Game Design Document

[MoonByte]

Hey guys~

So I was wondering:
Is anyone here using an actual Game Design Document to structure and plan out their games?
Or something similar (like a narrative structure tree)?
Or are you all "winging it"?

Just out of curiosity
If you use something, what and why do you feel it helps you? Did you always use it or started using it because of something (like failed attempts or something)?

And since it is bad manners to ask questions without giving an answer:
I personally use a proper Game Design document. Years back, I had went with a self-made structure tree (with basic stuff like nailing down the main cast, the rough storyline, etc). For about three years, I have went to use a detailed game design document to keep myself in line and not get too distracted by adding 500 fancy features
The document itself has changed slightly last year since I had a conversation with my game design professor who gave me a more inclusive one (the luxury of studying this, hehe).
Since I use that one template for all my games (both the big student projects where I work with six people on loads of 3D assets and my small Game Jam projects with three pixelated charsets), it is pretty extensive, but I feel comfortable with that, since I can go into full detail without getting too lost ^_^

[TheJerminator15]

Since I'm actually studying Game Design, I actually made numerous Design documents for my game. It pretty much outlines the plot for my three routes as well as character traits/personality for the protagonist since all my documents were done on mostly.

I even had a small test script for a cutscene done lol.

I'll provide some links to them:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=C ... ile%2cdocx
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=C ... ile%2cdocx
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=C ... ile%2cdocx

The original game was a beat em up before I switched to a VN though (Im useless at anything but design/story/modelling currently lol) so thats why some things refer to a beat em up. Since the story and everything else was already finished I couldnt be bthered switching the beat em up bits lol.

[Aviala]

I use game design documents for game projects that actually have gameplay in it. For planning a story, like a VN, I just keep messy notes on a separate file.
For example, when I was making Skyfish (it's currently on hiatus) I made lots of different planning documents. For the actual story I had a google doc with some ideas for the story, the script, an asset list and a proper game design document, but only for the battle gameplay I was planning. Since the game design document will only be seen by a couple of people I didn't feel the need to explain everything about the VN in detail.

Right now I'm looking for a good software to document and plan the branching of my new (yet unnamed) project. It's proving to be more difficult than I thought - I need a tool that's capable of showing pretty complicated brancing in a simple way. (Any suggestions are definitely welcome.)
When I'm writing a lot of the choices I write are the result of "winging it", but those choices usually only change a few lines here and there or affect the "love points" of certain characters. For bigger choices I do brainstorming beforehand.

[Renmiou]

I do art, so I don't have to plan the VN or game, but I've worked closely with other people who let me see how they planned stuff and those who always finished their project and didn't let stuff get out of control followed a rather structured approach:

- Decide what the story is about (the main conflict, if you will), what the setting is etc.;
- Write a text document where they have a list of events or scenes for the VN (so, something like #The kindgom is attacked by a huge Koopa and everyone's kind of distressed), this also meant that they decided all the branching and programming there, without worrying about other stuff;
- Write the detailed scenes under the commented scene summaries bit by bit.

The rest of the stuff was just notes. Things like how the art should broadly look or what the gameplay (if any) should be like. No game document was produced, but the VNs got finished all the same.

[MoonByte]

Right now I'm looking for a good software to document and plan the branching of my new (yet unnamed) project. It's proving to be more difficult than I thought - I need a tool that's capable of showing pretty complicated brancing in a simple way. (Any suggestions are definitely welcome.)

Twine.

I'm serious, use Twine (it's free).
In theory, it is a engine on it's own, meant to create a branching text adventure.
But it is a very easy-to-use, visual thing, so it is ridiculously easy to make gigantic mindmaps with it, to test play (like creating choices in it and testing if certain variables end you at the ending you want), etc.
Especially when the branching either gets very big OR when I have to work a lot with increasing variable numbers, I tend to playtest in Twine. It's quick, easy, I can see everything AND I can even test basic gameplay, if it's only choices.

[curry nochi rice]

LSF standard game design document template for visual novels and sims when?

[Alte]

LSF standard game design document template for visual novels and sims when?

Design Document from NaNoRenO 2014 Post Mortem where Taarradhin was used as an example. Here's link to the Blank Design Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18LJ ... edit?pli=1

[MoonByte]

LSF standard game design document template for visual novels and sims when?

In theory, every Design Document does, for VNs, you simply sometimes have to ignore things (such as enemy AI or some parts about mechanics).
I usually always use the same document and simply alter it to fit the game I'm working on:

DesignDocumentTemplate.pdf

(75 KiB) Downloaded 345 times

Having a general document - in my opinion - allows for freedom. It can always happen that you maybe change the game to something else (Sky Eye had first been a Point&Click, now it's a survival horror RPG), having a quite open design document allows you to quickly restructure the game without having to start from the beginning again

[curry nochi rice]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18LJ ... edit?pli=1

DesignDocumentTemplate.pdf

Having a general document - in my opinion - allows for freedom. It can always happen that you maybe change the game to something else (Sky Eye had first been a Point&Click, now it's a survival horror RPG), having a quite open design document allows you to quickly restructure the game without having to start from the beginning again

Taarradhin is very catered to visual novels. Hmm, the other one looks oddly familiar. I think I tried applying that to my dating sim a while back. I agree with Moon on just restructuring a general document.

I wish LSF has community standard templates though hehehe.

[Klawzie]

I'm one of those people who seems to be sadly prone to what is often called "feature creep". Basically, building bigger or more complicated than I can handle at my current level of experience. So I've worked on a lot of different projects, but haven't yet finished one.

The way that's currently working for me (in the sense of, I'm only here because I feel confident in finishing this one) is this:

0. Brainstorm
Just a general idea of gameplay/mechanics, story, characters, and maybe specific scenes or endings I'm interested in. Usually just a stream of consciousness, barely organized text document. (Some of them are more organized into multiple text documents. The one I'm working on now doesn't even have one of these and was all done in my head before starting on the next step. Not recommended. Especially if you're not starting immediately while it's all fresh.)

1. Simple flowchart
A basic outline of the major turning points of the story. I make mine in Google Drawings. (For my current project I was clever enough to make a sidebar and make notes in it since I skipped writing it down in an original document.)

2. Work in Twine
This works much, much better for me than when I was trying to write in different text documents, and even better than working in Scrivener. I don't know how I managed writing CYOAs when I was a teenager because now I apparently need to be able to see the branches to make sense of them. My simple flowchart keeps me in line and keeps me from being tempted to add too many extra branches. But it also allows me the freedom to add minor side-paths that loop back to the basic structure.

I might one day put together some sort of design document that works for me and standardizes my process, but right now I look at them and shrug. Even with the novels I write, I do better with the stories where I don't do a lot of solid structuring. I'm more of a "pantser" (in the sense of "write by the seat of my pants") and the more systematically I plan and plot the story, the more I struggle with seeing it through. I'm frankly jealous of the ease that "plotters" are able to sit down and write, so I try to sneak in different techniques plotters use that won't throw me off.