player-surrogate, Rynn, through the world using forward and backward keys, while the
mouse turns the character. However, when players press the inventory key, the game
goes into inventory mode. From this mode players no longer control Rynn’s move-
ments, but instead are presented with a mouse cursor with which Rynn’s inventory can
be manipulated using standard drag-and-drop functionality. In the design document for
Drakan, the designer would want to clearly describe how the controls shift from one
mode to the next and how the game-world is manipulated in each.
Some sections of the design document will be dependent on the technology
the game will be using, whether 2D or 3D, indoor or outdoor, real-time or pre-rendered.
Though one tries to separate the technological aspects of the game into the technical
design document and keep them out of the design document as much as possible, what
is being created is still a computer game, and as such it is inherently tied to the technol-
ogy it will use. Writing a design document without having any sense of what sort of
technology the game will have access to is usually impossible and at the very best
impractical. You do not need to know how many polygons per second the engine will be
able to handle, or whether it will support NURBS or not. However, you do need to have
some base understanding of the tools that will be available to the designer. Designing a
control or combat system that works in a 3D world and one that works in a 2D one are
completely distinct and different tasks. You want to play to the strengths of the technol-
ogy the game will use while dodging the weaknesses.
For example, the Game Mechanics section will need to describe what players see
while they are playing the game. This includes how the players see the world, what sort
of camera view will be used, and how players will be able to affect that camera’s posi-
tion. In order to write about this, you need to know what the camera will be capable of
doing, which is entirely dependent on the game’s engine. It may be that the engine will
only support a first-person view, only a side view, or any number of other limitations.
Nonetheless, how players see the world is such a central part of the game’s design that
you must discuss it in the Game Mechanics section.
Chapter 19: The Design Document 365
The GUI is extremely
important to games
such asAlpha Centauri,
and will need to be
thoroughly described in
the design document.