Updating Design Docs
Intro
Today, I spent some time going over the design docs to consolidate information and make them more easily readable. Some of the docs had outdated information, irrelevant information, and some were just downright confusing and illegible. I don’t want to just word vomit all the changes that I made because I don’t think that will help any readers. Instead, I’ll go over my process, starting from where the documents started and how they ended up at the end.
Before revisions
These documents have been iterated on many times. They were in such a state where they had a lot of relevant information, but were jumbled with random notes and links to sources. I tried to organize my chaos, but as I went through the docs, I realized that if we were to ask someone outside of the team to read it, they would most likely be confused.
The Actual Process
This was the first time in months where I actually combed through each word in all the docs. Upon doing a deeper dive, I was able to delete many lines of unnecessary verbiage, as well as update things to represent our current state of affairs. I backlogged certain features that didn’t seem like they would make the v0.1 cut, and organized the documents better. I tried my best to put myself in the shoes of a new reader, and ask myself if they could grasp the key points, and better define what those key points were. I’m by no means 100% happy with where things are, but I am definitely happy with the progress that was made in terms of organization.
My process was quite simple. I went through document by document. With every edit I made, I had a notepad out and jotted down a quick summary of what those changes were so I could understand the impact of my changes. The following are some examples of those summaries.
- “Combat Design Doc: Update wording for combat triggers via new Dungeon Master NPC. Update wording throughout combat for better readability, add section for AI (targeting, skill usage, number of enemies).”
- “Economy Doc: Add Intro section that distinguishes the difference from economic systems vs monetization design.”
Updating the GDD
After going through the 10 different documents, I did the same with the Game Design Document. Prior to making the changes, the GDD had sections and section definitions to help me understand what type of information should be in those sections. For example, in the “First Minutes” section, I had wrote down what was important to note in that specific section based on the research I had done. After iterating on it a few times now, I removed those section definitions which made it much easier to read. I added to nearly every section, often copy + pasting from relevant design docs. I updated certain sections that were still works in progress to have all the latest updates.
What’s Next
It feels great to be a bit more organized now. More iterations are to come as we finalize design decisions and ramp up development.
