Introduction
In One Sentence
A green elf boy saves the world from an evil sorcerer.
Abstract
Green Elf Adventure is a clone of The Legend of Zelda.
Target Audience
Who is your key-demographic. People tend to ignore this section for smaller hobby games, but knowing your audience will help guide the design in the right direction.
Platform
Hobbyists most often make games for the Windows platform.
Unique Selling Points
This section lists the reason people will play your game. You should have at a minimum 3, preferably 5. There must be some reason people will play your game over the competition.
Game Mechanics
A game design document without a description of the core mechanics of the game is worth little. This is where you describe how actually to play the game, and what makes it fun and challenging.
Controls
How do you play the game.
Scoring
If any kind of reward system is in the game, describe it here.
Win and Loose Conditions
How do you win, how do you loose the game.
Level Design
In this section of the game design document describe each level of the game. How to complete it, sketches, etc.
Story
The game story. This can be very long or very short depending on the game. If there is a background story, make sure to add a section on that as well.
Characters
Description and sketches of the characters. Any background story on the character as well should be written here.
Visual Style
Description of the visual style. This section of the game design document is very important when the director is not the visual designer. Even when the same person, this section will be a great inspiration and motivator for the rest of the team, as well as help pitch the idea to any stakeholders.
The section should include visual references as well as concept art of locations, sketches etc.
Game screens
Sketches of all game screens.
Assets
A prioritized bulleted list of all graphical assets needed.
Audio Style
The game design document also needs to describe the musical style of the game. This is usually the director who has a "vision" which the audio designer will try to realize.
Narrative and Dialog
Assets
A prioritized bulleted list of all sound and music assets needed.
Related Pages
| Categories: Action Adventure Games : Game Design Documents |