Game Design Document

A concise design document is incredibly important to designing a game efficiently. Full design documentation may prove to be quite expansive, covering every aspect of the game’s design from characters to specific missions. However, it is very easy to lose sight of the core design of a game as additional documents are added. For this reason, having a core design document that is used as a reference for all other aspects of design helps focus the task considerably. A core document generally shouldn’t need to be any longer than 2 pages at most and will consist of a fairly standard set of components. Not all games will allow or require all of the following sections but most of the time it helps to consider all of them at least once. Furthermore, additional sections can be added as necessary to capture the essence of the design. This format is equally useful for digital and analog games. Common sections include:

• Name
o Start with a name if you can think of one. For some games the title is easy to establish while others it might not be apparent until after it’s nearly finished.
• Vision
o The first main section is possibly the most important. Use 1 or 2 sentences to describe the core reason for the game. Be specific and concise. This vision serves as the main test for any new addition to the game. If a new addition doesn’t enhance the vision, is that addition worth adding? If it’s worth adding, do you need to re-evaluate your vision?
• High-Level
o This section is usually a bullet-pointed list of simple aspects of the game experience. How many players will it support? What platforms? What components will be used? What’s the core play loop?
• Baseline Story
o If your game has a narrative or aesthetic, this is the place to establish it. Be as specific as you like, but a basic skeleton of the plot should be established at least. This helps guide the process by giving major story beats that can be tied together as the game goes on.
• Gameplay
o This is usually a bulleted list of the specific mechanics or flow of the game that you intend to use to capture the high-level section and support the vision. What would the perspective be? What kind of puzzles are you using? What is your randomization component if any?
• Visuals
o What will your game look like? This section can benefit from very simple diagrams and pictures depicting what the game would look like or how the UI would be laid out.
• Touchstones
o Bulleted list of media that lead to you designing this. What has inspired you for this design? What are games you could point to with some similar aspect? What movies or TV shows did you draw upon?