Game Design Document, how do you approach it these days?

littleclaude

Hi

What's the latest with Game Design Document's (GDD) at your studio. I have read some articles like "Death of the game design document"  While I know there no set rules for a GDD or Design Bible, Game Overview Document or however you phrase it these days, I was wondering what your studios use or should I say what you "might know off" so you don't break any NDA's.

Is there any central control from a document or some kind of lose open source document that designers write up? or is it more just a case of doing what the Leads ask for?

PixelMasher

I would say its mostly project wikis with all the info these days, not really a document. atleast the last few projects ive been on.

danr

Generally a shared, sprawling one-note/confluence document that evolves across the whole dev cycle, containing all manner of useful info and less useful brain splurges. Brain splurge pages are fine, as long as they don’t intrude on the pages that are usually linked to. The ‘this is the most relevant shit’ index  is therefore key. 

if there’s an early doors milestone deliverable that asks for a ‘GDD’, it’s usually a teeny proto version of what that doc will eventually become. 

Hayden Zammit

I'm part of a two-man team, so our approach to game design docs can be pretty flexible. We use google docs. Mostly I just write a bunch of stuff that should be in for each iteration/prototype that we're currently working on. If it needs more detail, then I'll go into it, but usually it's just systems outlined via bullet points.

Honestly, though, because we're so small, we hardly need them at all. We'll skype every couple of days or a couple of hours talking over the design. It works pretty well for us.

huffer

I tried to use Google Docs or Trello, but now I'm trying hacknplan. LIke trello, it has cards - tasks - that have a hourly timecost, deadlines and come grouped in boards like Art or Programming. But it also has a document mode for large text entries where you can link cards. For a small indie project like mine it's pretty useful. I can make some notes in text, then create and link the task cards, assign them to members, etc.

littleclaude

Thanks everyone.

 Huffer hacknplan is the perfect tool, it works perfectly, thanks.

Okay question two, lets say you have been invited to visit a publisher to pitch your demo, what would your documentation look like these days?

danr

Very concise. Talking points only. Nothing more tedious than wading through loads of waffle in that situation.

SCEE in particular would flat out say they weren’t interested in being taken through a deck. Put that laptop away. The demo and your own natural description of it has to do the work.