Відео

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Thank you, I am really glad it helped :D

Thank you!

Hahah, you aren’t the first one that this happened to, probably my fault at this point :D

Thanks

Hahah, nice :D what kind of a game are you making, I am intrigued :)

@@alchemysheep Since it's for a game competition, I think I need to keep it a secret for the time being xD

What did I write?

​@@alchemysheepIntro cutscene "Writting"

That is an excellent point! It is exactly the time I wrote mine as well. I think it’s valuable to think about what is unique about your game, but the whole bulk part of the GDD should definitely wait until the initial prototyping phase is done :)

That is a very good point that I don’t bring up in the video, I also didn’t start working on the design doc after I was already quite far in the development, to a point that I needed to make a plan to keep the scope reasonable. Before that, I was only writing down stuff regarding my main mechanic and only exploring that specific part of the project. Also yeah, I don’t really answer if you need one or not because it is also something that you have to decide for yourself, it might help you but maybe you just like to work differently, I still believe though that it is a good exercise if nothing else, just to get you to try and answer the questions regarding what is interesting and unique about your game.

That is a good point, I usually just record myself talking about the ideas I have so I don’t forget, it is amazing how fast we manage to forget the ideas we get xD

Always have simple pure textp documents to write random ideas into, the ideas dump. If the idea was interesting enough you can search for it later there. And being a simple add-to list makes you not overthink if the ideas fits, and thus rather forgetting about it. If the idea still sounds good a couple days later you could write it into gdd or prototype it.

You sound like you have the same issues I do :D

I definitely want to do that!

Trello for tasks and google docs/sheets for holding general information. Recently I started playing around with Miro as well and it seems really good so far, might switch to it for general planning and information holding, but I am a bit afraid that it might be a bit worse if you want to check things while not having access to the main computer (with larger screen), but like I said, I have to check this still :)

Much appreciated!!!

Thanks, I am glad you like it!

Oh Habitica looks like a really interesting “tool”! I might give it a shot :) Those are always a problem yeah, I haven’t found a way to reduce them apart from disabling the wi-fi after you load what you need, but setting myself a timer for work does work for me to be fair at that time and really focus on work and nothing else, it’s again a bit like a game. I use the Forest app for this, but there is many other options as well :)

That is an excellent point, most experienced people say to just multiply it by 2, but 1.5 also works well for me :D

Thank you :D

Thanks, the paintings are from Kurzgesagt - highly recommend everything they do :)

Thank you so much! That also brings me a lot of motivation :D

Pls keep going i really like the small animations you have in the video ^^

Will do!

Hahah, what do you mean? :P

Thank you so much!

Thanks :D

Should I just keep it silent? Maybe some music instead…

@@alchemysheep yes calm chill music :)

I will do that next time yeah :P

Thank you, yes I am :)

​@@alchemysheep I would like to draw like u, any tip?

No real tip, just keep at it and you will learn, maybe what I would suggest is to draw from reference, find yourself some pixel art you like and try to recreate it or draw similar stuff, that can really help you learn small things and build understanding of how to draw like that :)

Yeah it is definitely valuable, even for me who is mostly working alone, it’s just good to have your thoughts and plans gathered in one place and also keep you in a scope :) Thank you!!

@@alchemysheep You are welcome, keep up the good work <3

This is perfectly fair, everyone should do whatever best works for them! But I did find writing the high level concept a very valuable thing just for the sake of looking at the project in a different way, in a way you would have to convince others this is an interesting game - which again, is only important if you want to create something that you want to sell. But yeah, this whole video is definitely subjective from my perspective.

@@alchemysheep yeah I am not suggesting that you shouldn't do the High Concept! :) just that there's a case to be made for not mixing it all up in one document.

@@holleey That is fair! But the high level concept also just takes 2 or 3 pages at best, so if you are not bothered to have that there, you might as well have it in one place in case you need to show this doc to an investor :)

Alagard by Hewett Tsoi

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Well that really depends on what kind of a game you want to make, I know there are a couple of little apps that let you create some simple stuff without actual programming, but for something more complex, you probably will have to go with programming. Visual scripting is also supported with most bigger engines now, so that could also be interesting, but that also takes knowledge, it just might make more sense if you are a visual person :) And there are board games of course :D

But either way, you can always learn programming, I started working on games without knowing anything if that offers any encouragement :)

Yeah, and I think high level concept and product design is really not something you need to write down if you are only making it for yourself, but it is still god to think about what is unique about your game and I think writing it down is a lot harder than just thinking about it - really gives you the chance to critically look at what you are trying to do :)

Glad you liked it! Thanks!

Thank you so much, that means a lot!

what's your background? i'm sure the value of a GDD varies heavily from solo dev, small team to large studios. for me, 'mid to long term' is a couple weeks, and having a GDD is extremely helpful to get me to even finish a project.

@@downloadjpg Software engineer working in the industry for almost 9 years. I've done 3 full projects and been in another 10 in some capacity (mostly programming).

It really depends on the individual as well, but I would still recommend everyone trying to do it, you can’t know if you don’t try. But I also agree with it being a couple of pages, I think this is how it is for most of us, I also don’t have a super long document - 10 pages but that includes a lot of images, so, much less really. And it also includes a long term plan :) I have also been doing this for almost 10 years now (although really just the past couple of years full time) but I still find a lot of value in it, especially if I’m having trouble staying on course and focused.

@@alchemysheep GDDs are basically an acceptance of the Waterfall development methodology. This is some 90's software industry crap. We've moved past that and to greener pastures. Here's a scenario that happens every single time: 1. You make a GDD. 2. Every time you change something, you have to change the GDD. 3. Eventually you stop changing the GDD (you either can't be arsed, or are too busy for it). 4. You now have a document with several lies. 5. New guy comes to the team, and reads it. 6. Chaos. I'd rather have someone ask me "How does the level-up system work?", and spend 4 minutes explaining it to them, than having them assume that the old level-up system from the GDD is still in use, and everything crashing and burning 3 weeks later because they've made 17 decisions made off of it. Throw your GDD in the garbage.

You didn't make it work, so everyone else won't too. Right. It's the GDD that's wrong, not you. The majority of proven game studios agree 100%. /s

Absolutely, having some sort of limitation really works wonders :) thank you!

Hahah, I see it too now 😅 Thank you so much!

Thank you so much! Oh yeah, this is something I wanted to mention as well, essentially this approach can be helpful for whatever you are doing :)

Can you link to the template or the GDD you made?

I am really glad it was helpful! Thank for watching :)

Agreed, but if you just take a template and try to populate it, it’s becomes much easier I think :)

@@alchemysheep can you recommend any good design doc templates?

I tried looking up a couple of templates when writing mine and mine became a combination of them, to be honest, a lot of the templates are kinda old and outdated, so you can look them up, but in the end, it should be something that suits your needs. Write the high level stuff in short and then for the design, just write it however suits you and you don’t actually have to go to the most specific detail there, that is a very old concept and usually doesn’t really work, I probably didn’t present that well in the video, but keep it fluid and update it as you go. I am rambling - short high level concept to asses your game and then write the design in a way that let’s you work best and don’t go into details to fast, your game will evolve, let your doc evolve alongside as well. I hope this makes sense :)

@@alchemysheep thanks for fast reply

if its hard then you have no idea of what game you want to make

I really did 😅

Thank you so much, I will do my best to make it great!!

Thank you!!

I am :)

Thanks :D

Thank youu!!

Thank you so much, that helps!

Thank you!