GDD - Game Design Document

[eliasfrost]

Hi all, I'm currently working hard on the design document for my game (A horrorgame of course), and it's coming along quite well. Almost 5 pages long and I started today.

Just out of curiousity.. How complex was the GDD for the Penumbra series, Thomas..?

[Thomas]

Not that much really. We had like a 10 page document as base but only like 40% of it was used. We had more focus on the having the design of the maps done and had over 30 pages for that + sketches and more documents concerning story.

We never had one document that was the game written in stone. Instead (and I think this is the way most games are done) the game and documents describing it evolved during development.

[eliasfrost]

Interesting.

True. But having a base to develop from is always a good start of a project.
And it may simplify the first 25% of the game. Or even 50%. But what do I know really? I have just started this..