I read GDD as "GOD" and was like... okay that piqued my interest, watched like 2 minutes of the video confused as hell, before realising i might be dyslexic 💀
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when writing mine and mine became a combination of them, to be honest, a lot of the templates are kinda old and outdated, so you can look them up, but in the end, it should be something that suits your needs.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 :)
oh thank god its not procrastination that im doing but apparently its thorough professional planning now i guess, nice. in all seriousness tho, seems like i was doing the right thing naturally tho high level concept and product design are so rooted in my head i have only been writing the game design as you described it, especially the controls and menus lol. gonna be making a "vr game on mouse and keyboard but without the headset", its a shame traditional games arent as physics based and emergently interactive as vr games!
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 :)
Important is WHEN you should write a gamedesign document. Its better to just have a loose collection of ideas that can easily be edited and iterated on before and during the initial prototyping stage. And only after the prototyping has determined things like the fun gameloop, gamefeel, workflows and technical aspects, should you write a GDD before going into full production.
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 :)
seems kind of strange to me to have a "Game Design" sub section in your Game Design Document. I'd suggest the GDD is just for that: Game Design. then for the pitch, e.g. market analysis, strategy, timeline or whatever, use a separate document, call it High Concept Pitch or something. this has a big benefit: it allows you to setup your GDD as a living wiki which makes it much more comfortable to update and collaborate on. whereas your pitch document that you'll need to send around as DIN A4 PDF is done with some presentation software.
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 :)
The video doesn't answer the question "Do I need?" Instead it tells you how to write one. I don't think you specifically need one, at least as such. As we design games we do different things for different games. Some it may be some notes, some it may be a story, and to others it may be a set of mechanics that dictates the actual design of the game. A lot of the time you don't know everything that will go into it, so it's almost a futile exercise to try to throw in everything you can think of. You can totally make games by doing it without even actually "desgining" as-such. There's also different levels of design documents, some might have a one sheet, others a detailed 'bible', still others might just be some bullet points, or maybe some sketches.
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.
Ah the GDD what an important step to creating something stable. You are right scope is everything and a GDD will certainly limit your scope in a healthy way, hope your GDD aids you in the future!
I'm a hardcore planner, I have a stack of GDDs that I've made but haven't even started working on yet. Never learnt how to do GDDs and I had overlooked including a target market. Also my GDDs have an "Overview" section where I can add in anything and after exploring once I've stopped writing I can move it to its own file, don't expend energy organising when you just want to get the idea down, I have previously managed to forget an idea while making and titling a new page for it because I knew it was big because that workload just wrote over the idea.
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.
Since game design is a long process, making a good GDD at the beginning will help us to be consistent in the long run. Especially if we are working with a team, it is very important for the team to be on the same page. I just discovered your channel, it looks great. I subscribed 🔥
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!!
I found a very basic GDD template for my recent game jam. It really helped us organize our ideas early on. Thank you for explaining! This was really helpful!
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
No, you do not need a GDD. I'd say it's hurtful for the project in the mid to long term. You need a couple pages describing the game, to get everyone up to speed. That's it. If you don't agree, you'll agree in 10 years.
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.
I read GDD as "GOD" and was like... okay that piqued my interest, watched like 2 minutes of the video confused as hell, before realising i might be dyslexic 💀
Hahah, you aren’t the first one that this happened to, probably my fault at this point :D
Lol i was not the only one x)
Same. Now I'm disappointed
It was almost why I clicked 😂😂😂
I realised before I clicked but I thought it would be helpful so here I am.
I couldn't agree more, it's also really hard when you have no experience writing such documents.
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
oh thank god its not procrastination that im doing but apparently its thorough professional planning now i guess, nice.
in all seriousness tho, seems like i was doing the right thing naturally
tho high level concept and product design are so rooted in my head i have only been writing the game design as you described it, especially the controls and menus lol. gonna be making a "vr game on mouse and keyboard but without the headset", its a shame traditional games arent as physics based and emergently interactive as vr games!
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 :)
amazing presentation!! was extremely surprised to see only 360 subs. hope your channel continues to grow :D
Thank you so much, that means a lot!
This is a wonderful video. It has insightful information on game design documents. Thank you for sharing this.
Thank you so much, I am glad you liked it!
Important is WHEN you should write a gamedesign document. Its better to just have a loose collection of ideas that can easily be edited and iterated on before and during the initial prototyping stage. And only after the prototyping has determined things like the fun gameloop, gamefeel, workflows and technical aspects, should you write a GDD before going into full production.
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 :)
Amazing video man, subbed.
Much appreciated!!!
Great presentation! :)
Glad you liked it! Thanks!
When I saw the thumbnail, I misread GDD as God and genuinely thought that I didn't make any mistakes reading that...
Anyways, keep up the good work
Hahah, I see it too now 😅
Thank you so much!
seems kind of strange to me to have a "Game Design" sub section in your Game Design Document.
I'd suggest the GDD is just for that: Game Design.
then for the pitch, e.g. market analysis, strategy, timeline or whatever, use a separate document, call it High Concept Pitch or something.
this has a big benefit:
it allows you to setup your GDD as a living wiki which makes it much more comfortable to update and collaborate on.
whereas your pitch document that you'll need to send around as DIN A4 PDF is done with some presentation software.
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 :)
The video doesn't answer the question "Do I need?" Instead it tells you how to write one. I don't think you specifically need one, at least as such. As we design games we do different things for different games. Some it may be some notes, some it may be a story, and to others it may be a set of mechanics that dictates the actual design of the game. A lot of the time you don't know everything that will go into it, so it's almost a futile exercise to try to throw in everything you can think of. You can totally make games by doing it without even actually "desgining" as-such. There's also different levels of design documents, some might have a one sheet, others a detailed 'bible', still others might just be some bullet points, or maybe some sketches.
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.
Ah the GDD what an important step to creating something stable. You are right scope is everything and a GDD will certainly limit your scope in a healthy way, hope your GDD aids you in the future!
Absolutely, having some sort of limitation really works wonders :) thank you!
I'm a hardcore planner, I have a stack of GDDs that I've made but haven't even started working on yet. Never learnt how to do GDDs and I had overlooked including a target market. Also my GDDs have an "Overview" section where I can add in anything and after exploring once I've stopped writing I can move it to its own file, don't expend energy organising when you just want to get the idea down, I have previously managed to forget an idea while making and titling a new page for it because I knew it was big because that workload just wrote over the idea.
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.
Since game design is a long process, making a good GDD at the beginning will help us to be consistent in the long run. Especially if we are working with a team, it is very important for the team to be on the same page. I just discovered your channel, it looks great. I subscribed 🔥
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
I found a very basic GDD template for my recent game jam. It really helped us organize our ideas early on.
Thank you for explaining! This was really helpful!
Can you link to the template or the GDD you made?
I am really glad it was helpful! Thank for watching :)
Oh geez this ch seems xtrmly underrated. Great video though. I'm not making a game but I'm pretty sure I can apply these steps to my project anyway. 😅
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 :)
Writing*
What did I write?
@@alchemysheepIntro cutscene "Writting"
You can write me any time.
😅
Another question, do I need to know programming to make a game from scratch? Any game?
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 :)
Nice recap brotha
Thanks :D
Might i ask the name of the font in video thumbnail?
Alagard by Hewett Tsoi
No, you do not need a GDD. I'd say it's hurtful for the project in the mid to long term. You need a couple pages describing the game, to get everyone up to speed. That's it.
If you don't agree, you'll agree in 10 years.
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