Welcome to the Creative Constraints Game Design Document Jam!

What is a GDD?

A G.D.D. or Game Design Document is to layout a concise and clear roadmap for the development of a game. The elements of a GDD are Game Concept, Game Mechanics, Story Synopsis,  Artistic Style, Target Platforms, etc.

Who is this for?

This Jam is primarily for beginners in the game development space who don't know where to start.

 This jam is also helpful for people that want to outsource the game development process. At the end of this jam you will be able to communicate an idea and create a road map for a team of creators to follow toward the completion of your game idea. Every building needs an architect and every game needs a game design document

We also welcome people with finished or in-progress games to submit the GDD for their game to get feedback on clarity from others.

Objective

Game Design Documents are a vital part of game development. Therefore the goal of this jam is to get people comfortable with creating game design documents quickly in accordance with Constraints. Of course we encourage team work.

The resources and information provided below are optional, if you have your own method of creating GDDs then feel free to use that. As always, anything you create belongs to you and the use of A.I. is not permitted. We are trying to build a skill not the database for a large language model to monetize our efforts for free. Feel free to see this as a picture book or zine with a little words, but more so filled with pictures and links to describe ideas, mechanics, and concepts.

Reward

Top 2 Entries will be selected as the theme for STAGE 2 this game jam. In stage two of the game jam will encourage writer to create a fleshed out narrative based on a theme and your GDD. (Please Note: if you are one of the winners and don't want your GDD used in the next game jam as a theme, please indicate that in the community section.)

Resource

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1npEvqcMZSp0IX2hWw6Qq0WqJVfmVqS_YOGFWnnwfh-A/...

(*These elements are from the template above ^^^. Every GDD jam will feature a different template, so if you have any recommendations please mention in the comments section.)

Game Identity / Mantra: 

List your single sentence description of the game that you will use to guide design decisions. (Example: Stylized action platformer about a meatball fighting the dinner table.)

Design Pillars:

List up to 3 words/phrases that convey the feeling or emotion you want the player to experience. (Example: Fast. Action-packed. Mayhem.)

Genre/Story/Mechanics Summary:

List what the game is from a gameplay and/or story perspective. (Example: This game uses a unique swinging rope mechanic to tell a story about what it means to be a meatball...)

Features: 

List the cool features or unique elements that you want to include in your game.

Interface: 

List the player input method, the controls, and how the player interacts with your game.

Art Style: 

Include references to lots of images and games that have a similar aesthetic to what you're trying to achieve. 

Music/Sound: 

Include links to music and sound design similar to What you're trying to achieve. You can also list the emotional responses that the sound should invoke in the player.

Development Roadmap / Launch Criteria: 

Platform: Steam/Google Play/iOS/Web.         Audience: Age/gender/interests.

The Game Design Document (GDD) will be graded according to the rubric below Rubric:

-Adherence to Submission Details?
(5 stars = followed every rule, 1 star = Follow none of the rules)

-Typos
(5 stars means no typos, 1 star means typos made the document hard to understand and un-readable)

-Clarity
(5 stars means you could understand and explain to someone else what to do, and 1 star means the document made no sense and is easy to misinterpret, which would require a meeting with the writer for further explanation)  

 -Elements (5 stars = included all elements of GDD, and 1 star disregarded all elements of GDD) 

 -Creativity (10 stars = took a creative approach to writing a GDD that was clear and easy to understand (disregarded guidelines and advice mentioned in description), 1 star = Followed the guidelines provided 

 -Organization (5 stars = you could easily find what you were looking for in the document, 1 star = disorganized, no table of contents, and had to re-read entire document to find stuff)

 Submission Details: 

 -PDF file, powerpoint, or in the Project description(for people who dont have a pdf reader) 

 -1 page Min, but no more then 2 pages. If you choose powerpoint, no more then 5 slides 

 -Picture references -Works Cited (Cite your sources with links/book titles, etc.) 

 -Table of Contents 

 Constraints

1. Layout:
 structure your GDD in a unique manner, similar to zines, comics, and graphic novels. Feel free to play with the formatting to looking like a zine, comic or graphic novel as well. (feel free to check out the inspiration section, lots of cool ideas there) 

 2. Story:
Use a story from this gamejam  https://itch.io/jam/cc-narrative-jam

3. Illustration:
Your game design document should have more images then words to explain ideas concepts. 

Free resources
https://ardencrylic.itch.io/mini-zine-template
https://valmoxium.itch.io/comic-storyboard-booklet


Inspiration: 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/illustration--4011087178224995/

https://www.pinterest.com/saskiakiell/zines/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/343962490309978033/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/19492210984304001/

https://katamoiran.itch.io/rpg-donate-bookmark