Game Design Document (GDD)

[crzyone9584]

I use to have a very nice template for making these. I can't find it any more. I may of lost it on my last HD blow up. Any way, I was wondering if you guys could suggest a few different designs.

[Jackolantern]

Honestly, I pretty much free-style all of mine. Different types of games demand such different templates that it is hard to make something universal.

What I do is I make a Summary block of the gameplay and basic setting. Then I look at that summary and start trying to answer the mid-level questions. For example, say I mentioned in the summary that players can fight monster and other players. Ok, now the mid-level question would be "What does combat look like?" After that, take that block and answer any questions in there that need details fleshed-out. By the time you have answered pretty much every conceivable question someone could have, you will have filled out a pretty full and self-explanatory GDD that will work for you and/or a small team. Large-scale games being made by large teams may require a more set-in-stone design to keep everyone on the same page, but that likely isn't what you are needing at the moment.

[62896dude]

I personally just open a notepad document, and write down everything I think of and put it in there, the key though is to also keep it organized though, otherwise you may fond it nearly useless

[Jackolantern]

I tend to like using a word processing program such as Microsoft Word or Open Office Write for a GDD, because for me, the ability to set headings of various sizes is a big help in keeping things organized. For lists of specifics, such as tables of item names and stats, I tend to use spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel or Open Office Calc. If you really wanted to get fancy, you could even save design spreadsheets in CSV format (comma-delimited) and create custom PHP scripts that import all of the data into the database to keep you from having to type it all in