Helo, people from Unity, I have this problem that is pretty much how to develop your idea for the document. I know what i want, but I have problems putting my idea Literally on paper. How you guys overcome this issue? is there a communication skill to improve? I want your thought, to help me and the newcomers.
Try a mind map. Your head is probably full of ideas. A mind map is a way to get those ideas out. It also helps you see connections between ideas. This will give you the material to write a more organized document later. But the first step is to get those ideas down on paper.
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This doesn’t exist. If you can’t put your idea on paper, then you really don’t know what you want.
You may feel like you know what you want, but you don’t.
Understanding exactly what you want is the entire difficulty with code, since in order to code something you need to be extremely specific about what you want.
On the flip side, that’s also why when you need to code something it’s often useful to talk through the problem or write it down, because that process helps to solidify the details.
Most vague → the general idea in your head
a little more specific → saying the idea out loud
a bit more specific → writing it down
f’n really specific → coding it
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I don’t have problems holding things in my head and deconstructing them, flipping them, trying hundreds of things at once etc, I guess it’s basically how practised you are at it. Obviously thinking and designing is a skill like anything else.
Just keep trying and you get better at it. Writing it down, drawing pictures, mind maps and more are all really not as important as learning to express thoughts. You can pick any one of the targets (paper, websites etc) and it will still suffer the same block (because the block is you). It’s the same block as trying to express your feelings as a kid. It takes time and repeated effort to be able realise what you’re trying to do.
In my case I’m lucky enough to see something clear as a bell in my head and realise that in games, in text or whatever. It wasn’t always like that for me so I’m pretty sure it’s just something you need to do a lot of, like anything else.
My tip? do a prototype, it pretty much un-jumbles it for you.
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Oh I have exactly the same problem, when I close my eyes all I see are sequences of uncanny images with hardcore metal playing on background … classic gamedev problems.
Solution: Steal other devs’ ideas
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Yeah when I was writing my reply, I thought it’s a similar process to artists, being able to hold an image steady long enough to actually draw it vs someone who iteratively arrives at the image they want vs some kind of mutant metal sex god approach.
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Lol! Literally these guys’ minds:
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I agree it’s really rare, but I do believe that there are also times when you do know what you want and you don’t know how to express it as per @hippocoder 's description. I’ve had the occasional client like this.
@BrewNCode , personally, I have two template documents I use which I’ve developed over a few years which help immensely.
The first is a Game Concept Document. This is a list of headings with a list of bullet point prompts or questions under each covering various areas of a game. The individual prompts aren’t important. What is important is to get a bunch of new bullet points describing the new concept in each area. It’s not about designing a game, it’s about getting an early, broad idea on paper so that it can later be examined as the starting point for a design. So even if I notice issues as I’m writing the concept down, I don’t try to fix them (though I do note down that I’ve seen them, because they may prompt further bits). The ultimate objective here is to write out a set of goals to address at design time, define an experience you want to achieve without worrying about the details as to how you will achieve that.
The next is a good ol’ Game Design Document as used by just about everyone, and as per the name this is where the designing happens. You’ve got your goals and/or ideal experience down, now you switch to problem solving mode and figure out how to achieve it. There’s plenty of info around about GDDs, so I’d suggest looking for a template that works for you and going from there. (This will also help you make a Game Concept Document template for yourself, because it’s basically a gutted GDD.) The GDD will change a lot during development, ideally being restarted from scratch after a prototyping period… but that’s past the scope of this discussion.
Now… if you’ve got a decent set of prompts such as the above and you still can’t write it down then, as @frosted says, the harsh truth is almost certainly that the idea in your head isn’t as concrete as you think it is. And that’s perfectly fine, because everyone starts there. We start with “ideas” and we have to work to turn them into “designs”, otherwise the whole profession of “designer” (in any field) wouldn’t be a thing. And, contrary to popular opinion, a designer’s job isn’t to have cool ideas, it’s to solve problems. As you get practice that process will become faster and more automatic, and you’ll need fewer aids, but it’s still there.
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It sounds like you have some grand idea but no idea how to go about creating it. Documentation won’t help. You just need to actually get better at the core skills.
I don’t know anyone that is actually any good at what they do that documents details of what they will do. They use the context of what they are creating do to that in. Well there are some people stuck in old ways, but they are doing it wrong.
Which is distinctly different from writing down things like ideas you get so you don’t forget them. Or creating documentation to synchronize a team, or working out a problem within a group where you might whiteboard something.
Nice to know there is a Game Concept Document (Where can I find it?). Actually, I used the GDD provided here by Unity designers in this forum to help me out with my pitch for college. I think I will re-do my idea so I know what should I do, further more, I think I need to study other well constructed games similar to my game to have better ideas and apply them to it.
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Scott Rogers’ Level Up! book has a good section on documents. You can view some examples here: one-pager, ten-pager. Since they’re designed to teach, I think they make good introductions. Then search up classic documents for Diablo, Maniac Mansion, etc.
If you already have a clear idea, start with three-sentence pitch. If you can’t make an idea exciting in three sentences, 300 more sentences won’t make it any better.
If you don’t already have a clear idea, I’ll repeat my earlier advice that a mind map is really helpful.
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Wooow. This page seems really interesting., Thank you so much for that tip.
It’s just a thing I made up, covering the things I personally think are most important to communicate a concept.
I like to start by breaking the game up into a user features outline. Not thinking about how the backend stuff works here, just how the user experiences the game. For example:
- 3rd person game with camera following the player’s character
- Hold down the right mouse button to rotate camera, releasing snaps back to the character in the lower center
- Can attack creatures with left mouse click
- When a creature is left mouse clicked the character will attempt to attack, when equipped with a range weapon the character will attack immediately if within range, if attacked with a melee weapon the character will approach the creature and attack when in melee weapon range
- Character inventory system
- Inventory from the character’s bag can be moved from the bag to be equipped on the player
- Inventory from the character’s bag can be dropped by dragging from the bag to the game world
- Chat system
- Local server chat
- Private chat between players
- Towns the player can enter
- Market building for inventory purchasing and sales
- Bank building for storing excess credits
Then after you have outlined all the features in the game, then create separate docs for each of the individual outlined items, discussing them each in more detail. At this point is where you can bring in how you want the systems behind the scenes to function.
At least that is how I like to do it. YMMV
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Im working on a boss battle for my game.
My idea is
I want to have 4 legs that try to stomp on you (when they land they will do aoe damage creating a spike configuration).
Then you have the head which will be trying to track you dropping barrel bombs on the player.
Eventually it will run out of bombs and have to land where it will do a charge up laser blast (landing on the ground) – where you can finally damage it.
So then I have to actually prototype it to see if its any good.
There’s an ongoing thread in the Game Design section about Jesse Schell’s Art of Game Design. After reading the book, I thought it was just okay. But for being “just okay,” I sure do bring it up often. I guess my initial impression was a little off. 
The first “lens” in Art of Game Design is the lens of essential experience – that is, the primary emotional experience you want to instill in the player. (BTW, Tynan Sylvester’s excellent Designing Games is a deep dive in this topic.) For a fairly well known example, Shigeru Miyamoto’s inspiration for Legend of Zelda was his childhood explorations of the forests and caves around his home. And that certainly comes through in the game, which is imbued with the feeling of exploring an unknown land with surprises hidden everywhere.
You can’t go wrong by starting with the essential experience, both in the game as a whole, and for individual encounters like boss battles.
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I use an outline, because it’s just going to change dramatically anyway. My current game has completely different mechanics than my original idea. It was the spring board for it though. When I did a simple prototype, I realized it didn’t work well and changed it. Now, it’s a lot more fun to play.
You don’t have to have an entire concept, either. Start out with the core game play. Do a prototype, and ask yourself what’s good and bad about it. If you can come up with a fun game to play entirely in your head, you are probably copying someone else. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s only a spring board to come up with something more unique.
Story games need the most up front planning, because it’s got to work out, so you need settings and what happens in each location.