Game Design Documents - A Comprehensive Guide

Additional Resources:



Develop Games: https://develop.games/

GDD Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_design_document

GDDs of other games: https://gamescrye.com/resources/game-design-documents/

Anatomy of a Game Design Document: https://tinyurl.com/Anatomy-of-a-GDD



One-Page Template: https://tinyurl.com/One-Page-GDD
Full GDD Template: https://tinyurl.com/Full-GDD-Template

Alt Blank GDD Template: https://tinyurl.com/Blank-GDD

Pozefsky Template GDD: https://tinyurl.com/Pozefsky-GDD

Mass Flux GDD: https://tinyurl.com/Mass-Flux-GDD

Double Coconut GDD: https://tinyurl.com/Double-Coconut-GDD



Notion: https://www.notion.so/templates/design-doc-template

Confluence: https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/templates/design-system

References:

Healthy Gamer + PirateSoftware: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr4LjzbFd1o
How to Sell More Games on Steam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht6xx9en-ZU
BTP Pass the Game Challenge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rs84t5t8W8
Design Doc Elements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS9CYuUOmU4
Adam Millard Elements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzSzJqAAyxg
Sequelitis: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu5a9-aw8CA_xRgSUtUjcEem6d_cJk9Mx
Boss Keys: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc38fcMFcV_ul4D6OChdWhsNsYY3NA5B2
Designing for Disability: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc38fcMFcV_vvWOhMDriBlVocTZ8mKQzR

Is there a video up for the marketing and technical aspects of the GDD?

video is a little old, id give it a remaster by now and remove pirategayware. I'm here wondering if i should keep listening or not at this point.

Edit good info here, even with that stain in it as a reference a few times.

Has anything come of Alchemask? It sounds interesting

6:34 Pirate Software is probably THE worst example for game dev

Atlassian.... Unfortunately we them at work. If game programming is something you love doing as a fun hobby, avoid Jira and Confluence.

The remarks about Pirate Software did not aged well at all XD

Hello sir how is your game development going 1 year later?

I like how the scorpion on the chratchters head was also showing emotions.

It was cute 😊.

Such a well formatted video

Going trough the video I realised I wouldn't actually play my game. It's a platformer, a kind of genre i touched once and never played again. This is a project i wanted to make just to finish at least a project and learn enough knowledge for the big "Dream Game". But is it really possible to make a game you wouldn't 100% enjoy? Should i go for another idea?

Pirate Software Discord? Way to instantly completely discredit yourself.

"Thor is very wise."
lol

im only like 20 minutes into the video so maybe this has been covered but another reason to make a game design doc as a solo dev is for showing it to others, having it as a reference if you do end up working with someone else as a team, or even using it for crowdfunding. of course, having your ideas out on paper fully are also important

Good resource, it's kinda annoying hearing the pirate software stuff so much considering he is barely a dev, but aside from that there's good stuff to be learned here.

Thank you for the video, man, saving it for later. This dude dropped an entire lecture on YouTube like its nothing

PirateSoftware thing didnt really age well huh

Bathesda: pshhhhhh I don't need this useless thing. It only wastes time.

I am senior/lead programmer and have been working in the game industry for many years now. However, only recently have I gotten myself into the game design and I found it extremely challengin to design a game that is actually fun, despite having a lot of ideas. I watched a lot of GDD videos and the were all confusing to me. I am happy I came across this video. It is very streamlined, very well structured and taught me a lot! Thanks for this a lot!
I was writing my GDD as I watched your video, I looked at your sections and modified that to fit my project more and I already found a lot of inconsistencies between the features we planned and the emotions that our game is supposed to put the player into. It's amazing how that work. I think I finally started to wrap my head around that!

Do descriptions like this piss anyone else off

Bro definitely attended those SCAD amp lectures 😂

Hey look betheda’s emil the totally legit lead “writer” could learn a thing or two

The best video on youtube for this subject

Oof… this video aged a bit poorly with those clips of PirateSoftware. Can’t stand that obnoxious self-important narcissistic sociopath. I hope you’ve distanced yourself from his ecosphere. That guy is toxic AF and is a detriment to the gaming community.

Thank you so much for putting this together ❤

The game summery and high concept are two different descriptions. Game summery is a relaxed description of the game where the high concept is the game pitch highlighting marketable elements and features of your game like the back of a game box.

There's so much depth to this video, I love how you often referenced existing games as examples

Amazing video! So much useful information and backed up with clear examples. Keep it up!

I feel happy and motivated to my GDC. Like it and thanks a lot 😊

Amazing! In-depth, informative and entertaining video. Thank you!

I'm really glad you made this video.
Thank you.

Amazing video!

Sad to hear people don’t do paperwork in programming nowadays. Bad ethics! Students who come out a programming education who have not coded on paper before on computer have been failed by the teachers. Design document? You should hear this week 1, design one before you code a program. Modern classes for programming are a joke. Glad to have learned 2000-2003

Hi, Thanks for the informative video. I am a voice over actor. Do you need any voice over actors for your upcoming game?

Never done a GDD but I’ve got a digital sketchbook of over 400 pages for concept ideas, architecture diagrams, and planning out new functions and classes.

Among other things 😉

Man, I love this video, rewatching it time by time, when dont remember something. Sharing with everyone too. Thank you, brother

I guess... If I can bring myself to do this step, I should totally add you into the credits of the game. This is exemplary. This video should be a mandatory view for any game dev who thinks about publishing their game.

I'm a D&D forever DM (by choice, I love it too much). The last game I played was so fun and the narrative so good I was hoping that one day I could maybe turn it into a video game. Just a few weeks ago I found out that as a TypeScript dev of 5 years, I actually already know everything I need to code out the kind of game I want this to be. But the GDD was pretty intimidating.

This video was exactly what I needed to help move me along my path. Thank you, Serket.

You can practice writing a GDD by writing one about an existing game. That lets you learn to abstract a gamedesign by observing it.