The Ultimate Game Design Tutorial

[Antidote]

I've been working on designing my game, [[R]eon](http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=49161.0) for quite a long time now, and before that I was working on another (now failed) project.  I've searched through [DevMaster](http://www.devmaster.net/), [GameDev](http://www.gamedev.net/reference/), and [Gamasutra](http://www.gamasutra.com/) and devoured the sheer number of resources available there.  I've learned a LOT about brainstorming a good game topic, understanding that certain genre, organizing your game, building it from the ground up, creating a solid base to work on, and then actually putting the game together.  And now I want to share some of this information with you.

**{} Disclaimer {}**
Before I begin, I'd like to say that the information displayed here is mostly taken from other sources, such as [DevMaster](http://www.devmaster.net/), [GameDev](http://www.gamedev.net/reference/), and [Gamasutra](http://www.gamasutra.com/), but also taken from some of our very own Eclipse tutorials for game design.  Some of the information displayed, however, is my own personal ideas or beliefs (such as making custom graphics).  I'm not trying to tell you how to design your game, I'm simply stating the best way I think you can make a game.

**{} Before We Begin {}**
Before you start working on getting together the information for designing your game, I suggest creating a folder by the name of your game on your desktop so that you can easily access it.  Create different Word (or whatever other word processing program you have) documents for the different parts of your game, such as a Game Design Document, storyline, class information, etc.

**{} Table of Contents {}**

* Getting an Idea
* Letting it Sit
* Don't Shoot for the Moon
* Your Genre
* Developing a Story
* Classes
* Game World
* Game Design Document
* Something to Show
* Graphics
* Putting it Together
* Never Giving Up
* Final Words

**{} Getting an Idea {}**
If you're creating a game, most likely you have a few ideas in your head.  You might want to create a space shooter game, or a replica of Harvest Moon, or the next great Runescape.  No matter what your ideas may be, it's important to choose one.  That's right, not a couple different projects, but just one.  It's plenty of work to keep up with one game, and working on two will doom both your games to failure.  Choose one idea, stick with it, and start to get more specific ideas for that game.

**{} Letting it Sit {}**
Once you have a game idea, it's usually tempting to begin working on it right away.  You want to create maps, you want to make items and NPCs to fight, and you want to get your game playable as fast as possible.  Although this might work some of the time, it's best to let your game idea sit for a little bit, or "marinate."  Think about the different aspects of your game, what will be included in it, how those things will work, and if the game idea is even possible.  You don't want to start on a game that you find out later is doomed to failure!  If you find out that your game idea isn't going to work, go ahead back to the first part and just choose another game idea to pursue.

**{} Don't Shoot for the Moon {}**
Not on your first game at least.  Some people's mottos are "Shoot for the moon, and if I miss, at least I end up in the stars."  The only problem is that no one's going to play your game if it's out in the stars.  It's best to choose a project that's very attainable and a lot smaller than your "next-big-Runescape" idea, _especially_ if it's your first game.

**{} Your Genre {}**
After you get an idea of what your game is going to look like, it's time to begin putting your ideas together.  The first part is to pick a genre.  If you already have an idea of what game you want, this shouldn't be hard.  A few examples of genres are:
Action, Adventure, RPG, FPS, Simulation, Platformer, Space, Shooter, and Civilization.

**{} Developing a Story {}**
After you know what kind of genre your game is going to be, it's important to develop a story.  If you let your game idea marinate for a little bit, coming up with a story shouldn't be too hard.  You're not trying to write up a book on your game, just a brief preview to the world you'll be creating.  A few good things to keep in mind when writing your story are:

* How did things come into being? (the world, the different races, the mountains)
* Who? (different races, gods, tribes, classes, etc)
* What happened? (how did your world come into the way it is now?  war, famine, drought, invading army)
* How are things now? (at war, peacetime, under siege, warring factions)

Getting together a story helps you to see your game as a more realistic thing and also gives you some inspiration to keep going.

**{} Picking a Game Engine {}**
For most of you here at Eclipse, you're most likely to choose the latest Eclipse engine, or some of you are waiting for [SE1.0](http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/smf/index.php/topic,44970.0.html).  However, if you're a more experienced member, you'll realize that there are actually a few different options for creating your game, and if you're smart enough you can actually create your own engine.  Once you know what your game is going to look like, you can get an idea of what will be necessary to pull off the project.

**{} Classes {}**
The two tendencies for this area are to create the normal Warrior, Bowman, Mage, Rogue classes or to go overboard and have 20 different classes.  While both can work, it's important to look at your game and see what fits.  You may not even want to have classes in your game, but rather have your players "level" dynamically.  Once you get an idea of what classes you want in your game, create names and descriptions for them and possibly for class advancements that will come later.

**{} Game World {}**
If you've created your storyline, this should fall into place relatively easily.  You're simply trying to take what the storyline says about your game and put it into more words and into pixels.  Draw a rough sketch of your game world on paper to get an idea of what you want it to look like.  Then transfer that to the computer and add some flares, such as shading, city icons, and more.  Then take each of the main cities in your game (it's good to have a few) and write up information on them, such as what the terrain looks like, what kind of NPCs and monsters will be there, what quests will be available, how they connect to other cities, and whatever else you can think of.

**{} Game Design Document {}**
This is, perhaps, the _most_ important part of designing any game.  Without a solid game design document, most games are doomed to failure.  A good game design document covers every area of the game, most of which you have already begun to fill out with the steps before.  The game design document contains all the information about your game in one place so that any team members that are helping you make your game can easily see what the game is going to look like and where it's going to go.  If you're not sure if you have what it takes to make a game, try to answer a few of these questions about your game:
[So, You're Designing an MMORPG?  Have You Thought it Through?](http://www.devmaster.net/forums/showthread.php?t=11656)

If you're relatively new to this idea, here are a few GDD templates for you to check out:
[BEST GDD Template I've found](http://www-personal.engin.umd.umich.edu/~bmaxim/cis488/BaldwinGameDesignDocumentTemplate.doc)
[Game Design Document Template by Chris Taylor](http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=ct-rd-click&id=750256&tp=w&ip=71.214.42.224&pd=false&b=0&hst=http%3A%2F%2Fptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com%2Fimages%2F0735713677%2Fdownloads%2FMasterDesignDocument.doc&frm=http%3A%2F%2Fwsapi.infospace.com%2Fclickserver%2F_iceUrlFlag%3D1%3FrawURL%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com%252Fimages%252F0735713677%252Fdownloads%252FMasterDesignDocument.doc%260%3D%261%3D0%264%3D67.192.223.220%265%3D71.214.42.224%269%3D0a23236b5db2468183c61f50e431ca01%2610%3D1%2611%3Dprodege.feed.swagbucks%2613%3Dsearch%2614%3D239138%2615%3Dmain-title%2617%3D15%2618%3D8%2619%3D0%2620%3D3%2621%3D12%2622%3DtcQycAGMcQY%253D%2640%3Dxeyhnofli7Nr5uHwZVXmeQ%253D%253D%26_IceUrl%3Dtrue&ncc=0&ncc=0)

Also, here's a great guide if you are designing your own (it'd also be good just to have a look-through if you're not):
[Creating a Great Game Design Document](http://www.gamasutra.com/features/19970912/design_doc.htm)

**{} Something to Show {}**
Alright, now you have all the information about your game that you'll need.  Sure, you'll get more as you go along, but for now, it's a pretty good-sized amount.  However, no one wants to read through those 20 pages of information, they just want the good bits.  So, without working on any graphics yet, you can already begin to put together a W.I.P.  I personally suggest reading [Read before posting in Work in Progress](http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/smf/index.php/topic,10069.0.html) to get an idea of what to have before posting your game.

* Story - You already have this, so simply copy and paste it from your GDD or whatever other document you have it in.
* Features - You should already have this, too.  Try to make your features unique.  Saying that you have 3,000 items not only isn't a feature, but probably isn't very attainable if you're the only one working on your game.  A feature such as Fishing is a good feature to have.
* Other Information - Pull out any other information that you think is decent from your GDD to show to the world.  Don't pull out damage tables and such, but maybe explain a little about the different areas in your world.

**{} Graphics {}**
Most people creating games use the default graphics that come with Eclipse, which are RMXP graphics.  DON'T!  Unless you're really good at mapping, which most people here aren't, using RMXP graphics will immediately give your game a bad name and you will lose players before you've even started.  If you're simply doing your game as a hobby, check out some other tilesets to use:

* [Modern Tilesets](http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=25034.0)
* [Breeze (Sprites and Tilesets)](http://www.rpgrevolution.com/lunaproductions/br/)
* [Inquisitors Tileset](http://www.rpg-palace.com/downloads/details.php?id=102) (There are other (outdoors, indoors, and world map) tilesets available from Inquisitor on this site)

However, I strongly suggest creating your own graphics.  Although it is a challenge and very difficult, especially for a new game maker, it is by far the most rewarding.  Here is a collection of custom graphic tutorials by members of this forum:
[Custom Graphics Tutorials](http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/smf/index.php/board,291.0.html)

**{} Putting it Together {}**
Now you have all the resources you need: a solid GDD to explain anything and everything about your game, graphics to put together, and hopefully (by now) a team to help you construct it.  The final step is to implement everything into the engine that you chose.  Create items, NPCs, classes, maps, quests, and add any features that you stated in the GDD.  Although this is possibly the longest part of making any game, it is by far the most rewarding because you can see visual progress as your game comes together.  Don't release your game for Beta until you have a decent amount of quests and maps put together and have most of the features and classes implemented.

**{} Never Giving Up {}**
Creating an online game is a constant project.  You're never finished with your game as you always need to add new classes, features, maps, and more.  It's important, however, to not add too much at a time and to not add anything that will kill your game.  For example, if you were to create a quest that would give you the Ultimate Weapon, your game would be ruined.  Everyone would eventually get that Ultimate Weapon and killing monsters would be easy.  Make sure that your game is always a challenge, even for high-leveled players.

**{} Final Words {}**
This is far from a complete guide.  Each of these individual sections could have another post as long as this one encompassing everything there is to know about game design.  The best thing you can do if you want to know more is to check out the forums and sites that I posted along the way (especially in the first post) and read as much as you want.  It's important, however, to not get caught up in constantly learning more about game design, you have to actually go out and apply it to your own game.

Also, if you think that there's anything that should be added to this guide, please feel free to PM me or reply in this thread.

Good luck with your game designing!!

[Ruins of Hell]

XD, I read through all of that, nice job. It's nice to see another tutorial on this dead board.

[Antidote]

Thanks!  I hope that more people will see this and be able to improve their games.  I tried to provide some outside sources for those who are interested in learning a bit more, too.

[Khachaturian]

Try to bold the titles, makes it easier to distinguish stuff.
Nice cover on all the topics though, pretty thorough. Good job!

[Antidote]

I bolded 'em a little bit and it seems like they're a little clearer, but if you need me to distinguish it more, I'll see what I can do.

[Element-Zeo]

thanx…this helped

[ProfessorLayton]

Loved the guide man. Helped me out and I bet it will and did help out other newbies :)