Games GDD

In my readings this week I have learned all about game design document and what it is. Game design Document can be described as a highly descriptive living software design document of the design for the document. It is created and edited by the development team. I learned that game design document has a bad reputation in the gaming industry as there is many myths connected to game design document. The purpose of game design is twofold

Memory Aid- When designing a game it is so easy to forget all your ideas and development stages, so designers use design documents to record anything they are doing for their game so they can't forget.

Communication tool- When designers are working together on a game it can be hard to communicate and get your ideas/opinions of there. Therefore designers need to come up with an effective tool for communicating with each other.

 

I also learned all about the different types of design documents. Some of them are-

Game Design Overview- The game design overview is usually a few pages providing a high level overview of the game.

Detailed design document- This is where designers describe their game mechanics and interfaces. This helps the designers remember all the little details and communicate them with others.

Rules for good design document-

Here are the rules of game design document and what I learnt from it.

Know your target. When doing a design document it is very important to target a certain audience and know who your target audience should be.

Keep it short. The last thing you want is a long winded document that gets boring and hard to read so you should keep it short and relevant.

Prioritize the design. It is recommended that you break the game design into phases so you can clearly distinguish between them.

Illustrate. Where possible a picture is a great idea as it gives the designers a visual idea of what the game is going to be like.

Don’t tell others how to do their jobs. It should not have criticism in it from the others.

Use user stories. You should explain the gameplay stories from the players point of view.

Separate code from content. Make the text and information as clear as possible in tables so they don't have to go searching for information.

Invest in a good format. Find a suitable format for your design document and it will make your job easier.

Use clear terminology.  Try to use plain clear language instead of jargon to keep the document clear 

Kill redundancy.  Don't copy and paste sections in the document, make them all original.

Avoid weak language.  Try and avoid misleading and unsure language and u

Capture your reasoning. When creating a game make sure everything makes sense. So make sure if there's something the player can't do they know why.