📄EXAMPLES OF GAME DESIGN DOCS
Finding examples of #gamedesign documentation is hard. As a recent graduate in the field, what better time for me to share some of my university work in case it might help new students find inspiration?
Here's a🧵 full of it!
📑Game Design Documents
Wrote a lot of them, many times before even starting to prototype. Now I try to keep them short and to the point, just a vector of vision, as many would suggest.
- Mankind's March: nicoladau.notion.site/Pitch-Document…
- Project Scrapped: docs.google.com/document/d/1Wj…
📈 The Macro Design Chart
One of the most useful documents I've used for planning games. A great pre-production deliverable, check "A Playful Production Process" for more details about them!
- Project Scrapped: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
- Project Shock: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
🔎 Research Documents
Formalize the research process: when trying to solve a problem always find out how smart people solved it before you and document your findings. Chew on every detail and you'll be more informed in the design process. As an example: nicoladau.notion.site/The-Banner-Sag…
🕵️♂️ Micro-Design Documents
Everything that is about implementing specific systems, rather than establishing a vision. As a first example, a presentation I created to align my team-mates on how puzzle elements should've worked in Project Scrapped: drive.google.com/file/d/1Bf16ez…
📅 Game Design Logs
Inspired by @danctheduck, they substitute long GDDs. Make a short pitch document, build a prototype and write periodic logs with comments, solutions to problems and notes. Repeat! Here's one of the first logs for Mankind's March: nicoladau.notion.site/20-November-20…
🎡The Emotion Loop
This one helps in nailing what a game is about for the player. The question is: what main emotions do we want the player to feel at any stage of the core loop? The latest one I've made is for Mankind's March!
📌 Design Boards
Huge boards where designers can go crazy and spatially think about systems and mechanics. Incredibly useful, it's where I feel like I do my best thinking. (best to open on PC)
- Project Scrapped: miro.com/app/board/o9J_…
- Mankind's March: miro.com/app/board/o9J_…
Unfortunately I can't show my entire notebook, but sketching is incredibly useful. The point I want to make is: don't worry about looks, just use it for the thinking process. Most of my diagrams are unintelligible, left unfinished, but they helped me think!
💡 Pitch Decks
This is the pitch deck we had running for Project Scrapped, in third year of university.
docs.google.com/presentation/d…
⚛ Skill Atom Graph
You can see this in one of the design boards, but it's too good not to share for itself! Also inspired by @danctheduck, it's extremely useful for breaking down your game into its simplest unit and finding issues with the flow.
🤼Meeting Notes
Useful for turning decisions into actionable items during and after each meeting. I enjoy chronological documentation and seeing how old decisions might've shaped recent ones!
The day we brainstormed Mankind's March: nicoladau.notion.site/Brainstorm-Mee…
✨And that's all!
Thank you for taking a look, I hope these documents will be helpful. Many of them are co-authored with @andreamin97 and @Miichaccino for @GamesHawthorn. Find them all here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/….
For questions don't hesitate to comment or drop me a DM!
Whoops, the link for the Project Scrapped design board is broken!
Here's the correct one: miro.com/app/board/uXjV…
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