Game Design Documents - do you use it?

Help and Feedback Game Design Support
1

It’s in the title. Do you use GDDs (game design documents) when it comes to ROBLOX? Or do you just jot down some notes, or just go based off memory?

I’m aware that GDDs aren’t limited to outside of ROBLOX, nor the fact that it’s ROBLOX just impact that GDDs should be used when it comes to game design, I’m just wondering how many people actively use it and its worth compared to just jotting down notes.

If you don’t know what a GDD is, then its safe to say that you don’t use one, but for those that use one and don’t know what it is, it’s basically a document that contains all the ideas related to your game - DieSoft’s 2017 template for those interested.

EDIT: Reasons for why you use or don’t use it would be preferred as well. :slight_smile:

  • I use a Game Design Document
  • I use some form of documentation to remember the (general) concept behind my game
  • I don’t use any form of documentation

0 voters

EDIT #2: Moved the first edit to above the poll. 28 voters, 2 replies. :expressionless:

2

I’m only developing on my own for my own use.
If I was developing with others I would definitely use documentation and the template you supplied would be a good base to start from. Thank you.

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3

You will probably remember the game concept if you’re working solo. If working in teams, you will pretty much always have everything documented, just so both you and your partner(s) are on the same page.

I also document most of my scripts, even when working solo, so if I abandon a project and come back to it after 6 months, I’ll know how I did something.

4 Likes
4

As legoracer mentioned, using it whilst being solo does retain it’s perks - i.e. you leave the project for a period of time, or if you run into a “brick wall” when designing the game, it can point you back in the right direction.

Also, you should be thanking DieSoft, not me :wink:

5

And Done so thank you for reminding me to do that.
I will make use of the document in my next project.

6

I currently work alone and often just use my games as a way to learn, so I rarely have documentation.

7

OOOF, I thought more people used a design document. GDDs are important to game development, they keep track of: game mechanics, level design, gameplay, ideas etc. I don’t know how anyone can create games without it. It can also help you remember what the game is about after hitting a development hell. Even if you are working alone, it is still as important.

I guess there are more drawbacks to writing a GDD, for some; they are a complete waste of time. Bad GDDs at some point becomes dead and unread for a long time, or won’t be useful for the rest of the team except the designer. Doing it takes practice to insure it follows the rest of the development lifecycle, again might feel like wasting time.

I feel as if when people start to write good GDDs, development will become much more fluid.

If you want to read more, how I structure my design documents

There is really no template for a GDD, mainly depends on the game or the designer. I myself separate these into multiple documents instead, so that each development role only reads their own document without reading what they don’t need to know, and lessens reading time(because they won’t be reading what they don’t care about)

  • High Concept Document
  • Game Design Document
  • World Design Document
  • Art Design Document
  • Technical Design Document

kinda want to give away some of my gdds but they are long too read, longest one was 15 pages even without outlining world, art, character design or have any illustrations in it

8

I have used a GDD in the past and don’t anymore. They don’t work, for them to be useful they have to be specific to the concept of your game. I suggest you just use organized notes.

9

Ultimately it depends on your workflow and how you intend to plan the game’s development. Personally, I find game design documents to be a great method of figuring out exactly what the game is going to be before I dive into making it.

For experimental projects or side-projects that I design as a means to teach myself something new, they’re not really necessary however. On the other hand, they can be a great resource for team-based development as they help keep everyone on the same page, working towards a common vision.

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10

Even if you’re not working with a team, you should consider having some means of organization for any large project, for sanity’s sake. In my case, when I’m going to make something big I’ll start off by jotting down all the features I’ll have, along with a general idea of how I’ll code those features and the order that I’ll do them in. I don’t know how useful this would be for other aspects of development such as modelling. It always helps to have a list, notepad, or anything of the like so you don’t go mentally insane midway through a project because you have 5 unfinished features that you need to work on. As for a full-fledged document, you should evaluate if the time that you put into making your concept look all nice and neat on paper is worth sparing for development. In most cases, you’re better off not worrying about having a whole 10 page document that would have been equally as useful if you just put it all in a basic text file.

11

I utilize 2 methods of documentation, first we use Discord to contact the developers for the project, and build a working flow of who works on what, We then utilize Click up to set a list of tasks and assign the roles to accomplish tasks, the individual details are then worked out in discord so the flow can be established.