by Annie | Jul 14, 2011 | Game Design
One of the most commonly dreaded terms in the VFS game design program is term 3. Why? Because that’s the term you write your first DDD – detailed design document. Why is the DDD such a dreaded assignment? After all, don’t game designers love coming up with ideas and fleshing them out? Absolutely. However, an effective DDD requires a level of detail many novice game designers aren’t accustomed to thinking about. Things like rate of fire, game time projections, and difficulty ramping. So how do you go about writing one of these so-called DDDs? Well, there’s no right or wrong way to go about it. First and foremost, you must keep in mind the audience you’re writing for. Think about Your Audience Think about the other members of your team: the programmers, artists, level designers, sound designers, etc. These are the people you’re writing the document for. What information do they need to create the game? As you write, imagine each of them, tired and grumpy at 2am trying to fumble through your document to glean the information necessary to meet the next deadline. In other words, your DDD needs to be both detailed and concise. Information like, “A bunch of enemies will appear on screen when you enter the hallway” is of little use to a programmer trying to script specific encounters. Be specific. Your job as a game designer is to anticipate the issues various people on your team will have when they try to create the game. So put yourself in their shoes, and make sure the DDD meets their needs. Keep It Organized Another thing that...
