{"id":225,"date":"2025-12-15T13:26:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T13:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/?p=225"},"modified":"2025-12-15T13:26:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T13:26:17","slug":"23-11-25-mini-gdd-and-game-loop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/2025\/12\/15\/23-11-25-mini-gdd-and-game-loop\/","title":{"rendered":"23\/11\/25 MINI GDD AND GAME LOOP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As I was mostly finished with the research phase I began to work on my game loops and systems. It&#8217;s important that I have an idea of what I&#8217;m doing overall before I get lost in the details. This is where a mini games design document would come in handy. I found a sheet online that covered the basic considerations when making a game and filled it in Photoshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"724\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/hisnameisbideojames-1024x724.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-227\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/hisnameisbideojames-1024x724.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/hisnameisbideojames-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/hisnameisbideojames-768x543.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/hisnameisbideojames-1536x1086.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/hisnameisbideojames.jpg 1754w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is only a barebones version to get me started. At the time of writing this I&#8217;ve changed and refined a lot of the gameplay details but the core loop remains mostly untouched. Since game projects can get really big in theory, it&#8217;s important to stick the the pillars to avoid something that is incoherent and directionless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Using the website Miro, I drafted up my first flowchart of the gameplay loops. Once the ideas are on paper it&#8217;s a lot easier to tweak anything that doesn&#8217;t quite fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"718\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-1-1024x718.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-229\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-1-1024x718.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-1-300x210.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-1-768x538.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-1-1536x1077.png 1536w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-1.png 1656w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I also had two other extensions of the game that I ended up discarding as they were too big for the current scope. They weren&#8217;t inherently bad ideas, they just weren&#8217;t necessary for the final product. The bear extension is a nod to the inspirations of the protagonist and the sanity meter is what I outlined in the mini gdd which I later ended up scrapping. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"601\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-2-1024x601.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-230\" style=\"width:578px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-2-1024x601.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-2-300x176.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-2-768x451.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-2.png 1449w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"981\" height=\"438\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-231\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-3.png 981w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-3-300x134.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-3-768x343.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 981px) 100vw, 981px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet I still wasn&#8217;t satisfied with my flowchart. After some feedback from my teachers I went to making a second one. It&#8217;s a lot more distinctive with the colours and shapes and I&#8217;ve organised it more cohesively. I wanted to stay truer to giving players more meaningful choices so the endings are more directly based off of specific gameplay choices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"709\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-4-1024x709.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-232\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-4-1024x709.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-4-300x208.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-4-768x531.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-4-1536x1063.png 1536w, https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/59\/2025\/12\/image-4.png 1857w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The next thing I need to do  is to work out the narrative. From there I can lay the finishing groundwork for the gameplay and polish as needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I was mostly finished with the research phase I began to work on my game loops and systems. It&#8217;s important that I have an idea of what I&#8217;m doing overall before I get lost in the details. This is where a mini games design document would come in handy. I found a sheet online [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,23,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-ideation","category-semester-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/er7g24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}