IP & Brand Matchmaking
We review existing prototypes and designs for opportunities to pair them with entertainment, creator, character, and consumer properties where the game system and audience naturally align.
For Designers
Great games need the right home.
Best in Play helps tabletop designers turn strong prototypes and finished designs into real opportunities by matching them with the right intellectual properties, publishers, and commercial partners, then representing the project through the deal process.
A prototype is only the beginning.
IP MatchmakingFind brands and properties that can unlock a design's commercial potential
Publisher AccessPosition and present projects to partners who are actually a fit
Full RepresentationAgency support from pitch through negotiation and signed deal
Your game may already be the right answer to someone else's IP.
We look at prototypes and existing designs not only for what they are today, but for what they could become. A strong underlying game system can often be paired with the right entertainment property, character brand, creator, or consumer IP, creating a better pitch for the designer and a stronger product for the license holder.
Services for designers
Work with us on a single title, a group of projects, or your broader catalog. We can help refine the opportunity, identify the right market path, and represent your work to publishers and license holders.
Publisher Representation
We identify likely publishing partners, make targeted introductions, pitch the project, manage follow-up, and keep conversations moving toward a decision.
Designer Agency Services
For represented designers, Best in Play can act as the business-facing agency for selected titles or a larger catalog, handling outreach, positioning, relationship management, and deal support.
Game & Pitch Development
Strengthen the design before it goes out: gameplay refinement, development feedback, sell sheets, pitch positioning, rules review, prototype readiness, and presentation strategy.
Licensing Opportunity Development
When an IP opportunity appears, we help adapt the design to the property while protecting what makes the underlying game work, and help navigate the creative brief and approvals process.
Deal & Relationship Support
We stay involved through publisher conversations, offer evaluation, contract-stage business discussions, handoff, and ongoing relationship management so the designer can stay focused on the game.
Sometimes the game comes first. We help find the world it belongs in.
Why Best in Play
Representation by people who understand both sides of the table.
Our team has designed games, licensed IP, worked with publishers, manufactured products, run crowdfunding campaigns, placed products at retail, and managed business development. That means we can evaluate your work creatively while also understanding what makes a project commercially useful to a publisher or brand owner.
Targeted, not scattershot
We focus pitches on partners whose catalog, audience, format, and business model actually fit the project.
IP-aware thinking
We can recognize when a design has a second life as a licensed product and help shape that opportunity.
Business-side advocacy
We handle the outreach, follow-up, positioning, and relationship work that can consume a designer's time.
Long-term relationships
Our goal is not merely to send a pitch. It is to build durable connections between designers and the companies buying games.
Choose the kind of help your work needs.
Some designers have one game that needs a home. Others want an experienced agency helping manage a growing catalog. We can structure the relationship around the work.
Find the right fit.
We evaluate a specific game for publisher, licensing, or IP opportunities and pursue the paths where it has the strongest chance to connect.
Take the game to market.
We represent a selected title through positioning, targeted pitching, introductions, follow-up, deal discussions, and publisher relationship management.
Represent the designer.
For broader relationships, Best in Play can represent multiple projects or an eligible catalog, creating an ongoing business-development arm around your design work.
From prototype to partnership.
We want to understand the game before deciding where it belongs. The strongest path may be a traditional publisher, a licensed adaptation, or an opportunity that did not exist when the prototype was first created.
1
Review
Understand the game, its hook, audience, state of development, goals, and what makes it distinct.
2
Position
Identify the strongest commercial framing, publisher categories, and potential IP or brand matches.
3
Prepare
Refine the game and presentation materials so the project is ready for the specific conversations ahead.
4
Pitch
Make targeted introductions, present the project, manage follow-up, and adapt the approach as feedback comes in.
5
Represent
Support deal discussions, maintain the relationship, and help carry the project into development with the partner.
We are interested in good games, not just finished-looking prototypes.
A clever mechanism, strong player experience, or adaptable core can matter more than expensive art. We are looking for designs with something genuinely useful at their center.
OriginalsDistinctive concepts ready to be pitched as their own products.
AdaptableStrong systems that could become even more compelling when paired with the right IP.
DevelopedGames that are close to market and need access, positioning, or representation.
CatalogsDesigners with multiple projects who want an ongoing business-development partner.
Have a game looking for the right home?
Tell us what you have, where it is in development, and what you want to accomplish. We’ll start by looking for the strongest path, not simply the first available one.