Reading Week 6: Games GDD

 Games GDD

Today we are learning about game design documents. Game design documents Are documents that talk about everything that goes into your game. There are two main reasons for GDD documents. The first is memory aid Many important design decisions define in detail how the game works. Game development usually takes a long time, so if you don't write it down, you may forget your initial design decisions. Designers use design documents to document design decisions as they are made. That way, you don't have to solve the same design problem over and over again. Next, it is also used as a great communication tool. Teams often collaborate with many people to develop games, so we need an effective way to communicate our design decisions. Communication with design documents is not one-way but establishes a dialogue between you, the designer, and your team. By growing with the development process and creating easy-to-comment documents, you can lay the groundwork for improving team communication.

Schell goes on to mention that different teams in game development have different needs for documentation. This will all depend on your team size and design scope, but in general, he breaks down design docs into different types for example:

1. Game Design Overview (DESIGN). This is only a few pages, providing a high-level overview of the game, and is often written for management. It is used to communicate the big picture of the game, the main creative vision.

Next we read about how to create a game GDD. First, you need a summery. An overview of this game without going into too much detail about how the game works and everything else. After reading the project description, you need to clarify the type of game you are creating (social, casual, hardcore, etc.) and genre (puzzle, RPG, FPS, etc.). Of course, you can add other information that you think is relevant to your game.

This section is ideally one or two paragraphs long. Certainly only one page.

Gamer