Being able to create a Game Design Document (GDD) is a critical skill any game developer should learn. I’ve talked about making GDDs in the past and figured I’d go through the process live on my Twitch stream. For me, GDDs are just like any other tool I would build to help my own game development so I break down the process I follow into several steps:
In this case I already had the game, Kingdom By The Sea, which I created for Ludum Dare 34. Sometimes, especially when you are building a game during a jam, you don’t have the time to create a fully fleshed out GDD. In this situation I plan on continuing development on my game and I’ll also be working with an artist, so breaking out each part of the game’s core mechanics not only help me collaborate but map out the details and scope of what I need to do over the next few months.
In these videos you’ll see how I start with the prototype of the game, break down each pert of it and document it. Over the course of 2 hours I end up with a 40 page GDD which has everything I need to begin planning my next few months of development on the game.
Here are the videos:
If you want to watch more of my game development, make sure to check out my Twitch stream on weekdays from 9am – 12pm EST. You can also watch daily highlight on my Twitch profile.
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- Jesse Freeman (@jessefreeman)