Game Design Process

Game Design Process: Researching Your Video Game

Game Design Process: Researching Your Video Game pt.1

Game Design Process: Designing Your Video Game

Main points:

Design Pillars >

Must have elements
More than a feature set
You have to define what makes this pillars important
Define in one sentence
3 to 5 design pillars
They are no features, but the experience
What the consumer thinks of first on your title

Game Loop >

Repeated throughout the game
Also called addiction loop
The crux of the experience
Ensure retention through rewards
Clash of Clans -> Collecting Resources, Building & Training, Batting
Be sure it is fun and rewarding

Magic Moments >

Shareable with friends
Causes emotion
Needs to be Specific
On sentence definition
No more than 3 - 5
Mario Kart magic moments ->
Cross a finish line (zoom of on the distance)
Red shell Hit
Drift perfect

Feature Set
A List of all major Elements
Can be non-functional things (build, tools and dev related stuff)
Everything necessary to ship
What matters most for every feature -> the main goal of the feature
What Cannot be compromised
Guide your decision making

Elevator Pitch
Communicate your game with other efficient
Critical step
If you can’t describe your games in a way that make people interested, you probably
miss something
Mistakes to avoid when making games:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbhdTt4IgPk
Define your elevator pitch:
What makes your game great in just a few sentences
Fifa -> Authentic football action with the stars and teams around the world that we
know and love. Unparallel strategic realism lets you control your squad with incredible
precision. Visual accuracy that showcases the game beautiful.
Then break your vision down to a single sentence (X statement or Product Razor)
Fifa -> Authentic football that makes the user the star
Iterate and get it tight (can take time)
Try it with friends see reactions

Development
Order of Feature development
Prototype (on the most important of your feature pillars)
Central to your game loop
Then start your complete feature roadmap (all your remaining features in order of
delivery by development)
It is really hard, check the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7vZFiFLw-w

Docs while working with a team

Keep brief, documents can be inefficient and outdated after your game diverts from
your assumptions.
The right approach depends on the size of your team and complexity.
More people == more documentation.
Writing docs can be counterproductive.

Adjust the framework to your needs

Game Design Document Creation Course
1. Creative questions
What has been done already
What can be done
What am I doing

2. Business questions
What types of games have reached the most players?
What types of games do people spend the most time playing?
What types of games are people making most frequently?

3. The Game Designer Traits

- Get inspiration from everything
- Wears many hats
- Communications
- Fast and reliable
- Willing to iterate and compromise vision
- Gameplay at the core - the game should connect to sensory qualities

4. GDD vs. Pitch

Points to have in a pitch and a GDD
● What is your genre?
● What is your gameplay type?
● What’s your story spine?
● What’s so awesome about your characters?
● What’s engaging about your gameplay?
● How does it engage the player?
● How will it keep people playing and interested?

Points to have only in a pitch

● How does your game compare to others on the market?

● Why is your game better than the others?
● If you already have a team in place, who are your artists, writers, designers, developers,
etc.
● Why they are the best people to be working on your game?
 Additional Materials

Game Design Document Examples:

● Aric's World's Game Industry Archive: Aric Wilmunder was a programmer at Atari and
Luscasfilm Games and worked on a handful of classic titles. His GDD archive is a
comprehensive inside look at some of the top titles from those companies.
● Maniac Mansion Design Notes (on Ron Gilbert's blog)
● GDD summary on SeriousGames.eu, with plenty of linked examples (scroll down).
● A GDD template on Google Docs, courtesy of HeadClot88 on the Unity3d boards. Just
one more way of putting a GDD together.

Gaming News:

● Kotaku
● IGN
● Game Informer
● Polygon
● Rock Paper Shotgun
● Board Game Geek
● Dice Tower News
● Boardgaming.com (News)

Gaming Industry:

● Game Career Guide

● Gamasutra
● Games Industry

Sales and Player Counts:

● Steam Database
● VGChartz
● Thinkgaming.com's App Sales Data page
General game design books

● The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, by Jesse Schell

● Theory of Fun for Game Design, by Raph Koster
● Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design, by Scott Rogers
● Video Game Design: Principles and Practices from the Ground Up, by Michael
Salmond

Storytelling guides

● The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design, by Flint Dille and John Zuur
Platten
● Slay the Dragon: Writing Great Video Games, by Robert Denton Bryant and Keith
Giglio

Gameplay Experience and Level Design

● Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, by

Tracy Fullerton
● Game Feel: A Game Designer's Guide to Virtual Sensation, by Steve Swink
● Level Design: Concept, Theory, and Practice, by Rudolf Kremers
● Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development: From Concept to
Playable Game with Unity and C#, by Jeremy Gibson Bond
● Preproduction Blueprint: How to Plan Game Environments and Level Designs, by Alex
Galuzin
● Players Making Decisions: Game Design Essentials and the Art of Understanding Your
Players, by Zack Hiwiller

Visuals and Sound

● Aesthetic Theory and the Video Game, by Graeme Kirkpatrick

● Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game
Music and Sound Design, by Karen Collins
● The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man to Mass Effect, by Chris Melissinos and
Patrick O'Rourke
 ● Drawing Basics and Video Game Art: Classic to Cutting-Edge Art Techniques for
Winning Video Game Design, by Chris Solarski

Historical Surveys and Video Game Theory/Criticism

● Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life, by Chris Kohler
● Replay: The History of Video Games by Tristan Donovan
● The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander
● Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World,
by Jane McGonigal
● Game Design Theory: A New Philosophy for Understanding Games, by Keith Burgun
● Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, by Katie Salen Tekinbaş and Eric
Zimmerman
●

World Design

Level Design
This in-depth analysis of Resident Evil’s level design could help you to think about your own
methodology.

Phil Co, Level Design for Games: Creating Compelling Game Experiences: This book provides
several useful level diagrams and examples to help you think through your level designs.

"How to Start Your Own Level Design or Game Environment": This article from
worldofleveldesign.com provides 8 different ways for you to improve your level design.

"Excerpts from An Architectural Approach to Level Design": This article applies several helpful
elements of architectural theory to level design.
"Beginning Level Design, Part 1": Gamasutra.com's first of a two-part series covering theories
behind level design.

"Single Player Level Design Workflow": This article focuses on ways to structure your workflow when
designing single player levels.

Level Design Tutorials: A list of level design tutorials compiled by worldofleveldesign.com.

Mapmaking
fantasticmaps.com: Fantasy maps and mapmaking tutorials by Jonathan Roberts.

Here Be Cartographers: Reading the Fantasy Map: Nicholas Tam's article on his blog Ntuple
Indemnity is a quick survey of how maps are used in fantasy fiction, but his observations also apply
to world design in games. As Tam writes, "It is hard to imagine a world without maps."

Color
Color Matters is a great online resource on color theory.

This in-depth Gamasutra article by Herman Tulleken discusses color theory specifically for game
design.

Josef Albers, The Interaction of Color: An essential resource on color, this book covers principles
such as color relativity, intensity, and temperature; vibrating and vanishing boundaries; and the
illusion of transparency and reversed grounds.

Adam Banks and Tom Fraser, Designer’s Color Manual: The Complete Guide to Color Theory and
Application: If you are new to color theory, this book is a great and comprehensive beginner's guide
to the subject.