The Dreamer among the stars: a Game Design Document simulator

The GDD for all the game things

Well hello hello hello again to all you lads, ladies, chaps, old sports and everyone else in between to another little chin waggle of wonders from yours truly. Well over the last few weeks I have shown you many different concepts, a final chosen one and I gave you a little vision insight into the world of my game. But now for this week is going to be a little bit different as I will elaborating further on the game concept that I have been brewing for the last few weeks but putting it more into a detailed aesthetic. So join me won't you please as I give you the beginnings of the Game Design Document for my little game I like to call "The Dreamer Among the Stars".

So while a lot of this won't actually be here in this little blog of mine, but don't be sad and don't despair as all of my info is right here on Dundoc. This site is Dundoc and I 'm sure you will find, all the info and excitement about the game that I write about all the time. So just to give more of an elaborate kerfuffle, let me give a brief summary of all that I chin waggled.

1.Story:

So the story of my game will be about this kid ( it can be of no specifics) who doesn't really know what exactly their dream is, yet all of their friends and family knows exactly what their dreams are. In this time of confusion, they turn to the only place that they feel will help them and that is for them to wish upon a star. So they go off to sit and look at the stars and they pick out the biggest one in the sky that they could see to be their wishing star. They wish really hard in hopes that their dream yet they feel that it doesn't seem to work. When they seem like they are about to give up they begin to notice that all the stars in the sky begin to fall or disappear out of plain sight and that their Wishing star seems to look like it is being taken by some unknown force and they realise without their wishing star that they will never be able to find their dream of their own. So they head out on this big journey full of adventure, magic and emotions to go and find why all of the stars are falling or disappearing from the night sky and to stop what is causing all of this. Along the way they will meet a cast of colourful and wacky characters where you will help them with their dreams of their own and possibly help them out on their journey to find their wishing star and to find out what their true dream is in a sprawling, colourful and wondrous land to help to fix the stars and to find a dream.

2.Characters

So I am today about to introduce you to my greatest creation. The hero of the story that I have pondered over while drinking my weight in hot tea and biscuits and that is my main character to "The dreamer among the stars"

(Shimmer Character design (look at that little face)))

So I like to introduce you to the main character "Shimmer". This character can be whatever you can interpret him as me as I am not locking it behind anything. I am not going to get too deep into the personal but just know that this kid is the hero that you will play as throughout the story as they try to find their ultimate dream of their own.

There will also be a wide bunch of weird, wacky and wonderful characters throughout their journey to find out where their wishing star is going and why the other stars are falling / disappearing from the sky. There will also be this group of intergalactic space explorers/ heroes that are known as the Star-sea Dream-walkers who names consist of Daipop, Reidabas, Elmto , Aballe and Mythicise who taken their first initials spell out a particular word. Their character concepts will be coming soon (I haven't forgotten and I will maybe come up with a villain design too).

3. The world of the Game

The world that I am trying to create is what I would say is the world that a person would make in their mind as they dream about many different things, so the likes of weirdly shaped buildings, weird and wacky inhabitants that they will meet throughout this world. The land will be strange, odd colourful, wonderful and beautiful and would try to emphasise the land that they see in their minds and what they imagine in our own dreams that we make every night while we drift off to sleep.

4. The sounds and the tasty Jams

(it may nt look like it to some, but this song is so damn catchy and is theBee's Knees)

So for this is going to be a little bit of a challenge. I am sure that I will be able to find out exactly certain sound effect while I eventually get to start making the game (whenever that will be) and the sound effect I'm sure will be fine. The music will be a different story as I want to find specific types of music for the certain lining up the segments of the game will be in sync with the music for important sectors (as I said was inspired by the music levels from Rayman Legends). So I will need to go and find some songs that will best incorporate the feeling of an adventure and for those important synced section (I don't know if I can use music that is owned by someone else because I want to use the background music of Starlight Brigade as to make an easter egg but also to emphasise the inspiration).

5. A quick summary of sorts:

(let's make this quick)

1. The layout Plan: This will the main base as to what I will need to make sure that what I said the game will be about is laid out in the way that I wanted it to be.

2.Plotting out the story: While I have given a basic description of the story, I will have to branch it out to a proper length to equal to the length of the story. the best option I can use for that would be a site to put the story in a decorative structure such as the likes of Twine: https://twinery.org

3.Make a checklist: It is important to keep organised on what you have created already so that you don't make doubles or too many of one thing that you only needed one of.

4.The Proper Tools: The importance of learning to make a game in a game engine like Unity is very important to learn how it all works or else all this planning will be for nothing and just dead in the water.

5.Concept Designs and versions: It will be important to make different levels of versions so you know what will work and what to fix for an updated version. Also it will be very important chaps to make some concept pieces of characters or illustrations of what you are trying to explain in picture form (this may be updated later to show some character designs and maybe concept art and ideas for the game world and story)

6. The sound of Music, noises and voices?: Music will also be an important part to this to have a nice and mellow music in the background and to have specific type of music for those important sections of the game that I was talking about. It will also be of note to add sound effects to the character to emphasise them walking, running, carrying/finding something etc and for voices that is up in the air if it needs to be added to characters or not (well maybe for narration purposes possibly?)

7. Trial and error: Just learning from that the important thing is that this will be the first time going in to make a game and doing it by one's self, that it is going to be tricky now and again and I will make mistakes. I'm not expecting to make a game in the levels of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or making a huge triple A game to the likes of Death Stranding, or The Last of Us Part 2, but I hope to be part of it one day and all it will take is for me to learn and learn from the mistakes that I will come across in the future and at the end of the day that is all that you can ask for when it comes to bringing a concept and to some "a dream" of their's to life.

(deep down we all are just out here with a dream)

(the biggest adventure is right in from of us)

Well that Is all that I have to say about my game design document. I hope that you have a good look at that design document that I have crafted as I will update it overtime as my development of this game continues and I hope that you stick around to witness it all. Anyway that is all the time that I have for today as I am off to catch the train to Sleepy Time Junction. So, until Next time.

Cheerio!!!
-Sam