What Your First Call With a Game Studio Should Cover

Your first call with a game studio should cover five things: what you want to build, who will play it, how you define done, what your budget range is, and what your timeline looks like. Covering all five in thirty minutes gives both sides enough to decide whether a second conversation is worth having.

Why the first call matters more than you think

The first call is not a sales meeting. It is a compatibility check.

You are evaluating whether this team understands your kind of project, communicates in a way that works for you, and asks questions that suggest they have done this before. They are evaluating whether the project is clear enough to estimate and whether you are someone they can work with.

Both sides are deciding whether to invest the time a proper proposal requires. A vague first call wastes that investment for everyone.

Before the call: what to prepare

Three things, and none of them need to be polished.

A one-paragraph description of the game. What the player does, what genre it sits in, and what makes it different. One paragraph. If you cannot describe it in one paragraph, the concept is not ready for a studio call. The format is in How to Write a Game Brief.

Two or three reference games. Games that are similar in feel, scope, or audience. Be specific about what you are referencing: "the progression system of X" is useful, "something like X" is not.

Your constraints. Budget range, timeline, and anything non-negotiable. You do not need exact numbers. Ranges are enough to check fit.

A studio that asks no questions about your audience on the first call is a studio that will build what you describe rather than what you need.

The five topics to cover

Work through these in order. Each builds on the one before it.

1. The game concept. Share your one-paragraph description and your references. Then stop talking and listen. A good studio will ask clarifying questions. The questions they ask tell you more than any portfolio.

Questions to listen for:

• Who is the target player?
• What is the core loop?
• What platform are you targeting?
• Have you tested the concept?

If none of these come up, the studio is planning to build whatever you describe, which means all of the design thinking is on you.

2. The audience. Who will play this, and how will they find it. A studio that has shipped in your genre will have opinions here, and you want to hear them, even if they differ from yours.

3. The definition of done. What does the finished product look like? A prototype for publisher testing? A soft-launch build? A fully polished store release? Each implies a very different scope, timeline, and budget, and assuming alignment without stating it is the most common first-call mistake.

4. Budget range. Share a range, not a fixed number. "Between $40,000 and $80,000" tells the studio whether the project is feasible without locking you into a figure before the scope is defined.

If the range is too low for what you described, a good studio will say so on this call rather than in the proposal. That honesty is worth more than politeness. The economics are in What Does It Cost to Make a Mobile Game.

5. Timeline. When you need the game, and whether that date is flexible. Fixed dates change how the project is structured, and the studio needs to know this before scoping.

What to hold back

Two things are better saved for later.

Detailed feature lists. Sharing a long feature list on the first call anchors the conversation around features rather than outcomes. Share the concept and the goal. Let the studio propose the features in their response.

Previous bad experiences. Mentioning a previous studio that failed you is natural, but on the first call it shifts the dynamic. Save it for after you have decided to work together, when it becomes useful context rather than a warning.

Questions to ask the studio

Five questions that produce useful information on the first call.

1. Have you built something in this genre before? Not "have you built games" but specifically this kind of game. Genre experience is the strongest predictor of a smooth project.
2. Who would work on this project? Names and roles. A studio that cannot answer this is selling capacity they have not yet allocated.
3. What is your typical milestone structure? Reveals how they manage projects and whether it matches how you want to work. More detail is in Milestone Payments.
4. What would you push back on in what I described? Tests whether they have opinions. A studio that agrees with everything on the first call will agree with everything on the project, per Your Studio Partner Should Say No.
5. What happens if the scope changes mid-project? Every project's scope changes. How they handle it matters more than whether they acknowledge it.

After the call: how to compare

If you are talking to multiple studios, compare them on four axes.

The studio that asks the best questions is usually the best fit. Agreeable studios feel better on the call and perform worse on the project.

Write your notes within an hour of the call. Impressions blur quickly, especially when you are comparing three or four studios in a week.

What we would do

Prepare the one-paragraph description and the references before the call. Share the budget range openly, because a studio that knows the range gives a more honest assessment of fit than one that is guessing.

Ask what they would push back on. That single question reveals more about the studio than any portfolio review.

Then compare studios on questions asked rather than on how the call felt. The call that felt smoothest is frequently the one where nobody challenged anything, and that is not the partner you want.

The short version

• Cover the concept, audience, definition of done, budget range, and timeline.
• Prepare a one-paragraph game description and two or three reference games.
• Share a budget range, not a fixed number, so the studio can assess fit honestly.
• Hold back detailed feature lists and previous bad experiences.
• Ask what they would push back on, who would work on the project, and how they handle scope changes.
• Compare studios on questions asked and honesty, not on how agreeable the call felt.

Prepare your one-paragraph brief and book the call. If you want a studio that asks the hard questions first, start here.

Related reading: How to Write a Game Brief, Questions to Ask Before Signing, and Red Flags in a Game Development Proposal.