How To Talk To Press

tim-cain game-development press interviews communication public-speaking media-training

Abstract

Problem: Game developers inevitably need to talk to press about their games, yet almost nobody teaches them how to do it well.

Approach: Tim Cain shares six pieces of advice distilled from decades of press interviews, drawing on feedback from colleagues who observed what he does naturally.

Findings: Effective press communication comes down to being friendly, passionate, and interesting while speaking in quotable sound bites, practicing beforehand, and knowing when to step aside and let someone else do it.

Key insight: If you're not excited about your game, nobody else will be either — and if you can't get comfortable doing interviews, let a passionate team member take over instead.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX-FQ393pwo

1. Background

Tim notes that most game developers are untrained at talking to press. Some companies offer brief coaching — usually someone sitting you down and saying "here's what you need to do" — but it's rarely thorough. Tim himself never formally learned; colleagues would observe him and point out things he did well, none of which was conscious. He distilled their feedback into six pieces of advice.

1.1. The "Trained Developer" Tells

Tim can spot a media-trained developer from three tells: how they dress (switching from the standard gamedev uniform of cargo pants and a dark t-shirt to a button-down collared shirt), an unnatural speaking cadence (scripted or teleprompter-style delivery), and awkward hand gestures that nobody uses in real conversation.

1.2. Tim's Natural Ability (and Its Cost)

Tim credits his father's extroverted personality for his comfort on camera. He can talk about any game development topic for 10-15 minutes naturally. However, he's fundamentally introverted — after recording videos, he doesn't talk for the rest of the morning. At conventions, he books a nearby hotel room to decompress after a couple of hours.

2. The Six Pieces of Advice

2.1. Be Friendly

Don't be hostile, robotic, or overly data-driven when talking about your game. You just made something you presumably enjoy — smile about it. Avoid the dry feature-list recitation ("We have nine new features: one, blah blah blah...") or the combative approach ("We saw this other game and hated it, so we made something better"). Be warm.

2.2. Be Passionate

Passion can't be faked or trained. Very few people will ever like your game more than you do — so if you're not excited talking about it, your audience won't be either. If you're genuinely not passionate about the project, you probably shouldn't be the one doing the press for it.

2.3. Be Interested and Interesting

Press people talk to many developers, often dozens in a single day. You need to think in advance: what will make them remember you? What will get them genuinely interested in your game? They've already seen plenty of games with their own hooks. Have something compelling ready before you sit down.

2.4. Speak in Sound Bites

This is the most tactical piece of advice. Talk in succinct, specific, self-contained sentences that can be quoted directly. If someone asks "Do you like turn-based combat?", don't respond with just "I like that" — they can't quote a pronoun. Instead say: "I really like turn-based combat. I prefer it over real-time because..." That's a quotable sound bite that works in print or as a video clip without needing additional context.

Conversely, don't ramble. Don't launch into the full history of your focus group testing process. Keep answers tight: "We put a lot of thought and testing into it and went with turn-based combat because..."

It's fine to segue into topics you find more interesting — answer their question first, then bridge to what excites you. But always answer the actual question, or you risk the interviewer either re-asking it or losing interest entirely.

2.5. Eliminate Filler Sounds

Stop saying "uh," "um," and "well" between thoughts. Silence is perfectly fine — editors can cut dead air, and print journalists won't transcribe pauses. But filler sounds embedded in your sentences make for unusable sound bites. Tim recommends video recording yourself doing mock interviews and watching the playback. Most people are startled by how many filler sounds they use and naturally stop once they see it.

2.6. Practice (But Don't Over-Practice)

Do mock interviews. Try unrecorded interviews before doing recorded ones. You want your delivery to come naturally — or at least to be smooth. Have answers prepared for likely questions. Know what topics you want to segue into.

However, there's a trap: over-practicing makes you stilted. Tim describes his own experience — when he scripts too much, he becomes monotonic, expressionless, and robotic. People who know him notice immediately. The goal is prepared but natural, not rehearsed and mechanical.

3. The Bonus Advice: Step Aside If Needed

If after all this you still don't enjoy doing interviews or don't think you're good at them — don't do them. Let other team members try. You may discover someone on your team who is naturally great at talking to press: passionate, interesting, articulate. Someone working on their first game, for instance, has an infectious enthusiasm that can't be manufactured. You don't have to be the face of your game. No one can force you.

4. References