[Planning] Is this how you plan out a game development?

[tom_mai78101]

Here's a picturesque of my planned ambition for developing a game of mine. I would like to know if this is how you plan out stuffs for big projects.

Feedback is appreciated. You can click on the image for a larger version. If you can't seemed to get it to become larger, here's a link to the image.

 

[Accname]

Dont you think you are going a little bit too far?
I like to scribble some notes on a piece of paper but that looks like you put a day of work into this.
I also like to just put all information into simple .txt files on my computer.
And if i really want to be fancy i make a back up by mailing them to my own email adress.

 

[tom_mai78101]

Dont you think you are going a little bit too far?

I thought you had to plan out as much as possible, without adding too many features and details.

All of those shown are just the basics of the requirements.

I like to scribble some notes on a piece of paper but that looks like you put a day of work into this.

Hm... I wasn't planning on changing it every now and then.

I also like to just put all information into simple .txt files on my computer.
And if i really want to be fancy i make a back up by mailing them to my own email adress.

I liked to draw the ideas out, that way, it has like "almost unlimited" space to work on.

 

[Slapshot136]

I haven't done games, but most projects I work on have some sort of "path" in visio drawn, in addition to lots of SLAs - the specific implementation details are then left for each developer to figure out, but as long as they each respect the SLAs, then the project should come together at some point.

 

[Accname]

I haven't done games, but most projects I work on have some sort of "path" in visio drawn, in addition to lots of SLAs - the specific implementation details are then left for each developer to figure out, but as long as they each respect the SLAs, then the project should come together at some point.

But those projects are probably done by a multitude of developers and not one person alone.
If you are just on your own working on a private project then i doubt this is neccessary. Unless of course you really want to have it...

 

[Varine]

Kind of. The general overview is fine, typically I can understand mine better though. Aspects of it that I knew how I wanted to do had a more detailed structure, but most of it is being added to and revised as I go, so I just make technical notes as I work on it. They need to be organized... kind of getting out of hand.

 

[tom_mai78101]

Yeah, I fear this too. I now have mixed feelings: Part of me wants to redo all of this, and make it nicer-looking; The other part of me just wanted to start working without the hassle of rewriting.

 

[Varine]

If you don't want anything to change you had best make a far more intricate technical document.

 

[tom_mai78101]

a far more intricate technical document.

I'm curious to what it looks like. Is it like something you make out of Microsoft Visio, or just a Word document?

 

[Varine]

I usually use Google Docs. Most of them are just word documents for the detailed analysis, but I also use flowcharts for organization, workflow, and high level descriptions and on the rare occasion spreadsheets (primarily for handling numerical examples of some specific items that happened to work with it). My language engine and a lot of the math-based work is mostly handwritten, but that's primarily to save time because of the extensive use of symbols and shorthand that's hard to do on the computer, and there isn't anyone else that will see them.

 

[rover2341]

i often have sheets more less like that. but most are just images of screen states i draw by hand showing what the each screen would show, and then after doing that and stream lining it a few times i start to think of whats needed to do it. I avoid any tech thought in till i have what i am really looking for. I generally ask 2-3 people to look at it.

But it looks like you have a pretty good idea of what it is you want to do so your past that stage, and are puting in the details and requirements.

when i get there i normally only do the top 3-5 requirements where the game would function with out everything else even if it was garbage. and then once that's complete i start to see what kind of interest i still have in the project make a list of everything i would like, and then the top 2 things that would add value considering the amount of time.

and i often don't even get those top 2 things finished, as my top 3-5 requirements never seem to be fully flushed out, or often require reworking for me. as i tend to start showing it then and testing it then, and people point out all kinds of issues, and suggestions to my top 3-5 requirements.

In the past i had a tendency to lower quality so i could have a more advanced project and get it done and out there. As my old saying was... better to have a crap project done then no project at all. but now its keep it simple, keep is small, avoid features.

(I have a white board over my desk i have used over the last 6 months, but i still got stuff prior to that)

When i get home ill scan up some of my docs and post them so you can compare.

 

[Varine]

You could also just get a GDD template. Considering that this was like eight months ago though, I imagine you got a system now.

 

[The Helper]

Here's a picturesque of my planned ambition for developing a game of mine. I would like to know if this is how you plan out stuffs for big projects.

Feedback is appreciated. You can click on the image for a larger version. If you can't seemed to get it to become larger, here's a link to the image.

For the Bigger Ones or people who like to have stuff down where it needs to be - YES! Absof^&kinglutely

If you were selling this you would want to have some Art representing the different areas but for planning this is good. I would like to see the use of an endless whiteboard tech though, you should not be limited by space or you might already have that ....

 

[rover2341]

Also. If i were to do another system liker roller coaster I would first use a tool like the one i found in vs 2013. That shows functions that can call each other and map things out a bit. that's more if i were to make a what i consider a "system". but design a system some times when designing a game.

I did this by hand many times, and made the most sense at the time and i felt pretty bright. But after the fact It was pretty horrid (many of those functions are in the 50-100 lines of code), and you can see why i had/have some issues with bugs. And this is just the builder portion.

I also when planing my next major project would not allow 100 fail-safes in my program. When in unexpected value comes into a function, I would Crash the program prompt the data was incorrect in this function, and the have it ready to send me a report of where it came from (and as much useful data as possible). Roller coaster would never quite die, It has so many fail safes its even harder to find issues, as fail safes tend to more or less fix things as you go but the root of the problem is buried deep.

I planed in the fail safes, Bad Idea. But food for thought.

 

[tom_mai78101]

Oh god, that is messy.

 

[Conor]

There isn't really a one-size fits all solution to this, especially when it comes to having a smaller sized dev team. When you don't need to communicate it to anyone else, whatever system works for you is best.

The original Warcraft was seemingly developed without them and Dawn of Wars design documents were used only by a handful of the leads, so it certainly isnt a statutory requirement of making a good game.

 

[seph ir oth]

As Varine said, google docs is pretty nice. I love using a physical whiteboard myself, however, if I am to share my design(s) with others I will take detailed pictures of the board & put them in a google excel sheet. That way you can have pages of details to your design, and even add notes all around the image at your leisure. Even better, it's easy to manage who can access your information, as well as who can edit it. Most people already have a gmail account so if you're looking for new people to hop aboard it's easy to integrate them.

 

[tom_mai78101]

What exactly is this plan made for?

Someone asked me on an IRC channel asking for what this "drawing plan" is used for.

This "drawing plan" is used for my project, "Pokemon Walking". You can see this here.

 

[jonas]

You should read "the mythical man month" by Fred Brooks. Especially the chapter about documentation. It's a short, fun to read book, and it's full of knowledge. Go to a library and start reading!