3-1 Draft Game Design Document

In the previous assignment, your team evaluated your game treatments and selected one game concept that your team will prototype for its project.

Next your team will prototype its game in a series of stages:

• Conceptual Prototype → Physical Prototype → Digital Prototype

The conceptual prototype will be a game design document that describes your game in detail and includes concept sketches. This represents your team's mental model of the game.

A game design document is a more detailed version of a game treatment. Besides a summary of your game concept, the game design document has specifics about your concept's game design elements:

• Structural Elements — which determine your game's mechanics

• Dramatic Elements — which determine your game's story

• Artistic Elements — which determine your game's aesthetics

Once your team has a first draft of its game design document, your team will create a physical prototype — a paper version of your game that you'll use to demonstrate and test the game design.

Even though a paper version of a video game may seem unusual, you can actually learn a lot from the paper prototype — before you do any coding or create any digital artwork.

Based on the playtesting of your paper prototype, your team will refine your game's design (and update the game design document). This will put your team in a better position to create your digital prototype — a working computer version of the game.

YOUR TASK

Your team should use this template to create a first draft of your game design document.

• Start by transferring the information from your game treatment. Your team may need (or want) to revise some of this information based on the feedback received in the previous assignment.

• Brainstorm, discuss, decide, and document the game design elements for your team's concept.

• The goal is to have a sufficiently clear sense of your team's game's design, so you're ready to create a paper prototype of it for testing and feedback.