Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
What's important for you to realize is that at some point, you'll need to document all
the following information. Keep it current. Failure to maintain an up-to-date game
design document (or, more accurately,
set
of documents) will cause team members to
waste their time creating features whose specifications have been altered, or that may
no longer be needed at all.
You'll notice that a change list is not included as part of this document. While it's
important to keep a change list for many documents (especially formal agreements
between companies), it's hard enough to get people to read the
current
design docu-
ment, much less slog through information that's out-of-date. Instead, see the final
document in this appendix, which contains a separate change list and project archives.
The following game design doc template can be used for an action game, and it can
be modified for games in other genres as needed. Please note that many of the “lists�?
should actually be maintained as linked spreadsheets or tables. Also note that the
order of the sections is somewhat arbitrary; you should order the sections in your own
GDD in the way that makes most sense to you.
See Chapter 5 for additional notes about developing and maintaining the game design
document.
1. Game Name
a. Copyright Information
2. Table of Contents
3. SECTION I: PROJECT OVERVIEW
a. Team Personnel (with contact information for each individual)
iii.
Production Team
1.
Producer
a.
Office phone
b.
Home phone
c.
Cell phone
d.
Email
2.
Assistant Producer
a.
Same contact info as above
3. Etc.
ii. Design Team
1. Design Lead
2. Level Designer #1
3. Writer #1
4. Etc.
iii. Programming Team
1.
Tech Lead
2.
Additional Programmers