Design Document Headings

Hands-on Rust — by Herbert Wolverson (115 / 120)

👈 Why You Need a Design Document | TOC | You Aren’t Gonna Need It 👉

Keep your design document short. You need a few basic headings and some rough estimates of the tasks required to realize your idea. This section will walk you through creating a focused design document, intended to help keep you on track as you make a game.

Naming Your Game

Names are difficult, and it’s pretty unlikely that the first name you pick will be the name of your game. It’s OK to start with something generic and come up with a fun name later. Start your design document with your working title on the first line.

Short Description

You should start your design document with a short description of the game. Flappy Dragon could be described as “a Flappy Bird Clone.” A generic Roguelike might describe itself as “a Dungeon Crawler with procedurally generated levels, monsters of increasing difficulty, and turn-based movement.”

The key is to keep it short. It’s similar to an elevator pitch in marketing — this is how you’d describe the game in passing to a friend who wants to know what you’re working on.

Story

Not every game has a story. Nobody knows why Flappy Bird desperately needs to fly to the East, and for a fun little game, it doesn’t matter. If your game has a story, include a summary…