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[hatu]

This is something that has annoyed me for quite some time, I don't personally like just writing down a design document when designing a game or fleshing out a idea to see if it could be something.

Usually I use a light image editor where I can draw some concept "in-game" screens and explain stuff there, but unless I want to create a huge image, it's gonna be hard to fit too much info or a lot of screens there and it's hard to manage.

What tools are people using or are everyone just getting by with a text editor/image editor?

[Montoli]

Most game design documents I've seen are MSWord files with lots of pictures in them, either simple MSPaint sketches, photoshop mockups, or (if the designer can convince an artist to lend some time) nice sketches.  Most of the people I know who write them just get by with MSWord and photoshop/paint.

However, I feel like the problem isn't that we don't have good tools for writing game design documents.  I feel like the real problem is that we, as an industry, as designers, as whatever... don't know what game design documents should be.

Seriously, most other artforms have much better ways of communicating themselves via paper.  A musician can read some sheet-music and get a pretty good idea of the song you're thinking of, in their head.  An actor can read a script, and see what the play is supposed to be.  Give two people the same game design document, and they'll imagine wildly different things.

Several people have been trying to address this, but so far, no one has come up with a good, formalized way of describing exactly what game you're thinking of.  Games still don't have a good "sheet notation".

So yeah.  Meanwhile, everyone I know gets by with a text and image editor.

[Aquin]

I use the same process for my game design documents as I do for software architecture.  Requirements elicitation -> analysis -> object design documentation.  Hurray for flowcharts and other nifty tools!

It does actually work very well and it really helps me out when I sit down to actually write the code.  I know it sounds like this overly long and complicated process, but really it's not so bad.  And yes I use notepad+pictures to get my point across. 

[mjau]

Envelopes.

Maybe not the most.. professional.. but they're quick and easy to use, there's always some nearby, and the mailman keeps giving me more for some reason.

[Loren Schmidt]

Those are some lucky envelopes!

I fall in the pencil and paper camp too. For action games I always like to draw out ideas for gameplay. Sometimes I'll draw a few frames in a sequence so I have an idea of what things will be like in the action. I keep a folder for each game idea with loose leaf paper in it.

A bound sketchbook I keep inevitably ends up with a lot of visual ideas in it as well.

I also keep notes in a word processor, especially in the early stages of a project when ideas are still solidifying. I won't go into detail initially, though sometimes as I implement things I'll update this file with notes on implementation or questions.

I would love to have some way of combining visual notes and typed text painlessly, preferably in a way that is both searchable and cross-referenced. I've heard TiddlyWiki is good, but I haven't messed around with it enough to get used to it.

[leaf]

I'm no artist, but can't you use gamemaker for something like this? It already has a grid system you can use to paste pictures in.

[falsion]

I just use something like something like Construct (or MMF, what I'd formally use in the past) and design things as I go.

That's probably a bad idea. I really ought to use design documents. But for some reason I'm able to just make things up as I go. "Klik" programs like Construct allow you to get instant results and test various gameplay ideas without hardly doing anything (other than choosing some presets and setting a few quick condition/restraints on them).

I guess what I do is sort of like prototyping, I dunno. Maybe I'm doing it all wrong.

[Kekskiller]

Notepad is the only serious gamedesign tool EVER.

Plus you can change the font! It's visual!

[r.kachowski]

you can change the font in notepad?!?

i use my own mediawiki site, open it up from anywhere and add to your crazy ideas.

[sherlok]

Hmm...first post.

I've been using this tool for some really quick design stuff (for both code and the game itself).

It's online, graphs are easy to follow and you can throw in links/image/etc. You're basically diagramming your idea. Also it's free.

Edit: Also lets you collaborate - if you're into that kinda thing.

[dbb]

I agree with what Sparky said re. pen and paper - I've yet to find a digital medium that enables me to switch between text and graphics as easily and seamlessly as an actual sketchbook. Looking at my sketchbook ideas for games, they're full of little sprite thumbnails all mixed up with fragments of code or pseudocode describing how said sprites might actually behave.

[Muz]

You spoiled kids. Back in my day, we wrote designs in Notepad because Word used up too much processing time. Heck, we wrote our websites and code in Notepad too. These days, you even have some fancy Notepad++ which colors and highlyghts all your code for you.

Seriously, though, pencil and paper is great. I would never really use MS Paint for design unless I had a tablet - it's just too slow to open/save pages and move them around. If you have huge images, drawing down on paper and rubbing stuff out is a lot easier than any image program could do.

I went through some phase where I tried to make everything digital. Later on I discovered that it's just a lot easier to pay $3 for a very nice sketchbook and it saves me a lot of time too. Pencil and paper is especially beautiful for coding AI, when you need both figures and code on the same page.

[SidM]

I use college ruled sheets (I used tons and still have tons of them) and a Parker pen (Refillable fountain pen).

[dbb]

The only problem with pencil and paper is that whenever I make a mistake I find myself reflexively trying to hit Ctrl-Z.

[BlueSweatshirt]

I've yet to find a tool that beats pen and paper.

Until I do, I'll stick with that.
(no, I don't have a tablet. )

[Jared C]

The only problem with pencil and paper is that whenever I make a mistake I find myself reflexively trying to hit Ctrl-Z.

Yes.  This.

[dbb]

So I thought it would be interesting, while we're on the subject of Visual Game Design Tools, if people could give examples of said tools in action:

Actually, given how much I (and, I'm guessing, other people) am fascinated by other people's sketchbooks, maybe this should be a new thread? "Show us your sketchbook"? Might really illuminate how different people here develop their ideas.

[Robotwo]

I like the concept of that simple lowres platformer , what was your source of inspiration? 

[Perrin]

For me, I've written formalised design documents but I've found they help more once the project is really taking shape and I need to start finalising everything. In the early phases, rough sketches on paper, quick notes in notepad as I think of things and getting somehting playable asap to I can interate on my idea help more than trying to formalise a design in advance.

[synapse]

If you're working with anyone else, I'd use Google docs.  They can pose questions to you and you can answer in the same version-controlled document in real time, and its all free.

After all, you don't need a document that details everything to everyone - you just need to make it clear to yourself and to your team.