When it comes to developing a game first comes the ideation phase, the concept is realised and you start to flush it out. Will it be a rogue-like, does turn based seem like a good investment, will the players hp be hearts or a bar and so many other questions get asked. But where do you store those ideas and how do you go about tracking the progress for your game? Look no further than the Game Design Document (GDD), the blueprint for your game.
Being a blueprint means that within your GDD every single detail needed to build your game needs to be addressed. The longer you develop and design a game, the larger your team grows. It is crucial all your ideas and concepts are stored in one central place. You might not remember the 4th week of development 6 months down the line where you implemented something crucial if you didn’t outline it somewhere for your team to view. Or maybe you or your team take time off of development or you hire someone new, and need to know how best to fill them in, what better place then a centralized document.
This document will be a starting outline for anyone who chooses to use it for their projects, it is an outline that I have used for my own projects and I am presenting it here. You do not need to include all topics and you do not need to use the same structure for your document, but as a team you should review all items to be sure you have considered all of these elements and why they are or are not relevant to your game. I have also included additional sections that you might find in a software design document and if you wish to separate the two you may.
The document itself will describe what each section is for and how you may use them. You can check out the document here:
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