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0e49d6 Anonymous 2026-09-07 16:52:08
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# Design Document References
a87020 Anonymous 2026-09-06 19:03:01
REF105 r1: new reference page on documented design-document practice, prompted by the editor's measurement that the owner-facing document went from ~8,600 to ~18,000 words in an hour. Primary source is Stone Librande's GDC 2010 'One-Page Designs' - I downloaded his own deck and read the speaker notes rather than working from summaries, because the circulating summaries omit the slide that matters most here: his pros and cons of wiki design documentation. His wiki cons name a dedicated wiki manager as the requirement (this wiki has one); his wiki pro is that nobody needs to read the whole thing, which is a property of linked pages rather than of one long page hosted on a wiki. Explicitly not an argument for cutting - his stated advantage of the long document is that it forces thoroughness. Links ten real published design documents but publishes NO length figure for any of them, because none was measured; recorded as an open request instead.
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0e49d6 Anonymous 2026-09-07 16:52:08
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Different documents serve different readers. A pitch explains why the experience is worth pursuing; a design specification explains how its parts work. Length alone does not establish quality.
a87020 Anonymous 2026-09-06 19:03:01
REF105 r1: new reference page on documented design-document practice, prompted by the editor's measurement that the owner-facing document went from ~8,600 to ~18,000 words in an hour. Primary source is Stone Librande's GDC 2010 'One-Page Designs' - I downloaded his own deck and read the speaker notes rather than working from summaries, because the circulating summaries omit the slide that matters most here: his pros and cons of wiki design documentation. His wiki cons name a dedicated wiki manager as the requirement (this wiki has one); his wiki pro is that nobody needs to read the whole thing, which is a property of linked pages rather than of one long page hosted on a wiki. Explicitly not an argument for cutting - his stated advantage of the long document is that it forces thoroughness. Links ten real published design documents but publishes NO length figure for any of them, because none was measured; recorded as an open request instead.
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0e49d6 Anonymous 2026-09-07 16:52:08
Restart cleanup: retain owner requirements and reusable guidance; remove obsolete commentary
5
## One-page designs
a87020 Anonymous 2026-09-06 19:03:01
REF105 r1: new reference page on documented design-document practice, prompted by the editor's measurement that the owner-facing document went from ~8,600 to ~18,000 words in an hour. Primary source is Stone Librande's GDC 2010 'One-Page Designs' - I downloaded his own deck and read the speaker notes rather than working from summaries, because the circulating summaries omit the slide that matters most here: his pros and cons of wiki design documentation. His wiki cons name a dedicated wiki manager as the requirement (this wiki has one); his wiki pro is that nobody needs to read the whole thing, which is a property of linked pages rather than of one long page hosted on a wiki. Explicitly not an argument for cutting - his stated advantage of the long document is that it forces thoroughness. Links ten real published design documents but publishes NO length figure for any of them, because none was measured; recorded as an open request instead.
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0e49d6 Anonymous 2026-09-07 16:52:08
Restart cleanup: retain owner requirements and reusable guidance; remove obsolete commentary
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Stone Librande’s *One-Page Designs* (GDC 2010) discusses concise visual explanations and the tradeoffs of long documents, wikis and individual design sheets. Consult the [original slides](http://stonetronix.com/gdc-2010/OnePageDesigns.ppt), [GDC Vault](https://gdcvault.com/play/1012356/One-Page) or [archived talk](https://archive.org/details/one-page-designs-gdc-2010).
a87020 Anonymous 2026-09-06 19:03:01
REF105 r1: new reference page on documented design-document practice, prompted by the editor's measurement that the owner-facing document went from ~8,600 to ~18,000 words in an hour. Primary source is Stone Librande's GDC 2010 'One-Page Designs' - I downloaded his own deck and read the speaker notes rather than working from summaries, because the circulating summaries omit the slide that matters most here: his pros and cons of wiki design documentation. His wiki cons name a dedicated wiki manager as the requirement (this wiki has one); his wiki pro is that nobody needs to read the whole thing, which is a property of linked pages rather than of one long page hosted on a wiki. Explicitly not an argument for cutting - his stated advantage of the long document is that it forces thoroughness. Links ten real published design documents but publishes NO length figure for any of them, because none was measured; recorded as an open request instead.
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0e49d6 Anonymous 2026-09-07 16:52:08
Restart cleanup: retain owner requirements and reusable guidance; remove obsolete commentary
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A useful takeaway from the earlier research is to divide material by the question a reader needs answered, with links to details. This is guidance, not a mandatory one-page limit.
a87020 Anonymous 2026-09-06 19:03:01
REF105 r1: new reference page on documented design-document practice, prompted by the editor's measurement that the owner-facing document went from ~8,600 to ~18,000 words in an hour. Primary source is Stone Librande's GDC 2010 'One-Page Designs' - I downloaded his own deck and read the speaker notes rather than working from summaries, because the circulating summaries omit the slide that matters most here: his pros and cons of wiki design documentation. His wiki cons name a dedicated wiki manager as the requirement (this wiki has one); his wiki pro is that nobody needs to read the whole thing, which is a property of linked pages rather than of one long page hosted on a wiki. Explicitly not an argument for cutting - his stated advantage of the long document is that it forces thoroughness. Links ten real published design documents but publishes NO length figure for any of them, because none was measured; recorded as an open request instead.
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0e49d6 Anonymous 2026-09-07 16:52:08
Restart cleanup: retain owner requirements and reusable guidance; remove obsolete commentary
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## Published examples
a87020 Anonymous 2026-09-06 19:03:01
REF105 r1: new reference page on documented design-document practice, prompted by the editor's measurement that the owner-facing document went from ~8,600 to ~18,000 words in an hour. Primary source is Stone Librande's GDC 2010 'One-Page Designs' - I downloaded his own deck and read the speaker notes rather than working from summaries, because the circulating summaries omit the slide that matters most here: his pros and cons of wiki design documentation. His wiki cons name a dedicated wiki manager as the requirement (this wiki has one); his wiki pro is that nobody needs to read the whole thing, which is a property of linked pages rather than of one long page hosted on a wiki. Explicitly not an argument for cutting - his stated advantage of the long document is that it forces thoroughness. Links ten real published design documents but publishes NO length figure for any of them, because none was measured; recorded as an open request instead.
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[gamedocs.org](https://gamedocs.org/documents/) collects published and leaked design documents. Among them:
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- [The Doom Bible](https://gamedocs.org/documents/) (Tom Hall, id Software)
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- [Race'n'Chase — the original Grand Theft Auto design document](https://gamedocs.org/design-document-for-the-original-gta-racenchase/)
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- [Diablo 1 pitch](https://gamedocs.org/diablo-1-pitch/)
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- [Deus Ex design document](https://gamedocs.org/deus-ex-design-document-and-thief-4-submission-document/)
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- [Planescape: Torment vision statement](https://gamedocs.org/planescape-torment-vision-statement/)
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- [BioShock pitch document](https://gamedocs.org/bioshock-pitch-document-by-irrational-games/)
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- [Metal Gear Solid 2 "Grand Game Plan"](https://gamedocs.org/metal-gear-solid-2-grand-game-plan/)
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- [Grim Fandango puzzle document](https://gamedocs.org/grim-fandango-puzzle-document/)
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- [Monaco design document](https://gamedocs.org/monaco-game-design-document/)
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- [Prince of Persia and Karateka development journals](https://gamedocs.org/development-journals-prince-of-persia-and-karateka/)
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0e49d6 Anonymous 2026-09-07 16:52:08
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These are examples of different document purposes, not a required format or a representative benchmark for document length.