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Story Design Doc

What's in this article

  • Accessing the document
  • What to expect (WIP)
  • Why it's important (WIP)
  • Tips for reading through it (WIP)

Accessing the Document

  To access the document, go to the Projects Page and find the current project. From there, go to the story section then the design document page.

What to Expect

  The document will explain formatting rules and style for writing lines/scenes, as well as an overview of the full story. The formatting can be a bit strange since it needs to work for the programmers, but hopefully the document will be able to help clarify why the formatting is the way it is. Commonly there will be markers for the ends of lines and how long each line should appear on screen, but the specifics are different for each game. The style for writing is just to ensure a certain degree of cohesiveness between writers. These are by no means hard and fast rules, but breaking from the style should be done with intention. Finally, in the story overview, certain larger details that affect most aspects of the story will also appear in their own section for quick reference.

Why It's Important

  This document should promote consistency within the story, and allow members to work more independently. It will also help ensure we don’t forget details. However, this document is by no means necessary to constantly reference, as everything in it will be decided during meetings.

How to Read Through It

  Each section of the document will be in its own tab, with the most important parts being highlighted in some way. I highly recommend attending meetings over relying on the document, as this will make it easier to write without reading through it very often. The character motivations in the story overview will likely be the best place to look for details generally, we’ll see when the story starts to really get rolling though.