Game Development Community

Making Documentation

by Juha Eerola · in General Discussion · 04/15/2006 (7:40 am) · 9 replies

What program do you use to make documentation for your program/game?

I've been planning my own little game for over year and I'm not so good at making documentations so its not well organized (the documentation, that is).
Well... actually I havent written down all the things I've planned but I remeber the rest.

So that's why I'm asking about what kind of programs there are to help people like me that can't do well-organized documents :)
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Barrie
#1
04/15/2006 (8:14 am)
Do a search for Game Design Documents and that should help with the layout of your project. Start by getting all your ideas on paper first. Best idea is to write or sketch all of your ideas before you make the deisgn document. Using any word-processor will be find for what you want. Just make sure you arrange everything in a logical and easy to read manner. If you ever need to show someone this design document, they need to be able to see what your getting at.

Barrie Rogers
Editor/Writer www.360Monster.com

Torque Owner Juha Eerola
#2
04/15/2006 (8:19 am)
Thanks for the reply.

I already got pretty much of my plannings on paper (but not everything, not even close) and some ideas on my computer. All I need is just layout for documentation or something like that.

I'll search for "Game Design Documents" as you said.

Let's see what I'll find out...

Torque Owner Thomas Hise
#3
04/15/2006 (9:43 am)
Chris Taylor's design template is by far the best I have come across. Feel free to grab it..

Torque Owner Steven Peterson
#4
04/15/2006 (10:22 am)
Quote:
What program do you use to make documentation for your program/game?

For tech-docs I just use dOxygen to create it stright from the code.

For everything else I have a two pronged approach:
- First I use pencile/yellow-pad paper to outline the document.

- Second I use Sun StarOffice - I like the stylist features better than the one's in "Word." I use stylist HEADINGS to create the entire document outline in StarOffice. Thats what their ment for (same as in HTML). Then it's just a matter of filling in the content...

Actually I think this is the approach my 7th grade english teacdh was always trying to hammer in; I didn't get it till many years later though...

Torque Owner Mark
Default Studio Name
#5
04/15/2006 (1:26 pm)
I usually create a planning folder. I'm not much of a person with paper and pencil.

I organize all my ideas into folders, which act alot like categories. Then I create sub-categories and put all my notepad writings in there.

Instead of needing to scroll through miles of text, it's faster this way.

Torque Owner Juha Eerola
#6
04/15/2006 (1:31 pm)
Thanks for the link, Thomas.

Mark, wouldnt it be sweet if we could have links in documents so we could have some kind of content-list in the beginning and then we could click the links and it would go to that part of the document.

Gotta google for Sun StarOffice and check it out.

Torque Owner Curtis Hielema
#7
04/15/2006 (1:48 pm)
Chris Taylor is the man, and he does a good job of getting his name out there because everyone knows who he is. I loved Dungeon Siege

Torque Owner Mark
Default Studio Name
#8
04/15/2006 (3:36 pm)
You could use Html files Juha

Torque Owner Juha Eerola
#9
04/15/2006 (3:47 pm)
Yea I know, but that's a bit slow compared if there was a program that could add those links faster :P

Well, no rushing, no rushing. I'll think more tomorrow. Got to sleep some.