RE: [GD-Design] Design Documents

[Sellers, M. <mse...@or...>]

Phil Harris wrote:
> Firstly, given that for a reasonable size project the design 
> doc is going to exceed several hundred pages, how do people 
> organise them. Single word doc, multiple word docs, HTML?
> 
> Secondly, are these documents kept up to date and if so how?

The answers to these questions depend on who your audiences are: yourself, a
small team, a large team, management, publisher, etc.

I work with a combination of teams and management, so I've gravitated toward
multiple Word docs saved as HTML with a central overview doc that acts as a
spine (and includes links to them).  I also use a lot more scanned drawings,
shockwave/director movies, and other graphical methods than I used to (I
learn slow sometimes).  

And I'd *definitely* advise putting your design docs under source control
immediately.  Our docs also include an initial author, change list,
edited-by, last edit date, etc.  Each also has a "goals" section that
explain what overall gameplay goals this design is intended to meet.
Sometimes just writing out this section will change a design (and it avoids
a lot of "'cause I think it'd be cool" kinds of designs).  We also include a
review date so that we know who has had visibility on the design and when
(though that's not in full use yet).

Mike Sellers