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Overview
Provide an overview to the game world.
World Feature #1
This section is not supposed to be called world feature #1 but
is supposed to be titled with some major thing about the world. This is
where you break down what is so great about the game world into
component pieces and describe each one.
World Feature #2
Same thing here. Don’t sell too hard. These features should be
awesome and be selling the game on its own.
The Physical World
Overview
Describe an overview of the physical world. Then start talking
about the components of the physical world below in each paragraph.
The following describes the key components of the physical world.
Key Locations
Describe the key locations in the world here.
Travel
Describe how the player moves characters around in the world.
Scale
Describe the scale that you will use to represent the world.
Scale is important!
Objects
Describe the different objects that can be found in the world.
See the “Objects Appendix” for a list of all the objects found in the
world.
Weather
Describe what sort of weather will be found in the world, if
any. Otherwise omit this section. Add sections that apply to your game
design.
Day and Night
Does your game have a day and night mode? If so, describe it
here.
Time
Describe the way time will work in your game or whatever will be
used.
Rendering System
Overview
Give an overview of how your game will be rendered and then go
into detail in the following paragraphs.
2D/3D Rendering
Describe what sort of 2D/3D rendering engine will be used.
Camera
Overview
Describe the way the camera will work and then go into details if the
camera is very complicated in sub sections.
Camera Detail #1
The camera will move around like this and that.
Camera Detail #2
The camera will sometimes move like this in this special
circumstance.
Game Engine
Overview
Describe the game engine in general.
Game Engine Detail #1
The game engine will keep track of everything in the world like
such and such.
Water
There will be water in the world that looks awesome and our game
engine will handle it beautifully.
Collision Detection
Our game engine handles collision detection really well. It
uses the such and such technique and will be quite excellent. Can you
see I am having a hard time making up stupid placeholder text here?
Lighting Models
Overview
Describe the lighting model you are going to use and then go
into the different aspects of it below.
Lighting Model Detail #1
We are using the xyz technique to light our world.
Lighting Model Detail #2
We won’t be lighting the eggplants in the game because they are
purple.
The World Layout
Overview
Provide an overview here.
World Layout Detail #1
World Layout Detail #2
Game Characters
Overview
Over of what your characters are.
Creating a Character
How you create or personalize your character.
Enemies and Monsters
Describe enemies or monsters in the world or whomever the player
is trying to defeat. Naturally this depends heavily on your game idea
but generally games are about trying to kill something.
User Interface
Overview
Provide some sort of an overview to your interface and same as
all the previous sections, break down the components of the UI below.
User Interface Detail #1
User Interface Detail #2
Weapons
Overview
Overview of weapons used in game.
Weapons Details #1
Weapons Details #2
Musical Scores and Sound Effects
Overview
This should probably be broken down into two sections but I
think you get the point.
Red Book Audio
If you are using Red Book then describe what your plan is here.
If not, what are you using?
3D Sound
Talk about what sort of sound APIs you are going to use or not
use as the case may be.
Sound Design
Take a shot at what you are going to do for sound design at this
early stage. Hey, good to let your reader know what you are thinking.
Single-Player Game
Overview
Describe the single-player game experience in a few sentences.
Here is a breakdown of the key components of the single player
game.
Single Player Game Detail #1
Single Player Game Detail #2
Story
Describe your story idea here and then refer them to an appendix
or separate document which provides all the details on the story if it
is really big.
Hours of Gameplay
Talk about how long the single-player game experience is
supposed to last or what your thoughts are at this point.
Victory Conditions
How does the player win the single-player game?
Multiplayer Game
Overview
Describe how the multiplayer game will work in a few sentences
and then go into details below.
Max Players
Describe how many players can play at once or whatever.
Servers
Is your game client-server or peer-to-peer or whatever.
Customization
Describe how the players can customize the multiplayer
experience.
Internet
Describe how your game will work over the internet.
Gaming Sites
Describe what gaming sites you want to support and what
technology you intend to use to achieve this. Perhaps Dplay or TCP/IP
or whatever. It is probably a good idea to break the tech stuff out
into a separate area, you decide.
Persistence
Describe if your world is persistent or not.
Saving and Loading
Explain how you can save a multiplayer game and then reload it.
If you can or why this is not possible.
Character Rendering
Overview
Provide an overview as to how your characters will be rendered.
You may have decided to include this elsewhere or break it out to
provide more detail to a specific reader.
Character Rendering Detail #1
Character Rendering Detail #2
World Editing
Overview
Provide an overview about the world editor.
World Editing Detail #1
World Editing Detail #2
Extra Miscellaneous Stuff
Overview
Drop anything you are working on and don’t have a good home for here.
Junk I am working on.
Crazy idea #1
Crazy idea #2
“XYZ Appendix”
Provide a brief description of what this appendix is for and
then get down to business and provide data to the reader.
Here are a few examples of some of the appendices in my latest
design.
“Objects Appendix”
“User Interface Appendix”
“Networking Appendix”
“Character Rendering and Animation Appendix”
“Story Appendix”
Okay, that’s it. I wanted to spend more time on this and really
make it a great roadmap for putting a game design together.
Unfortunately it would take a ton of time and that is something that we
don’t ha