[Name of Game] Design Document [Version #]

{When you have a prototype of the game, you should use the same version number for the prototype as for the design document. You can update the version number for both once a week of so (depending upon how fast work is progressing). It doesn't really matter whether the version # starts at 0.00 or 1.00 or whatever so long as you remain consistent.}

Design History

{List versions in decreasing order - newest on top, oldest on bottom.}

Game Type

Genre [genre]
Input Devices [list all input devices along with whether they're required or optional]
Platform [platform]
Program Type [full-screen application, windowed application, applet, or something else]
Rendering [type of rendering (2d vs 3d, isometric or not, etc.). Also, include information about the scale of the objects in the game. For instance, a 2d tile-based game would specify the tile size here.]
Screen Resolution [size and color depth for full-screen applications. If your program's a windowed application, you should note that here, along with the minimum/preferrred/maximum window sizes. If it's an applet, just specify the size of the applet.]
Setting [place & time, just a few words, nothing fancy. "medieval fantasy world" would be fine]

What Makes This Game Special

[Special Concept 1]

[Description of this concept.] {A concept is some statement you want to be true about the final product along with some information about why this is a good idea. For instance, things like "The user interface is streamlined to allow ease-of-play from the very beginning. Rather than having to go through pseudo-arbitrary combinations of button pressing, the actions you need to take at any time are available in most 2 mouse clicks." These concepts must be a useful direction to move the game in. Things like "It will be 50% funner than Diablo 2." are useless.}

[Special Concept 2]

...

[Special Concept n]

Game Overview

Feature Set

{Don't list things that are described elsewhere in the document. Don't list things like x number of monsters/spells/whatever here. This isn't an advertisement - it's a design document. List things that you're going to implement for your game. Possible Examples: a world editor, real-time combat in a special combat screen, noncombat skills, etc.]

[Feature 1]

[Description of Feature 1]

[Feature 2]

[...]

[Feature n]

Game Characters

The Player

[Describe the player's character. Do not include information on how you create your character and how your character changes (e.g. goes up levels, gains skills, or whatever). This is described in the gameplay section.]

Allies

[This section is for people who can join your party. So this is primarily for RPGs. Don't list people who just give you valuable information here - they're just Npcs, not really "allies".]

Noncombatants

[People who you can talk to. In general, split them up by location. You can also have a section for some key "standard" characters (e.g. inn keepers, shopkeepers) who appear everywhere and are always about the same. Do NOT list enemies in this section - they are listed in the Lists at the end of template.]

Game World

Overview

[Describe how the player percieves the world. Does he just walk around like in Diablo? Or does he have seperate town and world maps like in Final Fantasy and Geneforge games?]

Key Locations

[List each town, fortress, enchanted forest, or whatever here. In general, you want to list them in the order that the player will probably visit them in and number the list. If there's several places that the player could easily visit in any order, use one number for that region and assign each place a letter - just like you would do in an outline of a document. List things like the surrounding terrain and the sort of people/monsters/whatever that live there. Don't list specific Npcs or story elements.]

{Example: 1. Academy - This is a large instructional facility carved out of the side of a mountain. All the people here are either instructors or students. Art Schema: cave.sch}

Time and Day/Night

[Describe how time passes in your game. If your game has a day/night cycle, describe it here. What you put in this section can vary from "Time doesn't pass" to huge charts of astrological data. ONLY list what is actually relevant to the gameplay!]

Travel

[How the player moves through the world.]

Weather

[How weather affects the game if weather exists at all.]

Gameplay

Character Development

[This is for how your character develops (e.g. going up levels, gaining skills).]

Combat

[Describe the combat system.]

Game Options

[Options that the player can set.]

[Magic/Skill/Technique System - name this section whatever is appropriate for you game]

[Describe whatever magic-like system you have (if any). Only include how the system works - the spell list comes later.]

Outside of Combat

[Describe what happens outside of combat.]

Multiplayer Game

Overview

[Describe the multiplayer game. Don't include information that is relevant to both single- and multi- player games.]

Gaming Sites [Note whether you want to support sites like Gamespy]
Max Players [How many players can play at once]
Options [Typically, the server can set options that affect the game]
Persistence [Either you have a persistant world on your server, you allow the player to save the game somehow, or a game disappears as soon as you stop playing.]
Servers [What kind of client-server system (or whatever) your game has]

Single-Player Game

Overview

[A basic description of the single-player game. Don't include information that is relevant to both single- and multi- player games.]

Hours of Gameplay

[This should be a range from the minimum number of hours it would take you to beat the game if you just walked right through and did everything and the maximum number of hours you could keep yourself entertained by doing all the sidequests and beating the game.]

Saving and Loading

[Detail how the single player game is saved and loaded. Detail the file format if that's appropriate.]

Story

[Outline the story here. If it is small, you can include the whole story here. Otherwise, put it in a seperate document.]

{When writing the story for a game, it should look almost like a walkthrough for a game, but don't bother with listing what items appear where and things like that. And instead of saying what to do, say what's happening. Something called the "Loomis Ladder" may be useful depending upon what kind of game you're making.}

Victory Conditions

[What does the player have to do to win?]

User Interface

Overview

[How does your user interface work?]

[Input #1]

[Anything that the player can do with the keyboard, mouse, or other input device. For mouse-controlled games, you generally describe the things you can click on as one input each. In addition to buttons, etc. that you can click on, make some mention of the TYPES of objects (e.g. levers, people) you can interact with by clicking on them.]

[Input #2]

...

[Input #n]

[Viewport #1]

[Detail whatever is output by your game. In general, it's best to detail things one box of output at a time. So you might have a screen for viewing the current map, a screen to view some sort of journal, a regular noncombat screen, a combat screen, a spell-selecting screen, and who know's what else. Describe each one, including the layout of the objects on the screen.]

[Viewport #2]

...

[Viewport #n]

Inside the System

Artwork

{The purpose of this section is so that the artists know what to draw.}

Character Artwork

[First, describe how the artwork will be formatted. You should include both the file format and how the files will be arrandged. Then list groups of characters that are all similar. For instance, the goblinoid group could be goblins, orcs, ogres, and trolls.]

Noncharacter Artwork

[As above, describe how the artwork will be formatted. Then describe what artwork you need here. Typically, you should have sets of art that you need made. Each set of art can be used in many areas.]

{Example: cave schema - The walls and floor are both rock. Use mud for the ground image because the area around the exit of the cave will be in the same map as the cave itself. Use the default furniture, etc. images.

Music

[There are a couple of things to note here. First, music could be one song per area, or it could be a list of songs that is randomly cycled through no matter where you are. Or it could be something else. Whatever it is, describe that here. If you like, list what pieces of music you need.]

Programming

Overview

[Describe the main information about the game engine. It could almost be a list of features that you want implemented - this section is mainly for the programmers.]

Artificial Intelligence

[Describe anything special about your artificial intelligence system. Don't detail standard things like collision detection, unless there's something unique about it.]

Rendering System

[Describe how your game will be rendered. Describe things like lighting and camera angles here. For 3d games, this section will be much more complex than for 2d games. 2d games need little more than the camera angle and a couple of details about how the art should be drawn. This section is primarily for the use of artists and programmers.]

Sound Effects

[Guess what sound effects you'll need and list them (along with what they're used for) here.]

World Editing

[Describe whatever world editting tools you want to have here, whether they'll be included with the game or not. If you plan to just describe the world in .txt files, note the format of the .txt files here.]

Lists

Enemies

[Who do you fight? You could put a list of their stats here, but that is usually a waste of time. As you tweak the game for difficulty, the stats will change. So may only want to list information about them that won't change. I get around this by writing a program that extracts the enemies' stats from the game data and outputs them to a file. I do the same thing with objects, etc.]

Objects

[List the objects that can be found in the world. Split the list up into sections if you have lots of items. For instance, weapons could be one section, armor could be another.]

[Skills, Spells, Techniques, etc. - name this section whatever is appropriate.]

[List and describe any special abilities the characters have. If there's different kinds of special abilities, give them seperate sections.]

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