Games & Virtual Worlds Series

Game Documentation

Designing Games & Interactive Stories

Michael Filimowicz, PhD

Published in

Narrative and New Media

8 min readJan 4, 2023

The most important documents for a game designer to create are the:

Game Pitch
Game Proposal
Game Design Document

The game itself can be considered a ‘living document’ that can be revisited and updated at a later date. This holds for both AAA and indie games.

Each document type is explained below. Of course, not every game will follow these exact content structures in their documentation. What’s described below outlines the general patterns of game documents. You can find many examples of each of these documents online, as well as variations and templates.

The Game Pitch

A game pitch is a presentation or proposal that is used to sell or promote a game idea to a potential publisher, investor, or other stakeholders. A game pitch typically includes the following elements:

Elevator pitch: This is a brief summary of the game idea, usually no more than a few sentences long, that explains the core concept and appeal of the game.

Game mechanics: This is a description of the gameplay mechanics, features, and systems that make up the game. This might include details about the game’s setting, characters, goals, and challenges.

Target audience: This is a description of the players or market that the game is targeting. This might include information about the age range, gender, or interests of the target audience.

Visuals: This is a presentation of visual elements of the game, such as artwork, concept art, or gameplay footage. This can help to give stakeholders a sense of the look and feel of the game.

Marketing and monetization: This is a discussion of how the game will be marketed and how it will generate revenue. This might include information about the business model, such as a free-to-play model with in-app purchases, or a premium model with a one-time purchase price.

These elements help to explain the core concept and appeal of the game, and provide stakeholders with a sense of how the game will be developed and marketed.

The Game Proposal

As a longer document (anywhere from 5–20 pages), Brenda Romero defines a game proposal’s role as an answer to the question “Tell us more.” It should have the following sections:

Title + Creator + Format
Overview of the game, including the game’s genre, platform(s), release date, monetization model, # of target players, average gameplay time, bios of key creatives, and more.
Game synopses (brief descriptions of the whole game) typically no more than two pages long. Who exactly are the player characters, and what are their motivations? Features are listed, and a brief description of each is provided (the hook)
Features of the game are broken down, with each receiving their own page.
Budget projections. This averages out to about $10,000 monthly per person on more seasoned teams with larger budgets (in 2020 US dollars)
Synopsis of the team with brief bios
User interface (UI) concept art and screen mockups
Analyzing the competition (which other games are similar to yours and how)
An early version of the game.

In some cases, the game pitch is not included in the development process at all; instead, the game proposal serves as both the pitch and the proposal.

A Call for Proposals is a formal request for new game ideas where the funding organization has predetermined many aspects of the format, and game proposals are used to respond to this request.

Design Document

A complete game design documentation is a detailed document that outlines all aspects of a game, from the concept and gameplay mechanics to the development plan and marketing strategy. It can easily run into the hundreds of pages — as it is very detailed, including deep dives into each mechanic and game systems — might include the following elements and sections:

Executive summary: This is a brief overview of the game idea, including the core concept, target audience, and key features.

Game concept: This is a detailed description of the game idea, including the setting, characters, story, gameplay mechanics, and other key features.

Gameplay mechanics: This is a detailed description of the gameplay mechanics and systems that make up the game, including information about controls, rules, challenges, and progression.

Game world: This is a description of the game world, including information about the setting, characters, locations, and other elements that make up the game environment.

Art style: This is a description of the visual style of the game, including information about the art direction, character design, and other visual elements.

Sound design: This is a description of the audio elements of the game, including music, sound effects, and voice acting.

Target audience: This is a description of the players or market that the game is targeting, including information about age range, gender, interests, and other relevant demographics.

Development plan: This is a detailed outline of the development process for the game, including information about the team, budget, timeline, and milestones.

Visuals: This is a presentation of visual elements of the game, such as artwork, concept art, or gameplay footage. This can help to give stakeholders a sense of the look and feel of the game.

While each type of game document has overlap and has similar sections asking for similar information, the quantity and detail of information increases at each level, from the fast elevator pitch to the ‘game bible’ in its depth and scope.

Rule Books

The rule book is essentially the public’s face to the internal game design document. The aforementioned types of writing (game pitch, game proposal, design document) are meant for professionals only. The rulebook is intended for use by the game’s players, the vast majority of whom do not have jobs related to the game industry. It’s important that the language’s tone and style are appropriate for a wider and usually multi-generational audience.

The process of writing a game’s rulebook typically involves the following steps:

Define the game’s objective: This is the main goal that players are trying to achieve while playing the game.

Define the game’s mechanics: These are the rules that govern how the game is played, such as how players take their turns, how they move their pieces, and how they score points.

Playtest the game: This involves testing the game with a small group of people to see if the mechanics are balanced and the game is fun to play. Based on the feedback from playtesting, the game’s mechanics may be revised and the rulebook may be updated.

Organize the rulebook: Once the game mechanics have been finalized, the rulebook can be organized into sections that explain the different aspects of the game.

Typical sections of a rulebook include:

Introduction: This section provides an overview of the game and its objective.

Setup: This section explains how to set up the game, including how to prepare the game board and any components that are needed.

Gameplay: This section explains how to play the game, including the order of play, how to take turns, and any special rules that apply.

Scoring: This section explains how players score points and win the game.

Advanced rules: This section includes any optional rules or variations on the basic game that players can choose to use.

Glossary: This section defines any terms that are used in the rulebook.

FAQ: This section answers common questions that players may have about the game.

Bibliography & Further Reading

A Game Design Vocabulary: Exploring the Foundational Principles Behind Good Game Design by Anna Anthropy and Naomi Clark
A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster
Advanced Game Design: A Systems Approach by Michael Sellers
An Introduction to Game Studies by Frans Mayra
Basics of Game Design by Michael Moore
Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier
Board Game Design Advice: From the Best in the World vol 1 by Gabe Barrett
Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design: an Encyclopedia Of Mechanisms by Geoffrey Engelstein and Isaac Shalev
Character Development and Storytelling for Games by Lee Sheldon
Chris Crawford on Game Design by Chris Crawford
Clockwork Game Design by Keith Burgun
Elements of Game Design by Robert Zubek
Fundamentals of Game Design by Ernest Adams
Fundamentals of Puzzle and Casual Game Design by Ernest Adams
Game Design Foundations by Brenda Romero
Game Design Workshop by Tracy Fullerton
Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design by Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans
Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames edited by Chris Bateman
Games, Design and Play: A detailed approach to iterative game design by Colleen Macklin and John Sharp
Introduction to Game Systems Design by Dax Gazaway
Kobold Guide to Board Game Design by Mike Selinker, David Howell, et al
Kobold’s Guide to Worldbuilding edited by Janna Silverstein
Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design, 2nd Edition by Scott Rogers
Narrating Space / Spatializing Narrative: Where Narrative Theory and Geography Meet by Marie-Laure Ryan, Kenneth Foote, et al.
Narrative Theory: A Critical Introduction by Kent Puckett
Narrative Theory: Core Concepts and Critical Debates by David Herman, James Phelan, et al.
Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative, Fourth Edition by Mieke Bal
Practical Game Design by Adam Kramarzewski and Ennio De Nucci
Procedural Storytelling in Game Design by Tanya X. Short and Tarn Adams
Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing by Wendy Despain
Rules of Play by Salen and Zimmerman
Storyworlds Across Media: Toward a Media-Conscious Narratology (Frontiers of Narrative) by Marie-Laure Ryan, Jan-Noël Thon, et al
Tabletop Game Design for Video Game Designers by Ethan Ham
The Art of Game Design, 3rd Edition by Jesse Schell
The Board Game Designer’s Guide: The Easy 4 Step Process to Create Amazing Games That People Can’t Stop Playing by Joe Slack
The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative by H. Porter Abbott
The Grasshopper, by Bernard Suits
The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies by Bernard Perron and Mark J.P. Wolf
The Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory by David Herman
The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design by Flint Dille & John Zuur Platten
Unboxed: Board Game Experience and Design by Gordon Calleja
Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know about Narrative Techniques by Evan Skolnick
Writing for Video Game Genres: From FPS to RPG edited by Wendy Despain
Writing for Video Games by Steve Ince
100 Principles of Game Design by DESPAIN