I''ve been reading through all these posts, about all the wonderful games that are being developed, and the technical discussions about them. But I''m curious about the actual method people use in designing and implementing games. Do you write it out on paper? Use index cards? Just do it from you''re head? For me, it seems the more I plan, the more I get done. But the more I plan, the less I FELL is getting done. I sort of wished there was a good program to help you set up game designs. Hmmmm... I''ve tried using a word proccessor, but for some reason it I never can keep up with what I''ve decided to do at a particular time, and it just makes a big mess. I''m trying index cards now, with an object for each card. My floor is a mess, but it helps me keep track of what I need to do.

I just write on a normal notepad. Note the small ''n'', real notepad, not the Windoze program .

-Jussi

Writing a design document is very important for the success of a project. Well, some people manage to do it without, but it's not only about succeding but doing it on time. There are no rules of how a design document should look like, just some general guide lines...

It should be structured like any essay you would do in University. With an index, explaination of the game idea, description of the game world and so on. The important thing is that everything is included in the design doc. Everything for the main character, the world to the tiniest bit of the backgrounds, and the gui. If a rock can be picked up or moved then describe how and maybe why.

A design doc is not something that is written once and then strictly followed, a game is envolved during development so is the design doc. The important thing is to have a almost totally finished document before any code is written.

There is a design document laying around at GameDev.Net somewhere in the deep, dark archives...can't remember the name right now, but I'm sure you'll find it, take a look on it.

Take care.

Edited by - demonicalliance on August 24, 2000 3:55:56 AM

Aahhh....it''s Monolith''s Claw, click here to get to that section, there is some articles about design docs as well, you could check them out. And by the way, write everything, or most of it, on plain paper first, as the brain works better with a pen in the hand...

Personaly I code off the top of my head but I ALWAYS write down my file formats first.

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I wrote the best video game ever, then I woke up...

Hi, thanks for all the responses.

It''s amazing how, even with Word2000, nothing replaces a good ald fashioned paper notepad.

I did have a design document in Word, but it wasn''t anything I''d turn into a proffessor . The problem is that my code always seems to get ahead of the document. I think "well, let me try this real quick, it probably won''t work>" But it does, or I discover something else and code that real quick, but don''t write it down because I''m SURE I''ll change it anyway... I suppose it''s just being lazy.

The Claw desing document-- I saw you post, and remembered that I had downloaded it a few months ago. That''s a work of art in itself-- it even had bitmap examples of the sprites. It''s seems like thing design document to live up to.

Me too, demonicalliance. I can''t do anything in a word proccessor. I think it would be an interesting idea to try some sort of digital notepad, running on a palm pilot or something. If nothing else, the pages won''t get pizza stains on them.

File formats. Uhhgg... Messy stuff. If there''s one thing to write down, that''s it.