I have about a dozen different game ideas (Ranging from stuff I think I can get made to stuff that I don't have the money to even consider right now). I'm an amazing story-teller, a passable artist (2d pen and paper manga style, 3d work in Blender), a decent musician (vocal, percussion, and woodwind) , and a mediocre coder (Flash AS mainly, but some C++ as well). Thusly, I know a little bit about the technical aspects of what each member of my team would be responsible for.
The dilemma that I have encountered is finding some decent literature on creating a design document. I don't want to jump into this half-baked, and have never created a design document before. Does anyone know of any good books to check out on this subject? Anyone willing to send me examples of design documents they have created for reference?
Thanks in advanced.
Design Document
Sloperama.com has some good articles. Basically, work small and build up. The GDD should have all the technical aspects needed for a team to build a game. I'm working toward that myself by first focusing on concept and treatment documents. Concept conveys the idea of the game in an exciting fashion and treatment goes more in depth in terms of the game how it stands out. I'd suggest starting with these higher level documents and revising more and more detail into it over time as you are able to sink into certain aspects of the game and think through them mentally.
http://gdevteam.proboards.com/
Hello Xenmas, with all of this creative ideas, skills and talent and looking for stuff to do that you have, I would like to send you to our group. We have 18 members in the group and have just started on our first design document. We have been very productive in two weeks. And everyone is mature of what is being dealt into the design.
Hope to see you there in the forum. If the game is not what your looking for. I hope that you find what your looking for the in the future of gaming. Look me up with same screen name here in the group.
Hello Xenmas, with all of this creative ideas, skills and talent and looking for stuff to do that you have, I would like to send you to our group. We have 18 members in the group and have just started on our first design document. We have been very productive in two weeks. And everyone is mature of what is being dealt into the design.
Hope to see you there in the forum. If the game is not what your looking for. I hope that you find what your looking for the in the future of gaming. Look me up with same screen name here in the group.
Author
This is why I love this forum. 
I have been lurking here for months. Just kind of reading what people have to say, and have really enjoyed the creativity and expertise that the members of the community have to offer.
I will be reading from Sloperama.com diligently. Just the first few pages I read have had immense amounts of useful information. Thank you, landlocked.
Thanks, also to Ghostknight. I signed up for the team forums, and am looking forward to making my contributions to the team.
You guys are all great. I'm glad that gamedev.net is here.
I have been lurking here for months. Just kind of reading what people have to say, and have really enjoyed the creativity and expertise that the members of the community have to offer.
I will be reading from Sloperama.com diligently. Just the first few pages I read have had immense amounts of useful information. Thank you, landlocked.
Thanks, also to Ghostknight. I signed up for the team forums, and am looking forward to making my contributions to the team.
You guys are all great. I'm glad that gamedev.net is here.
I just wanted to throw this out there. I think that a web-based design document (whether it's a wiki or OneNote or whatever), all hyperlinked and rich with multimedia, is immensely more useful than some long doc file.
I don't know how old you are, but if you remember an old Sierra game called Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist, you can find the GDD here:
Freddy Pharkas GDD
Freddy Pharkas GDD
I just wanted to throw this out there. I think that a web-based design document (whether it's a wiki or OneNote or whatever), all hyperlinked and rich with multimedia, is immensely more useful than some long doc file.
Um you realize any Word version created in the last several years can embed hyper-linked content and have it even display and update in real time, right?
[quote name='A Brain in a Vat' timestamp='1306946859' post='4818324']
I just wanted to throw this out there. I think that a web-based design document (whether it's a wiki or OneNote or whatever), all hyperlinked and rich with multimedia, is immensely more useful than some long doc file.
Um you realize any Word version created in the last several years can embed hyper-linked content and have it even display and update in real time, right?
[/quote]
I always wondered.. is putting the "Um" in there meant as a veiled "Duh"? Is it necessary?
I do realize that Word documents can embed hyperlinks. What would a design document made in Word hyperlink to though? If it links to a website, fine.. but why not have the whole thing on a website then? Another .doc file? Does that seem like good workflow to you? You click a link to investigate some part of the design, with the intent to go back, and you have to open up a brand new Word document? There's no such thing as a "Back" button, you just close the newly opened instance of Word?
Word documents are, by definition, one long sequential document. What I was trying to get across in my post, which apparently you missed, was that, in my opinion, a hyperlinked tree of information (like a wiki or a onenote or just a website) is incredibly more powerful and useful than a sequential document.
Um..... got it?
Author
The Freddy Pharkas documentation is really helpful. Guess I'm dating myself by remembering the old Sierra style games (Not to mention such greats as Zack McCracken and Maniac Mansion). Thank you.
I always wondered.. is putting the "Um" in there meant as a veiled "Duh"? Is it necessary?
I do realize that Word documents can embed hyperlinks. What would a design document made in Word hyperlink to though? If it links to a website, fine.. but why not have the whole thing on a website then? Another .doc file? Does that seem like good workflow to you? You click a link to investigate some part of the design, with the intent to go back, and you have to open up a brand new Word document? There's no such thing as a "Back" button, you just close the newly opened instance of Word?
Word documents are, by definition, one long sequential document. What I was trying to get across in my post, which apparently you missed, was that, in my opinion, a hyperlinked tree of information (like a wiki or a onenote or just a website) is incredibly more powerful and useful than a sequential document.
Um..... got it?
Maybe the OP doesn't want their GDD on the web. Ever consider that?
The Microsoft Word application is pretty flexible. You should learn to use the program.
And I down voted you, too, you jerk! /cry /stammer /stomp
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