Before starting to tell the rules for compiling a GDD, let's define who a game designer is and what is his role in the team. The closest analogue of a game designer in art is a director. He does not act in the film, does not deal with lighting and scenery, and does not even hold the camera, but at the same time it is he who decides how the film should look so that it conveys to the viewer the feelings that the director wants. Also, a game designer very often does not know how to draw and program, but he must be able to evoke the necessary sensations in the player.
Therefore, he can be called the brain of the team, the one who always controls what everyone else is doing. Gives assignments and accepts work. Therefore, the main skill of a game designer https://whimsygames.co/blog/game-design-instructions-examples/ is to find a common language with everyone in the team and make sure that they produce exactly what is in his head. Therefore, ideally, each project should be led by one good specialist. How difficult it is to find one is a completely different topic. Let's just keep in mind that this article is about a good game designer or someone who wants to become one.
The game design document is a supporting document. The studio’s insurance against the disappearance of a game designer, a reminder of what he wanted to do, because development can sometimes stretch in time for reasons beyond his control, and a reminder for specialists about what they should do if they suddenly get distracted.
Some, wanting to save money, hire a game designer only to write documentation - the result is usually deplorable. Movies are not made without a director, even when Marvel fired the brilliant Edgar Wright and left behind the most complete storyboards, they still hired another person to complete the film. Although Wright's storyboards, of course, climb out of all the cracks and theoretically one could work on them.
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