ABSTRACT
Generally speaking, once we have a cool idea for a game, we are all in a rush to get to our computers and start building the game. However, as we will see in this chapter, it is important for us to take some time and think our game idea through more thoroughly and make sure we are ready to build this game. Design documents are an interesting aspect of game development as they are often overlooked, but at the same time, they are very difficult (if not impossible) to fully develop without. This leads to a chicken-and-egg type of situation in which we need to create a design document in order to build a game, but in order to create the design document, we need to know how to build a game. We will address this throughout the book by building our own design document as we go along and also by having you work on your own design document as you learn new concepts and skills. Rather than create a full design document in one go, we will only create the pieces that we are ready for and finish with a full document by the end of this book. In this chapter, we will introduce the design document and why we should use one.
What Is a Design Document?
Do We Actually Need a Design Document?
Are There Other Ways We Can Make a Design Document?
What Are the Parts of the Game That We Should Design?
