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May 11th, 2007

Write a FAQ for your favorite game

A great way to get some practice thinking and writing like a game designer is to write a FAQ for your favorite game. FAQs are actually very similar to game design documents, as they’re full of lots of little details about the game-design, game-play, levels, enemies, items, systems and controls that make up a game. I think I took to writing GDDs because I spent my youth obsessing over and writing FAQs for my favorite games.

For those who don’t know, FAQ stands for “Frequently Asked Questions”, and in the game world a FAQ is pretty much a free a strategy guide for a game written by a fan to help other fans beat the game and unlock its secrets. And back before big gaming websites ruled the earth, FAQs were the Internet’s authorities on games. Of course FAQs still exist today, and even I find myself turning to GameFAQs for help now and again when I get really stuck.

To write a good FAQ for a game you have to completely immerse yourself in the game. You have to figure out how all the controls work, where all the secrets are, and all the different ways the player can play through the game. Not just that, but you’ll have to think about the game a ton, and write about it clearly enough that other players can read it and figure out where to go next or how to get to that hidden level.

No one wants to read a convoluted FAQ. They want quick easy answers for how to get past a difficult part, or the best way to customize their character for maximum damage. And the same goes for a GDD in the professional game design world… no one wants to wade through confusing descriptions of gameplay. Your team will want clear, concise direction. The less detailed your designs, the more you’re leaving to chance.

It’s a good deal of work to create a good FAQ. Even if you write a FAQ for a game that you think you know inside out, you’ll find that you learn a ton more about the game by writing out everything and spending the time to figure out the few things you don’t. You might even have a couple “a-ha!” moments where you recognize patterns or tricks in the game’s design, and you can apply that experience when you design your own games.

A bit of warning though… You might be tempted to transcribe your FAQ from a strategy guide or other people’s FAQs. This is just cheating, and it’s pointless… since you’re only cheating yourself. Best of luck! :-)

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2 Responses to “Write a FAQ for your favorite game”

  1. gman commented:
    posted June 27th, 2007 at 12:04 pm

    GDD = bad

    http://www.gamasutra.com/features/slides/cerny/index.htm

    At least that’s my experience. Teams that didn’t have a GDD got their stuff done and on time. Teams that had a GDD were approaching the problem the wrong way. Expecting team members to reference a constantly updated 400 page GDD is ignoring reality.

    I know it’s probably wrong for me to equate having a GDD with bad practices but what is the point of a GDD? To spell out the game design so it can be built. And how do you know what the game design is? By building the game and trying things out. Hmmm, sounds like a catch 22. You can’t write the GDD until you know what works, you can’t know what works until you build the game and by most logic you can’t build the game until you write a GDD. So, don’t write a GDD. Just build the game.

    Sure you need a general outline but you don’t need a GDD.

  2. Patrick commented:
    posted June 30th, 2007 at 1:09 am

    I’m personally a big fan of GDDs. If for no other reason then I can write down everything I think about an idea, feature, or mode… and when people on the team come ask questions I can quickly look up the answers for them. But I also like having a roadmap for making games. Sure, we take tons of detours along the way, and sometimes we come back to a GDD and decide that it’s crap. But we usually start prototyping what’s in the GDD.

    I’m also a huge Cerny fan, but even he will tell you to make a detailed production plan and schedule. At some point you have to have written down everything you plan to do, and more or less how you’re going to do it. This can come after a ton of prototyping… or if you’re making a game in an established genre or a sequel, you can probably do it before you’re even done with the first game. On a team like ours that’s very design-driven, a GDD is as good a place for that plan to start as any.

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