[casual_games] Game design document

[catch news]

Here you can find an example of a typical structure as we use it, I hope 
this helps you out a bit.

cheers
Paul Meyers - stonefish interactive

PS. I hope the layout stays readable by sending it in a mail.

*
*

*Table of Contents*

*Introduction*

*Technical specifications*

*deluxe*

*web*

*Design Goals*

*Setting*

*Story & game progression*

*introduction*

*The story screen*

*The shop*

*Status symbols*

*Level introduction screens*

*The Game types : classic game*

*Game Elements*

*Party animals*

*Main character*

*Diamonds*

*Power ups*

*Money*

*Level completion bar*

*trophies*

*Rules*

*Game over*

*Combo's*

*scoring*

*levels*

*controlling the game / game balance*

*The Game types : puzzle*

*Game Elements*

*Party animals*

*Main character*

*Diamonds*

*Power ups*

*Money*

*trophies*

*Rules*

*Game over*

*scoring*

*levels*

*controlling the game / game balance*

*The Game types : endless*

*Game Elements*

*Party animals*

*Main character*

*Diamonds*

*Power ups*

*Money*

*trophies*

*Rules*

*Game over*

*scoring*

*levels*

*controlling the game / game balance*

*The Game types: bonus levels*

*User profiles*

*Save games*

*statistics*

*Help*

*How-to-play*

*hints*

*ingame help*

*Game Screens & dialogs*

*Flow*

*Screens*

*Loading screen*

*Selection screen (main menu)*

*Map screen*

*Game screen*

*Dialogs*

*First time welcome*

*Player create/select dialog*

*Menu dialog*

*Pause dialog*

*How-to dialog*

*Help dialog*

*Credits dialog*

*Settings dialog*

*Saving game dialog*

*Saved game dialog*

*Shop dialog*

*Status symbols dialog*

*Trophy room*

*Level start dialog*

*Level complete dialog*

*Game over dialog*

*Yes/no dialog*

*Game won dialog*

*Animations & Graphical effects*

*Animations*

*Transitions*

*Music & Sounds*

*The editors*

*Spline editor*

*puzzle editor*

*The web game*

*beta specifications*

*beta 1*

*beta 2*

*beta 3*





allen.partridge at iup.edu wrote:

>

> There's a good overview in the Rollings and Morris "Game Architecture 

> and Design" as well. I know that off and on there are good examples 

> online too. One of the problems is that just like in film, ther really 

> isn't a single standard. For me these have evolved based on the needs 

> of the game and honestly the most useful ones have spent the bulk of 

> their life on a yellow notepad. ;)

>

>  

>

> I think it helps to go from concept to rules to game logic (program 

> architecture) -- but I've heard people argue effectively that it 

> should start with experiments on features and then move to design 

> standards etc. I read a nice article not long ago on the process used 

> by Reflexive to create Wik -- but I can't recall the source. Perhaps 

> someone else recalls.

>

>  

>

> --al

>

>  

>

> -----Original Message-----

> *From:* casual_games-bounces at igda.org 

> [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] *On Behalf Of *Juan Gril

> *Sent:* Tuesday, March 20, 2007 10:00 AM

> *To:* IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List

> *Subject:* Re: [casual_games] Game design document

>

>  

>

> I started to write GDDs based on Chris Taylor's and Ernest Adams' 

> templates, but after a while I came up with my own style, which fits 

> better our development style. I start with the treatment, which 

> becomes the How To Play section, and then I start adding sections as 

> follows:

>

> - *Introduction:* the introduction from the treatment.

> - *How To Play:* the rest of the treatment. All elements of the core 

> gameplay go here, so this section is heavily modified with a lot of 

> specs added throughout the process.

> - *User Interface:* all GUI specs go here.

> - *Sounds:* Initially I was listing all sounds here, but now this is 

> only a description of the overall goal for sounds and music, and we 

> use a separate spreadsheet for every sound and its description.

> - *"Additional Assets":* Depending on the game, the title of this 

> section may differ, or won't exist.

> - *Developer Notes:* a section where the developers write anything 

> they want. It's their own scratchpad for the project.

> - *Feedback from Publisher:* I was using this section to paste the 

> feedback from the publisher of every build, and have a list of pending 

> issues. But I'm phasing it out, as I moved it to a spreadsheet in the 

> timeline.

>

> I don't do level design on the GDD. I use spreadsheets for it.

>

> I hope this helps. I just realized that the GDD question is popping up 

> fairly often, so I added in my wish list of topics for the Casual 

> Games White Paper to expand a Documentation section with a GDD and 

> timelines example (for timelines, I guess we can use what I presented 

> in Amsterdam last month).

>

> Cheers,

>

> Juan

>

> On 3/20/07, *Jose Marin* <jose_marin2 at yahoo.com.br 

> <mailto:jose_marin2 at yahoo.com.br>> wrote:

>

> Hi!

>

> Do you know any good sample of a Casual Game Design Document?

>

> There are some on Gamasutra and Gamedev, but I would like to see some 

> made for casual games...

>

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