On a recent comment, rhiandmoi suggested that I make a post on the life cycle of a game. That’s a great idea, but it would take way more than a single post to sum it up! I thought I would start at the logical place to do so: The beginning.
Games start with a GDD, or Game Design Document. Games that do not start with a GDD are pretty much doomed to fail, because they will have no concrete guidance on what game they are making. The GDD contains story and character information, but it also contains much more than that. A GDD will describe what genre the game falls into. It will describe gameplay decisions and the consequences of those decisions. It will describe character movement, enemy types, weapons, and puzzles. It will contain descriptions of the levels, and the actions the player will need to perform in order to progress through said levels. A GDD is the game, albeit in a 2-d, non-interactive form.
GDDs are important for both the developer and the publisher. They’re used to pitch games to publishers, so both parties understand exactly what kind of game is being discussed. The GDD will of course be amended and altered over the course of the project, but it’s still a very vital starting point.
The GDD for Grim Fandango can actually be downloaded in PDF form from here. It’s worth a read for aspiring designers.
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