Technical Design Document (TDD)


The technical design document is a companion piece to the game design document and the art bible. Like the other docs, the TDD should be maintained on an internal Web site and kept up to date throughout the project.

  1. Game Name

    1. Copyright Information

  2. Table of Contents

  3. SECTION I: TECHNICAL TEAM (including areas of responsibility and contact info for each individual)

    1. Tech Lead

      1. Office phone

      2. Home phone

      3. Cell phone

      4. Email

    2. AI Programmers

    3. Gameplay Programmers

    4. Graphics Programmers

    5. Tools Programmers

    6. Scripters

    7. Etc.

  4. SECTION II: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

    1. Project Overview from a Technical Perspective

    2. Delivery Platforms

      1. PC

        1. Minimum specifications

        2. Recommended specifications

        3. Disk budget

      2. Console Platform #1

        1. Disk budget

      3. Etc.

  5. SECTION III: ENGINE EVALUATION

    1. Internal solutions

    2. External solutions from affiliated organizations

    3. Middleware

  6. SECTION IV: PLATFORM-SPECIFIC ISSUES

    1. Delivery Platform #1

      1. Strategy and comments

      2. Platform-specific processes

      3. Memory management scheme and budgets

      4. Risks

    2. Delivery Platform #2

    3. Etc.

  7. SECTION V: DEVELOPMENT PLAN

    1. Use Cases

    2. Game Mechanics

    3. Main Loop

    4. Data Structures

    5. Data Flow

    6. Physics

    7. Artificial Intelligence

      1. Pathing

      2. Scripting

    8. Graphics

      1. Rendering

        1. Geometry

        2. Textures

      2. Animation

      3. Particle System

      4. Effects

      5. Lighting

      6. Camera

    9. Collision

    10. GUI

      1. HUD

      2. Menu Flow Diagram

    11. Fonts

    12. Audio/Video

    13. Special Requirements for Multiplayer Support

  8. SECTION VI: CODING STANDARDS

    1. Programming Standards

    2. Style Guide

    3. Code Review Procedures

    4. Profiling Plan

  9. SECTION VII: SCHEDULING

    1. Preliminary Task Lists

      1. Programming Tasks

        1. Core Libraries

        2. Object System

        3. Object System, AI

        4. Engine

        5. Tool Creation

        6. Mapping System

        7. Special Effects

        8. GUI

        9. Game Mechanics

          1. Movement

          2. Inventory

          3. Camera

          4. Weapons

        10. Conversion Support

      2. Art Task Summaries (Taken from art plan)

      3. Design Task Summaries (Taken from game design doc)

    2. Man-Month Scheduling

    3. Calendar Month Scheduling

    4. Milestone Schedule & Deliverables

    5. Major Event Planning

      1. Trade Shows

        1. Trade Show #1

          1. Date

          2. Materials needed for event

          3. Demo description and specifications

        2. Trade Show #2

        3. Etc.

      2. Special Publicity Events

        1. Event #1 (such as "Editors Day" to show off game)

          1. Date

          2. Description of event

          3. Demo description and specifications

        2. Event #2

        3. Etc.

      3. PR/Marketing Support

        1. Date when first screenshots will be available

        2. Plan for creating additional screenshots throughout project

        3. Plan for making team available for interviews

        4. Etc.

      4. Sales Support/Team Support

        1. Demo loop for retail outlets

        2. Other materials

        3. Etc.

      5. Prerelease Demo

        1. Date

        2. Scope

        3. Content

  10. SECTION VIII: RECRUITMENT

    1. Current Personnel

    2. Additional Team Members Needed

    3. Schedule for Hiring Additional Personnel

    4. Risk Plan for Handling Delays in Acquiring Additional Resources

  11. SECTION IX: EQUIPMENT BUDGET AND COSTS

    1. Team Personnel with Hardware and Software Toolset

      1. Team Member #1

        1. Hardware

          1. Development PC

            1. Specs

          2. Console Dev Kit

            1. Add-ons (TV, controllers, memory cards, hubs, etc.)

          3. Debug Kit

        2. Software Tools Needed

          1. Development environment (compiler/editor/debugger)

          2. 2D art package

          3. 3D art package (+ support?)

          4. Etc.

      2. Team Member #2

      3. Etc.

    2. Teamwide Tools

      1. Network/infrastructure requirements

      2. Version control system

      3. Asset management package

      4. QA tracking package

    3. Summary Table of Equipment and Software

      1. PCs

      2. DVD burners

      3. DevKits

      4. Debug kits

      5. Network/infrastructure

      6. Seats for 3D software

      7. Seats for 2D software

      8. Plug-ins and add-ons

      9. Other specialized software

      10. Level editors

      11. Mocap editing suite

      12. Sound processing software

      13. Tools and utilities

      14. Version control system

      15. Asset management package

      16. QA tracking system

      17. Etc.

    4. Equipment Acquisition Schedule and Costs

  12. SECTION X: LOCALIZATION PLAN

    1. Languages with Full Text and Voice Localization

    2. Languages with Text Localization Only

    3. Text to Be Localized

      1. In-game text

      2. Game interface text

    4. Voice to Be Localized

      1. (See "Voice" section of asset list)

    5. Art to Be Localized

      1. See art production plan

  13. SECTION XI: DATA SECURITY PLAN

    1. Network Security

    2. Onsite Backup Plan

    3. Offsite Backup Plan

  14. SECTION XII: MISCELLANEOUS

    1. Acronyms Used in This Document

    2. Definition of Terms




Game Testing All in One
Game Testing All in One (Game Development Series)
ISBN: 1592003737
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 205

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