I have reached a point where I need to create a Software Design Document (SDD) for my uni final year project. The software in question, is a game prototype to demonstrate a new gameplay mechanic I have come up with. Unfortunately, I have found the SDD rather insufficient nor suitable in my video game development. I scour the internet for more details and these 3 documentations pop up consistently:
- Game Design Document (GDD)
- Functional Requirements Document
- Technical Specifications Document
Note that I have already written the Software Requirements Specifications (SRS) albeit in dire need of changes. Just asking whether is it possible to proceed from there or do I need to create other, new documents from scratch. If it is the latter, what kind of documents do I need to write?
If there’s any questions, feel free to ask.
Thank you.
This reeeeeally depends. Nowadays, documents are only REQUIRED for bigger projects with a many people team. Nonetheless, the main document for game development is clearly the GDD, where you put all the vision as well as funcionality for the game. All other documents are supportive to the GDD. Generally you’d have a TDD, Technical Design Document, describing code in depth as a guide for programmers. If your game is filled with story and dialogue, you’d have a Story Bible, describing characters, back story and lines of dialogue. But today, especially in indie development, you use just some of these documents and in a simplified form, because most documents with dozens or hundreds of pages end up in the limbo 'cause you won’t be able to keep them up-to-date as you change many many things throughout production. It’s your call! You only have to fulfill the needs of your team.
Being a uni Project and if it’s not going to be implemented or just in the form of a prototype, I’d say a GDD is more than enough.