LIEW XIAO HUI / 0353121
BACHELOR OF DESIGN (HONOURS) IN CREATIVE MEDIA / GAME DEVELOPMENT
Task 01: Game Design Document
JUMPLINK
Instructions
Task 01: Game Design Document
Feedback
We are required to form a group of 3–5 members, consisting of a combination of students from the Design School and the School of Computer Science, in order to complete all the tasks for this module. For this task, we need to develop ideas for creating our own 2D side-scrolling platformer game. All the detailed information and plans for the final game idea must be compiled and organized into a Game Design Document (GDD).
Progress
In the first week of class, our team of four was formed, and we began brainstorming ideas for our platformer game. To make efficient use of our time and allow each member to independently research and gather inspiration, we agreed that everyone would first brainstorm game ideas individually. We would then share our ideas in the group chat so all members could review them before holding an online meeting to finalize our game concept. In that meeting, we would refine, adjust, and add details to the selected idea to create a complete Game Design Document (GDD).
Before I began brainstorming, I spent some time researching online to better understand what a platformer game is, along with examples of existing titles. Since I rarely play games, I needed a bit more time to familiarize myself with the genre and gather inspiration, compared to my teammates who could quickly come up with ideas.
Figure 1.1, 1.2 Research.
During my research, I realized that a game I played recently, Sheepy: A Short Adventure, is actually a platformer game, and I found it to be very well-made and engaging. I was particularly inspired by how Sheepy allows players to freely explore an open world filled with interactive items and NPCs. Certain interactions would unlock achievements, which motivated players to continue exploring and completing different tasks. The game also had a storyline that gradually unfolded through exploration, with some NPCs and items contributing to the narrative while others existed purely for additional interactions. As the player progressed, they would gain new abilities, helping them overcome challenges like large gaps or enemies.
Figure 1.3, 1.4 Sheepy: A Short Adventure.
With this experience in mind, I aimed to develop a game idea that includes both an engaging narrative and enjoyable exploration mechanics. I wanted the story to reflect a relevant issue in today’s society: how people are increasingly consumed by digital devices during all aspects of life, while working, eating, or even when waiting for food, leading to a decline in real human connection and communication. For example, it’s now common to see people glued to their phones in restaurants instead of chatting, and even young children absorbed in YouTube videos.
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| Figure 1.5 Initial ideas. |
Along with this theme, I planned to introduce a core mechanic involving a time gauge representing the player’s life, as well as special abilities to add variety and a degree of challenge to the platforming experience. While researching for ideas alongside the platformer reference Rednote, I came across two other games, RECUR and Timelie which inspired me in terms of game mechanics. RECUR features unique time-based abilities where players can manipulate the timeline to solve puzzles, while Timelie allows players to control and rewind time to avoid obstacles and enemies.
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| Figure 1.6 RECUR. |
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| Figure 1.7 Timelie |
Additionally, the game would offer multiple endings based on the player’s choices throughout the gameplay, providing different outcomes and encouraging replayability. To decide on a suitable visual style for my game idea and to better convey the visual concept in my mind to my groupmates, I searched for some visual references on Pinterest. This not only helped me clarify the art direction I envisioned but also saved time for future development in case my idea was chosen to move forward.
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| Figure 1.8 Visual references. |
At first, I considered adding a mechanic where the player could steal time from NPCs or enemies to extend their own time gauge. However, after considering the project scope, potential workload, and technical feasibility, I decided it might be too complicated for our team within the given timeframe. I chose to simplify the concept while retaining its core essence, ensuring it remained interesting and achievable.
After refining the concept and finalizing some decisions, I compiled all the information, ideas, and visual references into a Google Docs document. I then shared it with my groupmates on Week 1, Friday, so everyone could easily access, review, and give feedback on the idea.
Game Design Idea - Google Docs
Figure 1.9, 1.10, 1.11 Game design idea.
After gathering everyone’s ideas, we scheduled a meeting on Sunday night to discuss and decide on a final concept. Once the idea was confirmed, we planned to move forward with it and work together to complete the Game Design Document.
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| Figure 2.1 Meeting. |
During the meeting, we initially planned to go with an underwater theme, as two of our members had similar ideas involving water. The concept included a final boss battle against a sea monster, and a game mechanic where players could switch between land and underwater modes to help them navigate platforms.
Figure 2.2, 2.3 Initial concept.
To further explore the potential of this idea, we referred to an existing game, Dave the Diver, for inspiration. However, through our discussion, we realized that an underwater setting might limit the variety of platforming situations and exploration opportunities, since players would primarily be swimming and diving through obstacles, which could quickly become repetitive.
Figure 2.4, 2.5, 2.6 Dave the diver.
Because of this, we decided to switch to the steampunk-themed idea I had previously proposed, featuring a time manipulation mechanic. Eins also mentioned an event in Honkai: Star Rail that introduced a similar concept, where players could shift between two distinct time periods to restore broken platforms and solve environmental puzzles that were otherwise unreachable. This inspired us to refine how our time manipulation ability could work in the game.
Figure 2.7, 2.8, 2.9 Honkai: Star Rail.
To keep the controls simple and avoid overwhelming players with too many keys, we decided to use the WASD keys for movement, and the E key for interactions, including talking to NPCs and activating beacons for time manipulation.
To ensure that everyone was on the same page regarding the visual design of the game, I shared some reference images with my groupmates that I felt best represented the components and style I had in mind. These visuals helped everyone understand my vision for the game. After reviewing the images, we were able to collaboratively decide on the design direction.
Figure 2.10, 2.11 Visual references.
We agreed to create a 16x16px pixel art game with a steampunk theme, featuring cartoonish visuals and incorporating elements like clockwork hearts. This style choice aligned with our concept and the overall atmosphere we wanted to convey in the game.
Before ending the meeting, our group worked together to complete the Game Design Document (GDD) based on the ideas we had discussed and agreed on. However, I felt that it still lacked details since we weren’t sure if the concept would be approved by Ms. To avoid wasting time, we decided to keep the document brief for now and planned to share it with Ms or have an online consultation session to refine it later.
Figure 2.12 Game design document - first meeting ver.
Since Week 2 was a public holiday and no classes were held, we were unsure if there would be any consultation. Normally, in design school modules, we would have online or face-to-face consultations to get feedback on our progress, so we expected the same for this module. However, up until Week 3, we received no updates regarding a consultation, only a reminder about our upcoming presentation. This left us feeling uncertain and directionless, so we decided to proactively send our current GDD draft to Ms via Microsoft Teams, hoping to get some feedback or suggestions.
To stay productive, I immediately began working on the presentation slides to ensure we’d have content ready for Thursday’s presentation. However, we weren’t sure if we were expected to create a slide deck or simply present the GDD since no specific instructions were given, only the GDD template was shared, and there were no seniors’ examples for reference.
I used Canva to start designing the slides, searching for steampunk and pixel-style templates, but none of them matched what I envisioned.
Figure 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 Canva template.
So, I decided to create my own custom slides. First, I looked for a steampunk-themed color palette.
Figure 3.4, 3.5 Color palette.
Then referred to my saved Pinterest collections of designs and visuals that suited our game concept. I drew inspiration from those references to develop the slide layout.
Figure 3.6, 3.7 Visual references.
I used one of Canva’s pixel-style templates as a base, removing unnecessary elements and keeping only the ones useful for my custom design.
Figure 4.1, 4.2 Progress screenshot.
I then searched for pixel graphics in Canva, adjusting their colors to match our theme. By continuously rearranging these elements, adjusting transparency, layering, and layout, I achieved the look I wanted.
Figure 4.3, 4.4 Progress screenshot.
After inserting the text and testing readability against the backgrounds, I made further refinements to the transparency, color balance, and layout.
Figure 4.5, 4.6, 4.7 Progress screenshot.
I noticed it still lacked game-specific elements, so I searched for pixelated gears/cogs in Canva but couldn’t find any. I improvised by combining pixelated coin and cross icons to form gear shapes.
Figure 4.8, 4.9, 4.10 Progress screenshot.
I also realized using pixel-style fonts for body text would reduce readability, so I decided to use pixel fonts only for titles and kept the main content in standard fonts.
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| Figure 4.11 Progress screenshot. |
Once I completed the design for my slides, I shared them with the group so everyone could start filling in their parts.
Figure 4.12, 4.13 Final presentation slides design.
On Wednesday of Week 3, Ms replied saying she would give feedback after our presentation, so we just continued refining our slides. We divided the tasks, and since I had already started early, I took responsibility for the basic information, concept, and purpose sections.
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| Figure 5.1 Task assigned. |
I felt our GDD was lacking depth and wouldn’t fully convey our ideas and story to Ms, so I took the initiative to rephrase and expand these sections. I did some research on real-life game design document (GDD) examples to better understand how a professional GDD is written for existing games.
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| Figure 5.2 Research. |
I shared the example I found with my group, hoping it could serve as a reference and give everyone a clearer idea of how to structure and write their respective sections. I wasn’t expecting my teammates to produce something as detailed as the 60-page GDD example I shared. It was more about providing a guide for tone, format, and the kind of descriptions typically included.
One area I particularly hoped they’d pay attention to was the audio section. I didn’t want it to simply write “download sound from online,” but instead describe the types of sound effects we planned to use or the kind of atmosphere we wanted to create. This would help readers and Ms better imagine the overall mood and feel of the game. However, I wasn’t entirely sure if my teammates took up my suggestion or found it helpful.
GDD Example
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| Figure 5.3 Reference shared. |
Besides, with the help of AI, I also clarified the differences between plot, backstory, and story progression based on the requirements Ms provided and then revised and added more detailed content to these sections.
Figure 5.4 - 5.7 Concept and purpose revised (assigned).
I adjusted the layout for better readability, using bold fonts to highlight key points since our narrative was quite lengthy. I also added graphics to some slides to make them more engaging and easier to understand.
Figure 5.8, 5.9 Progress screenshot (assigned).
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| Figure 5.10 Final presentation slides (assigned). |
Once my part was completed, I noticed Eins hadn’t started his section on game design yet. I discussed this with Jzeshin, and we agreed to split Eins’ task between us. I took on the game mechanics and rules, while Jzeshin handled level design and character entities.
For the game mechanics, since the original idea came from me, I reused and refined the descriptions I had written earlier to better align with our current, refined concept. For the rules, I wrote them in a clearer and more detailed manner to make it easier for us during development, avoiding the need to repeatedly check or adjust them later.
Figure 6.1, 6.2 Progress screenshot (extra).
For some sections of the presentation, like the in-game setting and world-building, I felt it was important to include visuals to help the audience better understand the concept, rather than relying solely on text.
Figure 6.3, 6.4 Progress screenshot (extra).
However, certain graphics I wanted to use like images of sewers and a clock tower weren’t available in Canva’s asset library.
To overcome this, I improvised by combining existing graphics such as coins, fire, and circles, adjusting their colors, sizes, and positions to create visuals that resembled the elements I needed. Through this method, I managed to achieve visuals that effectively represented the sewer area and other parts of the game environment in a pixelated, steampunk style.
Figure 6.5, 6.6, 6.7 Progress screenshot (extra).
After finalizing the slides, I began preparing for the presentation by practicing the flow and familiarizing myself with the content I would be presenting. This was to ensure I could deliver the ideas smoothly and confidently during the presentation session.
During Week 03, our presentation went smoothly, and we received feedback from Ms. She commented that our game idea was well-balanced and featured interesting gameplay mechanics. One suggestion she made was to think more about the interaction between players and NPCs. She shared her experience of playing games where interacting with NPCs sometimes felt pointless and boring because it didn’t lead to anything meaningful. This made her question what would happen if players chose not to interact with them at all. It’s a good point for us to consider, as we might need to design interactions that feel rewarding or impactful for the player. Besides that, Ms also mentioned she liked the design and style of our presentation slides, and she’s looking forward to seeing how our actual game design turns out.
In class, she informed us that we’ll also need to submit an individual game design document, even though this is a group project. This left me a little confused at first because the game design document was something we’d been working on together as a team. Most of the sections I contributed, like Basic Information, Concept and Purpose, and parts of the Game Design had already been added into our shared group document, so naturally, everyone would have the same content.
But since it’s a requirement, I’ll need to create a new, individual document and reinsert the parts that I initially wrote for the group. On top of that, I’ll refine and expand the other sections that I wasn’t in charge of when we made the slides, making sure to personalize and improve them for my individual submission.
Figure 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 Individual game design document.
During Week 08, Ms. decided to switch from submitting individual Game Design Documents to a single group Game Design Document. Instead of a PDF, the submission would now be the presentation slides we presented in Week 3. Additionally, we are required to submit a group e-portfolio where each member records their individual contributions with screenshots and explanations for every task.
Although the submission is now a group Game Design Document, I continued updating my individual document with any new ideas, changes made in the group version, and from the overall process and journey of developing the game.
Figure 7.4 - 7.8 Individual game design document.
Final Game Design Document
Group E-portfolio
Week 03 Presentation Slides
Individual Game Design Document
Google Docs
Week 03
Ms. Bong commented that our game idea was well-balanced and featured interesting gameplay mechanics. One suggestion she made was to think more about the interaction between players and NPCs. She shared her experience of playing games where interacting with NPCs sometimes felt pointless and boring because it didn’t lead to anything meaningful. This made her question what would happen if players chose not to interact with them at all. It’s a good point for us to consider, as we might need to design interactions that feel rewarding or impactful for the player. Besides that, Ms also mentioned she liked the design and style of our presentation slides, and she’s looking forward to seeing how our actual game design turns out.
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