1: You Can Get a Publishing Deal on a Design Doc Alone


#1: You Can Get a Publishing Deal on a Design Doc Alone

This is easily the most common misconception of all. Most amateur developers elaborate master plans that go something like this:

  1. Create a 400-page design document outlining the entire game in excruciating detail.

  2. Send this tome to a publisher, who will carefully read it and realize the greatness contained within.

  3. Achieve fame and retire on the royalty checks the publisher sends you.

Unfortunately, that's not how it usually works. If you're Sid Meier, Will Wright, or Bruce Shelley, you might have a chance of getting a game funded this way, but otherwise, this method is not going to work.

Obviously, to land a publishing contract you're going to need a good design. However, the general rule of thumb is that once you have that design, you have about 10% of what you need to approach a publisher. The other 90% includes the following:

  • A solid playable demo.

  • A good team with strong skills and a proven track record.

  • A whole slew of other budgeting, marketing, treatment, and scheduling documents. ([Powell02] and [Bartlett03] describe the contents of the submission package—and how to approach publishers once you have assembled one—in some detail.)

So, how big should your design doc be? You should strive to create enough documentation to adequately describe your game, but no more. Einstein once said, "Things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." Take this advice to heart when writing your design doc. If you're developing a highly complex war game, you might need a few hundred pages explaining how the simulation works. If you're designing a simple puzzle game, you might be able to get by with a dozen pages, maybe less.

In fact, disregard the page count entirely. Have your design doc address all of the major variables in your game: enemies, levels, player actions, back story, and so forth. You need to think about all of these matters, and more. If it turns out that you can adequately describe a topic in half a page of bullet points, then keep those bullet points and move on. If it turns out that you need dozens of pages, then you need dozens of pages.

An important point: write your design doc with your development team as your audience, not the publisher. The primary purpose of a design doc is to explain your game to the people who will be developing it. Rely on other documents (such as treatments or key feature lists) to convey your game to potential publishers.




Secrets of the Game Business
Secrets of the Game Business (Game Development Series)
ISBN: 1584502827
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 275

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