Game Development 02 - The Concept

published 28 Feb 2010. modified 28 Feb 2010.

Game Design Document

An example of a game design document can be found at http://www.runawaystudios.com/articles/chris_taylor_gdd.asp.

To keep it simple here, the game concept and gameplay descriptions will be succinct. It’s fair to say that most folks will have played some derivative of Space Invaders at least once. If not, you can have a go here: http://www.freespaceinvaders.org/

The Concept

Aliens are coming, you have to shoot them down before they can land their invasion forces.

The Gameplay

You can direct your Artillery left or right and fire at the Aliens. The Aliens meanwhile are taking evasive manoeuvres and dropping bombs on you. Shoot all the Aliens before they can land their ships.

Recommended Reading

There are numerous resources on Game Design, some are better than others. Here I recommend the books and websites that I personally (in my own opinion) found to offer the best reading. There are many more resources on the implementation aspects (c++ etc) that I’ll include in the next section.

Books

Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design (NRG) 2003

Amazon Link: Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design (NRG)

The most recent book by Mr. Ernest Adams on this subject. Amazon Link: Fundamentals of Game Design (New Riders Games)

Websites

Mr Ernest Adams’ Website: http://www.designersnotebook.com/

Next

Coming up is The Implementation.