Awesome Game Idea?

So you have this awesome idea that would be cool as a video game. The best in the world right? Everyone has one but when they start working on it they have no idea what they are doing. Why? Because they didn’t plan it out and figure out the steps needed. To do this you’ll need to create a Game Design Document or GDD for short. The GDD is where you list everything about your game, to the tiniest detail. Your GDD is your entire game on paper or which ever software your using the write with. This is what your team is going to refer to when making assets or code for your game. Think of it as creating the manual to your game. There are a lot of questions that a GDD answers but I’m only going to cover the necessities. Questions like, “What Kind of Game is it? What is the Game About? What are the Mechanics? Who are the characters? What does the World look like? What kind of sounds are you going to need? How are you going to monetize the game?”

What Kind of Game is it? This is where you decide on your target audience, meaning who or what kind of players you want to attract. Do you want to appeal to an RPG or Loot Shooter audience, a First Person Shooter audience. It all depends on what your game is and what you wanting from it. This where you decide on the type of game you are wanting to make and what kind of devices you want to publish the game to. For example, a game I’m currently making is called Revenant. “Revenant is a multiplayer loot shooter for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.” Another example is one of my mobile games that is currently in the development phase. “Board of Destiny is a Endless Runner centered around skateboarding for Android and Apple Devices.” There’s not much to this one.

What is the Game About? It’s kind of self explanatory. This is the story of your game. This section is probably going to be your biggest section. Your entire game should be written from beginning to end. All the dialogue between the player’s avatar and NPCs. If you have multiple options for what to say, write those as well along with each outcome. Is there multiple endings or multiple beginnings. Write those out as well. Now you might not have a story right off the bat and that’s okay. GDDs are created by multiple people, unless you are going solo with this project.

What are the Mechanics? The mechanics are the rules and guidelines of your game. This is where your programmers reference in bringing your game to life. How is the camera going to act? Is it going to be behind the player’s avatar, is it going to be above, or is going to act as the players eyes? This is where you decide on what the player can do, such as walking, running, jumping, etc. Along with figuring out all those things, you’ll need to figure out how you are wanting to control each action. Are you going to use the typical (W, S, A, D) for movement. If you have melee weapons, are you going to use the mouse buttons to attack or some kind of combination on the keyboard? How are you going to have an inventory system to equip items? Other things to think about is Quantities. Meaning things like health and damage, how time is going to work in your game, what kind of currency is in your game.

Who are the Characters? This one goes along with the story writing. Every character in your game will be listed here, whether they are a main character or a simple fisherman that the player might find while wondering around. So your artists know what they are making you’ll need detailed descriptions of how they look and better yet drawings of your characters. Along with drawings, describe how they are going to move around their environment so your animators know what to animate. To further this, how are they going to sound? “Celest, the weapons expert of the group. Her skin is dark and her hair is braided into a ponytail. A birthmark starts from her right ear to her chin. She is 5 foot 6 inches of pure coolness and always ready for a fight. She’s usually dressed in her sleeveless grey Revenant military uniform unless she’s in her mech suit.”

What does the world look like? Describe your world. Is it going to be an open world with lots of mountains and rivers? Is it going to be level based? If so what does each level look like. I know I'm bringing up my most recent project a lot as an example but it’s as detailed as I can get. “The world is split into multiple regions separated by either rivers or mountain ranges. On the lower right hand side is Falkerth, a massive multi leveled forest with rivers that flow into a massive lake that seperates into several sections by waterfalls until it reaches the river that flows into the ocean.”

Monetizing the game? This is pretty much optional. How are you going to make a profit with your game, if you want to make a profit from it. Do you plan on releasing it for free and have in game purchases? Do you plan on having ads and then have an option to pay a subscription to remove the ads?