JP. How many of the games in that 20+ years had more than 100 people working on it?
We actually went over all this in a design class at UAT. We had big huge discussions about design documents and what they are good for.
The conclusion was that as the number of people working on a game (and the focus of the school is obviously on the AAA industry, not indie or even small scale games) goes up, the design document becomes more and more essential. Mark Baldwin, the prof, didn't ever work from design documents on his games, however, when he does side-work now-a-days, he always uses them. They are the best way to know everything about a game which you have very little to do with. When he was doing the AI on Metal Fatigue, it was really a toss who was looking at the Design Docs or not. But today, with numbers of people working on a project in the hundreds, the design document is crucial. There are even jobs becoming available in some of the bigger development 'mills' that focus ONLY on document upkeep.
People who's job is only to keep track of changes and update the design documents.
Additionally. Design Documents are the perfect storage medium for game ideas. You can't ever forget them.
This is the primary reason I use them. I can write any game ideas I have, get them down, and then completely forget them. Move on to the next idea. In a small team, they don't do much more than serve as a way to keep track of the initial idea... then again. A small team doesn't need a giant design doc.
If your design doc needs to be 150 pages to get all the information down, then that is the best way to keep it down. No team of 2-3 people is going to be making, or I should say finishing a game that big. But if they stand any chance of being able to do it, the design doc is what will enable it. Even if only one person is reading it, that one person knows what is going on, and what will need to happen.
Er also. JP, I hope you haven't taken offence at any of this. Someone said this thread is great, because of all the divergent ideas and the freedom of the arguments. At the same time, I don't want to insult people I have lots of respect for. What you do, and have done in the past, are great. I'm not saying otherwise.
If memory serves me correctly, you (or your brother) were responsible for some of one of my favorite NES games. Solar Jetman. I don't remember if it was code or art. I think art.
We actually went over all this in a design class at UAT. We had big huge discussions about design documents and what they are good for.
The conclusion was that as the number of people working on a game (and the focus of the school is obviously on the AAA industry, not indie or even small scale games) goes up, the design document becomes more and more essential. Mark Baldwin, the prof, didn't ever work from design documents on his games, however, when he does side-work now-a-days, he always uses them. They are the best way to know everything about a game which you have very little to do with. When he was doing the AI on Metal Fatigue, it was really a toss who was looking at the Design Docs or not. But today, with numbers of people working on a project in the hundreds, the design document is crucial. There are even jobs becoming available in some of the bigger development 'mills' that focus ONLY on document upkeep.
People who's job is only to keep track of changes and update the design documents.
Additionally. Design Documents are the perfect storage medium for game ideas. You can't ever forget them.
This is the primary reason I use them. I can write any game ideas I have, get them down, and then completely forget them. Move on to the next idea. In a small team, they don't do much more than serve as a way to keep track of the initial idea... then again. A small team doesn't need a giant design doc.
If your design doc needs to be 150 pages to get all the information down, then that is the best way to keep it down. No team of 2-3 people is going to be making, or I should say finishing a game that big. But if they stand any chance of being able to do it, the design doc is what will enable it. Even if only one person is reading it, that one person knows what is going on, and what will need to happen.
Er also. JP, I hope you haven't taken offence at any of this. Someone said this thread is great, because of all the divergent ideas and the freedom of the arguments. At the same time, I don't want to insult people I have lots of respect for. What you do, and have done in the past, are great. I'm not saying otherwise.
If memory serves me correctly, you (or your brother) were responsible for some of one of my favorite NES games. Solar Jetman. I don't remember if it was code or art. I think art.