The Wiki is the best format for your GDD, yet it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

Tons of pages scattered everywhere and little to no clue (and time) to organize them. What you need is a GDD Wiki Home Page. A single gate where you can look at your game as a whole without feeling overwhelmed and be ready to dive deep only when you need it. This week I’ll show you how to build the perfect GDD Wiki Home Page so you can work more effectively and enhance your team collaboration.

We’ll look at the complete GDD in the future, but a good Home Page is the perfect start.

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To effectively build a GDD Wiki Home Page you need these 3 simple steps:

1. Setup The Game Overview Area
2. Setup the Game Vision Area
3. Setup The Game Content Area

Without further ado, let’s jump right in.

Step #1: Setup The Game Overview Area

The Game Overview Area shows all the info you need to understand what your game is about.

This is the first thing you see when opening the GDD Home Page. This Area has 2 main purposes. First, it serves as a reminder for everyone on the team about how the game generally works and the desired mood. Second, it makes new hires up and running on the game faster than making them derive that information from detailed documents.

Also, the horizontal box at the top is where everyone can see the Vision Statement of the game. The Vision Statement is a sentence that represents the target game experience and inspires people to work on the project.

Let’s go a bit deeper into each section.

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There are 3 sections: General Info, Look & Mood, and Game Modes.

The General Info section is pretty straightforward. Here you'll find information like Genre, Rating, and Target Audience, along with a brief description of the game concept.

Next, the Look & Mood section is a collection of References, Moodboards, and Concept Artworks that show the game's visual look and mood. That's a crucial section, especially for Level Designers who can use it as a helpful reminder. In the end, the Game Mode section contains a list of all the alternative Game Modes.

For example, imagine having a game with a multiplayer mode along with a single-player campaign. You can write all the GDD based on the single-player mode, and then here, in the Game Modes section, you'll create a page and list out all the changes in gameplay behaviors inside it.

Ok, let's move to the next Home Page Area.

Step #2: Setup The Game Vision Area

The Game Vision Area outlines the whole game vision and target experience.

This Area tells you what you want to achieve with your game and how you need to do it. It's one of the most critical areas and, unfortunately, too often overlooked or roughly filled.

The content in this Area doesn't come out of thin air, but it's part of another document you must create before the GDD. I'm talking about the Game Direction Document you need to iterate on in the Concept Phase of your game project, where you brainstorm and test new game ideas. We'll talk more about it again, but for now, you can stick with filling these 3 sections.

Let's take a closer look at them.

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It has 3 main sections: Themes & Messages, Game Pillars, and Departement Rules.

The Themes & Messages section contains an overview of the Thematic Structure you’ve chosen to base your game on. If you don’t know what a Thematic Structure is and how to create one, you can check out this complete guide.

Next, the Game Pillars are the best description of your game target experience. This section is a simple list of your Game Pillars so everyone on the team will never forget them. The last section contains the Department Rules for all 6 main roles of the design team. The Department Rules are rules based on Pillars that every department needs to follow while working. If you don’t know what Game Pillars and Department Rules are, don’t worry; we’ll get them in the future 😉.

With this section filled out, you should have a solid grasp of your game vision.

Let’s move to the last step and finish our GDD Home Page.

Step #3: Setup The Game Content Area

The Game Content Area contains all the content the team needs to produce inside the game.

This Area is where most GDD templates available on the web focus on. It’s, of course, the meatiest Area, but keep in mind that without the previous 2 ones, writing this will be much harder. This Area is where you can find all the in-game content other team members (mostly programmers) need when implementing. The focus here is the 6 Game Design Branches.

But then why do I see only 4 sections? Because you’ll find In-Game UI & UX and all the balancing aspects (System Design) inside each related Gameplay Agent or Level page.

This structure makes everything easily searchable and categorized, so you’ll find all you need in a blast.

But let’s see these 4 sections in a little more detail.

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This Area is made of 4 main sections: Gameplay Agents, Levels, Narrative, and UI Screens.

In the Gameplay Agents section, you'll find a list of all the game Agents with their behaviors. What's a Game Agent?

Simple, an Agent is any game element that can perform one or more actions (player, NPCs, obstacles, enemies, etc.). Next, the Levels section lists all the game's areas, sub-areas, and levels in a tree-like structure. Inside each Level page, there's a detailed description of every single aspect of the game level (Bubble Diagram, 2D Layout, level constraints, metrics, etc.). Next, in the Narrative section, you'll find only 3 macro elements: Main Plot (the story events), Worldbuilding (the world lore), and Characters (the character sheets and their narrative arcs).

The 4th and last section contains all the UI Screens in every game menu (main menu, settings, pause menu, inventory, skills tree, etc.). Inside each UI Screen page, you'll find a detailed description (position, functionality, size, etc.) of every element in that screen with the relative wireframe.

And that's it!

This is how you create the perfect GDD Wiki Home Page for your next game project.

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Key Takeaways:

• Setup the Game Overview that shows all the info you need to understand what the game is about.
• Setup the Game Vision Area that outlines the whole game vision and target experience.
• Setup the Game Content Area that contains al the content inside the game that needs to be produced.

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I’ve also talked about Game Design Documents in previous Game Design Compass episodes:

• 👉 What Documents Should A Game Designer Focus On?
• 👉 4 Reasons Why You MUST Write Game Design Documents
• 👉 Wiki Format In Game Design Docs: 4 Key Reasons It Outshines The Single Giant Document
• 👉 Game Design Documents: 3 Effective Tips To Use Them And Boost Your Design Process
• 👉 Game Design Document Formatting: 5 Critical Mistakes That Make Your Docs Ignored

Check them out if you want to dive deeper.