PHILTECH INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY INC.

SUBJECT: 2D ANIMATION WITH GAME ART

WEEK 2 | 2ND SEM

LESSON 2: GAME DESIGN DOCUMENTS

TOPICS: UNDERSTANDING THE GAME DESIGN DOCUMENTS
Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this session, you will be able to:
 Understand game design documents (GDD) and how is it very important in
developing games
 Identify different steps in preparing game design documents
 Plan and prepare a game design documents

LET’S START:

WHAT IS A GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT?

What Is A Game Design Document?

A game design document or GDD is a highly detailed document that game owners create to share
their information and their vision for the game to their development teams. GDD often is made
subject to a lot of changes and updates over the development course as the game starts to take
shape.

As an entrepreneur, you want your game design document done right, as game developers rely on it
to ensure smooth collaboration between different departments and experts working on the project.
GDD helps everyone involved with the creation of the game on the same page in terms of its features,
functionalities, and other aspects.

Why Is A Game Design Document Important?

When you take on a complex project like developing a new game from scratch, it is very crucial to
have a well-defined roadmap. Your game design document works as the reference point for game
designers and developers when building your game. The document ensures everyone knows exactly
what the game is about and what they are supposed to do to achieve the desired result.

How to Write A Game Design Document?

Before you sit down to write your game design document, it is crucial to understand that every GDD is
unique based on its concept, characters, theme, and the world you are trying to create, and more.
However, there are some critical elements that all game design documents should cover to provide
necessary and complete information to game developers and designers. This truly enables your game
development team to organize their work better and drive their efforts in the right direction.

Here is a game design document template that includes all critical sections that can assist
by the development team.

The Name Of The Game:

You want to give your game a fun, catchy name that reflects on what the game is about. Choosing an
attractive name really helps during the marketing and launch phase to gain the attention of players. It
makes sound simple, but finalizing a name can take time. So at this stage, you can provide a couple of
your best options and finalize the name later on.

Project or Game Description:

This is like the summary of the game you want to create, without going into details about how it
functions and so on. The goal here is that after reading your game description, people should know
what type of game you want to build and the genre like puzzle, survival, battle royale, FPS, and more.
You can also add some more information about your game that you think is relevant and important to
your vision. Ideally, this section of GDD should be one or two paragraphs long.

Main Characters:
The main character is a significant aspect of most games. They give their game concept a marked
edge or make it more relatable or enjoyable for the players. Hence, some people like to focus on their
character(s), from their appearance and any special physical feature to how they interact with other
characters or other game elements. If you have a particular vision or want to make some character
choices, this is the stage to include them.

However, some games may not have characters at all, like puzzles and word games. In that case, you
can ignore this step.

Story:
For some video game design documents, to be effective, this section makes all the difference. The
storytelling process is fundamental in some games. They help players empathize with the characters,
and they feel more invested in the game. Some examples of games with a riveting storyline are Call of
Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Final Fantasy 6.

Hence, after introducing your characters, talk about the story or the world you are creating. Make sure
to include the events that take place throughout the game and the environment. You would want to
keep these two aspects in mind when writing about your story.
 Theme
 Story progression

The Gameplay:
This is one of the essential sections of the GDD, and it defines what your gameplay will be like. To
help you understand better what you need to include in this section, I have divided this step into sub-
sections. You may not need all of these factors, as this is a subjective area.

 Goal – Here, you answer why the player is playing your game. For example, to return home, to
save a friend, or enter the next level.
 Define player skills – Identifying what skills your players will need to possess to master the
game will help you narrow down the scope. Defining player skills help you identify problems
with your game design and get back to the right track. It will help find out if the skills required
are too advance or not challenging enough for your target audience or if some inputs may only
work for mobile devices and not for a gaming console.
 Game mechanics – Without sparing any details, this is where you define the complete
mechanics of your game. Game mechanics also include the controls that trigger specific actions
and reactions from the characters or events in the game. This is the section, your development
team will often come back to, and hence, you can even add some artwork or screenshots to
explain the game mechanics better.
 Abilities and power-ups – This is where you further elaborate on your game mechanics.
Instead of pouring in every detail into one section, you provide information into sub-sections
and categories to make it easy and less confusing on your team. Here you define additional
abilities that you want to incorporate into the gameplay like fun power-ups that make the game
more engaging for the players. You must include here every power-up the game offers and how
it affects the core gameplay.
 Levels and challenges – This is again a subjective area that may or may not fit into your
game. Often games have several levels, different storylines, as well as difficulty levels.
Everything here progresses as the game proceeds ahead. Talk about how players unlock new
missions or levels and what tools they will need to catch up with the game.
 Losing – The last sub-section in the gameplay is the end of the game. Here you define what will
be the losing conditions for the game. Does the player run out of time, health, get killed, or
something else.

Graphics and Styling:

The overall gaming experience is a lot about the quality of graphics and how impactful is your game
environment. In this section, you are required to talk about what your game looks like, paint a picture
for designers, or include some concept art for reference.

Music and Sound Effect:

The background music and sounds effects add as much to the overall players’ experience as the
visuals and graphics. Hence, in this section, you describe the kind of music and sound effects that you
want to add to your game. If you see the need, you can also divide this section of your GDD into sub-
categories based on different levels or stages of the storyline.

Technical Description:
In this section, you talk about different platforms where you will be launching the game and any
specific tools that you are considering to use for the development process. You want to include a
detailed technical description to avoid any confusion later. For example, this is the section to talk
about if you’re going to create a cross-platform mobile game or you want to build a PC standalone
version.

Funding and Marketing:

This is an entirely optional section that you may or may not want to include in your GDD. The idea
behind this section is to allow the development team to better understand your vision for the game
and how you plan to market and scale it in the future. Here a few aspects you should consider in this
section:

 Demographics – Knowing who your game targets will help reflect the same onto your game
design. For example, if your target audience is 5 to 12 years old kids, your color scheme,
characters, and the environment you are creating should be designed to speak to them.
 Monetization policy – You should also include some details about how you plan to monetize
your game.
 ACTIVITY 2
Direction: Make a simple Game Design Document using the template below. Do this on a separate
sheet of paper.

GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT

1. Name of the Game:

______________________________________________________________________________
2. Game Description:
______________________________________________________________________________
3. Main Characters:
______________________________________________________________________________
4. Story:
______________________________________________________________________________
5. Gameplay:
 Goal: ______________________________________________________________________________
 Player Skills: ________________________________________________________________________
 Game Mechanics: ___________________________________________________________________
 Abilities and Power-ups: ______________________________________________________________
 Levels and Challenges: _______________________________________________________________
 Losing: ____________________________________________________________________________
6. Graphics and Styling:
______________________________________________________________________________
7. Music and Sound Effect:
______________________________________________________________________________
8. Technical Description:
______________________________________________________________________________
9. Funding and Marketing:
 Demographics: ______________________________________________________________________
 Monetization: _______________________________________________________________________

Reference(s):
https://www.tekrevol.com/blogs/making-a-game-design-document/