How to write a successful Game Design Document

A conceptual Game Design Document (GDD) is ideally created before a pitch, which outlines the complete game development process.

Once the project is approved, the document is then expanded by the developer into a detailed guide for the development team. And because the game development is so dynamic, sometimes a GDD is revised and changed multiple times during the development phase. It is continuously improved upon as the development processes. Project scope and direction is also changed at times.  

For this frequently changing nature of a game design document, it is also often referred to as a living document. It may start with only a basic outline and become a detailed framework for each phase of the complete game development process.

There is no definite format of a final Game Design Document that suits all different variations of games. The amount of information contained in the final GDD is always unique, depending on the company goals, project size, skills of the team and knowledge of the author. However, to begin with, a good GDD contains a description of all the components of the game and the game mechanics as below:

Project Description

A GDD must start with a brief description of what the game is about. Not necessarily listing the game mechanics or other technical aspects. Just keep it to 2-3 paragraphs and mention the nature of game (like, social, adventure), genre of game (like, puzzle, shooter, combat) and any reference games you know of.   

Characters, Story, Events and Theme

It is important to introduce the characters, story and theme of the game at the beginning. In case your game does not have any particular characters or a story, you may simply describe the theme of the game and move ahead. Like a simple shooting game may not necessarily have a character like a soldier rescuing civilians. It can be simply game where two players compete for better shooting skills.

Gameplay

In this section, you must specify why the player would be playing the game and how he would play. For example, mention the goals of the game, skills needed by the character/player to play the game, the mechanics of the game, power up options    (to make the game more fun), game difficulties/challenges and how a player loses.

Art Style

As the name suggests, defining an art style means deciding on the visuals of the game. How the game would look like. For example, games like pokemon go, candy crush and angry birds, had very attractive art style. Their unique visual elements were equally responsible for the success of these games. Their creative blend of colors, design, theme along with innovative characters makes these games highly popular among masses and increase the natural/free marketing channels. Like, various accessories are launched by different manufacturers with the game theme, like angry birds wrist watches/stationeries, and different sort of services being registered under same title name like Rebel Penguin web services, pokemon go day care for kids.

Technical Description

In this section, you must specify the platforms on which you would launch the game, like Mobile Phones (android, iOS), PC, Social Networks/Facebook or more. The tools, softwares or game engines you would employ to create your new game, like Unreal Engine 4, Unity 3D and more. The detailed technicalities would need to be listed in a Technical Design Document (TDD), so here you just need to specify only most basic details.

Marketing and Funding

Here you need to list all your ideas about how you intend to market your game, which is the targeted user or location, where to get funds from and more. It is important to have all these details in hand before starting to design a game. For example, if you are targeting young adult men (from 15-25 years), it might not be appropriate to have the main character as a pink colored doll/bunny, rather a soldier, a racer, a football player could make a better choice. Knowing the location of the game would allow you to use regional language within the game, like, French, Spanish, English, Italian and more. And most importantly, you must specify how you plan to monetize on the game, whether it is through in-game ads, or by offering a paid full version of the game.

In short, a GDD does not need to be a detailed document that specifies each technical aspect of your game. It simply needs to outline your plan for the game design, which is readable and easily comprehensible by anyone who reads the document. Having a detailed GDD can never be a bad thing either, as it would allow the development team to review several smaller points analyse them and address potential problems in advance which could not be possible through a very brief document.