Projects are used to manage all of your different game designs or game design documents. Each project uses its own template for the structure of the design and can be saved (with the right plan) and re-used with newer projects. Projects can be shared in a pool with Teams and can grant access for multiple users with a set project profile. Projects are the key to creating and managing all design documents you created and have been invited to to collaborate.
A game design document is a document created to plan the creation and the development of a game with specific details to allow for a smooth process for the final delivery. It also allows for executives to understand the scope of a game project to manage resources effectively and/or plan accordingly to whether or not a project will stay within budget and can be completed and delivered on time. A game design document is usually a living document (or in this case an application) that provides the guidelines for the design process or game assets and the development process for coding and testing. A design document can change over time, which is why its important to manage the smallest details effectively and allow a limited range of access to those involved with the game design project or process.
A design document is a document that provides the planning structure and architecture for developing software, games, applications or products. It is a guideline for those involved in the development process to influence and maximize resources and budget before any actual development begins. It helps prevent potential errors by circumventing issues early in the project so the project will stay within the delivery date once it begins and is approved.
You an add a user to your project by using their email address. If you are the owner or administrator of a project, you can add users to a project. If the user is not in our system already, they will be notified by email with a link to confirm a new account. Every project has a list of members that you can add any number of people to (within the project profile limits of course). Every member has limited access based on their project profile you assign to them. For Team projects, the administrator of the project will have the rights to manage project users.
Design mode is the default mode for a project. Every project’s design document is generally considered to be in a design phase where all the game information is collected and structure is architected for the game design. This really means the design document is in the process of being designed and development has not yet started. Tasks are currently not available in this mode, although that may changed based on usability. (Tasks could be useful if other users are helping to construct the design document.)
Development mode means the game design document as been approved to begin the development process. New features are available for development mode such as managing tasks and assigning project templates. Every task has a status, start and end date to keep tabs on how development is going and if there are any hiccups in development. Any user on the project (with the right profile) can communicate with any part of the design document by writing comments and possibly creating tasks that are pertinent to the order of tasks.
A Component is a document (template) part that is the highest level of a game design document or project that provides the overlaying structure of the design. A Component will usually contain multiple Sections and Template Items in the document design. what is a section? A Section is a design document part (template) that is a child part to a document Component. It is built exactly like a Component, but it can only be a child part of a Component or another Section in the design document.
A Task is an attachment to a design document part that can be created as a to-do item for that specific document part. A Component or Section can have any number of tasks connected to it and each task can be assigned to anyone invited into the project (based on profile). Tasks are managed by a project administrator and the user assigned to it can complete that task and update the design document. Tasks also can have comments by those a part of the design document project.
A game design document is broken down into parts called templates. A component and a Section are considered to be templates. When all templates are brought together in a project, it is considered to be called the game design document. Each template is structured the same, only each can be a child of one and the parent of another based on how you designed or architected the document parts.
A project Template Item is a small sub-part of a design document template that houses small bits of information not suitable for a Section, but small enough to be added as information related to the template part.
Project profiles are profiles assigned to users added to a project that provides each user with a set of permissions to manage template items, Components and Sections. owners of a project automatically have Administrator permissions which gives full control over the design document as well as managing the users in the project. Users with full control over a project can assign particular profiles to individual users on a project.
Administrator: Full control over the project. Can edit, delete, all items in the project
Editor: Can edit parts of the project and add comments. Cannot delete project parts or add users to a project
Viewer: Cannot edit any part of the project. Can only view all parts of the design document project. (possibly only add comments)
The design document view is the view of the project that has simplified your game design document for printing. This view will gather all resources of your project and display it in a simple format that easily structures the document in its hierarchical structure. All components sections, template items and media items will be displayed in it proper place in the view.
Yes. You can create a PDF with your design document project by rendering your design document using the design document view and from there you will have to create the PDF by using the print to PDF option. (you can right click the web page in the design document view and select “print†and from there select save as pdf option to create a pdf whenever you need to)
This one of the greatest asset for creating design document projects. A saved project template is a skeleton of your game design document that can be saved and later reused in another document project or by another user on the site or on your team. As you build your game design document, you have the option to add a description on each Component, Section and/or template item. The name and descriptions are saved as part of the template so the users that end up using your saved template will understand each part and will help them build their game design document much easier. By default, this is a quick way to get a new game design document up and running which will allow you to focus more on designing the games as opposed to focusing on designing the document.
There are two types of plans for a single user. There is single user plan for projects and profiles and there are plans for creating Teams. A single user can manage their own team, but a single user can also be a part of a team and not manage the plan but only reap the benefits of being a part of that Team and share the resources of projects and collaboration.
Profiles are a way to manage how each user can interact with the site via a Team or a design document project. There are limitations in place to help prevent users from performing actions that a project owner may not want to delegate. This is useful for a project that may end up having multiple users outside of your company access the document. By only giving view profile access will prevent parts of the design document being changed unwarranted.