Hey I just wanted to know who would be interested in a Game Design Class. Also how detailed does a Design Doc need to be? How much and what content/information should be in it? Well if you want the link for the class: http://dynamic3.gamespy.com/~dteam/viewtopic.php?t=251 Also respond to the above question. (It seemed that my earlier posts got erased, if someone could tell me why i would appreciate it.) Knowledge is what you learn, wisdom is how you apply it. [edited by - Alpha_ProgDes on July 5, 2002 9:21:45 PM]

It depends on the game, and design documents come in different flavors. There is the "selling" design document, or "treatment" which doesn''t go into very much detail at all. It merely outlines all of the important aspects of the game in order to be able to communicate the ideas behind the game to anyone else - sell the idea.

The "working" design document is the one that will beused by the team throughout development, and this one needs to be VERY detailed. Pretty much everything needs to be spelled out. Then there are the technical design documents which are even more detailed and deal with low-level implementation design.

Keep in mind that development doesn''t have to wait for the design document to be totally complete, as things will obviously change during development. I''ve heard that you should aim for about 80% of the working design to be complete before development begins.