Design

VGDP offers game designers numerous industry-specific and gameplay enhancing design tools that streamline the design process and help create more fun, engaging, and innovative video games.

Design Resources

• Design documentation section instructions, corresponding examples, and game design resources available right from within your program. 

• These windows can be displayed, removed, or re-sized on your program screen.

• Provided for reference by professional designers, and as a guide for novices.

Design Wizards

• Expedite the design of your game's similar elements with wizards. 

• The VGDP program wizards are essentially templates containing outlines of critical design information. 

• Reduce the risk of leaving out important design information, and complete redundant game elements faster. 

• This output information can then be edited and manipulated however the designer sees fit.

Sections

• Video Game Design Pro utilizes annotated content management to organize your game designs into sections, sub-sections, sub-sub-sections, and so forth. 

• Each of these sections operates as a folder of "pages" within your design documentation, which can then be promoted, demoted, renamed, deleted, etc. in a manner that suits you.

• Through simple dialog prompts, users can setup objects like storyboards and timelines, and edit them later.
• Enter a name for these different objects to register them for data retrieval later on. 

Word Processing

• Comes standard with all common word processing and text formatting functions.
• Includes... Spellcheck, Thesaurus, Word Count, Highlighter, Find and Replace, etc.
• The Screenplay Dialogue Toolbar sets up your text and document margins to automatically conform to screenplay standards.
• Automatically corresponds with elements previously entered.  Did you use the wizard tasks to add a character?  This information is automatically saved to the screenplay's list of character names.
• Save time adjusting margins, tab stops, and text, by using the screenplay dialogue toolbar.

Importing and Exporting

• Import - Microsoft Word (.doc), Microsoft Excel (.xls), Rich Text Formatted Document (.rtf).
• Export - Microsoft Word, Rich Text Formatted Document, Portable Document Format (.pdf), Hypertext Markup Language (.html).
• Instantly import and export entire documents, or selected sections of your design. 
• Use the import/export functions to maintain your document's format and layout consistently across any number of platforms.
• Import other .gdp (Video Game Design Pro) files into your documents as well.  Do you have a team member working on a particular section?  Is your technical design document drawn up by the programming department?  You can import these files instantly into one single document.

For more info on VGDP tools and solutions, please visit the Features section of our website.

Production Management

Utilizing design documentation and VGDP project management best practices throughout the development process is the key to ensuring a successful end-result, and the creation of a game that maintains compelling re-playability.

Version History

• Track the changes made to documents with the version history section and tool.
• Team Members detail the changes that have been made, identify themselves, and update the document's version with a simple click.

GameDesignShare.com

• Upload documents to GameDesignShare.com so users can access them from anywhere with an active internet connection.
• A viewing password allows people to view designs but not edit them, an editing password provides them with editing capabilities.
• Novice designers can use GameDesignShare.com Cards to spread the word about their designs.

Online Collaboration

• Our Online Collaboration tool dialog box displays your computer's IP address.  Simply enter your partner's IP and press connect, or wait for them to connect you.
• Instant message each other right from within the Video Game Design Pro application.
• Did you enter your partner's IP address?  Then you are the Primary User, and if your partner tries to edit designs you must grant them permission first, otherwise they can only watch you work.
• View document changes in real-time, discuss design concepts, and create winning game designs in a team environment from the comfort of your own home or office.

Goto Options

• From pages and images, to visual objects and information, your Goto tab can instantly pull up any type of content from your documents.
• When you insert visual objects, Video Game Design Pro gives you the option of naming them.  You can then reference these objects from your Goto tab. 
• For example, you may create a specific storyboard named "Scene 1".  If you need to find this board later on, as opposed to combing through pages for it, users can simply select "Scene 1" from a list of the document's storyboards.

Design Notes and Future Features

• By inserting a name, reference mark, and details, designers or readers can comment and tag a document's content. 
• These notes and features are also automatically sent to their appropriate table of contents sections when inserted.
• When these references are clicked, the design notes and future features are displayed, where they can be viewed and edited.

Index and Glossary

• It's literally as simple as a highlight and click to add terms and phrases to your document's index and glossary.
• Once you index a term you're finished.  You can then find the word or phrase you're searching for, see the pages it occurs on, and use your Goto Page Number function to be immediately taken to it.
• When a term is glossarized, each and every occurrence becomes linked to its own definition in real-time, so you won't have to leave the current window to view definitions.

Task List and Calendar

• A straight-forward and practical calendar and task list allow you to enter information concerning what needs to be accomplished, by whom, of which department, when its due, completion status, etc.
• This task list is customizable to a development project's needs, and along with the calendar it can be easily displayed or hidden on the program screen at any given moment.

 For more info on VGDP tools and solutions, please visit the Features section of our website.