Familiar with the humble GDD?

Are you familiar with the humble GDD? Want FIVE awesome examples, and a free template? We got you! 🚀

P.S. If you have your own GDD I’d love to see it linked! Let’s learn from each other ⬇

A GDD, or Game Design Document, is one of the most fundamental pieces of work created by the Game Designer. For those who are unfamiliar, you can kind of think of a GDD as the business plan of a game.

It primarily includes the systems and mechanics of a game, outlining how a game will function and EXACTLY how it will play. They are primarily used by the production team as a guide on what actually needs to get built. 🗒

They’ll often also include things contributed by other departments, such as art direction, timelines, and financial goals. 📈

In order to help you understand GDDs and to make your own, I’ve compiled a list of 5, count em 5, examples. Two were made by myself over my career (because I’m allowed to share them, lol) but three are more oldschool ones from extremely famous games:

1. A Design “One Pager” (Mini GDD for a single feature): https://lnkd.in/ezH5_MGa

2. A Full GDD for a VR game: https://lnkd.in/erfX2DKm

3. A classic GDD for Doom 1, also called the “Doom Bible”: https://lnkd.in/eFGUv576

4. A classic GDD for Grim Fandango: https://lnkd.in/ecJsNUNr

5. A classic GDD for Diablo 1: https://lnkd.in/erCMutif

∞. As many as you want from this wonderful resource: https://lnkd.in/eWm-jwct

And now for those looking to make their own, here is the Indie Game Academy‘s GDD Template: https://lnkd.in/gpSYKi67


I have a GAME DEV CHALLENGE for everyone! Spend no more than 3 hours making a brand new GDD for any game of your choosing!