Completing the GDD

In this 2nd post I will write about the final game design document, and the difference between the first one and the second one I wrote about in the previous post. Note that both are in english. Why I didn’t wrote (or write) anything in swedish when I have the choice to is because I can reach to more people if it is in english. Since working in the gaming industry can have international people as well, it might as well be written in english… and it is a good practice too.

Anyway the first GDD answered the bullet point questions without caring much about the visual display or structure, and it was intended to because it’s easier and faster to come to a result, whereas the second one took much longer time to complete. Why? I wanted it to be more professional in terms of having a much better structure and detailed explanations of the concepts in the game.

What I mean by the final game design document being “more structured” is that it now has rubric titles (shown in the picture below) in different sizes depending on the subject, thus following the example of the university structure of a report. It has the “table of contents” too to further structure it.

And by “detailed explanations” I mean explaining the concept in such way that it is easier to understand and by writing sentences using fewer words. In the first GDD it was more “brainstorming text” to it and not written in a formal language. However, in the final one I tried to write it more formally since it allows for a better communication in the team but also lessens the misunderstanding errors. To make it even more attractive, pictures were included to better appeal with information.

It was a really hard work behind the completed GGD because not only must it be detailed and specified to the point where everyone in the group understands every point in it, but I had to write it myself as I was responsible for its completion. But I know that writing documents are something for me although boring, so whenever a team needs someone to actually document everything and write it down, I always volunteer because it is my strongest side when working in game projects like these. Again I’m not a very strong or experienced programmer yet as I learn things slowly, but whenever I have the chance to I’m going to be the person who document things down. Even if it takes a lots and lots of time.