ISSN: 2666-2795 Vol. 6 No.2 December, 2021, Netherland
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research
Copyrights @ Roman Science Publications Vol. 6 No.2 December, 2021, Netherland
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research
exGDD: Extended Game Design Document
template for Mobile Game Design and
Development
Sana Akhtar
1
, Rabia Latif
2
, Faiza Iqbal
1*
, Ayesha Altaf
3
1
Department of CS and Software Engineering, The University of Lahore (UOL), Lahore, Pakistan,
2
College of Computer and Information Sciences, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, 11586, Saudi Arabia,
3
Department of Computer Science, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Pakistan
* Corresponding Author
Abstract - In gaming industry, requirement gathering is
considered as the most crucial phase of game
development. It is also considered as a critical software
engineering research area as about 39.3% of the overall
published papers on computer games discussed game
development with requirements. Requirement gathering
phase of the mobile game is different from traditional
approaches like Software Requirement Document (SRS).
Game Design Document (GDD) is used as requirement
specification document for mobile game development
which provides detailed features and functionality of the
games. The basic GDD version provides game concept
analysis and template for requirement specification. The
improved version, called improved GDD (iGDD),
provides enhanced game development design by adding
the experience of game players. However, both of these
versions do not include non-functional requirements of
the target audience. The objective of this paper is to
conduct an analysis of existing GDD in practice in game
development industry and propose a template-tool to
extend Game Design Document, named as exGDD. The
exGDD considers more non-functional requirements of
the target audience. The proposed template is evaluated
with Core Elements of the Gaming Experience (CEGE).
The evaluation of exGDD is conducted using evaluation
tool and conducting case study. The results are promising
which shows that the use of exGDD will lead to the success
of the end product in terms of satisfying user
requirements and can result in improved productivity of
the company.
GDD, SDPP, iGDD, Game Design, Gaming Industry.
1. Introduction
Mobile games are a new emerging trend in the gaming
industry. The rise of mobile devices and other technologies
have opened a new market [1]. Nowadays, it is fast trending
business because it allows an individual developer to upload
games at a low cost in an agile manner that may generate huge
revenue. However, in terms of gaming industry, productivity
and benefits can only be achieved if all procedures of software
engineering development models are followed [2].
Requirement gathering phase of the mobile game is different
from traditional approaches like Software Requirement
Document (SRS). Game Design Document (GDD) is used as
requirement specification document for mobile game
development which provides detailed features and
functionality of the games. One can increase the quality of the
product and may increase productivity by following proper
pattern of game development by using Game Design
Document (GDD). There are four main stages of game
development these include concept, pre-product, production,
and post-product stage. Game development design falls in the
pre-product stage which is responsible for the development of
a successful product. On the other hand, the production stage
deals with the development stages and post-production phase
finalizes testing and maintenance procedures.
Game Design Document (GDD) is first introduced by
Taylor as "Design Template." in 1999 [3]. The document is
then evaluated and improved by different researchers that is
[3]-[10]. In 2012, M. G. Salazar [11] proposed Improved
Game Development Design (iGDD) by adding experience
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ISSN: 2666-2795 Vol. 6 No.2 December, 2021, Netherland
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research
Copyrights @ Roman Science Publications Vol. 6 No.2 December, 2021, Netherland
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research
factor in GDD. However, both of these versions do not
include non-functional requirements of the target audience.
This study analyzes the limitation of GDD and iGDD in terms
of mobile game development and provides a solution which
considers the functional and non-functional requirement of
the end-user to design attractive games. To achieve this
objective, an initial survey of different mobile gaming
companies has been conducted. The results of the survey
show that there is no proper documentation or game design
available for game developer. Moreover, if such a document
is provided, the game developers are not to apply it properly.
The main reason is that they are not aware of their target
audience and their functional and non-functional
requirements. The outcome of the survey highlighted some
issues and limitations of requirement gathering practices
adopted by mobile gaming industries. In addition to this,
existing literature related to requirement documents of game
development has been reviewed. Considering highlighted
issues of the industrial survey and existing practices and
documents available in the literature, this paper presents an
extended version of the Game Design Document (exGDD) as
a solution.
The main contributions of the paper are as follows:
Analyzed and reviewed existing literature to
highlight existing requirement documents or game
development
Conducted initial survey to analyze issues and
limitations in existing practices of mobile game
development industry
Developed extended Game Design Document
(exGDD) template-tool to facilitate the development
and production of mobile games
Evaluated exGDD using Core Elements of the
Gaming Experience (CEGE) evaluation tool and
conducting Case-Study.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Introduction
section is followed by background and related work section
which highlights the findings and limitations of existing
literature. Next section describes proposed exGDD
framework which is followed by section material and
methods. Section five demonstrates the evaluation of exGDD
using evaluating tool. The results of the case study
implementing GDD, iGDD and proposed exGDD are
elaborated in section six. Finally, conclusion of the study is
presented in last section.
2. Background and related studies
This section examines the Game Design Document (GDD)
and its phases. According to existing studies [3]-[10], game
development follows four main stages which include concept,
pre-production, production, and post-production. However,
the concept phase of game development varies in different
designs. In some design documents, it is included and some
others ignore it. Also, the boundaries of all four stages change
as per the requirements and scope of the game.
i. Stages of Game Design Document (GDD)
According to the literature, four stages of GDD are described
as follows:
Concept. The concept phase lists down business
parameters and define game goals. It is an iterative phase that
builds the base of the game project.
Pre-Production. The pre-production phase is considered
as a brainstorming phase. In this phase, different types of
questions, related to game requirements, have been addressed.
For example, why we want to develop this game? For whom
to develop it? Which type of environment do we need to
create? What type of user interface is required? These types
of questions are handled in this stage. This phase builds the
foundation of the game for its further development. This will
also address rework by providing an accurate structure of the
game which will not need any update after development and
provide a quality product. For this stage, Salazar et al. [11]
presented improved Game Design Document (iGDD) that
helped the developer to produce quality product.
Production. In this stage game design document is used
for development, graphical representation, and validation. In
this phase, the implementation of GDD takes place.
Post-Production. The phase of post-production deals
with the maintenance of the product. It includes taking
corrective actions, makes a different version or add more
features/functionality into the game according to
requirements. Overlapping Game Developing stages are
shown in Fig. 1 [9].
Figure I
OVERLAPPING STAGES OF GAME DEVELOPMENT
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ISSN: 2666-2795 Vol. 6 No.2 December, 2021, Netherland
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research
Copyrights @ Roman Science Publications Vol. 6 No.2 December, 2021, Netherland
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research
ii. Existing versions of GDD and their limitations.
Taylor [3] proposed Game Design Document (GDD)
concept and also presented a template but it does not
describe experience, constraints, and target audience of
game development. Bethke [6] gave detailed and
extensive picture of game development and production.
They explained it with real-life examples, elaborated
what GDD contains, described the process of creating
GDD and defined amount of work each stage required.
But the only limitation in its work is that it doesn't
provide a GDD template and did not find the relation
between each part of GDD. Rolling and Adams [4][22]
presented three documents for game design. These
include high concept, game treatment, and script game.
High concept document contained the main features of
the game and its aim was to sell the idea of the game.
Game Treatment was more detailed with a greater level
of content and was defined for those who are most
interested in the game and want to know it. Script game
was designed as GDD which contained game features or
references for creating the game. The problem in their
work was that they don't provide any example of GDD
but refer to Taylor's template [3]. In the similar context,
Crawford [36] presented a series of lessons learned
throughout his career as a game designer, but it failed to
present any significant contribution in terms of game
design document and implementation of practical and
complex examples.
Bates [5] gave the introduction of game design and
described the process and documentation of game design
and analyzes it according to the business perspective. His
work followed the process of Rollings and Adams in
[4][22] and suggested that GDD should be used as vital
asset and available online on the wiki. He used the game
genre to explain different styles in game design and
explained it with a template of GDD for an action genre.
The limitation in his work was its hard to classify the
game by genre due to lack of standard, a new genre, and
multi-genre. Richard Rouse [23] covered the main topic
of game design and also used concept phase and relate it
with his own experience. He also presented two samples
of different GDD. The limitations in his work was that he
did not give the template and both examples were
difficult to relate in terms of the basic structure.
Similarly, Oxland [20] gave a detailed description of how
to document game design and also cover different
subjects in-game design but he did not give a GDD
template and detailed example.
Callel et al. [8] point out the difficulties of moving
from pre-production to the production stage because the
GDD fails to meet the formality that SRS provides.
Although, the author mentioned the problem but he did
not provide any solution. The work also presented a chart
to differentiate pre-production and production.
Brinkkemper, Weerd, & Weerd [7], in their research
work, emphasized on concept building of game before
implementation. The work highlighted all the activities
and sub-activities of the concept. But did not emphasize
on the target audience and not even provides the template
for implementation. Schell [33] mapped the elements that
interact in process of playing a game but he focused more
on how game and game design work rather than on GDD
and also did not provide any GDD template [33]. In the
work presented by Sanchez [34], the main focus was on
Game Design Technical, Design Implementation, Alpha
test, Beta test but they did not provide the template and
not even emphasize on the target audience [34]. Roger in
2010 presented the progress of GDD and also used
reference drawing to clarify its concept. He mentioned
the template but it was too specific to game with
particular characteristics and did not mention NFR in his
work.
The work proposed by Salazar et al. [11] mainly
focused to highlight the experience factor in the game
design document. He also motivated the developers to
design the game first before implementation. He also
provided a template of an improved game design
document. But the limitation with his work was that he
did not provided any non-functional requirement details
in his proposed solution. This improved game design
document (iGDD) emphasized the concept of the game
that is based on the requirement analysis. Game
development becomes a complex procedure and no
proper planning was adopted which may also lead to
wrong product development or rework. iGDD included
six stages these include overview, mechanics, dynamics,
aesthetics, experiences, assumption, and constraints.
Overview summarized the game which answered
important questions which arise initially i.e., what type
of game? Which factor makes it unique? What is the goal
of the game? Game features? What is the theme of the
game? The number of players? related history? player
characteristics? etc. Mechanic described game elements,
attributes, and rules. In the game, element discussed
different elements such as boss, enemy, environment,
weapons, and then described attributes of each element.
In rules phase, different element's interactive rules,
artificial intelligence, game log (sore), game world
element and asset list, etc. were described. Dynamics
elaborated the flow of the game which explained
missions, chapters, hurdles, and interfaces. It, first,
discussed the game world which included game theme
details, missions/ levels, and game detail history. Next, it
discussed the game interface, game learning, and game
balance factor. Aesthetics described what players see and
hear. This section can also be extended to smell
(augmented reality). It also discussed visuals that include
core game elements, special area, game world element,
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ISSN: 2666-2795 Vol. 6 No.2 December, 2021, Netherland
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International Journal of Applied Engineering Research
game log elements, and sounds of the game world such
as special area, mission/levels, and game interface.
Experiences dealt with the quality of the game by adding
different attributes i.e., feeling, enjoyment, and stability.
This section explained the important aspects of intrinsic
gameplay, mechanics gameplay, interactive gameplay,
aesthetic gameplay, intrapersonal gameplay, and
interpersonal gameplay. Assumptions and Constraints
explained the limitation of the games that we can assume
and check later. It also included business constraints,
technical constraints, and assumptions. Orita and Correa
[35] classify their work into three categories i.e., shared
design vocabulary, game design method and tools, design
virtual language. The limitation of this work that tools
were tools general that hinder creativity. Zook and Riedl
[12] proposed the mechanic's generation as a tool to
create an automatic game design. It provided a specific
domain to help with mechanics but gave freedom to non-
domain requirement. The issue with approach is the
same; it restricts creativity [12].
iii. Initial Survey of Gaming Industry of Pakistan
Based on the limitations highlighted in the reviewed
literature, the author of this study conducted an initial
survey of different companies of Pakistan. Figure 2
represents a graph which shows all the survey details
which have been conducted with 14 mobile gaming
companies in Pakistan. The results of the survey
highlighted that 10 out of 14 gaming companies'
developers do not get clarity about the target audience no
matter whether they are provided with a game design
document or not. In Fig. 2, it can also be seen that 4 out
of 14 companies provide game design document. When
the author asked the question from the CEO of companies
that GDD is necessary for game development; mostly are
not in favor of it. When Author asks the same question
from the developers, they think that it is the necessary
tool because they are facing many difficulties in the
balanced flow of the game and identification of the target
audience (12 out of 14 agree upon it). So, we can resolve
that issue by writing all the required details in the GDD
game format (pre-production stage). This can be
achieved by adding target audience and their non-
functional requirements in game design document. The
recently published format of game design document
iGDD is presented by Salazar [11] but in his template, the
non-functional requirements of the target audience are
not explained in detail. The importance of non-functional
requirements in the mobile game development has also
been elaborated in existing studies [13][14]. Therefore,
based on the initial survey results, the non-functional
requirements of target audience should be highlighted
and added in game design document.
FIGURE 2
SURVEY RESULT OF USING GDD FOR GAME DEVELOPMENT
TABLE I
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ISSN: 2666-2795 Vol. 6 No.2 December, 2021, Netherland
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NON-FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS (NFR) IN GAME DEVELOPMENT
Unit NFR in Game Development Description
1 Performance Playability, Responsiveness, Identification
2 Reliability Stability (Fatigue/ Frustration, Balance Flow, Back Track)
3 Quality Usability.
4 Security and Other factors Safety Concerns, Memory allocation, Permission
3. Proposed Extended Game Design Document
(ExGDD)
The proposed solution presents extended Game Design
Document (exGDD) and provides template in which
developers can add up details of the target audience with
the functional and non-functional requirement. The
major non- functional requirement that we have included
to add up in the extended version are shown in Table 1.
All required Non-Functional Requirements (NFR),
as shown in Table 1, are specific to mobile games which
are key features to increase the quality of game as
proposed by Anthony and Wasserman [15]. In this paper,
we have collaborated these NFR with the proposed
exGDD which will help out to develop quality products.
For non- functional requirements, the game design
should fulfill high performance, reliability, quality,
security and other factors. These parameters can be tested
by game heuristics that are used to evaluate different
aspects of game design and adding security evaluation
techniques [16]-[19].
Figure 3 represents exGDD integrated with the core
phase of GDD. These includes overview, mechanics,
dynamics, aesthetics, constraints and newly added phase
concept. This new phase will identify the target audience
and their non-functional requirements. In the overview
section, we have also added nonfunctional requirement
that is performance, reliability, quality, and security
according to mobile games that lead to fulfilling all the
nonfunctional requirements according to the target
audience. Based on this model, we will present an
exGDD template which in-cooperates nonfunctional
requirement. The proposed model exGDD is tested and
validated using two perspectives. First using player
feedback and second through Core Elements of the
Gaming Experience (CEGE) tool. The design of the
exGDD model is developed with a scrum model using
Software Development Project Pattern (SDPP).
4. Phase of Proposed exGDD Model
Game Development is divided into three parts pre-
production, post-production, and production. In this
chapter, the author explains the pre-production phase
which includes the design of the game i.e exGDD, the
purpose of this chapter is to identify the structure of
exGDD. As discussed in previous chapters, exGDD is
divided into Overview, Mechanics, Dynamics,
Aesthetics, Experience, and Assumptions.
Overview. The overview explains the key functional
requirement to summarize the main features of the game.
Some authors even include a subsection i.e., the goals or
objectives of the game. In this paper, the author considers
its key section because it helps to summarize the
requirement of the game. Author further categories this
section with the target audience that emphasizes the
functional and non-functional requirements of the
required audience as shown in figure 3. Major non-
functional requirements shown in table 1 are the key non-
functional requirements that are Performance,
Reliability, Quality, and Security according to Anthony
and Wasserman [15] for game development.
Mechanics. This section describes the elements that
help to build the game such as challenges, game
elements, asset lists, and characteristics. It helps to make
the game more interactive and make the user busy to keep
it playing again and again [3]-[7],[20]-[23].
Dynamics. This is the common section of all authors
that contain interfaces and run time activity of levels
where the flow of the game describes [3],[5]-[7],[20]-
[23].
Aesthetics. This section list all visual and auditory
elements of the game. Linked with mechanical and
dynamic properties of the game. Most of the authors
cover the visual aspects in a document called the art bible.
The auditory is mentioned by studies [3][21].
Experience. This section leads to managing the
experience of the game with game goals & objectives. It
helps to link goals and user experience at the same time.
This section explains the important aspects of intrinsic
gameplay, mechanics gameplay, interactive gameplay,
aesthetic gameplay, intrapersonal gameplay, and
interpersonal gameplay [11].
Assumption & Constant Section. This section
explains the limitation of games that we assume and
check later. It includes business constraints, technical
constraints, and assumptions that suggested by studies [5]
[6] [21].
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FIGURE 3
PROPOSED MODEL OF EXGDD
Implementation/Example. In this section describes
an example of exGDD in which explains how to design a
game according to the template (Appendix A) which will
increase user experience. Easy-Memory is a game which
used to explain this example. In this chapter, we have to
explain parts of exGDD that are overview, mechanics,
and dynamics in detail which elaborate our proposed.
Aesthetic, Experience, and Assumption remain the same
as previous work in-game designing [11].
Example of Overview. Easy-Memory which is
specifically designed for old age group people by taking
care of all the aspects of the target audience which will
increase user experience (UI) shown in Table 2.
Ijsselsteijn et al. in 2007 [24] proposed that games for
entertainment provide enjoyment, social activities, and
games to sharpen one’s mind. Flores et al. emphases on
the meaningful play that provides learning and social
play. Gerling's [14] results show that elderly players have
a preference for simplistic puzzle and quiz games, which
may have a positive impact on daily life.
TABLE 2
OVERVIEW OF MEMORY GAME
Unit Overview
1 Game Abstract Easy-Memory which is specifically designed for old age group people by taking care of all the aspects of this
target audience which will increase user experience (UI).
2 Game Objective It provides entertainment, enjoyment, social activities and also sharpens one's mind
3 Game Justification It is specially designed for old age people to improve their mental capabilities
4 Core Gameplay There are three mode
● Stage Mode
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● Arcade Mode
● Multi players Mode
5 Game Genre Puzzle Game
6 Number of Player Multiplayers (one/ two players)
7 Target Platform Android
8 Game Theme Sharpen Memory.
9 History summary According to Kathrin Maria Gerling [13], elderly players have a preference for simplistic puzzle and quiz games,
which may have a positive impact on daily life.
10 Player Character-tics Old Age People (Age between 50-69)
11 Initial scope Developing Time: 2 weeks
Budget: 800$
Team size: 4
Example of Target Audience. In this section, focus
on the non-functional requirement of our target audience
which is discussed in the overview section, in this section
emphasis on the functional and non-functional
requirement of the required audience which will increase
user experience. According to Anthony and Wasserman
[15], performance, reliability, quality, and security are
major requirements to increase the user experience in
mobile games shown in Table 1.
To increase reliability, discuss the use of color and
sound according to the required audience that minimizes
fatigue of the user and increases its playability. In this
paper, our target audience is old age users, with increased
age there is the loss of visual and dark adaption, such
visual decrement makes it harder for people to perceive
the small object. Allowing the user to easily control the
font, color, and contrast setting as well as window
resizing, scrolling, and zooming. Aging is also related to
a decline in auditory acuity, in particular sensitivity for
pure tone and high-frequency tone. For non-speech audio
signals, lower frequency tones (5000-10000 Hz range)
are easier than higher-pitched sounds [13]-[14]. In
addition to this, stress level of player also plays an
important role in achieving better player experience. In a
study conducted by Ostberg et al. [25] stress level can be
measured and can be used to develop such mobile games
which can release the stress level of the user to feel
comfortable.
Figure 4 shows the favorite color choice by any age
or gender. Blue is the color that is attracted by most
people [26]-[27]. Figure 5A show favorite colors of
female while Fig. 5B shows favorite color of male, the
gender specification of color in these two graphs also
show that blue is the major color which is attracted by
both genders. Let's talk about color specification
according to age. Figure 6 shows that the major colors are
blue, green, and purple. Green is liked by younger people
whereas age increases the preference of purple color
increases and green decreases. And our target user is
between 50-69 and their preferred colors are blue, purple,
red, black, and white. As discussed before, with the
increase of age there is the loss of visual so it is easy to
adapt to dark colors [28]-[29]. The use of proper color,
sound, instant response, easy content, personal
involvement, controlled mechanics, easy access,
sensitive help, and consistent interface may lead to a
high-quality product which increases player experience
[30]-[31]. Mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics, experiences,
assumption, and constraints are the same as explain by
previous literature work [11].
5. Evaluation of exGDD using CEGE tool
Core elements of the games are described by Calvillo-
Gámez et al. [32]. In their study, it has been mentioned
that a game must-have for the player to have a positive
experience, they propose the Core Elements of the
Gaming Experience (CEGE). The applied surveys were
processed as follows. Each item of the CEGE is
represented as an ordinal value v ϵ [0,6] where zero is the
absence of the factor and six is the maximum value [32].
Let C={C
1
(Enjoyment), C
2
(Frustration), C
3
(Puppetry),
C
4
(Video game)} be the categories of the CEGEQ. The
evaluation c
i
for the category C
i
ϵ C in each survey
instance is calculated as
𝐶
=
.∑
.
(1)
Where t ϵ {+1,-1}, is assigned based on the type of
category (+1 for positive categories and -1 for
frustration); and n
i
, is the number of items of the category
C
i
In this way, each survey is represented by four
normalized values; i.e., c
1
,c
3
,c
4
ϵ 0,1 and c
2
ϵ [-1,0]
because frustration is a negative category. Evaluate the
results of three versions of games that are developed with
a different technique that is exuded, GDD, without
documentation. Memory-Game is an android based
puzzle game that will develop with exGDD, the second
game will develop with GDD that is using currently in
gaming industries and the last version will create without
any documentation.
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International Journal of Applied Engineering Research
FIGURE 4
FAVORITE COLOR CHOICE OF ANY GENDER
FIGURE 5
(A)FAVORITE COLOR CHOICE OF MALE (b) FAVORITE COLOR CHOICE OF FEMALE
FIGURE 6
FAVORITE COLOR CHOICE OF ANY AGE
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In exGDD author take care of all the non-functional
requirement of the required audience by study the
behavior of its audience and add those elements in the
game. i.e use of color, use of sound, easy control, social
interaction, constant and interactive interface. In the
GDD author design game by taking care of all functional
requirements. The last game will design without
document, just develop a puzzle game. Author perform
an online survey by uploading all three game and
evaluate result with CEGE tool that analyzes which game
will increase user experience.
6. Case-Study Results
This section validates the three versions of games that are
developed using different game design techniques i.e.
exGDD, GDD and without documentation. First game is
named as Memory-Game which is developed with
exGDD. Second game is developed with GDD that is
currently being used in gaming industries and the last
version is created without using any documentation. In
the exGDD version, the author takes care of all the
functional and non-functional requirements of the target
audience by studying their behavior; by adding that
element to the game. i.e use of color, use of sound, easy
control, social interaction, constant and interactive
interface. In the GDD version of the game, the design of
the game is developed by taking care of all functional
requirements. Finally, the last game is designed without
using any defined document.
The author has performed an online survey by
uploading all three games and evaluated the results with
CEGE tool to analyze which game will increase user
experience. Core Element of Gaming Experience
proposed by Calvillo et al. [32] considered as the best tool
for this type of criterion because it helps to evaluate
gaming experience. As explained in section 5, this tool is
divided into four major categories which are Puppetry,
Video Game, Frustration, and Enjoyment. Puppetry is
further divided into three more categories puppetry-
control, puppetry-facilitators, and puppetry-ownership.
Each item of this tool is representing these categories as
mentioned in Table 3. After collecting fifty online
surveys for each game, we have evaluated the results of
category enjoyment, frustration, puppetry, and video
game by CEGE-Tool. The examples of each version,
while using the CEGE tool, are also represented.
TABLE 3
Categories of Core Elements of the Gaming Experience Tool
Unit ITEMS SCALE 1 SCALE 2
1
1,4,5 Enjoyment -
2
2,3 Frustration -
3
6-38 CEGE -
4
6-12,38 Puppetry Control
5
13-18 Puppetry Facilitators
6
19-24 Puppetry Ownership
7
25 Puppetry Control/ownership
8
26-31 Video-game Environment
9
32-37 Video-game Game-play
Figure 7 shows a comparison chart of fifty surveys
each. One important point to note here is that the author
has only considers a survey of male members falling in
the age group of 50-69. Table 4 shows the comparison of
the average result of three versions. CEGE-tool divides
these into four categories enjoyment, frustration, video
game, and puppetry. Enjoyment increases when we use
the exGDD template because it is more organized and
emphasizes the target audience which increased Ux (user
experience) whereas frustration of user is lesser because
of its smart design i.e. use of appropriate color and sound
by considering increased screen time of old age group
user. Similarly, the difficulty level is also balanced which
minimizes frustration and increases enjoyment. Puppetry
shows the control of the game that how the game reacts
after every action. It shows the functionality of the game
that how the game works. The video game is the most
important category that deals with interface and sound.
The game designed by using exGDD, video game and
puppetry is according to its target audience that why its
value is higher than other versions. This comparison
shows that as compared to GDD and no design document,
exGDD helps designers and developers to produce high
quality games which provides better user experience and
improved productivity levels.
35
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Copyrights @ Roman Science Publications Vol. 6 No.2 December, 2021, Netherland
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research
FIGURE 7
CAMPARISION RESULT OF DIFFERENT VERSION OF GDD
TABLE 4
COMPARISON TABLE OF DIFFERENT VERSIONS
Unit Category Version 1 (without
documentation)
Version 2 (with iGDD) Version 3 (with exGDD)
1 Enjoyment 0.43 0.56 0.92
2 Puppetry 0.54 0.72 0.88
3 Video Game 0.34 0.7 0.92
4 Frustration 0.72 0.63 0.44
7. Conclusion
The main contribution of this paper is to provide a template
to track, enhance and validate user experience to achieve
improved game design. The proposed exGDD template
(Appendix A) also emphasizes the non-functional
requirements of the target audience which can help the game
developers to produce successful games generating more
revenue. This template also helps to provide a platform that
will help designers and developers to collaborate and include
target audience perceptions while designing and developing
the games. In future work, we will include more
nonfunctional requirements in exGDD and will elaborate in
detail their purpose and impact on end product. Adding more
non-functional requirements in exGDD tool will make it
more effective. Moreover, exGDD template will be
integrated with software development tool that will help in
increasing the productivity of the game.
Appendix A
Extend Game Design Document Template
1. Overview
1.1 Game Abstract
1.2 Objectives to be achieved by the game
1.3 Game justification
1.4 Core gameplay
1.5 Game features
1.5.1 Genre
1.5.2 Number of Players
1.5.3 Target Platforms
1.5.4 Game theme
1.5.5 History Summary
1.6 Player Characteristics
1.7 Initial Scope
1.8 Target Audience
1.8.1 Functional Requirement
1.8.2 Non-Functional Requirement
1.8.2.1 Performance
1.8.2.2 Reliability
1.8.2.3 Quality
1.8.2.4 Security
2. Mechanics
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International Journal of Applied Engineering Research
2.1 Game elements categories
2.2 Core game elements
2.3 Rules
2.3.1 Interaction rules
2.3.2 Artificial Intelligence
2.4 Gameworld elements
2.5 Game log elements
2.6 Assets list
3. Dynamics
3.1 Game World
3.1.1 Game theme details
3.1.2 Missions/levels/chapters Flow
3.1.3 Game detailed history
3.2 Missions/levels/chapters elements
3.2.1 Objectives
3.2.1.1 Primary
3.2.1.2 Secondary
3.2.2 Rewards
3.2.2.1 Implicit
3.2.2.2 Explicit
3.2.3 Challenges
3.2.4 Other Missions/levels/chapters elements
3.3 Missions/levels/chapters description
3.4 Special areas
3.5 Game interface
3.6 Controls interface
3.7 Game learning
3.8 Game Balance
4. Aesthetics
4.1 Core game elements visual
4.2 Gameworld elements visual
4.3 Game log elements visual
4.4 Other elements visual
4.5 Gameworld visual
4.6 Missions/levels/chapters visual
4.7 Special areas visual
4.8 Game interface visual
4.9 Core game elements sound
4.10 Gameworld elements sound
4.11 Other elements sound
4.12 Gameworld sound
4.13 Missions/levels/chapters sound
4.14 Special areas sound
4.15 Game interface sound
5. Experience
5.1 Intrinsic gameplay
5.2 Mechanic gameplay
5.3 Interactive gameplay
5.4 Aesthetic gameplay
5.5 Intrapersonal gameplay
5.6 Interpersonal gameplay
6. Constraints and assumptions
6.1 Technical constraints
6.2 Detailed technical constraints
6.3 Business constraints
6.4 Detailed business constraints
6.5 Assumptions
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Artificial Intelligence and
Data Analytics Lab (AIDA) CCIS, Prince Sultan University
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Authors are thankful for the support.
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