1. The Game Development Process

2. Typical Development Cycle
Idea
Proposal
Design
Evaluation
Coding
Testing
Release

3. The Game Development Process
The Game Idea
The Game
Proposal
The Game Design

4. The Game Design The Game Design Bible The Art Bible The Software Bible
Story
Gameplay
Interface
The Art Bible
The Software Bible

5. Evaluation
Game Design
Evaluation
Development

6. Development
Coding and
Debugging
Testing
Release

7. Typical Development Cycle
Idea
Proposal
Design
Evaluation
Coding
Testing
Release

8. Waterfall Development Cycle
Idea
Proposal
Design
Evaluation
Coding
Testing
Release

9. Spiral Development Cycle
Design
Coding and Art
Start
Evaluation
Testing
Release

10. Evolutionary Prototyping
Proposal
Design and
initial prototype
Refine Prototype
Until Acceptable
Release

11. Run out of time and money
Design to Schedule
Idea
Proposal
Design
Evaluation
High Priority Code
Med High Priority Code
Release
Med Priority Code
Run out of time and money
Med Low Priority Code
Low Priority Code

12. Game Development Documents
Concept Document
Game Spec
Design Document
Story Bible
Script
Art Bible
Storyboards
Technical Design Document
Schedules and Business/Marketing Documents
Test Plan

13. Concept Document or Pitch Document or Proposal
To sell the game
To create a framework for design
Generally 10 pages or less.
Concept art
Can be written by committee, but needs leadership
Acts as a springboard

14. Game Spec – Concept Doc? Overview Players Look and Feel Interface
Start Up
Objectives
Entities
Features
Rules
Gameplay
Level Design
Technical Requirements
Marketing

15. Design Document Highly Detailed Can be quite large (100+ pages)
Should contain all elements not addressed in other documents
Is a living document!!!!!!!!

16. A Design Document Construct
Table of Contents
Introduction/Overview
Game Mechanics
Artificial Intelligence
Game Elements
Story Overview
Game Progression
System Menus

17. Story Bible
Story outline is in design document, the story bible fleshes out the story.
Plot and Story Flow
Detailed Story Flow
Detailed Characterizations
Backstory
Generally Prose instead of bullets

18. Script The Dialog that occurs in the game.
Tree structure that controls dialog

19. Art Bible Concept sketches Resources for artist Look and feel
Art styles
Technical guidelines
Generally created by lead artist, not designer.

20. Storyboards May be part of art bible or standalone.
Puts game flow in a visual context
Useful to entire team, not just artist

21. Technical Design Document
Sister specification to Art Bible and Game Design Document
Discusses how functionality will be implemented.
Generally constructed by the lead programmer.
May include overall code structure, major classes, rendering architecture, AI design, etc.
May contain pseudocode

22. Schedules and Business/Marketing Documents
Documents necessary for management of project.
Generally responsibility of Producer.

23. Nature of Documentation
Must be living documents.
Allows communication and direction across the team
Can be a trap if misused.