Note: this post is currently in a rough form while I collect reference material, draft, and revise.

Overview

I’ve had a long-time interest in Game Design & Development.  Over the years I’ve even made a few terrible ones that will probably never see the light of day.  Most recently, I took a couple of courses related to game design & development on Coursera: “Introduction to Game Design” by California Institute of the Arts and “Introduction to Game Development” by Michigan State University.  The latter was mostly focused on the practical: the nuts-and-bolts of setting up Unity and making a few simple games.  The former was mostly focused on the theoretical: the necessity of balancing difficulty to modulate player frustration and keep them interested.  We even made several paper-based games, the descriptions of which served as simple game design documents.  If/when I get around to it, I may digitize my notes from both courses and upload them here.

I’ve been interested in finding a decent template that I can use (and modify to expand, if necessary) for video games.  It’s been in the back of my head for some time; this post is my attempt to get it out of there so I don’t use so many intermittent cycles on it anymore.  I put together a template in Google Docs which I expect to modify as I gather more experience in game design and development.  The template can be found here:  https://drive.google.com/open?id=1eQxWKR2gOmO7z0pMX_lPT-POGzZmKqoccRG6HlyzBJs

 

To-Do List:

• Find examples of Game Design Documents from Indies and Major Studios (particularly of games I know so that I can see how the documents relate to the final product)

Game Design Document Template Links:

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ct5-qyUZC9cAKn-iLUgtOczDkERmPzNNwPLDfT9Hgjs/edit
  • This is a good start; could use some of the sections in the one below
• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-I08qX76DgSFyN1ByIGtPuqXh7bVKraHcNIA25tpAzE/edit
  • This is a good start; could use some of the sections in the one above.  I think the ordering of the sections could be improved as well
• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1axeeBWp683LPU8gCBQQqmquHMYHuG3uhNTN0LjSJBKk/edit
  • This is just a reformat of the one immediately above it; I actually prefer the original
• https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/96068012/GDD%20Template.odt
  • This is actually more of a set of instructions and a list of things the GDD should contain rather than being a template, per se

References:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/2ejx32/need_game_design_document_template/
  • Discussion and links to several
• http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/game-design-document-template.240038/
  • Links to a couple different versions
• http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/how-and-why-to-write-a-great-game-design-document–cms-23545
  • Why you need a GDD; what to put in it; how it can change over the course of development; also links to more resources
• http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/effectively-organize-your-games-development-with-a-game-design-document–active-10140
• http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/creative/game-design/developing-your-game-concept-by-making-a-design-document-r3004
• http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131791/the_anatomy_of_a_design_document_.php
• http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131632/creating_a_great_design_document.php
• http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/creative/game-design/documentation-for-indie-studios-why-do-you-need-it-r3111
• http://dundoc.com/
  • A web-app for game design documents