Book Image

Practical Game Design - Second Edition

By : Adam Kramarzewski, Ennio De Nucci
Book Image

Practical Game Design - Second Edition

By: Adam Kramarzewski, Ennio De Nucci

Overview of this book

If you’re in search of a cutting-edge actionable guide to game design, your quest ends here! Immerse yourself in the fundamentals of game design with expert guidance from veterans with decades of game design experience across a variety of genres and platforms. The second edition of this book remains dedicated to its original goal of helping you master the fundamentals of game design in a practical manner with the addition of some of the latest trends in game design and a whole lot of fresh, real-world examples from games of the current generation. This update brings a new chapter on games as a service, explaining the evolving role of the game designer and diving deeper into the design of games that are meant to be played forever. From conceptualizing a game idea, you’ll gradually move on to devising a design plan and adapting solutions from existing games, exploring the craft of producing original game mechanics, and eliminating anticipated design risks through testing. You’ll then be introduced to level design, interactive storytelling, user experience and accessibility. By the end of this game design book, you’ll have learned how to wrap up a game ahead of its release date, work through the challenges of designing free-to-play games and games as a service, and significantly improve their quality through iteration, playtesting, and polishing.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
12
Chapter 12: Building a Great User Interface and User Experience

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 sections 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 does or doesn’t possess these characteristics and, if not, whether it’s your particular case that doesn’t require them or you have to adjust something.

A good GDD has the following characteristics:

  • It is modular
  • It starts with goals and requirements
  • It is the result of a discussion
  • It is clear, brief, and concise
  • It is multimedia
  • It leaves space for creativity and debate
  • It comes in different formats and sizes
  • It is online, shareable, and accessible

It is modular

Generally...