[casual_games] Res: Game design document

[Nic Cusworth]

I would love to post a GDD here because I checked out the design docs links
sent the other day and to be honest, if I handed those over I would be fired
on the spot. 

 

However, unfortunately every design I have written is owned by the company/s
I work for and I would be breaking NDA if I was to send one out and I would
be fired on the spot.

 

That begin said – here’s some advice:

 

Have multiple docs. A 4 page pitch – a 12 page concept- then your GDD.

 

Make your pitch doc look amazing. Use art or concept at from your game. Sell
the unique features but also cover the basics like platforms etc. Needs to
be punchy and appeal to sales. Our pitch docs look like high quality
magazine articles and feature less text and more images.

 

The concept doc needs to go into things in a little more depth. It’s
basically an expansion of the Pitch doc – adding meat to the bone if you
like. You have that cool mechanic – explain it here but try and keep it
concise still.

 

Finally the GDD adds the final layer of detail. Here you can go into depth
about the various aspects of your game.

 

I would never start with a GDD – you need to get your idea straight first
and using the stepped approach will help you. If you can’t write four great
pages about how amazing your game is – then there’s no point continuing.

 

As for the GDD – keep everything very organized and readable. Use a good
font – not Times. Make your headings clear and make your content concise.
Spell everything out clearly – for example, don’t assume that just cos you
pick up a key in the game that people know it is going to open doors.  

 

Other things. Keep sentences short. Don’t try and be funny, but do write
with style. People don’t want to read design docs so at least sweeten the
pill for the reader. If you’re not artistic (like me) find packages that can
make you look like a better artist that you really are. I use tools like
SketchUp, Daz Studio, Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer, Vue etc. etc.
to get quick results and give the reader a pretty clear idea of what you
intend. Sometimes this works out better than expected and I’ve had my UI
sketches be pretty much implemented in the final game.

 

Prototypes are also an important sales/development tool. It’s a quick way to
see if your idea is going to work. Sketch out mechanics in something like
Flash to see if they actually work. I’ve been messing around on my train
journey to work and back with Torque Game Builder and have pretty much
finished my first casual game. It derivative but only took 3 months at about
80 minutes a day.

 

I wish I could offer more but I simply can’t go into too much depth out my
process. I will say that I have been a professional games designer for
nearly 14 years and every document I write is better than the last!!

 

Nic.

 

  _____  

From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of oscar oscar
Sent: 20 March 2007 23:02
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [casual_games] Res: Game design document

 

Will NO ONE sacrifice one of their actual, completed design docs? ^_^ 

o

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

Maybe here?

 

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060516/carless_01.shtml



 

----- Mensagem original ----
De: " allen.partridge at iup.edu <mailto:allen.partridge at iup.edu> "
<allen.partridge at iup.edu>
Para: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List < casual_games at igda.org>
Enviadas: Terça-feira, 20 de Março de 2007 11:44:02
Assunto: Re: [casual_games] Game design document 

 

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