How Games Are Designed - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 217

Level 13

How Games Are Designed

Games are designed and developed. Development may follow design, or these
two processes may occur simultaneously. The first style of design methodology is
the traditional model that originated in manufacturing and was being

adapted for software development as early as 1956, as shown in Figure 13.1.
I suspect you can deduce from the figure why it is called the waterfall method.
The first formal definition of this approach was in an article by William R.
Royce, published in 1970. This was a sharply critical analysis of the waterfall
method, even though that word was not mentioned. The idea is simple: Start
with a plan, implement it, and then look after the results.

“ waterfall �

This makes it extremely important to have a solid design document up front.
Being a writer, this appeals to me. Making sure that all initial ideas are in one
central location for the development team to access can save time and effort and
give confidence to the development team embarking on the project, as long as
they understand that the design document is a living record of what is planned,
and that it will change as development progresses. Therefore, flexibility is
maintained, but not at the expense of the overall vision.

However, much of the game industry has embraced a second model. Called
lightweight software development to counter the perception of the waterfall as
heavyweight development, it has been around in one form or another almost as
long as the waterfall system. One of the earliest names for this approach was
called Scrum .