Comments on: Do You Use Design Documents?

By: Ville Autio

Ville Autio — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 07:31:16 +0000

Yes, I do use GDDs. Not always as detailed as Chris Taylor’s template. My GDDs are a mix of template and todo-lists

By: Spunkmeyer

Spunkmeyer — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 09:18:16 +0000

Like Jake: Yes for bigger things. No for small tests and such.

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 01:28:03 +0000

For work Yes, and for anything big. For small fun stuff, no.

By: Brian 'Psychochild' Green

Brian 'Psychochild' Green — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 22:53:56 +0000

I’m in the “yes and no” camp. Design documents can be very useful in some situations, such as when the game is really large or when you need to coordinate between a lot of people. Experienced people can also use a game design document as a guide to fleshing out a game.

But, I don’t use design documents as a monolithic pronouncement of what is set in stone. I think anyone who tries to do that is in for a world of hurt. But, enough information to provide some structure is invaluable.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:55:42 +0000

Absolutely yes. I’ve worked on games both with and without design docs. The latter result in level review meetings where something happens, and someone asks, “Well, wait, what’s SUPPOSED to happen here?” and NO ONE KNOWS.

By: hermitC

hermitC — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:08:35 +0000

I remember writing it some months ago. Don’t ask me where it is today. The new level editor kicked me out of track.

I’m sure, the doc is somewhere in my bedroom… have to clean up… :(

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 17:54:48 +0000

Yes, definitely. While going on a limb is the “easy” way to do it, without the organization and streamline qualities a design document offers, things can get off track quite rapidly.

By: Pathogen David

Pathogen David — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 17:31:06 +0000

We generally document critical things (EG: how the user will interact with the world editor or something) but not everything, there is a point where it just seems like you’re wasting time documenting everything. We do however document all of our code (Using Doxygen) and have our code server set up to be able to automate the generation of this code. (Only semi-related but whatevs)

By: Jelani Harris

Jelani Harris — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 17:03:40 +0000

I always start with a design document but I usually end up abandoning it in favor of a to-do list that encompasses everything I need to get done.

Design documents are a good start – but they’re a pain to update once major concepts change after some prototyping. A simple list is a lot more flexible, but I can see something that not working for bigger teams.

By: Mario

Mario — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 16:35:40 +0000

For the publisher we use big, pretty, not very precise and not so useful for development documents.

For internal use we utilize few concrete, precise and more low level documents. Some of them may end up into the publisher’s docs at some point.