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It can be useful to illustrate mechanics and progression in storyboards, diagrams, flow charts, or other visual elements. The Guide to Great Video Game Design states that "... even though writing a GDD takes lots of time and effort, no one on your team wants to read it" (Rogers 85). Rogers' suggests using diagrams, storyboards, or drawings to communicate ideas and spark interest which are all great options.
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Exactly which format you should use for your design document depends on what you’re trying to show. And while you might assume that all you need to do to communicate the design of your game is to write it all down in one place, the reality is that most people, yourself included, probably won’t read it. In which case, the best format for your design document will depend on what you’re doing with it.
Why is a writing a game design doc important?
Before you begin or show your game design template to others, you need to familiarize yourself with the team undertaking the feat of developing. This seems obvious, but meeting and collaborating with others will only make it easier for you to design games and projects further. It isn’t always an idea that comes up at the beginning of the game’s development, that’s for sure. Sidekick also allows you to instantly generate unique concept art, storyboards, and other images in a variety of styles – 2D and 3D, abstract and photorealistic, detailed and simple. You can connect Nuclino to a wide range of other tools, including Discord, Google Drive, Miro, and more, seamlessly integrating it into your game design process. Although considered a requirement by many companies, a GDD has no set industry standard form.
Decide the best way to explain your design
Knowing how to write a game design document is a common job requirement for game designers, and for good reason. In the previous post, we discussed ways of coming up with a game idea. The next phase in a game development cycle is writing a game design document. Composing lengthy, comprehensive texts can be boring and feel like a monotonous exercise to some.
Make use of visual aid
Get the latest product news, useful resources and more in your inbox. Call of Duty is geared towards a wider audience who enjoy high-octane first-person shooters. Knowing your audience whittles down a lot of grey areas and defines your project better. You can partake in the ‘hero’s journey’, or you can subvert gaming and story tropes altogether by making something new and refreshing.
However, you will probably have a working title, you’ll know what the gameplay or the story might involve and you’ll know what your design pillars, the cornerstones of how your game feels to play, will be. Trying to get started with such a detailed overview of your project is, in most cases, going to be extremely difficult. It might also include a couple of the game’s main mechanics or controls, so that someone could easily understand what the game is going to be like to play.
Game Design Document Template + Explanation
For example, if you’re trying to balance the stats of different weapons in your game then designing them all on one “weapon balance” page makes a lot of sense, as you’ll be able to see how they compare at a glance. At this point, you might be thinking that the one-page approach simply involves using images and diagrams to communicate ideas because they usually work better than written text. A blueprint works because it’s easy to understand, easy to modify and troubleshoot and is the most appropriate method of communication for that type of information. As a result, the one-page method can be significantly more effective at working through ideas than a written text document or wiki. While Notion is highly customisable, allowing you to create document templates that suit whatever it is you’re doing.
A Game Designer's Guide to a GDD - Part 2 - Gameskinny
A Game Designer's Guide to a GDD - Part 2.
Posted: Sun, 01 May 2016 07:00:00 GMT [source]
What do you want to accomplish with this game as a piece of art, cultural artifact, or commercial project? Your specific project will dictate the importance of any of these given areas, but it's important to know what you want to accomplish by making this particular game. Whatever specific form your GDD takes, it should effectively, efficiently communicate your design and the core features you (or you and your team) will need to build. One of the most important parts of writing any kind of design document is making a decision about what its purpose is.
It serves as a crucial reference for all team members involved in the game’s creation, providing a unified vision and roadmap for the project. The GDD encompasses various aspects of the game, including its story, gameplay mechanics, characters, levels, art, audio, and more. It acts as a central repository of information, fostering collaboration, understanding, and consistency throughout the game development stages. A game design document, often referred to as a GDD, is a detailed internal document that covers a number of aspects of a video game’s design and development. The primary goal is to explain the core vision of the project, as well as setting the scope and laying out guidelines that the team can refer back to throughout development.
Keeping it high level and simple is more than enough to start, then you can click on the link and start spelling out your thoughts more in depth. In my case, I elected to only outline the macro-level loop – a prep stage where players prepare for the mission, combat where they are tested with their allies. Next, we need to establish the important priorities that are driving our design vision. These key concepts, or pillars, are driving forces which we use to help us select the best trade-offs for our unique vision when two equally viable paths present themselves.
At the end of this course, you will have the ability to use different tools and practical knowledge to create GDDs in different formats to communicate your game ideas effectively to teams of any size. Describe the main characters, types of characters, how they relate to each other and the overall story. A character web that shows how characters are related can be a useful visual element for this section, as well as concept art. As your team debates approaches and iterates on game features, retire any docs that are too out of date to easily fix. It’s much better to make a brand-new doc whenever a feature changes radically. I suggest you using Google Docs or a wiki (such as Notion) for your documentation makes it much easier to direct team members to more detailed feature docs relevant to their role and make collaboration more efficient.
Annotated version of an original Deus Ex design doc surfaces - Game Developer
Annotated version of an original Deus Ex design doc surfaces.
Posted: Sun, 13 Nov 2016 08:00:00 GMT [source]
It’s common for this section to contain early “pencil and paper” mock-ups of potential game levels, to help readers get a better idea of what you have in mind. If your game will have dedicated level designers, be sure to have them help with this section. It requires lots of different tasks, like designing characters, building game levels, programming the game’s mechanics, and composing music.
Mechanics can broadly be defined as the ways players interact with the world and systems of the game, and the way those systems give feedback or react to the player's actions. The following list notes several common reasons teams might find a GDD helpful. Which means that it can only be a useful tool if how you use it suits the type of information you want to explain and who you’re explaining it to. For example, if you’re building a world map, but you’re not sure where everything is going to go yet, the first version of your design should probably be one that allows you to easily move things around. When you’re deciding on the best way to present your design, it can often help to think about what you will do with it once it’s finished.
It clearly explains every task your team members must complete and outlines the results. Even though GDDs are among the critical components in the game development cycle, their role might have shifted slightly over the years. The thing is, information stored in a game design document can be redundant unless well-formatted. Hopefully, this article has helped you to think about how a game design document is, essentially, a communication tool for your ideas.
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