GDC 2025 Session Viewer
The Four One-Page Design Docs You Need (And How to Use Them)
Ian Schreiber (Game Designer, Independent)
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass - Get your pass now!
Track: Design
Format: Lecture
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: Intermediate
Design documentation comes in many forms and can be radically different from one project or company to the next, but there are a few kinds of documentation that are broadly useful in most game projects. This talk will focus on four such documents: the game vision, pillars, loops, and resource flow, with examples from a variety of games. Attendees will learn what these documents are, how to create them in a way that makes them useful and maintainable, and how to use them to make future design tasks on the project much easier.
Takeaway
Attendees will learn how to optimize their core design documentation to make it easy to write, easy to maintain, and useful for team alignment, new employee onboarding, and answering design questions throughout the project.
Intended Audience
Game designers, particularly those who are senior level or above, or those involved with a game project at the earliest stages where these documents are usually created. However, any designer can benefit from learning these and creating them, even on personal side projects.