SYNERGY: GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT AND PRESENTATION

           Finally, after many weeks of work, communicating with other members of the group, and desperately trying to design a consistent game to present to tutors as the final assignment of the year, the Game Design Document for my game idea 'Synergy' has been completed along with the Pitch Presentation.

With 17 pages, this slightly larger 'ten pager' design document covered the most common sections of the typical GDD document. With a game like Synergy, we found it quite the challenge fitting in all the details we wanted into the 15 pages we were set and restricted to, thus I believe we could of done a better job - the time limit did effect the document's quality.

It's worth nothing that both this and the presentation was a complete group effort, both in developing the document and presenting it to our university tutor. However, as a group, it was sensible to delegate the workload to get the document and presentation completed as efficiently as possible.

WHO DID WHAT IN THE DOCUMENT?

    I myself, developed the game's initial concepts, visual style of the game and therefore, both the document and presentation. Along with this, I wrote and developed the Front page, the Contents page, the Mechanics pages, the Enemies and Bosses pages, the Digital Strategy and Competition page and finally, the Chosen Engine page. It is also worth nothing that I set out the layout of David's pages to ensure the document was both consistent and completed on time - he wrote his own page information.

David wrote the content for the Story pages, the Character pages, the Gameplay Page and the Game Flow and Controls page - he was assigned the first section of Synergy's GDD. He did a great job and understood the game's concept fully.

Nicolas on the other hand was assigned the middle section. He wrote the content, developed the artwork and set out the page layouts for the Main Gameplay Concepts and Platform Specific Features page, the Game World page, and the Interface pages. Unfortunately, due to Nicolas being absent for the majority of the games low level design and brainstorming, he didn't really understand Synergy, which was real shame, and due to time constraints he himself had to develop the pages, resulting in a lack of consistency and flow. Regardless of this however, his artwork was amazing, it really gave the game an identity - without that, Synergy's GDD would of severely suffered. Thanks Nick!

Look at the document below!

COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS APPRECIATED!

SYNERGY: GDD - FRONT PAGE
by Christian Whelan

SYNERGY: GDD - CONTENTS 
by Christian Whelan

SYNERGY: GDD - STORY
by Christian Whelan and David Barker

SYNERGY: GDD - STORY (2)
by Christian Whelan and David Barker

SYNERGY: GDD - GAMEPLAY 
by Christian Whelan and David Barker

SYNERGY: GDD - GAME FLOW AND CONTROLS 
by Christian Whelan and David Barker

SYNERGY: GDD - CHARACTERS
by Christian Whelan and David Barker

SYNERGY: GDD - GAMEPLAY CONCEPTS AND PLATFORM
by Christian Whelan and Nicolas Piskorski

SYNERGY: GDD - GAME WORLD
by Christian Whelan and Nicolas Piskorski

SYNERGY: GDD - INTERFACE PAGE
by Christian Whelan and Nicolas Piskorski

SYNERGY: GDD - INTERFACE PAGE (2)
by Christian Whelan and Nicolas Piskorski

SYNERGY: GDD - THE MECHANICS PAGE
by Christian Whelan

SYNERGY: GDD - THE MECHANICS PAGE (2)
by Christian Whelan

SYNERGY: GDD - ENEMIES AND BOSSES
by Christian Whelan

SYNERGY: GDD - ENEMIES AND BOSSES (2)
by Christian Whelan

SYNERGY: GDD - DIGITAL STRATEGY AND COMPETITION
by Christian Whelan

SYNERGY: GDD - SELECTED GAME ENGINE
by Christian Whelan

WHO DID WHAT ON THE PRESENTATION

The presentation was also a group effort, and was vital aspect in presenting Synergy to our tutor - it had to be good!

Again, I myself developed the visual style and layout of the presentation, along with the slides that covered my pages. In addition, due to work load and time constraints, I also wrote in the information for David's slides which he dictated (so that he understood what he was reading). With my slides and David's done, it was down to Nick to finish his slides.

Nick competed his three slides on his own - fortunately, his slides were great! Being visually rich, the slides kind of spoke for themself, but again, it was the much needed identity Synergy needed. 

Considering the 10 minute time limit we had, and the scale of an idea Synergy is, we could have shortened the presentation down a little bit, but again, we didn't have time. Regardless, the presentation turned out fine (I think).

Have a look at the presentation below!

SYNERGY: PITCH PRESENTATION

    Looking back, although I love the game idea, I think I should gone with a  much simpler concept - one idea, one mechanic and game play built around that and only that. It would of been much simpler, as I bit off more than I could chew, which I believe is entirely to blame for the quality of the GDD. I like it, but it's not perfect by a long stretch. Fitting all this information in 15 pages and 15 slides was one of the hardest things I've done in a while.

   However, although it could be improved, I think we did a great job considering the size of the idea and the time and resources we had! Here's to hoping I get a first for this final assignment!

NEXT POST: YEAR CONCLUSION