Game Design Guide for Beginners?

I think that the article at http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article259.asp is a good introduction.

Also later you might want to check http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/game-book/Coverpage.html , it might make you think about some stuff.

Finally, search for articles that interest you. Your first stop for now might be just in the article section of GameDev.net . Then when you find nothing in there atracts you, you might want to read articles in gamasutra.com

Afterwards participate in discussion in forums like these.

And of course... design! read a couple of the stuff up there, then start a design on a pretty simple game with your own design and ideas. If it's actually a simple game to make you might just program the game yourself.

Look at the stickied threads at the top of the help wanted forum.

Check out this section of the GDnet articles (covers character design, design documents, game design, game dissection/analysis, game mechanics, online game design, psychology). There are some great articles in there, but I'll leave it to you to go through them and look at what's useful to you in particular.

In addition, be sure to follow sunandshadow's suggestion of checking out the sticky threads in Help Wanted - a lot of the content is aimed at people who are planning to start thier own team, but the same information happens to also be very useful for someone just getting started in game design. [smile]

What would be real cool is a word document with a generic outline of what needs to be where - sort of a fill in the blanks deal or a starter outline. Outlines rock. You just add, delete, or rename outline sections as they apply.

Sluggo ExampleI. Introduction   A. Who    1) Good Guys    2) Bad Guys    3) Neutral Guys  B. What  C. When  D. Where  E. WhyII. Look and Feel  A. Clothing style  B. Building style  C. Species style  D. Combat style  E. Camera style

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Original post by Whirlwind What would be real cool is a word document with a generic outline of what needs to be where - sort of a fill in the blanks deal or a starter outline. Outlines rock. You just add, delete, or rename outline sections as they apply.

He was actually looking for resources on game design as a process, not purely design documents - but since you've brought it up, have you looked through the articles section? There is a whole little subsection for design documents (link), with a few articles explaining how/why to use/create them, and a few templates/examples also being given.

In addition, you may be interested in what slayemin is working on, as outlined in his thread here.

K, thanks guys!

If you search around some on the net you can find some articles Blizzard has done on this kinda thing. As a company they have done well with design/testing of their products.

I've read a few books on level design planning. They didn't help me at all, but I wouldn't call them worthless.

Oh yeah, welcome and good luck :)