Awesome Game design list

A list of publicly available Game design documents that I have found interesting. (Ok... the list is slowly evolving. The main focus will still be game design materials, but will also include additional cool tools at the end)

I do not own any of these documents. If there are any copyrighted materials, they belong to the original authors.

Enjoy.

Contents:

Game Design Document:

• Finished games GDDs
• Templates and examples
• Learning materials
• Postmortems
• GDD Creation Tools

Game architecture:

• List

Design tools

• List

Development:

• List

Finished games GDDs:

• Monaco
• Rockstar games GTA
• Condor's Diablo 1
• Original Deus Ex
• Irrational Games (now Ghoststory Games) Bioshok
• Id Doom
• Laisure Suit Larry 5
• Frontier Pharmacist
• Shape up or Slip out
• The sky above, the sky below
• Love for sail!
• Leisure Suit Larry's Casino
• Prince of Persia 2
• Burnt out cop
• Grim Fandango

Templates and examples:

• Generic example 1
• Generic example 2
• Generic example 3

Learning materials:

• The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses
• Game Maker's Toolkit - Mark Brown's extensive video library analyzing game design principles
• Lost Garden - Daniel Cook's influential game design blog with essays and frameworks
• The Door Problem - Classic game design essay by Liz England explaining what a game designer does
• Designer Notes - Soren Johnson's game design podcast and blog
• A Theory of Fun - Raph Koster's influential book on game design (site with resources)
• Asking Gamedevs - Industry Q&A collection from veteran game developers
• Game Programming Patterns - Free online book by Robert Nystrom covering essential programming patterns for games
• Game Design Patterns Wiki - Academic collection from Chalmers University of Technology
• Game Developer Deep Dives - In-depth technical postmortems series

Postmortems:

(The following list is taken directly from www.pixelprospector.com Their website is currently only visible in the WaybackMachine archives, thats why I am posting it here)

Indie Postmortems

1998-1999

• System Shock 2 (Irrational Games) [1999]

2000-2004

• Gish (Chronic Logic) [2004]

2005-2009

• Wik & The Fable Of Souls (Reflexive) [2005]
• Eets (Klei Entertainment) [2006]
• Armadillo Run (Peter Stock) [2006]
• The Graveyard (Tale of Tales) [2008]
• Schizoid (Torpex Games) [2008]
• BIT.TRIP BEAT (Gaijin Games) [2009]
• Cogs (Lazy 8 Studios) [2009]
• Darwinia (introversion) [2009]
• The Blackwell Convergence (Wadjet Eye) [2009]
• Weapon of Choice (Mommy's Best Games) [2009]
• Swords & Soldiers (Ronimo Games) [2009]
• Trino (Trinoteam) [2009]

2010-2014

• Aaaaa! — A Reckless Disregard for Gravity (Dejobaan Games) [2010]
• The Path (Tale of Tales) [2010]
• Droplitz (Blitz Games) [2010]
• Hydro Thunder Hurricane (Vector Unit) [2010]
• NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits (Over the Top Games) [2010]
• Igneous (Going Down In Flames) [2010]
• Explosionade (Mommy's Best Games) [2011]
• The Adventures Of Shuggy (Smudged Cat Games) [2011]
• Octodad (Octodad Team) [2011]
• Super Meat Boy (Team Meat) [2011]
• Gemini Rue (Joshua Nuernberger) [2011]
• Guns Of Icarus (Muse Games) [2011]
• Recettear (Carpe Fulgur) [2011]
• Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess (Mediatonic) [2011]
• Ray Ardent: Science Ninja (Ninja Robot Dinosaur) [2011]
• Fez [VIDEO] (Polytron) [2012]
• Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games) [2012]
• Lume (State of Play) [2012]
• Outland (Housemarque) [2012]
• Dead Nation (Housemarque) [2012]
• Dust: An Elysian Tail (Humble Hearts) [2012]
• SpaceChem (Zachtronics Industries) [2012]
• Jetpack Joyride [VIDEO] (Halfbrick Studios) [2012]
• Gun Godz (Vlambeer) [2012]
• Forge (Dark Vale Games) [2012]
• The Binding of Isaac (Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl) [2012]
• Hell Yeah! (Arkedo) [2012]
• Zack Zero (Crocodile Entertainment) [2012]
• AI War (Arcen Games) [2013]
• Anomaly Warzone Earth (11 Bit Studios) [2013]
• Cinders (Moacube) [2013]
• Ethan: Meteor Hunter (Seaven Studio) [2013]
• Guacamelee! (DrinkBox Studios) [2013]
• Intrusion 2 [VIDEO] (Aleksey Abramenko) [2013]
• Natural Selection 2 (Unknown Worlds Entertainment) [2013]
• Pixeljunk 4am (Q-Games) [2013]
• Speedrunner HD [VIDEO] (Casper Van Est) [2013]
• Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (The Chinese Room) [2014]
• Super Win The Game (Minor Key Games) [2014]
• Vessel (Overbyte) [2014]

2015-2019

• Cogmind (Grid Sage Games) [2015]
• Goat Simulator (Armin Ibrisagic) [2015]
• Airscape: The Fall of Gravity (Daniel West) [2015]
• Halfway (Robotality) [2015]
• Heroki (Michael Balm) [2015]
• INK (ZackBellGames) [2015]
• Never Alone (Upper One Games / E-Line Media) [2015]
• Next Penelope (Aurelien Regard) [2015]
• Nub's Adventure (Maximilian Csuk) [2015]
• Out There (Mi-Clos) [2015]
• Resogun Article / Video (Housemarque) [2015]

2020-2024

• Mika and the Witch's Mountain (Chibig) [2020]
• Hades [VIDEO] (Supergiant Games) [2020]
• Vampire Survivors (poncle) [2022]
• Balatro Timeline (LocalThunk) [2024]

Humble Indie Bundle

• Humble Indie Bundle [VIDEO] [2011]
• Humble Indie Bundle (Indiegames Blog) [2011]
• Humble Indie Bundle (Joystiq) [2011]

Ludum Dare Game Jam Postmortems

• Infographic: Game Jam Postmortems – What Went Wrong/Right (McFunkyPants) [2011]
• Infographic: Game Jam Postmortem Survey (McFunkyPants) [2011]
• Ludum Dare Postmortems (Ludum Dare) [various years]

AAA Studios Postmortems

1998-1999

• Myth: The Fallen Lords (Bungie) [1998]
• Thief: The Dark Project (Looking Glass Studios) [1999]

2000-2004

• Age of Empires II: Age of Kings (Ensemble Studio) [2000]
• Deus Ex (Ion Storm) [2000]
• Diablo II (Blizzard) [2000]
• Unreal Tournament (Epic Games) [2000]
• Vampire: The Masquerade — Redemption (Nihilistic Software) [2000]
• Wild 9 (Shiny Entertainment) [2000]
• Rainbow Six (Red Storm Entertainment) [2000]
• Black & White (Lionhead Studio) [2001]
• Baldur's Gate II (BioWare) [2001]
• Fallout Tactics (Micro Forte) [2001]
• No One Lives Forever (Monolith) [2001]
• Operation Flashpoint (Bohemia Interactive Studios) [2001]
• Jak and Daxter: the Precursor Legacy (Naughty Dog) [2002]
• Neverwinter Nights (Bioware) [2002]
• Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II (Factor 5) [2002]
• Galactic Civilizations (Stardock Entertainment) [2003]
• Ratchet & Clank (Insomniac Games) [2003]
• Splinter Cell (Ubisoft) [2003]
• TRON 2.0 (Monolith) [2003]

2005-2009

• Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations) [2005]
• WipEout Pure (SCEE) [2005]
• Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2 (Krome Studios) [2005]
• Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords (Stardock Entertainment) [2006]
• Indigo Prophecy (Quantic Dream) [2006]
• RoboBlitz (Naked Sky Entertainment) [2007]
• Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania (Blue Fang) [2007]
• BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia) [2008]
• Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (Insomniac Games) [2008]
• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (Naughty Dog) [2008]
• Bionic Commando Rearmed (Capcom/GRIN) [2009]
• Crackdown (Realtime Worlds) [2009]
• Darkest of Days (8Monkey) [2009]
• The World Ends With You (Square Enix) [2009]
• Tomb Raider: Underworld (Crystal Dynamics) [2009]

2010-2014

• A Boy and His Blob (WayForward) [2010]
• Brutal Legend (Double Fine) [2010]
• Deadliest Warrior (Pipeworks Software) [2010]
• Hydro Thunder Hurricane (Vector Unit) [2010]
• Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond (Vicious Cycle) [2010]
• Super Monkey Ball 2 (Sega/Other Ocean) [2010]
• Crash Bandicoot (Naughty Dog) [2011]
• Magicka (Arrowhead Game Studios) [2011]
• Okamiden (Capcom) [2011]
• Renegade Ops (Avalanche Studios) [2012]
• Sins Of A Solar Empire (Stardock Entertainment) [2012]
• Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Sony Bend Studios) [2012]
• Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition (Overhaul Games) [2013]
• God of War: Ascension (Sony Santa Monica) [2013]
• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (Big Huge Games / 38 Studios) [2013]
• Resident Evil 4 (Capcom) [2013]
• Spider-Man (Treyarch) [2013]

2015-2019

• Deadly Premonition (Access Games) [2015]

Classic Game Postmortems (Videos from GDC)

• DOOM [VIDEO] (Tom Hall, John Romero) [2011]
• Elite [VIDEO] (David Braben) [2011]
• Bejeweled [VIDEO] (Jason Kapalka) [2011]
• Maniac Mansion [VIDEO] (Ron Gilbert, Double Fine Productions) [2011]
• Marble Madness [VIDEO] (Mark Cerny) [2011]
• Pac-Man [VIDEO] (Toru Iwatani, Namco) [2011]
• Pitfall [VIDEO] (David Crane) [2011]
• Populous [VIDEO] (Peter Molyneux, Lionhead Studios) [2011]
• Prince of Persia [VIDEO] (Jordan Mechner) [2011]
• Raid on Bungeling Bay [VIDEO] (Will Wright) [2011]
• Video Games Turn 25: A Historical Perspective and Vision for the Future (Satoru Iwata, Nintendo) [2011]
• Fallout [VIDEO] (Timothy Cain, Obsidian Entertainment) [2012]
• Gauntlet [VIDEO] (Ed Logg) [2012]
• GoldenEye 007 [VIDEO] (Martin Hollis) [2012]
• Harvest Moon [VIDEO] (Yasuhiro Wada) [2012]
• Ultima: Online [VIDEO] (Raph Koster, Rich Vogel, Starr M. Long) [2012]

Special Postmortems

• What Went Wrong? Learning From Past Postmortems (Gamasutra Special) [2009]

Postmortems Videos

GDC Postmortems - Youtube playlist collection of GDC Postmortems

GDD Creation Tools

• Dundoc - Avenge your Game Idea and Plunge into the Future Gaming Portal. Design your game idea the right way
• Nuclino - A lightweight and collaborative wiki for all your team's knowledge, docs, and notes
• Affine - Great self-hosted note taking/knowledge base that serves well for GDD creation
• IMS Creators - Collaborative game design creation tool integrated with project management

Game Architectural elements

Entity Component System (ECS)

• Overwatch - GDC Talk by Timothy Ford about Overwatch's architecture and its ECS usage

Game design tools

Narrative Design Tools

• Arrow - Handy, free, open-source tool to design game narrative, develop text-adventures, or create any other kind of nonlinear interactive storytelling document
• Twine - Open-source tool for interactive, nonlinear stories. Widely used in indie games and education
• articy:draft - Professional narrative design tool used by AAA studios with version control and team collaboration
• Ink/Inky - Inkle Studios' narrative scripting language, free and open-source, used in games like 80 Days
• Yarn Spinner - Dialogue system used in Night in the Woods and other narrative-driven games
• Arcweave - Modern web-based narrative design tool with real-time collaboration features
• Fungus - Free, open-source visual storytelling tool for Unity

Game Balancing & Systems Design

• Machinations - Visual design tool for game systems and balancing

Game development

Learning Resources

• 3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development - Comprehensive book on math related to game development (Simply an amazing book about teaching math used in game development in a nice and easy manner) now for Free!
• COLLISION DETECTION by Jeff Thompson - This book explains the algorithms behind those collisions using basic shapes like circles, rectangles, and lines so you can implement them into your own projects

Game Engines

Popular Open Source Engines

• Bevy - A refreshingly simple data-driven game engine built in Rust. Free and Open Source Forever!
• Godot Engine - Popular open-source 2D/3D engine with MIT license, growing rapidly in adoption
• Defold - Free 2D game engine by King, particularly strong for mobile development

Lightweight & Specialized Engines

• LÖVE - Free 2D game framework using Lua, excellent for prototyping
• Pico-8 - Fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games

Community Resources

• r/gamedesign Wiki - Curated resources from the Reddit game design community
• IGDA Resources - International Game Developers Association resource library
• GameDev.net - Long-running game development community with articles and forums
• GDC Vault - Archive of Game Developers Conference talks (free and premium content)

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