Game Design Document: How Does it Power Up the Game Production?

Technologies like Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, NFTs, and metaverse are becoming the center of attraction in the video game industry. The rise of 5G, the uprising number of gamers worldwide, cloud gaming, etc., confirm that all the predictions about the growth of the video game market would never go wrong.

• The video game market worldwide will touch $USD 583.69 billion by 2030. (Grand View Research)

Consequently, all the game companies are picking up the slack to ooze the best out of these gaming trends. In such a hustling landscape, the convenience of the game design document or GDD in the game development process is a debate.

It has become crucial for game studios to work quickly, collaboratively, and with the right tools. Remote working systems are also in a demanding position. Amid the strive to work faster with advanced tools, developing a clear vision of the game development plan and the outline tools required to execute the planning is vital.

Moreover, the prime elements of game design and game development services must remain accessible to all the team members. The best of these solutions is a fully integrated, well-formulated game design document (GDD).

Some game designers find the game design document a burden. While some think it is a vital part of game design and development. The GDD is crucial in centralizing the entire game design plans and connecting the design ideas to the development team.

Here, we will evaluate the importance of the GDD to determine whether the efforts are required.

What is Game Design Document (GDD)?

A game design document is a tool used by game developers to communicate gameplay ideas and mechanics. It is also a living document that grows and changes as the game develops.

GDD includes information on the game's setting, character design, plot, gameplay, controls, HUD, audio, and other aspects of the game. Everyone on the development team uses it to ensure everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goal.

The GDD servers as an essential tool for both small indie developers and large AAA studios. It helps to communicate your vision for the game and ensures that everyone on the team is working towards the same goal.

It may seem like a living document that grows and changes as the game develops or as a static document that outlines all gameplay mechanics and features.

Either way, it is an essential part of any game development process.

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Why GDD is Vital for Game Design and Development

Game design document performs many functions in the game designing and development process.

A Structured Format for Your Brainchild

Every video game is the brainchild of its game designer. The envisioned ideas of a designer get an interpretable shape in a game design document. When your thoughts get organized and structured on paper, you can have a deep insight into both the positive and negative sides of the game. You can sketch out which part you need to refine.

Whether designing a board game or a complicated RPG game, visualizing ideas helps the production. So be it on paper or a graphical presentation, whatever you want. EDIIIE is one of the top 20 interactive design agencies of 2023 as per the DesignRush. 

A Guiding torch to the Game Development Team

As the game development progresses to the advanced stages, the game ideas undergo subtle or noticeable changes. The GDD plays the role of a perfect assistant for a mobile game development company, recording all the changes in detail.

Moreover, GDD holds all the components of game design and development, including the detail of responsible individuals. So, whenever it requires, the team members can go through it for references. The document eliminates all the possibilities of production chaos.

Recording Marketing and Advertisement Plans

Besides visualizing the game characters and environment modeling, a game designer's mind can click on valuable marketing ideas. If you have unique and distinctive ideas to push your game marketing and advertising plans forward, writing them down in the game design document is the best thing you can do.

From outlining monetization plans, marketing, game design, and development strategies to choosing advertisement plans, you can record everything in the GDD. The ideas and strategies you record in the document remain accessible to the entire game design and development team.

Sketching out the Technical Requirements

What kind of technical advancements needs to get deployed in the game is another dominant factor of game production. Therefore, it is another thing to note down all the technical specs.

GDD records every detail of technical aspects of game development: what kind of technology or tools need to get deployed to make the designing features come alive.

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Keeping Everything in Order

Most of the time, the development journey of a game is long, especially for solo developers. In that case, keeping every detail in order is essential. Otherwise, chaos will bring in.

Since video game design and development combine multiple disciplines, tracking all the elements and their proper implementation is critical for developers. There is no better way than having a game design document to perfectly organize all the game development elements.

Wrapping up

On the one hand, the game design document serves as the game design Bible for game designers. While on the other hand, it works like a goldmine for the marketing team.

GDD encompasses all the distinctive and innovative features of your game, concept artwork, general theme, and more. From the GDD, the marketing team can put together the trailers, screenshots, and more.

Sometimes, if done well, GDD even holds the information of the targeted demographic. This way, your marketing team can understand how to create these items to make sure it seizes their attention.

It's enough to show you the exceptional value of having a GDD with you. With a 100% visual GDD, your journey to game design and development will become a piece of the cake.

 Are you having trouble forming a GDD? No worries. The game designers of EDIIIE will help you out. Including text, graphics, charts, and diagrams, we will create an outstanding GDD that will reflect your game design ideas and power up your game production.