How to Make a Functional Game Design Document Examples and Templates
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However, as we mentioned, everyone on the development team will appreciate a GDD that is as detailed as possible. There is no industry standard as to what should be detailed in the Game Design Documents. Whatever the specifics, the goal is to have something that describes your game project before jumping into production.
What to include in the first iteration of your GDD
The purpose of these three sections, as a united whole, is to clearly explain "how" your game is realistically achievable, "what" it will take to complete, and "when" the project is likely to be finished. Clearly defining what platforms you're building and testing to support is also really important to outline. If you're using a game engine like Unity or Unreal which can be used with a variety of platforms, know that it's never as easy as pressing a single button! Each platform will have its own requirements, quirks, and even specific code requirements with how data is stored. Over time, the game you're making might drift or evolve from what was included in the GDD, and that's ok!
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This shared understanding is vital for aligned decision-making and clear communication throughout the game design project. Programmers find it helpful in organizing development tasks, monitoring progress, establishing milestones, and managing resources efficiently. Any game project considers a GDD its linchpin, as this dynamic document navigates the development team through the game design process. It is a technical and descriptive document that provides detailed descriptions of game elements, ensuring everyone involved in the game project is on the same page.
Game Design Keynotes:
It also needs to give anyone reading your GDD a quick and easy-to-understand overview of what your game is all about. In most cases, you should start your game design document “after” you have thought of core gameplay mechanics. In other words, you need to create the rest of your game around core mechanics.
You should have a crystal clear idea about who the game is for, how to reach those players to share your game, and how to build a community around your game. In the included template at the end of this, I include more in-depth notes around how to devleop your game's GTM. For example, if you're working on a space survival game and you want zero-gravity cooking with physically simulated floating cast-iron pans, that's already 3 or 4 mechanics on one small part of gameplay. In defining your game's core mechanics, look for outliers of concentrated complexity to reevaluate certain parts as necessary, stretch-goals, or as things to reimagine more simply.
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The agile management framework has changed the game dev industry and inspired many teams to implement shorter game design doc versions. While many of the older GDDs above were printed and kept as hard copies, modern docs are typically hosted online using a dedicated knowledge-sharing platform, like GitBook. You can also use other online tools, such as Google Docs, to create documents and share them with the rest of the team, although permission controls and search options are more limited. If you’re not a highly-technical person, you’ll want to lean on your team’s game programmers and system programmers to help with this section. They will likely have a lot of preferences and opinions, and can help by doing technical diligence to figure out which tools and tech might be needed for your game. Use the Technical Requirements section to list any hardware, software, or game-engine specifics for your game.
No one can predict the future, and an amazing gameplay concept might be inspired part-way through development. This is completely fine, and can actually work great when adding to an otherwise cohesive and thoughtfully composed GDD. Add a simple description of your level, then start to create a 'top-down' map.
So, it should be an informed decision after discussing the matter with your Chief Technology Officer and Marketing Manager. Even if you haven’t come up with a name yet, use a placeholder name to give it an identity. You better spend your time choosing the name when the project is near completion.
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Then, you will have a better idea of what your game is about and what name fits it most. GDD helps all of your game art outsourcing studio members stay on the same track and collaborate efficiently. Onboarding new team members becomes a piece of the pie with a first-class Game Design Document. But what we should know is that a GDD is not necessary for every game.
This section of your GDD should outline the various ways you're anticipating the needs of players with disabilities affecting motility, vision, hearing, and cognition; as well as traumas, triggers, and phobias. Finally, you should clearly outline your game's Unique Selling Point (USP), even if your game is free. A USP is simply a clear definition about what makes your game special enough to learn more about. As your game develops, you'll want to celebrate and put a spotlight on your USP with marketing and community efforts. So, since you already know how to develop a GDD over different life cycles of your title, we can now talk about the structure of a game doc. No need to explain why it’s essential to make sure that you have a shared vision regarding every development stage with your client.
Most level-based games have a way for designers to try out various ideas, play-test them, and share them with others. If it’s a word game, these levels can be laid out via a spreadsheet grid. If a match-three game, show some clear examples in a spreadsheet with all the power ups or special features that the levels will have. If a platform game, graph paper or a very wide spreadsheet with colored cells can work.
Just like all other steps in game development, game design and game design docs are iterative. As you put this into practice, keep sticking to these principles of clear communication and focus on specific goals. Your docs will help nail down the core idea behind your game, the art style, the feel of the gameplay, and so on. I hope this post has provided some practical and actionable insights and steps to approach your game design document. Feature documents focus on a single aspect of the game, in just enough detail to outline the goals, the game mechanics of how it will work, and the desired player experience.
To help you structurize your workflow better, take a look at the product’s lifecycle. Video clips from YouTube with a specific time stamp are awesome -- both in terms of showing a game mechanic as well as a desired animation style. The goal here is to convey the level of quality and visual style that the game wants to hit.
Finally, you should create a draft production plan organized as milestones. This should line up with your general project scoping, and can be thought of as a more detailed and in-depth project timeline. First, you should include a general scoping of your project, including the estimated amount of time needed, the overall production timeline including preparation to go to market, and the size of the team needed. This is important to consider since games almost always take longer to make than anticipated, and taking the time to realistically consider how long your game will take to make increases the likelihood you'll stay on track. This is the portion of the GDD most focused on executing the game concept you've so been describing.
You can create a moodboard for each of these separately or mix them all into one board. Whether you’re a game designer, artist, or programmer, follow this step-by-step guide to learn the modern way to create a Game Design Document in Milanote, a free tool used by top creatives. This is another spot where it’s important to include mock-ups or wireframes to help readers visualize the interface layout.
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