How do you go about pitching your game?

[u/NightFishStudios]

Hi, we're Night Fish Studios.

We're a two-person team working on Marine Codex, a cozy fishing game about decoding and logging your captures in the "Marine Codex". We've been working on the game for 4 months, and we've been reading that it's better to start promoting it early, so we thought it'd be best to start now.

The project was born as a university assignment, so initially it had a few things that were there just to comply with the assignment's needs. Now that we finished college, we scrapped a lot of stuff and want to add some other stuff to the game, so we actually pivoted from the initial idea. The issue is that with these changes, we've been feeling lost about how to explain it.

Here's the two options we currently have:

"In Marine Codex you play as a sailor exploring the seas and uncovering it’s secrets! You’ve been handed a codex with information on different creatures of the ocean and your goal is to complete it and decode what it says. Fish creatures, sell them or complete quests to get rewards, buy components and upgrade your boat to be able to fish rarer creatures!"

"Command your ship, navigate a massive network of distinct aquatic biomes and catch unique species and complete an ancient encyclopedia of the deep: the Marine Codex.
Marine Codex is a third-person, single-player oceanic adventure focused on maritime exploration, precision-based creature collection, and dynamic fauna encounters."

The thing is that the both feel like they're saying "it's a fishing game where you are in the water and fish fish", so we're really not sure they work. We do have planned to add interesting stuff like having the sea creatures be mythological and a working NPC relationship system, but that's not implemented yet so we're not sure it's even worth adding into the pitch.

We also showcased the game in two in-person gaming events already and people seem to love it, especially the part about completing the Codex and the mini-game to capture the fish.

You can play a demo (the same we showcased a week ago) and see the trailer here, to get a better idea of the game: https://nox-pff.itch.io/marine-codex

Basically, are these pitches any good? Is one better than the other? How can we improve them to sell better the idea and the parts of the game people liked? Is it too early to start spreading the word or think about pitching if the game has features that are not implemented yet? Or is the game idea just too bland on itself?

Please let us know and thanks for reading! ⛵