Games GDD


In this blog, I will be covering game design documents and what they are.

A GDD is a highly descriptive design document of the design for a video game. A game design document is both created and edited by the development team and it is used in the video game industry to organize efforts within a development team.

The purpose of a game design document:

  1. Memory aid. Many important design decisions define how a game works in detail. Usually, the development of a game takes a significant amount of time, so you are likely to forget some early design decisions if they are not written down. Designers use design documents to record their design decisions as they are made. This way, you do not have to solve the same design problem multiple times                       
  2. Communication tool. Since you are often working with many people on a team to develop games, you will need an effective way of communicating design decisions. The communication with a design document is not one-directional and establishes a dialogue between you, the designer, and your team. By creating a document that will grow over the development process and that is easy to annotate, you are creating a foundation for improved communication within the team.                                                                                                                                                                                                                           There are different GDD types such as a game design overview, detailed design doc, technical design doc, pipeline overview etc...                             
     
    Rules for good design documentation:
  3. Know your target
  4. Keep it short
  5. Prioritize the design
  6. Illustrate
  7. Don't tell others how to do their jobs
  8. Use user stories
  9. Separate code from content 
  10. Invest in a good format
  11. Use clear terminology
  12. Kill redundancy
  13. Avoid weak language
  14. Capture your reasoning                                                                                                                                                                                                     
    15. The seconds reading explains how a game design document should be written:

    The document should start off with a game description which is basically a summary of what the game is about without going into much detail. 

    The next steps are:

    •  Characters: Write character descriptions.
    • Story: Write about the events that will happen throughout the game.
    • Theme: Write about the theme of your game
    • Story Progression: Write about how your game will take players through the story.
    • Gameplay: The gameplay is probably the most important section of the GDD.
    • User skills: Write about the skills the player will need to master to play your game.
    • Game Mechanics: Describe your proper game mechanics.
    • Items and power-ups: This section is used to elaborate on the game mechanics.
    • Progression and challenge: Write about how the difficulty will increase throughout the game.
    • Losing: Write about the losing conditions.
    • Art-style: Write about how you want your game to look like.
    • Music and sounds: Describe your music and sound effects.
    • Technical description: Describe the platforms you'll be launching for and tools you will be using.
    • Marketing & Funding: Write about how you will market and fund your game.
    • Demographics: Write about your target audience. 
    References:


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