re not. It’s about becoming more clearly, more visibly, more articulately who you already are.
The greenlight doesn’t go to the person with the best idea in the room. It goes to the person who can communicate their idea clearly, back it up with evidence, and make the people across the table feel confident that they can deliver.
That person can be you.
It starts with sixty seconds. You know what to say.
This is the final post in a five-part series on the professional tools every game developer needs — whether you’re leaving school, changing careers, or ready to take your first project from idea to greenlight.
If this series was useful, share it with someone who’s about to walk into their first industry conversation. They might need it more than they know.
Nigel D'Souza 