So I guess I should start with an introduction, I've been working at various game companies starting with R.Talsorian Games in the early 90's, then I went to Bungie for a few years on Oni. Then I went to Ronin, and then left to work on a Disney film then came back to the States to work at Namco Hometek Inc., after they laid about 40+ people off im now working on various contracts. Now that I have some free-time I started on my own design for the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. It's been completed and is about 50 pages or so in PDF form. I was wondering if anyone would be interested in reading the design, I can post it if anyone here might want to read it. In one sentence, It's a fantasy-adventure game where you draw a symbol to cast a spell to defeat monsters. What makes it fun is that you learn new symbols from new monsters. You see spells being drawn before an attack so you can learn from watching how a symbol is drawn. There are a ton of additional elements which steer the game's direction and makes the game-play interesting and unique. cheers, -aro [Edited by - alexokita on June 7, 2005 8:52:27 PM]

Yes, please.

I would love to read a design doc from someone who has actually worked in the industry. Please post a link.

http://www.okita.com/ES/EmberScribe_CompleteDesign_2005-06-03-1955.pdf
This is the most current version of the design.
I've yet to flesh out details on towns, and dungeons, like level layouts etc.
Items, spells, and mosnters are also in a skeleton place holder like position.
Actually, While I'm at it, I'd love for people to contribute once they've read the doc and like where its going.

thanks!
-aro

Quote:Original post by xor
I bet the power of the spell is determined by the accuracy by which the symbol is drawn! =) This reminds me of Black & White.
Don't post the design doc, post a link to it instead.

Of course! actually, the Harry Potter game on the DS also had some indication of the mechanic working in that manner at E3. It was a very very short demo, but it showed a real use of the touch screen.

Bravo. That's a very nice and complete design document. It's not just the beautiful graphics and presentation either! This is an amazing example of how to make a design document. I thank you very much for sharing this with us.

PS: Nintendo should really contact you asap before Sony does.

I'm just being paranoid here so bear with me. :)

I didn't take a look at your design document so you might have already done this. I wouldn't suggest making anyone sign an NDA to view your DD, but i would at least put a confidentiality statement at the beginning of your DD, or maybe a "confidential" watermark on each of the pages. If you don't do either, then someone could "borrow" your design document and use your ideas pretty much verbatim as a basis for a game. In addition if you don't have a confidentiality notice then they can reprint or repost your DD at will which is probably not what you want.

I said i was paranoid!
Food for thought.
cheers,

~PD

Quote:Original post by pink_daisy
I'm just being paranoid here so bear with me. :)

I didn't take a look at your design document so you might have already done this. I wouldn't suggest making anyone sign an NDA to view your DD, but i would at least put a confidentiality statement at the beginning of your DD, or maybe a "confidential" watermark on each of the pages. If you don't do either, then someone could "borrow" your design document and use your ideas pretty much verbatim as a basis for a game. In addition if you don't have a confidentiality notice then they can reprint or repost your DD at will which is probably not what you want.

I thought about building some NDA, but thought that would bar most from seeing the design. I do have copyright and confidential on every page. For me it was more important to have many people see the design and comment on it. I'm also looking for help to finish up the rest of the details, and this form sees enough traffic that I might be able to find assistance.

As far as someone stealing the idea and publishing a game, I'd actually like for that to happen. At this point in the DualScreen's existance there would be plenty of room for more than one spell drawing game. If someone copies the general idea and sells a million units, I could easily go to a game studio with the design and show them sales figures from a competing product.

I seriously doubt that any company would have designers who would read the design and verbatim copy every mechanic. I mean, I rather hope it defines a new genre, like fighting games or side-scrolling shooters.

This design is going to ba a part of my portfolio, I'm not seeing any future for the design beyond that. I was in contact with a game studio who has a NDS dev license and a PSP dev license. And I Was about to actually get started with some real work towards getting a publishing deal, but, after E3 it seems that not only publishers, but developers have nearly lost all interest in the Dual Screen, even Nintendo, with the release of the Gameboy micro. I would rather have seen a NDS SP, but apparently that's just me.

From what I understand the perspective is that by the time the game is done, the PSP would have taken over the market and there wouldnt be any buyers for NDS games. Pesonally I don't see how this is can be true since there are already 6m NDS's in the world, and hand held systems dont turn to vapor after a few months, but hype is more powerful than reality. (or so it seems.)

Personally, I dont have any resources, programming, level designers, etc. So even if I were to get a publisher to give me a several hundred thousand to build the game, I simply don't have the resources available to make the game happen. I could hire people, but I wouldnt be able to find the right people fast enough.

It takes a lot more than just salaries and computers to make a company to build games and meet deadlines. To build the game I'd need to start a new studio from scratch, and that's just far to unreasonable for a publisher, any publisher, to put money into.

thanks for the concern, seriously this must look like a tragedy waiting to happen. Oh well, I'm just an artist, not really a designer by trade, but I hope that the design helps others build their own docs. Ive seen so many bad designs in my career, I just wanted to show what I thought a design should look like.

-aro