Design Documents

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Since you will probably not be the only person working on your game, it's important to communicate the design to the rest of the team in a document. This design document describes the overall concept, the features, the controls, the interfaces, the flow, etc. While many designers jump right into the design document right after they've come up with a concept, we don't recommend that. Prototyping is really the only way to judge the validity of your concept and gain enough insight to write a useful design document.

We recommend that you build both a physical prototype, and, if possible, a rough software prototype before laying your ideas down in a full design document. While you work on these prototypes, you'll be writing down rules and procedures and blocking out overall concepts for the game. So, when you sit down to write your design document you'll be way ahead in your thinking process. The benefits to your team and your final product will be immeasurable. Chapter 14 on page 370 discusses writing a design document in detail.

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