Games GDD

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Source: flickr

This week, in reading week I read about Game Design Document (GDD ), which all game designers should have, containing all their ideas for the game. A GDD is a great structure to put all your information and ideas about the game.A game's mechanics are defined in detail by a number of key design considerations.

 Designers use design documents to keep track of their design decisions. You won't have to solve the same design challenge twice this way. It also used for yourself to help everyone understand the game ideas and what direction the game going in. It learned that a GDD is very fluid, and there is no actual format to follow.  If you do not create a document or any prier planning, you may find yourself backing into a corner leaving you with no more ideas.

Distinct game development teams have different documentation requirements. This will vary depending on the size of your team and the complexity of your project, but in general, it separates design documents such as Design, Engineer, Art, Management, Writing, and Player.

While I was reading, Damion Schubert lead designer in cited a set of guidelines for effective design documentation. I found this super useful which gives a clear headings what you should included in a GDD.

  1. Know your target
  2. Keeping it short 
  3. Prioritise the design
  4. Illustrate 
  5. Don't tell others how to do their job 
  6. Use user stories 
  7. Separate code from content
  8. Invest in good format 
  9. Clear terminology 
  10. Kill redundancy 
  11. Avoid weak language
  12. Capture your reasoning 
I also "How to design a game document", which provided a really good example how to format your GDD and what content to included in the GDD. Again, I found it really useful and game me a clearer understanding of GDD

Finally I watched a Youtube video , BenderWaffles demonstrates how to create a basic game design document and how to use it in your own project. This gave me a clear understanding that every scope GDD is different and there is so step by step, but you must all included your idea what the game is about. 


Bibliography

"How to design a game document",

Using a game design document | Benderwaffles

Communication and game design document 




Comments

  1. Iqrah1903November 7, 2021 at 7:40 PM

    This was an interesting read , you managed to explain what games design documents are nicely and understandably. The links you include are really helpful as well and are worth the read.
    I think your game will be really good when you implement all this planning techniques to it.
    Keep it up I'm sure you'll do great.

    ReplyDelete

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