Game Design Document
The design document is a vital tool for game development. It should outline every aspect of the game you intend to make in as much detail as possible so that members of the development team and outside parties such as publishers can use it as reference guide. It will serve as a plan for making the game and so the more detailed and clear it is the easier it will be for the development team to use.
The design document should be a fluid document as the design will naturally change during the course of development. It is vital someone is responsible for keeping the document up to date so that it matches your vision for the final game. The document should be fully cross-referenced (i.e. links between related sections) and it should work as a reference document so imagine a team member looking up a single section instead of reading through the whole thing and make sure you include all the information they need within that section, don’t worry about repetition.
It should be written in a fairly technical style, it is not a selling document so avoid hype but on the other hand you don’t want the team falling asleep when they read it so include something of the mood you intend for the final game, try to make it an interesting read (this is easier said than done and making sure you have all the details covered is ultimately more important).
Here are a few tips on things you should include in your design document.
Game Design Document Structure
Start with a title page, a change log which tracks when changes or additions to the document have been made, when they were made and who made them and a detailed table of contents with clickable links to the various sections.
In your introduction you should provide an executive summary explaining the purpose of the document and an overview which outlines the basic premise in one simple paragraph. You can also include a brief back story here and you should provide information on your target audience, the game genre and the platform or platforms you intend to release on.
Now you are ready to detail the most important section the game-play mechanics and structure. You should include a diagram which outlines the player controls and then information on the objectives and the various modes in the game. Try to explain in great detail what the player is expected to do and how they will do it. It is often best to lay this information out as a list or flow chart of player actions. Include information on how the player scores, how they are rewarded for their actions and any other mechanisms which are key to understanding how to play the game. This will be different for different types of games. If you have a single player game with a number of levels then lay them out in chronological order and explain the passage of the player through each section. Include information on the various environments and characters within the game. You may even want to include the script for the dialogue or you can reference this in a linked stand alone document.
The way you order the sections on various game mechanics and concepts is up to you, they should be roughly in order of importance but this can be tricky so don’t worry about it too much just make sure every section of your game is covered.
If, for example, combat is a large part of your game then give it a full section starting with a brief over view and then detail out all the various aspects of how it will work. Do you have a lock-on feature, do you have power-ups, do you have several different types of weapons? Include information on each. For exact numbers you may want to add a weapons table as an appendix or separate linked document which should list each weapon, give a brief description and detail the amount of damage it does, the type of damage it does, the ammunition count and anything else that the development team will need to know to realise it in game.
Include a section on the HUD (head up display) with a diagram mock-up which highlights the various features and explains them. For example do you have a health bar, a mini-map, a quick inventory or game messages which will appear on the HUD.
You should also include a section on the A.I. (artificial intelligence). Explain the purpose and actions of the various AI´s and NPC´s (non-player characters).
You may also want to include a section on the art, which gives a brief over view of the art assets and style, again this should be referenced and detailed out more fully in a separate linked document. You should do the same thing for the sound and music, give a brief outline and reference the relevant document which gives further details. If you prefer you can keep this detail in the game design document but it will tend to become extremely large and unwieldy if you do.
In the appendices you should include things like the weapons table, power-ups table, the flow of the Front End and information on other menus and systems in diagram form.
It is a good idea to spruce the document up with concept art when you have some. This makes it more attractive but also more importantly it allows the reader to visualise the game more easily.
It is not difficult to make a good design document it is just time consuming but you should end up with a detailed blue print for the game which the team can all buy into and use and that is essential for any game development to succeed.
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