one page design document
https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1012356/One-Page
- In other disciplines - Other disciplines use similar concepts, like architecture plan, mechanical diagram and biological diagrams which compares sizes of dinosaurs.
- Menu flowchart on the wall - He made a one page flowchart of the games menus, someone hung it up on the wall, just because it looked cool.
- Heading and images - A problem with GDDs is that no one reads them. People only look at the headers and images on the first pages. The idea behind one page GDDs is to make a document that gives an overview, like only looking at the headers and images and fitting it into one page.
- Increase size of the paper - A trick, if it’s hard to fit on one page: increase the size of the page!
- Shows relationships in the system
- Force you to make a concise design - If you can’t fit the design on one page, maybe it can be more concise?
- Understand the problem to draw it - You need to understand the problem to be able to draw it. It might require extra work to make the OP GDD, but you will come out with a deeper understanding of the game and it’s system.
- Need to remake the diagrams? - He would usually spend one week making the diagram, going to meetings and talking about it with the team. When it’s printed it’s already good enough to not need constant updates.
Shamelessly taken from here
