A list of publicly available Game design documents that I have found interesting. (Ok... the list is slowly evolving. The main focus will still be game design materials, but will also include additional cool tools at the end)
I do not own any of these documents. If there are any copyrighted materials, they belong to the original authors.
Enjoy.
- Monaco
- Rockstar games GTA
- Condor's Diablo 1
- Original Deus Ex
- Irrational Games (now Ghoststory Games) Bioshok
- Id Doom
- Laisure Suit Larry 5
- Frontier Pharmacist
- Shape up or Slip out
- The sky above, the sky below
- Love for sail!
- Leisure Suit Larry's Casino
- Prince of Persia 2
- Burnt out cop
- Grim Fandango
- The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses
- Game Maker's Toolkit - Mark Brown's extensive video library analyzing game design principles
- Lost Garden - Daniel Cook's influential game design blog with essays and frameworks
- The Door Problem - Classic game design essay by Liz England explaining what a game designer does
- Designer Notes - Soren Johnson's game design podcast and blog
- A Theory of Fun - Raph Koster's influential book on game design (site with resources)
- Asking Gamedevs - Industry Q&A collection from veteran game developers
- Game Programming Patterns - Free online book by Robert Nystrom covering essential programming patterns for games
- Game Design Patterns Wiki - Academic collection from Chalmers University of Technology
- Game Developer Deep Dives - In-depth technical postmortems series
(The following list is taken directly from www.pixelprospector.com Their website is currently only visible in the WaybackMachine archives, thats why I am posting it here)
- System Shock 2 (Irrational Games) [1999]
- Gish (Chronic Logic) [2004]
- Wik & The Fable Of Souls (Reflexive) [2005]
- Eets (Klei Entertainment) [2006]
- Armadillo Run (Peter Stock) [2006]
- The Graveyard (Tale of Tales) [2008]
- Schizoid (Torpex Games) [2008]
- BIT.TRIP BEAT (Gaijin Games) [2009]
- Cogs (Lazy 8 Studios) [2009]
- Darwinia (introversion) [2009]
- The Blackwell Convergence (Wadjet Eye) [2009]
- Weapon of Choice (Mommy's Best Games) [2009]
- Swords & Soldiers (Ronimo Games) [2009]
- Trino (Trinoteam) [2009]
- Aaaaa! — A Reckless Disregard for Gravity (Dejobaan Games) [2010]
- The Path (Tale of Tales) [2010]
- Droplitz (Blitz Games) [2010]
- Hydro Thunder Hurricane (Vector Unit) [2010]
- NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits (Over the Top Games) [2010]
- Igneous (Going Down In Flames) [2010]
- Explosionade (Mommy's Best Games) [2011]
- The Adventures Of Shuggy (Smudged Cat Games) [2011]
- Octodad (Octodad Team) [2011]
- Super Meat Boy (Team Meat) [2011]
- Gemini Rue (Joshua Nuernberger) [2011]
- Guns Of Icarus (Muse Games) [2011]
- Recettear (Carpe Fulgur) [2011]
- Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess (Mediatonic) [2011]
- Ray Ardent: Science Ninja (Ninja Robot Dinosaur) [2011]
- Fez [VIDEO] (Polytron) [2012]
- Frozen Synapse (Mode 7 Games) [2012]
- Lume (State of Play) [2012]
- Outland (Housemarque) [2012]
- Dead Nation (Housemarque) [2012]
- Dust: An Elysian Tail (Humble Hearts) [2012]
- SpaceChem (Zachtronics Industries) [2012]
- Jetpack Joyride [VIDEO] (Halfbrick Studios) [2012]
- Gun Godz (Vlambeer) [2012]
- Forge (Dark Vale Games) [2012]
- The Binding of Isaac (Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl) [2012]
- Hell Yeah! (Arkedo) [2012]
- Zack Zero (Crocodile Entertainment) [2012]
- AI War (Arcen Games) [2013]
- Anomaly Warzone Earth (11 Bit Studios) [2013]
- Cinders (Moacube) [2013]
- Ethan: Meteor Hunter (Seaven Studio) [2013]
- Guacamelee! (DrinkBox Studios) [2013]
- Intrusion 2 [VIDEO] (Aleksey Abramenko) [2013]
- Natural Selection 2 (Unknown Worlds Entertainment) [2013]
- Pixeljunk 4am (Q-Games) [2013]
- Speedrunner HD [VIDEO] (Casper Van Est) [2013]
- Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (The Chinese Room) [2014]
- Super Win The Game (Minor Key Games) [2014]
- Vessel (Overbyte) [2014]
- Cogmind (Grid Sage Games) [2015]
- Goat Simulator (Armin Ibrisagic) [2015]
- Airscape: The Fall of Gravity (Daniel West) [2015]
- Halfway (Robotality) [2015]
- Heroki (Michael Balm) [2015]
- INK (ZackBellGames) [2015]
- Never Alone (Upper One Games / E-Line Media) [2015]
- Next Penelope (Aurelien Regard) [2015]
- Nub's Adventure (Maximilian Csuk) [2015]
- Out There (Mi-Clos) [2015]
- Resogun Article / Video (Housemarque) [2015]
- Mika and the Witch's Mountain (Chibig) [2020]
- Hades [VIDEO] (Supergiant Games) [2020]
- Vampire Survivors (poncle) [2022]
- Balatro Timeline (LocalThunk) [2024]
- Humble Indie Bundle [VIDEO] [2011]
- Humble Indie Bundle (Indiegames Blog) [2011]
- Humble Indie Bundle (Joystiq) [2011]
- Infographic: Game Jam Postmortems – What Went Wrong/Right (McFunkyPants) [2011]
- Infographic: Game Jam Postmortem Survey (McFunkyPants) [2011]
- Ludum Dare Postmortems (Ludum Dare) [various years]
- Myth: The Fallen Lords (Bungie) [1998]
- Thief: The Dark Project (Looking Glass Studios) [1999]
- Age of Empires II: Age of Kings (Ensemble Studio) [2000]
- Deus Ex (Ion Storm) [2000]
- Diablo II (Blizzard) [2000]
- Unreal Tournament (Epic Games) [2000]
- Vampire: The Masquerade — Redemption (Nihilistic Software) [2000]
- Wild 9 (Shiny Entertainment) [2000]
- Rainbow Six (Red Storm Entertainment) [2000]
- Black & White (Lionhead Studio) [2001]
- Baldur's Gate II (BioWare) [2001]
- Fallout Tactics (Micro Forte) [2001]
- No One Lives Forever (Monolith) [2001]
- Operation Flashpoint (Bohemia Interactive Studios) [2001]
- Jak and Daxter: the Precursor Legacy (Naughty Dog) [2002]
- Neverwinter Nights (Bioware) [2002]
- Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II (Factor 5) [2002]
- Galactic Civilizations (Stardock Entertainment) [2003]
- Ratchet & Clank (Insomniac Games) [2003]
- Splinter Cell (Ubisoft) [2003]
- TRON 2.0 (Monolith) [2003]
- Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations) [2005]
- WipEout Pure (SCEE) [2005]
- Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2 (Krome Studios) [2005]
- Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords (Stardock Entertainment) [2006]
- Indigo Prophecy (Quantic Dream) [2006]
- RoboBlitz (Naked Sky Entertainment) [2007]
- Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania (Blue Fang) [2007]
- BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia) [2008]
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (Insomniac Games) [2008]
- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (Naughty Dog) [2008]
- Bionic Commando Rearmed (Capcom/GRIN) [2009]
- Crackdown (Realtime Worlds) [2009]
- Darkest of Days (8Monkey) [2009]
- The World Ends With You (Square Enix) [2009]
- Tomb Raider: Underworld (Crystal Dynamics) [2009]
- A Boy and His Blob (WayForward) [2010]
- Brutal Legend (Double Fine) [2010]
- Deadliest Warrior (Pipeworks Software) [2010]
- Hydro Thunder Hurricane (Vector Unit) [2010]
- Matt Hazard: Blood Bath and Beyond (Vicious Cycle) [2010]
- Super Monkey Ball 2 (Sega/Other Ocean) [2010]
- Crash Bandicoot (Naughty Dog) [2011]
- Magicka (Arrowhead Game Studios) [2011]
- Okamiden (Capcom) [2011]
- Renegade Ops (Avalanche Studios) [2012]
- Sins Of A Solar Empire (Stardock Entertainment) [2012]
- Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Sony Bend Studios) [2012]
- Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition (Overhaul Games) [2013]
- God of War: Ascension (Sony Santa Monica) [2013]
- Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (Big Huge Games / 38 Studios) [2013]
- Resident Evil 4 (Capcom) [2013]
- Spider-Man (Treyarch) [2013]
- Deadly Premonition (Access Games) [2015]
- DOOM [VIDEO] (Tom Hall, John Romero) [2011]
- Elite [VIDEO] (David Braben) [2011]
- Bejeweled [VIDEO] (Jason Kapalka) [2011]
- Maniac Mansion [VIDEO] (Ron Gilbert, Double Fine Productions) [2011]
- Marble Madness [VIDEO] (Mark Cerny) [2011]
- Pac-Man [VIDEO] (Toru Iwatani, Namco) [2011]
- Pitfall [VIDEO] (David Crane) [2011]
- Populous [VIDEO] (Peter Molyneux, Lionhead Studios) [2011]
- Prince of Persia [VIDEO] (Jordan Mechner) [2011]
- Raid on Bungeling Bay [VIDEO] (Will Wright) [2011]
- Video Games Turn 25: A Historical Perspective and Vision for the Future (Satoru Iwata, Nintendo) [2011]
- Fallout [VIDEO] (Timothy Cain, Obsidian Entertainment) [2012]
- Gauntlet [VIDEO] (Ed Logg) [2012]
- GoldenEye 007 [VIDEO] (Martin Hollis) [2012]
- Harvest Moon [VIDEO] (Yasuhiro Wada) [2012]
- Ultima: Online [VIDEO] (Raph Koster, Rich Vogel, Starr M. Long) [2012]
- What Went Wrong? Learning From Past Postmortems (Gamasutra Special) [2009]
GDC Postmortems - Youtube playlist collection of GDC Postmortems
- Dundoc - Avenge your Game Idea and Plunge into the Future Gaming Portal. Design your game idea the right way
- Nuclino - A lightweight and collaborative wiki for all your team's knowledge, docs, and notes
- Affine - Great self-hosted note taking/knowledge base that serves well for GDD creation
- IMS Creators - Collaborative game design creation tool integrated with project management
- Arrow - Handy, free, open-source tool to design game narrative, develop text-adventures, or create any other kind of nonlinear interactive storytelling document
- Twine - Open-source tool for interactive, nonlinear stories. Widely used in indie games and education
- articy:draft - Professional narrative design tool used by AAA studios with version control and team collaboration
- Ink/Inky - Inkle Studios' narrative scripting language, free and open-source, used in games like 80 Days
- Yarn Spinner - Dialogue system used in Night in the Woods and other narrative-driven games
- Arcweave - Modern web-based narrative design tool with real-time collaboration features
- Fungus - Free, open-source visual storytelling tool for Unity
- Machinations - Visual design tool for game systems and balancing
- 3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development - Comprehensive book on math related to game development (Simply an amazing book about teaching math used in game development in a nice and easy manner) now for Free!
- COLLISION DETECTION by Jeff Thompson - This book explains the algorithms behind those collisions using basic shapes like circles, rectangles, and lines so you can implement them into your own projects
- Bevy - A refreshingly simple data-driven game engine built in Rust. Free and Open Source Forever!
- Godot Engine - Popular open-source 2D/3D engine with MIT license, growing rapidly in adoption
- Defold - Free 2D game engine by King, particularly strong for mobile development
- LÖVE - Free 2D game framework using Lua, excellent for prototyping
- Pico-8 - Fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games
- r/gamedesign Wiki - Curated resources from the Reddit game design community
- IGDA Resources - International Game Developers Association resource library
- GameDev.net - Long-running game development community with articles and forums
- GDC Vault - Archive of Game Developers Conference talks (free and premium content)
Contributions welcome! Read the contribution guidelines first.
