Game Design Document Template

By Amelia Laughlan


What is this?

This document is for recording an idea for a game concept. Writing a game design document (or GDD) is a great way to test the strength of a concept and ensure you’re on the same page as your fellow creatives.

In order to use it, please go to File > Make a Copy and fill in your shiny new copy with the details of your project.

A GDD is only as useful as you make it. It works best when as a living document that is updated throughout the development process to help keep your team of creatives in sync.

Please note that the required sections will vary greatly depending on game genre and some sections will be irrelevant. Game development is messy and I suggest adding and removing relevant sections as suits your project. For example, the entire first half  ‘About the Game as a Product’ is only relevant if you want to make a game as a commercial product that you will sell for money. Want to tell capitalism to eff off and make artgames? Great! You can skip this section entirely and go straight to ‘Game Design’.


Best of luck!

Questions? Comments?

Send me an email:  ac.laughlan@gmail.com.


About the Game as a Product

Summary of Concept

List of Key Features

Description of genre

Number of players

Description of Game Modes

Lead development platform

Additional planned platforms

Localisation

References

Competitor Research

Target player profile

Social Features

Live Operations

Production Schedule

Team Size and Makeup

Game Design

Design

Gameplay

Core Loop

Progression

Controls

Description of Game Modes

Onboarding

Systems

Resources

Characters

Obstacles

Level Design

Quests

Narrative

Description of narrative

Worldbuilding

Character Bios

Art

Art Direction

References

Mood Board

Animation

Camera

UI/UX

Tech

Audio

Music

SFX

Voice over

Diversity and Ownership

Accessibility

Settings


About the Game as a Product

Summary of Concept

In a few sentences, describe the game.

List of Key Features

What are the key features that make this game special? Use a bullet point list.

Description of genre

What sort of game is this? What does the player do in it? 

Number of players

How many people can play the game? If multiplayer, what type?

Description of Game Modes

How many modes are there in the game? Describe in broad strokes what they are. A more detailed breakdown of mechanics can be included later, in the Game Design section.

Lead development platform

What platform is this game primarily being developed for?

Additional planned platforms

If you plan to ship the game on other platforms, list them here.

Localisation

Which regions do you intend to release the game in?

References

What other media has significantly influenced the creation of this product? Could include other video games, books, movies, television, places, people, or any form of media.

Competitor Research

Who are your main market competitors? Which games currently available are similar to your game?

Target player profile

What sort of person would want to play this game? What motivations are there to play this game? See Bartle’s Taxonomy of Player Motivations and Quantic Foundry’s Gamer Motivation Model.

Social Features

Will this game be integrated into any social platforms such as social media, streaming services or voice chat services? Or will it have in-built social features such as text or voice chat? What are these features and will they require moderation?

Live Operations

Describe any live service features planned for the game. What are these features and at what pace are they planned to be delivered?

Production Schedule

A high level breakdown of production, usually presented as a table.

Team Size and Makeup

Who will you need to make this game? List roles, not specific individuals.


Game Design

Design

Gameplay

Core Loop

What does the player do in the game?

Progression

How does the player progress in the game?

Controls

What does the player control in the game and how do they control it?

Description of Game Modes

What game modes are there and how do they work?

Onboarding

What does the tutorial look like? How does the player learn how to play the game? How is the player taught about new systems and elements they encounter?

Systems

What systems are there in the game? How do they work? How do they contribute to the player experience? How critical are they to gameplay?

Resources

Anything the player can use or collect, such as health, mana, collectable puzzle pieces, gold.

Characters

A list of characters and their relation to the player (ally, enemy). Top level only. The characters can be described in more detail under Narrative > Character Bios.

Elements

Elements of the game world or environment that the player interacts with. Can provide a beneficial, neutral or negative effect.

Level Design

How many levels are in the game? How are they themed? What sort of things does the player do in these levels? How does the player progress through these levels? Are they linear or branching?

Quests

Does the game have quests? How many and what type?

Narrative

Description of narrative

What is the story of the game from the player’s perspective? Include an overview using third person point-of-view, present tense and presented in chronological order.

Worldbuilding

What type of world does the game take place in? Provide a summary (don’t include the entire lore bible of the game, that can be a separate document).

Character Bios

Who inhabits the world?

Art

Art Direction

What does the game look and feel like?

References

What other media informs the look of this game?

Mood Board

Images or links to videos of references.

Animation

What does the game’s animation style look like?

Camera

What camera angles and tracking is used?

UI

What does the UI look like? 

Tech

Development Environment

What will you use to build this game?

Tools

What tools can we use to build the game? Will we need to write new ones? What are they and how will they work?

Plugins

Will the game make use of any third-party plugins?

Save Data Solution

Where will it be stored? Will cloud integration be required?

Platform integration

Will we need to integrate with game platform or other platform features?

System Requirements

What minimum and ideal specs will the game run to?

Optimisation

What will we do to optimise the game and ensure it runs on all applicable devices

QA

What does the QA pipeline look like? How will bugs be reported, prioritised and addressed?

Version Control

What is our version control solution? What is the process for submitting new content into the main branch?

Audio

Music

What sort of soundtrack will the game need?

SFX

What sort of sound effects will the game need?

Voice over

Does the game have voice over? How many voice actors and approx. word count. 

Diversity and Ownership

Whose stories are you telling with this game? Are you assuming the voice of a people or culture you are not knowledgeable about? Think carefully about whether you are the one who needs to tell this story. Who will you consult to ensure you are mindful of own voices and representations of diversity?

Accessibility

Take a read through the Game Accessibility Guidelines and assess what accessibility accommodations you’d like to include in developing your game. The key to good accessibility in development is to consider it early on, rather than dismissing it as an afterthought.

Settings

What settings are in your game’s menu? What elements of the game can the player adjust to suit their needs?