Icarus Studios News

Say It, Don't Spray It, Part 2

WRITING A GREAT GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT

(Continued from Part 1)

Who Decides What the Game Design Document Says?

Short Answer: The client.

Long Answer: The client company’s owner and higher ups, your company’s owners and higher ups, your boss, your team leader, and sometimes the Elder Lord Cthulu, if he deigns to take an interest in your project. (And pray that he doesn’t, for that never ends well.)

So, that’s a lot of cooks in the kitchen. How do you manage to figure out one straightforward plan of attack?

Meetings. Lots of meetings, which include everything from on-site tours, let’s-do-lunches, and grip & grin interviews to phone conferences and scrum meetings between inter-departmental teams.

In these meetings, there is a lot of talking (sometimes, all at once). In order to have order, the usable ideas hopefully end up on white boards. When no good suggestions are forthcoming, usually people just huff markers until an inspiring notion presents itself. *

After the initial meeting with the client, your boss (or the Lead Game Designer) gives you the skinny. Information passes to and from the leader like a conduit; it’s not your job to have all the answers. It’s your job to ask all the questions… to which you hope there will eventually be answers.

Such questions often include:

• What’s the name of this project?
• Who are our clients ,and what do they value?
• What broad topics would they like us to cover?
• What specific information are they requesting from us?
• How many pages are you looking for?
• Will a PowerPoint presentation or due diligence video cover standard info?
• How do our leaders of Production, Sales, and Marketing feel about things?
• When do we need a first draft?
• When do we need a final draft?
• When will the client see this?
• When will the client give us feedback?
• Who do we go to with questions about This, That, and The Other?

 

A lot of minor details will fly around in the subsequent meetings. It’s really, really important to pay attention to the little things and make sure you’re on the same page... Once upon a time, I went a little crazy (crazier than usual, I mean), and did 14 hours of research on a client’s material before writing up 34 pages of ideas for a game design document, when all that my team leader really needed was a three-page prose document from the point of view of a user who was playing the game.

See what happens if you zone out for even one second?**

Not that I regret a moment of it, because, eventually, all that research and writing will be put to use. But, after that, I personally try to avoid fleshing out a game design document until I’m certain how complex and detailed each section should be.

Maybe the client has previous gaming experience and only wants a quick-and-dirty list of bullet points about our design features. Perhaps our client desires a lot of research about what’s leading the current gaming market, to follow that prototype but tweak the game to make it competitive? Or the client might want something completely innovative, independent, alternative, and specific to a niche market? (For example: A 24-hour online virtual furniture store with every model represented in accurate 3D proportions would be great for expanding a private decorator’s business, but such a client would never even think about looking into elements of Second Life or World of Warcraft, so talking about online gaming instead of virtual tourism and Internet 2.0 consumerism would be just silly.)

Once it’s clear what type of document the client wants, it’s time to stop meeting with your team long enough to meet with the experts—aficionados of the client, and experts in animation, design, world-building, virtual physics, licensed content, musical score, marketing promoters, etc. Consultation is invaluable. When consultation isn’t possible, Google is your best friend.

Tip: Give your audience what it wants.

If you’re writing to game producers, figure out what their concerns are, and then address them. When you’re writing with the user’s gaming experience in mind, consider what your targeted demographic wants. Then find a way to marry up the two, so that the producers get the product they want and you design it in the way that their buyers will embrace. Such a thing might seem obvious, but it’s harder than it looks, because, despite the awesome power of the Intarwebs, there’s not a lot of solid numbers floating around about the financial and technical successes and failures online gaming industry ventures… yet.

(Continued in Part 3)

-Kara Stambach, Virtual Worlds Team 

 

* I’m joking. No markers are ever huffed, sniffed, left out to dry, or emotionally harmed in the making of any of our MMOs or Virtual Worlds projects.

** I blame inhaling the markers for too long.