Definition gamedesign

What is game design?

At a theoretical level game design is responsible for which characteristics and factors must be out for the planning of an exciting game. Therefore, we decide which contents the game Cryptic shall contain which includes the determining of e.g. a desktop, various hacking attacks as well as a terminal or an experience system and their own logic. In addition, we determine the story and think of a game strategy. The game balancing is in charge to balance the different parts of the game. As such, the individual parameters of the game have to be matched up leading to a fair and balanced playing experience.

How does the game design work in the community project?

Our guidance is the specification sheet of the game concept. The game concept points the general direction of how the game should be. The individual game features can be looked up in there (changes might occur over time).

The development of the game is divided in different stages (pre-alpha 1, pre-alpha 2, ..., alpha 1, alpha 2, …, beta 1, beta 2 and so on). Every stage contains new or adjusted game features needed to be defined. The game design team lays out a rough concept which is then discussed in the Cryptic team. When the concept is finished, the game features will be phrased out in detail.

You can submit ideas or proposals for modifications via the Cryptic-Discord server or GitHub at any stage. Of course, there is the possibility to submit complete scripts, but they will be reviewed and maybe only parts of it will be used. Existing ideas or proposals for modifications can be checked out and commented on in our public ideas document or on the Discord.

Procedure:

Deciding together on the content of a new game version (GitHub)
- The game design team lays out a rough concept being discussed in the Cryptic team afterwards
- Wish for change from the community may be included in the concept
Divide the content into individual issues (GitHub)
Phrase out game feature(s) in the "GDD" (game design document)
Collectively audit the game feature(s) and make adjustments if necessary
- Weave in the changes and audit again
Create issues on GitHub for each department (design, backend, frontend) using the phrased out content

What is used?

Markdown in GitHub
Google Docs/tables
draw.net diagrams/graphics for illustration purposes

Conventions

Everything being a programm in the game, e.g. the terminal, crypto miner, file manager, hardware shop, and so on, is unifiedly called "app".
For each version of the game (pre-alpha/alpha/beta 1, 2, 3...) there will be a seperate GDD.
Everyone heavily contributing to the GDD will be mentioned in it (later getting an appearence in the credits).