The Game Development Process

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The Game Development Process
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Typical Development Cycle
Idea
Proposal
Design
Evaluation
Coding
Testing
Release
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The Game Development Process
The Game Idea
The Game Proposal
The Game Design
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The Game Design

• The Game Design Bible
• Story
• Gameplay
• Interface
• The Art Bible
• The Software Bible

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Evaluation
Game Design
Evaluation
Development
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Development
Coding and Debugging
Testing
Release
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Typical Development Cycle
Idea
Proposal
Design
Evaluation
Coding
Testing
Release
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Waterfall Development Cycle
Idea
Proposal
Design
Evaluation
Coding
Testing
Release
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Spiral Development Cycle
Design
Coding and Art
Start
Evaluation
Testing
Release
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Evolutionary Prototyping
Proposal
Design and initial prototype
Refine Prototype Until Acceptable
Release
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Design to Schedule
Idea
Proposal
Design
Evaluation
High Priority Code
Med High Priority Code
Release
Med Priority Code
Run out of time and money
Med Low Priority Code
Low Priority Code
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Game Development Documents

• Concept Document
• Game Spec
• Design Document
• Story Bible
• Script
• Art Bible
• Storyboards
• Technical Design Document
• Schedules and Business/Marketing Documents
• Test Plan

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Concept Document or Pitch Document or Proposal

• To sell the game
• To create a framework for design
• Generally 10 pages or less.
• Concept art
• Can be written by committee, but needs leadership
• Acts as a springboard

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Game Spec Concept Doc?

• Overview
• Players
• Look and Feel
• Interface
• Start Up
• Objectives

• Entities
• Features
• Rules
• Gameplay
• Level Design
• Technical Requirements
• Marketing

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Design Document

• Highly Detailed
• Can be quite large (100 pages)
• Should contain all elements not addressed in
  other documents
• Is a living document!!!!!!!!

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A Design Document Construct

• Table of Contents
• Introduction/Overview
• Game Mechanics
• Artificial Intelligence
• Game Elements
• Story Overview
• Game Progression
• System Menus

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Story Bible

• Story outline is in design document, the story
  bible fleshes out the story.
• Plot and Story Flow
• Detailed Story Flow
• Detailed Characterizations
• Backstory
• Generally Prose instead of bullets

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Script

• The Dialog that occurs in the game.
• Tree structure that controls dialog

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Art Bible

• Concept sketches
• Resources for artist
• Look and feel
• Art styles
• Technical guidelines
• Generally created by lead artist, not designer.

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Storyboards

• May be part of art bible or standalone.
• Puts game flow in a visual context
• Useful to entire team, not just artist

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Technical Design Document

• Sister specification to Art Bible and Game Design
  Document
• Discusses how functionality will be implemented.
• Generally constructed by the lead programmer.
• May include overall code structure, major
  classes, rendering architecture, AI design, etc.
• May contain pseudocode

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Schedules and Business/Marketing Documents

• Documents necessary for management of project.
• Generally responsibility of Producer.

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Nature of Documentation

• Must be living documents.
• Allows communication and direction across the
  team
• Can be a trap if misused.