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hello and welcome I'm your code Mon and
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in this video I'm going to cover why you
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should or shouldn't create a game design
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document let's
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begin okay so should you take time to
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create a game design document or is it a
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complete waste of time this is an
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interesting subject and different people
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will take on different views a game
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design document is essentially a
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blueprint of your final game it can be
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very simple with is a high level
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overview of the entire game or it can
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describe every single system and item
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and skill in the game in excruciating
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detail essentially you can go as simple
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or as detailed as you want the benefit
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of a highly detailed design document is
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that essentially you do all design work
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and then you do all the implementation
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this helps you separate completely
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between pre-production and actual
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production so as you're implementing
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Your Design you don't need to think
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about how it will work you just follow
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the blueprint and be confident that at
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the end you will have a good
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game in in a highly detailed design
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document you would have something like a
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list of all the enemies how they look
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where they spawned how their AI Works
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how much health and what weaknesses they
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have what weapons they hold and so on
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for a weapon you would Define the name
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the look how much damage it deals and
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how it fires maybe Define a type of ammo
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and what type of damage it does and so
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on so at the extreme point you end up
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with a huge document hundreds of pages
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long that supposedly works great as a
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game when you play it in your mind
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however for me making my small oneman
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indie games I have never had much use
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for a super detailed game design
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document a very detailed document
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essentially works against iteration if
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you have 50 pages of highly detailed
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systems you can become a bit uneasy over
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making changes even if you can clearly
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tell that the current design is not
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working so I find that the answer to the
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question of is a game design document a
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waste of time is mostly dependent on
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scale if you have a AAA game that
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involves involves 300 people working
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towards the same goal then yes you need
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every step of the way to be clearly
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detailed so everything comes together in
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the
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end in such a large project you really
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cannot have someone just randomly try
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implementing a completely different
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system and break everything for everyone
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else however if you're like me working
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Solo or even as a small team I wouldn't
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lean against going for something super
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detailed you should still have some sort
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of document that contains a high level
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view of the essence of the game in my
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case I normally have have lots of pages
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with Concepts that define an overview of
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what I'm trying to
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achieve I do most of my design as I go
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along iterating on what I create with
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only a very high level overview being
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done before I start production of a
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simple
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prototype for example when I was working
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on what would later become blueprint
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Tycoon my first thought was a game where
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you're building weapons to supply an
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army it was intended to be some sort of
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a mercenary supplier management game the
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code name for the game was actually the
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Army supplier
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wi so the player would get a contract
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from someone that needed let's say 100
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swords of a specific type made of a
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specific material then the player would
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craft the final item and deliver it to
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complete the
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contract however as I iterated on the
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simple prototype I figured out that the
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best part of the design was gathering
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the raw materials then turning them into
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something else and then another thing
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and so on and so
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on so the player need to gather a base
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material like iron turn it into a sword
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much like the supply chain from settlers
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or
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ano as I went deeper into the object
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Tech Tree I decided that keeping the
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mercenary theme would limit how far I
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could go since with that theme at the
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end I need to have some sort of weapon
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or
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armor so as I iterated on design I
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scrapped the mercenary theme and made it
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more focused on getting contracts for
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specific products and figuring out how
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to make those products in making the
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various products I expanded heavily into
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how each one was made which made me go
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deeper into the blueprint concept where
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you have inputs and outputs which then
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lead to the final game with the name
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blueprint
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Tycoon so again for my specific process
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I prefer to keep it loose and iterate on
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design as I go along however such a
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loose design would be tough to work with
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other people since I don't know exactly
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what steps I'm going to do in order to
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reach my final goal one way to keep it
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somewhat loose but also focused is to
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Define some pillars that make up the
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foundation of what you're trying to
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achieve so for example let's say you're
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making a stealth game and you Define as
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one of your pillars that the player is
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weak and direct confrontation is
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discouraged however then you go through
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implementing your design and you figure
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out that one of the abilities you design
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caused the player to be very strong in
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direct
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confrontation it was not the intent of
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the original design but the end result
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is
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that so if you had an item that was a
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smoke bomb that made enemies blind and
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you're going with this item would be for
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the player to use it to get away but
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then you also give the player a takedown
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ability that could kill enemy all of a
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sudden the best way for the player to
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play would be to throw the smoke grenade
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as an offensive tool approach the enemy
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while he's blind and kill it so just
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like that two separate abilities in your
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base design would combine into something
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that would easily break one of your
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pillars so again by using those pillars
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to guide you you could iterate on that
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design and change it so that for example
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the smoke grenade makes them blind
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except when the player is too close at
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that point the smoke grenade would once
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again be back to being a defensive tool
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inside of a offensive tool so that's an
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example of something that you would not
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necessarily think of during
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pre-production while you were writing
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your game design document but it would
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end up destroying your final game if you
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were following a strict game design
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document that prevent you from iterating
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upon it you would end up with a worse
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game so a game design document like so
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many other things is mostly a tool if it
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fits with your workflow and your team
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then sure go for it how detailed you go
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is also a variable thing start staring a
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game completely blind with no idea as to
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what the final game will be isn't very
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helpful and on the other hand having a
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100 page straight design document that
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leaves no room for iteration also isn't
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very helpful so figure out what works
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for you and your team in order to figure
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out what works best you can start off
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with a similar project make a small one-
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month game and try doing a game design
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document before you start production if
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you find that you design too many
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specific constraints then you know the
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next time you should be a bit more loose
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with your design so there you have it
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some food for thought for you to
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consider if you should write a game
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designed document and if so how detailed
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it should be if you have any questions
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post them in the comments and I'll do my
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best to answer them subscribe for more
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videos and I'll see you next
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time
