Game Design Document state report 01...

Good afternoon!

I'll continue my famous development log by regular updates on JKA2 GDD work, accompanied by some in-depth never before seen explanations!

At the start I need to state that creating GDD after you already did few of those makes the process much easier – you already know what needs to be defined and can easily add or remove elements with the respect of the project you are currently working on.

GDD as a document is extremely important but it should be accompanied by production companion documents and I'll mention some of those as I write this report. Those documents are specific for certain parts of production like art style, art production, sound production and so on.

GDD is a "living document"... that's something you'll herd a lot. And that's true – as part of the design is being defined other parts can be changed. You should always make changes sooner then later. Also GDD can be changed during production because some gameplay ideas just won't fit for various reasons. And some new ideas can be added if they fit better.

But also "living document" argument can be an argument for some unnecessary and even fundamental changes to the game design. That happens... and that's very, very BAD!

And when it happens it shows lack of vision, lack of planning and lack of experience. Often those big changes will came as ideas from management/producer caste – self proclaimed designers who just that morning saw something cool in newest just released hit and this is something "we need to have in our game!". And since GDD is a "living document" they can force implementation in any moment of production. New idea will change segment of the game, and that will broke another part and soon you'll have bunch unnecessary problems which will lead to crunches, bugs, bad and illogical gameplay.

Together with "thinking out of the box" and "brainstorming", "GDD is a living document" can turn into a tool of destruction. So you should use it carefully!

But let's get back to my GDD... my living GDD document!

Game Overview...

I start with the Game overview. Here I define main features of the game in few sentences. Information given in Game overview is very useful later for creating short pitch documents like One-pager and such.

For JKA2 I started with this:

Jessie Kicks Ass 2: Island of ZOO is a humoristic point and click adventure game with fighting and RPG-elements. It is a sequel to the pilot game Jessie Kicks Ass: Grandma and the Gremlins.

Player needs to solve quests by using and combining various items found during gameplay, by talking to NPC-s (non-player characters) and by fighting enemies.

Description should be short and to the point.

Then I define Story overview and Very short story overview. Having both is not necessary but sometimes you need to have more defined story overview, usually when contacting publishers or portals, and for marketing purposes you need one sentence story overview. By defining both here I can easily use them without rethinking what to write... because often everything is needed yesterday!

Then Game platforms game will be made for and Game engine should be defined. Also Expected playing time and Unique selling points. And maybe mentioning similar games... but this can backfire in a pitch especially if you are looking for investors. If you show games with quality your team can't replicate you can look like an idiot...

Story...

This is full game story. For GDD it needs to be descriptive so it doesn't need to have big literary value. It's without detailed quest or dialogues, because those will be defined later in the GDD in great detail.

For Jessie Kicks Ass 2 I decided to write the story in more detail, just to torture myself. Again, I don't think this is good because your team members will not want to read 20 pages long story... but since I'm my own teammate... I made 8 pages of story using my terrible English. It starts with prologue – in-engine cutscene:

Prologue

After resolving "gremlin mystery" Jessie bought herself a luxury villa. Money was no issue for her any more so this day was one of those relaxing ones. She was just chilling in her lounge, sipping a drink and waiting for another extravagant lunch. Meat of exotic animals often ended up on her plate these days.

Now we are getting to some more technical stuff...

Game mechanics and interface overview...

Here I defined all the scene types, interactions on the scenes, type of game characters, game navigation and game modes, on screen action areas... User interface elements like cursor types, pop-ups, all the menus...

Since I'll be using RPG Maker V all those elements are already implemented and here I've described them, but also some of their features are changed specially for JKA2 – gameplaywise or graphically which is also explained here.

Fighting mechanics...

Description of JKA2 fighting mechanics – again this is easier to define since game uses game engine with implemented fighting mechanics.

Special elements specific to JKA2 game are also defined here – like list of fight moves and their characteristics.

This part of GDD is not finished yet and will be modified during fight mechanics testing.

Art style guide and art production...

Since game is using RPG maker V art as a base I don't need to go into great lengths here.

Art production defines graphical tools that will be used for each game element. Also there are art examples shown here.

This part of the GDD should be a guide for Lead Graphic Designer and that person should made more comprehensive production document specifically used by artists.

For this game that clearly is not necessary since financial and time limitations are main issues. So I've divided production into stages based on priorities. This means that game will always be in a finished stage even if graphics isn't in its finished stage (for example if all scenes are not over painted).

Locations list...

Pretty straight forward – list of locations named, numbered and divided into gameplay related logical segments (if any).

For JKA2 I have 4 prologue locations, 27 main gameplay locations and 2 epilogue locations (the same ones used in prologue).

Here I also have locations diagrams (which location are connected and how – two-way, one-way), and locations map (in this case Island of ZOO map).

Few pages from the GDD (intentionally small so no one can stole my magnificent ideas!)

Next parts of the GDD to write are:

• List of characters – with short character decryption: physical, psychological and their drives (if any)
• List of scenes – scene sketches with all gameplay elements defined on scenes

So those are actually "main" parts of the game design I need to define next...

Stay tuned!