Everyone knows that documentation is a crux of game design. My school program is no different. The Champlain Game Studio tries to simulate a real industry workspace as much as possible. This includes teaching the importance of iteration.
One particular document that may not be super popular outside of Champlain is the Visual Design Document(VDD). This is mostly based off of the concept of the One Page Design Documents some designers use. In our first semester the designers were briefly quizzed on the concept.
I was skeptical of the VDD because I’m used to being as thorough as possible and confining myself to a single page was a change in mindset. The staples of a VDD include controls, main mechanics and systems, and a well considered visual layout. Some faculty want more or less but the point is to be a taste of the game to give to an investor so you can get the greenlight for your game. That made more sense to me because a document needs to have a purpose and an audience.
During my Intro to Game Development course I created 3 games. Two of those games we had the VDD requirements.
I learned how to go from this:
To this:
And finally this: