How can developers in Latin America successfully court investors? That was the question a panel of experts set out to answer at Gamescom Latam 2025 in May—and while their advice might have been geared towards creators in the South American region, we suspect it could prove useful for people making games beyond those borders.
DealMaker managing partner Arnaldo Rocha kicked off the session by explaining he’ll analyze a company’s investment potential by assessing numerous variable such as whether a team has the experience and band width to deliver and adapt when new opportunities and problems arise.
He suggests the game industry is ripe with companies that are able to achieve initial success—but delivering consistent wins remains a challenge.
“We sometimes find incredible teams and incredible products, but without developing a sustainable vision for the business and how the company will face down its competitors,” he explains.
“The team might have thought about that subconsciously but cannot communicate it effectively. If they seem unsure or cannot explain that [aspect of the business] well, nobody is going to to invest.” He also advises teams seeking investment to back up their words with hard data without “over communicating” their business plan.
Rocha believes company founders can become fixated on communicating unnecessary details that aren’t relevant to investors today—such as where the industry or their product might be in five years. Instead, he advises teams to focus on demonstrating where their income will come from to underline the “financial robustness” of their proposition.
“You need to be able to demonstrate where your income will come from,” he says. “Is it because of retention or sales or clients? Adequately describing your ‘wealth creation engine.’ You need to have a product—but this can be an initial product that can be developed and changed over time.”
He also tells developers in Brazil specifically to foster ambitions of going global. Don’t just settle for success on home soil, because potential investors will likely want to know their partners are eager to deliver results on a larger scale.
“What are you trying to build and why does this matter to you?”
Sandsoft CEO David Fernandez Remesal largely agrees with Rocha’s assessment. He explains the mobile publisher chooses its partners based on how they’re building their games—which means analyzing the technology they’re using and the commercial viability of their project.
“Mostly as a publisher we are looking at the synergies these studios will have with our company. We’re more focused on acquisitions so we’re concerned about how we can retain talent and build long-term opportunities,” he added.
He claims the most common mistake developers make when pitching Sandsoft is spending too much time talking financials as opposed to spotlighting the game itself. Pitches, he says, must answer some fundamental questions: What are you trying to build and why does this matter to you? What are the capabilities you have right now that will allow you to deliver on that vision? And finally, is this going to be a commercially viable concept?
Remesal implores developers to approach investors having already identified their target audience. He feels devs often fall into the trap of making a video game that appeals to them. That might work on occasion, but he says investors will want to know how you’re going to attract a large consumer audience—and whether that playerbase actually exists.
In addition, he warns pitches can crumble when developers overexpose their KPIs instead of communicating their business case in a way that feels focused and digestible.
Specifically, he tells developers to tailor their pitch down to focus on “needs” and “risks” to avoid creating a deck that feels scattershot. Ignoring the need for marketing is another cardinal sin in the eyes of Remesal. “[I often see] teams thinking they can develop games that are commercially successful without the right marketing abilities,” he adds. “They think about the title, but not how they can commercialize afterwords.”
“You need to have a coherent story with a product at the center”
Samuel Veloso, an early stage investor at Maya Capital, picks up that thread and explains it’s vital for a company’s growth journey to be “defendable.”
“You need to have a coherent story with a product at the center, and be capable of explaining why people want this product to exist,” he says. “Have the numbers to prove it so we can check and backtest your vision. That vision needs to reflect the present—the story you’ve written so far—and the future. We need to buy into your vision and understand why it’s going to materialize.”
Much like Remesal, he says there are some fundamental questions a pitch should answer including “Why this team?” and “How are you going to develop a business around this product?”. Considering the former is particularly vital because it’s imperative to understanding why potential investors will want to back you as creatives.
Veloso claims the most impactful pitches he’s seen have been “shameful” in terms of the quantity of information they contained—and that’s a wonderful thing.
“[Those pitches] were very simple,” he explains. “They used simple everyday analogies so everybody could connect with that. I’ve never seen a full, complex pitch during a first meeting. That’s for later on. What happens is that you’ll have too much to cover and you’ll lose depth. You have to leave room for the team to shine. Financial issues will be discussed later if those early conversations go well.”
Game Developer was invited to Gamescom Latam by event partner Abragames, which covered flights and accommodation.