I''ve read the articles about design documents and I think I''ve got a fair idea of how one should look. Still I''d like some help creating a design document for a classic console rpg (like Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior). What are some genre specific subjects that should be included (like exp tables, etc)? Also is there an example Design Document for this genre? Does anyone have any other advice? Help would really be appreciated.

I would suggest putting anything and everything that you can into the design document. That will give you a really complete design that you can use to put the game together.

If you have any open areas in the design document that means your going to need to figure those parts out when your creating the game, and thats is probably just going to make things harder.

Please visit Turt99 Productions

Check out mine... It''s not anywhere near completion, but it should get you started.

http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~srekel/real/Real%20Design%20Document.shtml

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"Kaka e gott" - Me
Current project: An RPG with tactical, real-time combat and randomly generated world and dialogue.

Thanks, that''s very helpful.

You can checkout mine as well If you like, its not the lastest version though but it might be helpful.

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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document

I read the design documents and they are very good indeed. I have created many design documents and I wanted to see if I was doing right. Apparently, it seems it doesn`t matter how you make the document, as long as it is easy to read, easy to find something, and makes sense.


Current Projects - ....

I suggest making your DD as you go along when making your first few games. I remember starting a design document, and instead of actually working on the game, I spent most of the time on the design document. Much of the time was wasted. I ended up abandoning the project.

But that is what Design Documents are for. They show you what you really are working on and what kind of work must be put into the game. Yeah, design documents are very long to do. I really like doing certain parts of a design documents anyway like the story or characters. But when I get to things like coding and object, and land, item analysis, then I sometimes start to get bored.

Include stuff like this:
Title Page
Table of Contents
Concept
Features
Technical Requirements
Story
Level layouts
Art assets
Sound assets
I like to use framework someone else provides, and build off of it.

Scott Simontis
Big Joke: C#

Hopefully you made a Treatment before. If not, I advise you to do so.
For the Specification, I agree to the others, that you should write down every game specific Detail. It belongs to your working Style, if you extract Things like Tables etc. into extra Files according to the Specification. Me, for Example, I use Constants in Descriptions and Formulas and define them in extra Files. This makes it much easier to tell the other Developers of the Team, what has changed when I accommoadate the Specification for different Reasons.