How to write a one-page game design document, with examples
A clear and sweet template to plan your dream game. Sneaking and vampirism included.
One page game design document template
Name and core concept. What makes your game great, elevator pitch, unique selling points. Genre may be approximate or experimental but your publisher might appreciate a simple and trendy concept.
Core gameplay loop. Core systems and gameplay mechanics.
Story and major plot points, if applicable.
Major abilities, major skill trees where applicable.
Mood, tone, aesthetics.
Market appeal and target audience. Potential franchise, genre outreach.
Sources of inspiration for gameplay and mood. Any media, any genre. Encourage your team to contribute their own inspiration.
A game design doc is only as good as the information inside.
Formatting is essential. You want people to read and skip to any section fast.
Use clear language, short paragraphs, and bullet points. Every system and mechanic will get their own detailed section in specific design documents.
Play the game in your mind. Pinpoint what your game excels at. Focus on what inspires you, and inspire your team.
Name and core concept
Describing your core concept may be difficult in writing, but try to list essential mechanics and mood.
Explain in one sentence what makes your game amazing.
Genre may be approximate or experimental but your publisher might appreciate a simple and trendy concept.
Example:
Umbra is a gothic role-playing immersive sim. The player assumes the role of Lucien (Lucienne), a young thief ready to face the world.
Lucien is smart and capable. With ties to both the working class and the elites ruling Umbra, Lucien will make choices which may impact the city for a long time to come.
Core gameplay mechanics and loop
Describe the major moment to moment gameplay mechanics.
What your player or hero do most of the time.
Essential and interesting gameplay mechanics.
How your hero or player solve major obstacles.
This helps communicate what your core gameplay is, and roots out weak gameplay systems. Focus on major gameplay mechanics. Complete game design and parameters will be done in separate detailed documents.
Example:
Lucien travels the five hubs of the city by sprinting, leaping, sliding.
Most enemy and traversal sections may be solved through different means: combat, sneaking, skills, diplomacy, finding new paths through exploration.
All quests and tasks have at least two ways to be solved. All major quests have consequences, mechanical or narrative reactivity.
Experience points are gained for completing tasks, quests, exploration.
Movement is extremely agile. Lucien makes use of architecture and environmental elements to move, leap, slide swiftly across the city.
Combat is fast, precise, deadly.
Lucien's friends may help with various tasks, gifts or perks. Friends may also be avoided.
The main story has multiple endings.
The city's population will react heavily to Lucien's actions. The more violent Lucien is, the more guards, vampire hunters and Inquisition soldiers will appear. The people of Umbra may become more friendly or hostile depending on Lucien's actions.
When not engaging with quests, Lucien may explore the secret-filled city, spend time with friends, play minigames, or get a job. All these activities may influence or begin new quests.
Lucienne can sleep to advance time, after completing the main quest for the day.
Major skill tress
Your hero's major abilities or core gameplay mechanics when dealing with multiple protagonists.
Example:
Lucien may use three major skill tress.
Skills.
Standard and special abilities which the player will invest experience points in.
Skills include improvements to speed, life, healing, strength, speech, sneaking.
Skills examples:
Fortitude. A permanent increase in speed, melee strength, life and healing. Better resistance against melee and standard projectile attacks.
Streetwise. Increases persuasion and intimidation chances during dialogue. Higher levels confer combat bonuses against weaker enemies.
Advanced lockpicking. Increases the time locks slide back into place when starting lockpicking. Reduces the number of wrong lock combinations.
Vampirism.
A complete skill tree of supranatural powers.
Vampiric powers examples:
Vampirism: Life, speed and strength increase. Shadow Form replaces jumping - allows leaping over great distances and moving through thin objects. Some characters become friendlier or hostile. Lucien will slowly lose health when exposed to the sun.
Vampiric charm. Can influence weaker humans and vampires in dialogue. Confers more powerful attacks against weaker humans.
Teleport. Lucien can teleport behind an enemy. Weaker enemies may be subdued. Stronger enemies can be attacked or ignored.
Lucienne will have the chance to become a vampire soon after the game's intro. Becoming a vampire is optional, and comes with its own features and disadvantages.
Perks.
Perks are advantages gained from gameplay, exploration and quests. Some will be secret.
Perk examples:
Advantages against various types of enemies. Gained after fighting a specific number of enemies.
Calling an animal companion for help in battle. Gained after petting all the different animal species in the city.
Increased experience for the day. Gained after spending a night with a companion, or permanent after completing their quest.
Mood, tone, aesthetics
Describe the way the game and the world feel.
Mood, atmosphere, aesthetics.
Make it tactile and sweet, a general impression of what players feel when immersed in your game.
Example:
Umbra is a fantasy gothic city, fearsome and beautiful, grimdark and romantic.
The architecture is a meld of traditional Gothic style mixed with fantasy influences from different eras and regions.
The night sky is often clear, braided with twinkling stars and fluffy rain clouds. Sunsets are beautiful, saturated, inspiring.
Gameplay sequences take place only at night and during the sunset.
Market appeal and target audience
Your core audience.
Hone in on who will enjoy your game most, and what your audience expects.
Not only about pleasing a certain demographic, but knowing where your strengths lie.
Example:
Umbra appeals to fans of:
Complex RPGs and immersive sims.
Choice and reactivity.
Gothic fiction.
Story-driven games.
Agile movement.
Action and stealth games.
Visual novels and dating sims.
Umbra is positioned alongside complex RPGs and immersive sims, action and stealth games, and partially alongside visual novels.
Sources of inspiration
Include sources of inspiration from all media and genres.
Encourage your team to seek, play or watch similar media, in gameplay and mood.
If you have time and resources, ask everyone to make a list of three features they consider essential for the kind of game you're making.
Example:
Gameplay and movement: Dishonored, Assassin's Creed (series), Spider-Man (series), immersive sims in general, visual novels, fast-paced action games.
Writing and mood: Legacy of Kain (series), Vampyr, Vampire The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Max Payne, simplified Shakespeare, The Lord of the Rings, lyrical prose, Bram Stoker's Dracula; any mature vampire story; movies such as Dark City and the Harry Potter series.
Umbra takes inspiration from gothic, romantic and weird fiction in all its forms.
Do I need a game design document?
Yes and no. The consistency of documentation depends on the complexity of your project. The bigger the project, the more detailed documents you may need.
One single doc may become irrelevant, but it can communicate your core vision, mood, and gameplay. A design doc is as useful as the quality of information contained.
Regardless or how much documentation you need, maintain clear communication and stay relevant. Get to the point, focus on major features, format the doc properly to always be easy to read.
What to do if you're not excited for your game?
If gameplay feels bland, it often lacks good interlocking systems. At the simplest level, think of gameplay as opposing and interlocking systems.
When you create one mechanic, create another simple one to oppose it. Good gameplay stems from a balanced interplay of interlocking mechanics.
If narrative - story, plot, quests - feels bland, you can almost always point to lack of characterization. Characterization works on two core principles: relationships and dimensionality.
Relationships: characters have different relationships with each other (indifference included) and with various ideas.
Dimensionality: characters occupy a time-space in the past, present, future. Even if they're missing from the past or future, they still have an opinion and relationship with these concepts.
Basic hygiene
Format your document. You want people to read and skip to any section fast. Use clear language, short paragraphs, and bullet points. In comprehensive design docs, support the writing with relevant visuals: storyboards and core gameplay flow charts.
Avoid needless bragging. I've seen examples of design docs with a fair amount of bragging about how revolutionary the game is. Though you cannot argue with feelings, bragging won't accomplish much when communicating your vision to your team.
Play the game in your mind. Pinpoint what your game excels at. Get excited and giddy for the gameplay before it enters production. Focus on what inspires you, and inspire your team.