Book Image

Practical Game Design

By : Adam Kramarzewski, Ennio De Nucci
Book Image

Practical Game Design

By: Adam Kramarzewski, Ennio De Nucci

Overview of this book

If you are looking for an up-to-date and highly applicable guide to game design, then you have come to the right place! Immerse yourself in the fundamentals of game design with this book, written by two highly experienced industry professionals to share their profound insights as well as give valuable advice on creating games across genres and development platforms. Practical Game Design covers the basics of game design one piece at a time. Starting with learning how to conceptualize a game idea and present it to the development team, you will gradually move on to devising a design plan for the whole project and adapting solutions from other games. You will also discover how to produce original game mechanics without relying on existing reference material, and test and eliminate anticipated design risks. You will then design elements that compose the playtime of a game, followed by making game mechanics, content, and interface accessible to all players. You will also find out how to simultaneously ensure that the gameplay mechanics and content are working as intended. As the book reaches its final chapters, you will learn to wrap up a game ahead of its release date, work through the different challenges of designing free-to-play games, and understand how to significantly improve their quality through iteration, polishing and playtesting.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

Characteristics of a good GDD


Let's have a look at what makes a good game design document.

The characteristics we're going to describe in the following paragraphs are something that any GDD of any game should have.

Every time you're required to write a GDD, come back to this list and make sure everything you write conforms to it.

Every time you finish writing a GDD, go back again to this list and ask yourself whether your work possesses or not these characteristics and, if not, whether it's your particular case that doesn't require it or you have to adjust something.

A good GDD:

  • Is modular
  • Has goals and requirements
  • Is the result of a discussion
  • Is clear, brief, and concise
  • Is multimedia
  • Leaves space for creativity and debate
  • Is not necessarily only a text file
  • Is online

It is modular

Generally speaking, the goal of the document is to communicate the game design to all the parties involved in game development. But it's very unlikely that the whole design is going to be covered by a single document. Some...