Guide to Game Development/Miscellaneous/Planning out your game

How to plan your game out

This a rough guide for you to follow when you're planning your game out.

• Break your planning note document into different levels of indentation, for example: plan a world, then increase your indentation to plan the level, then increase your indentation to plan each part of the level, then increase the indentation to plan the aesthetics of that part. Note: if the document gets too large, it might be a good idea to swap a level of indentation into a different file or directory.
• Plan with images, this will help you and others visualise what you mean to get a better understanding.
• Plan out:
  • Mechanics
  • Worlds/locations/levels
  • Aesthetics
  • Character
    • Movement
    • Inventory
    • Attacks
  • GUI
  • Storyline/objectives

Things to think about when you plan a new feature

• "Replayability"

Is this new feature worth replaying?

• Enjoyment

Is this new feature fun?

• Understandable

How easy is it for someone to pick up?

• Unique

How unique is this feature? Is it typical and too expected?

• Hard or frustrating?

It's good for games to be hard, it can make it challenging, but no one wants to play a frustrating game.