Skip to main content

Games GDD

GDD gif


What is GDD for?


A Game Design Document (GDD) is a blueprint for the design and development of a game. The GDD is a way of being creative and documenting the approach to the development of the game. Gonzales (2016) states that "The important thing is to have something that describes your game project (or any other project for that matter) before jumping into production"(Gamasutra) It should help to plan out your game. Though it is recommended that the GDD should be short it needs to be detailed enough so as game developers and artists can coordinate the development of the game independently whilst keeping to the design. The GDD is a blueprint for how the game is going to be designed and built, similar to a mind map.

In conclusion, the game design document is vital to making a game and it is important to have in order to describe your game project.

How do we make one?

There are a variety of tools that could be used t create a GDD. These include word processing tools, visual tools like PowerPoint, or new web-based tools such as DubDoc. Each of these tools has its advantages and is a personal choice. Many of the examples shared via the internet are in Microsoft Word format. Romero Games (creators of Doom) favor a more visual tool such as PowerPoint. Whichever tool is used they should support the development of the game in an open and transparent manner.

What should be in it?

The GDD should be simple enough to read through details about your game design and concept. Schubert (2007), who was at the time lead designer of Bioware Austin, gave a GDC talk about how to create design documentation, some of the most relevant elements include:

  1. Know your target - Have a clear vision and understanding of what you want to make. Make sure your game is suitable and fits your target audience.
  2. Keep it short - Keep it to the point and clear, the short they are, the easier it is to read, write, and maintain.
  3. Prioritize the design - Divide your game in order of importance e.e. have a functional game. Concentrate on core mechanics and visuals, and then expand.
  4. Illustrate - Draw sketches of your planes that make it easier t structure and implement. Present what your game would look like as it's important to have a clear idea of the visuals before you begin creating.
  5. Use user stories - Describing the game through the player's vision (similar to what we did in the game vision statement). Take into account the game user's, their ideas may help develop future storylines or ideas.
  6. Invest in a good format - Take the time t structure your work so that it is easy to navigate.
  7. Use clear terminology - Don't over complicate the document. Make sure language is concise and accessible.
  8. Kill redundancy - (Recycle your code - use variables, not hard code). Always reference the new section on your page to have a clean document. Avoid copy and pasting sections.
  9. Capture your reasoning - Why did you make the choices you made? What led you to that thought process?


References:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to a future Animator 😁

If you've been reading my blog post since the day I started, you have read my first introduction. However, I haven't really talked about myself. So in this post, I will along with questions from the tasks we have given. 😁 My photo from last year First of all my name is Flosie Jane Sazon, I am currently a 2nd-year student studying Creative Digital Media at the  Technological University of Dublin located in Blanchardstown Campus. I'm 20 years old (even though I don't look my age 😂) and I have been living in Ireland since I was 13. This course wasn't actually my first choice even though I love art. My first choice was something about business and language which was way different from what I'm doing now, but I'm really happy that I'm doing what I love. Even though there were a lot of times convincing my parents but everything went well in the end.😂😂 What was the best class you took last semester? why? Even though I enjoyed Web Development and Design Proc...

Game Idea Research

Maze  Inspiration Last week, I started to collect some game ideas and talk about what we like about them. However this week, we have to choose on out of all the game ideas we picked. The game that I decided to do is similar to "Roller Splat!" but in 3D instead because that is the type of game we are learning in Unity. I think that it will be helpful as I can utilize the skills that I learned from the tutorials to my project instead of studying another type of game. I will have more time to develop my game better if I stick to 3D style as well. Choosing this type of game is also a good starter, especially for people who want to make a game for the first time like me. My game will also be played in a first person point of view means that the camera of will be placed at the back following the ball inside the maze. While doing my secondary research, I find countless of game tutorials on YouTube that are related to the idea I am going for. Most of them are also made in Unity which...

Beta

When Unity takes a long time to load Screenshot with the sound effects Hi guys~ For this week's project update, I tried to create my menu scene again but I still have a LOT of problems. At first, I tried to follow the same tutorial from this week's lab work task  and sadly it still did not work even though Shaun advised that I should not use the TextMesh Pro font as we thought it was the one that causes the problem. The tutorial was straightforward, but Unity kept crashing down, and even though I have all of it save during the process, everything that I have done still got deleted. I decided to look for another tutorial for the Main Menu, I found this 5-minute video tutorial . I find it helpful and it is simpler than the first tutorial. Unfortunately, while I'm nearly done making it, Unity crashed again, so I ended up having nothing is done which is very frustrating because I want to make a decent game by the end of this semester and Unity isn't cooperating :(. The only...