Top Mud Sites Forum - View Single Post - Looking for information on use of game docs...

KaVir · 03-20-2010, 09:36 AM

I spent several months discussing ideas and putting together a design document with two friends. We had very different preferences though, and ended up compromising so much that the project lost direction. We all lost interest in it, and discussions ground to a halt.

I then put together a new design, this time based on my own preferences. We spent another 11 months bouncing ideas around before we had enough design that we felt ready to start - even then we might have just carried on debating, but one of the newer team members gave us a proverbial kick and coding began.

The main design document was just a simple text file, although it was split into clear sections covering different aspects of the game to varying degrees. We also had various other documents containing rough notes, the emails where we bounced ideas around, and a prototype of the combat system (a tiny pure-PK mud) to test its viability before beginning the real mud.

The mud has long since outgrown the original design, as some things didn't work as well as expected, or better approaches were discovered during playtesting. I keep a record of all the progress reports, and it's quite interesting to see how the design has evolved over time:

03-20-2010, 09:36 AM	#2
KaVir Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Name: Richard Home MUD: God Wars II Posts: 2,052	Re: Looking for information on use of game docs... I spent several months discussing ideas and putting together a design document with two friends. We had very different preferences though, and ended up compromising so much that the project lost direction. We all lost interest in it, and discussions ground to a halt. I then put together a new design, this time based on my own preferences. We spent another 11 months bouncing ideas around before we had enough design that we felt ready to start - even then we might have just carried on debating, but one of the newer team members gave us a proverbial kick and coding began. The main design document was just a simple text file, although it was split into clear sections covering different aspects of the game to varying degrees. We also had various other documents containing rough notes, the emails where we bounced ideas around, and a prototype of the combat system (a tiny pure-PK mud) to test its viability before beginning the real mud. The mud has long since outgrown the original design, as some things didn't work as well as expected, or better approaches were discovered during playtesting. I keep a record of all the progress reports, and it's quite interesting to see how the design has evolved over time: