A curated list of publicly available game design documents, design bibles, pitch documents, postmortems, learning materials, architecture resources, and tools. The main focus is game design materials; development tools and assets are included at the end.
I do not own any of these documents. All rights belong to the original authors. Links are provided for reference and educational purposes only.
Enjoy.
- Aggregators and Archives
- Finished Game Design Documents
- Pitches and Unreleased Documents
- Templates and Examples
- Learning Materials
- Postmortems
- GDD Creation Tools
- Game Architecture
- Game Design Tools
- Game Development
- Game Assets
- Community
- Game Documents - Curated index of publicly available game design documents, pitches, and templates.
- VGHF Digital Archive - Video Game History Foundation's digital archive, including a Development and Production Materials collection of design documents and pitches.
- VGHF Library Catalog - Full catalog of VGHF holdings, including materials not yet digitized.
- Game Design Document Resources - Curated examples and templates for game design documents.
- Valve Archive - Archive of Valve's internal design documents, press kits, and production materials.
- Grand Theft Auto - Design document for the original GTA.
- Diablo - Condor's original Diablo pitch document.
- Deus Ex - Annotated original Deus Ex design document, plus the Thief 4 submission document.
- BioShock - Irrational Games' original BioShock pitch document, from the From the Vault series.
- Doom Bible - Design document for id Software's Doom.
- Half-Life Alpha Document - Valve's early alpha design document for Half-Life.
- Half-Life Main Design Document - Valve's main Half-Life design document, version 6.
- GoldenEye 007 - Martin Hollis' April 1995 design document for Rare's GoldenEye 007, preserved as scanned pages.
- Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy Design Bible - Naughty Dog's design bible; the PDF download is linked from the page.
- Star Fox 2 Design Document - Nintendo's official Star Fox 2 design document.
- Star Fox 2 Arwing Design Document - Companion Star Fox 2 document focused on the Arwing.
- Monaco - The original 2003 Monaco game design document.
- Grim Fandango - Puzzle design document for Grim Fandango.
- Sam & Max: Hit the Road - Design document for the LucasArts adventure game.
- Rogue Legacy Design Notes - Design notes for Cellar Door Games' rogue-lite.
- WipEout - Design document for Psygnosis' WipEout.
- Dirty Bomb - Game design document, art book, and soundtrack from Splash Damage.
- Azrael's Tear - Design documents and proposal for the 1996 adventure game.
- Captain Claw - Game design document for Monolith's Captain Claw.
- Pid - Game design document from Might and Delight.
- Saints Row Undercover - Design document and walkthrough for the cancelled PSP title.
- Remember Me (GBA RPG) - Documents, assets, and soundtrack for the unreleased Game Boy Advance RPG.
- Destiny and Halo UX/UI Designs - HUD specifications and UI flowcharts by David Candland.
- The Chronicles of Spellborn Artbook - Artbook and design materials for the MMO.
- Wasteland 2 Vision Document - inXile's vision document for Wasteland 2.
- List of Game Design Documents - Collection covering Fallout, TRON, Silent Hill, and more.
- Prince of Persia 2 - Design bible for Prince of Persia 2.
- Burnt Out Cop - Design overview for the cancelled title.
- Leisure Suit Larry 5 - Design document for Leisure Suit Larry 5.
- Frontier Pharmacist - Design document from the Leisure Suit Larry series.
- Shape Up or Slip Out - Design document for Leisure Suit Larry 6.
- The Sky Above, the Sky Below - Design document for the Torin project.
- Love for Sail - Design document for Leisure Suit Larry 7.
- Leisure Suit Larry's Casino - Design document for Leisure Suit Larry's Casino.
- Alice: Asylum Design Bible - American McGee's full design bible for the unreleased Alice: Asylum.
- Metal Gear Solid 2 Grand Game Plan - Kojima Productions' design plan for Metal Gear Solid 2.
- The Monster Island Pitch - Ken Levine's pitch for the unreleased Monster Island.
- Planescape: Torment Vision Statement - Black Isle's vision statement for Planescape: Torment.
- Narbacular Drop - Design documents for the Portal predecessor from Nuclear Monkey Software.
- Monster Knight - Design bible for Insomniac's cancelled PlayStation 2 game.
- Mythos Pitch - Pitch document for Flagship Studios' Mythos.
- The Flame in the Flood Pitch - Pitch document from The Molasses Flood.
- Guacamelee! Design Pitch - DrinkBox Studios' original pitch.
- SpongeBob Card Game Pitch - Pitch document by TiNYTOUCHTALES.
- Transport Tycoon Pitch - Chris Sawyer's pitch and source code snippets.
- Shred Nebula Pitch and Gameplay Documents - Pitch and gameplay documents for Shred Nebula.
- Classic LucasArts Game Design Documents - Design documents from LucasArts' adventure game era.
- Double Fine Game Design Documents from Lee Petty - Documents from Stacking, Brutal Legend, Headlander, and more.
- Thomas Grové Design Documents and Pitches - Pitches including Street Fighter IV: Flashback.
- Richard Hill-Whittall Design Documents - Design documents from an independent developer.
- Development Journals: Prince of Persia and Karateka - Jordan Mechner's development journals.
- What Remains of Edith Finch Concept Docs - Early concept documents and moodboards from Giant Sparrow.
- Ninja Theory Documents - Design documents from Ninja Theory.
- Metroid 1.5 Random Musings - Design document for Retro Studios' cancelled Metroid 1.5.
- ZACH-LIKE - Zachtronics' book of behind-the-scenes design documents and prototypes.
- Unity Game Design Document Template - First-party GDD template from Unity.
- A GDD Template for the Indie Developer - Widely cited indie-focused template and guide by Jason Bakker.
- Chris Taylor Design Template - Design template from the creator of Dungeon Siege and Total Annihilation.
- Nikkona GDD Template - Community GDD template.
- Simple Game Design Document Template - Beginner-focused template released under CC-BY 4.0.
- Free GDD and One-Pager Templates - Editable GDD and one-pager templates with a guide.
- Game Design Document Templates Collection - Living collection of community GDD templates.
- Generic Example 1 - Community example document.
- Generic Example 2 - Community example document.
- The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses - Jesse Schell's foundational design text.
- A Theory of Fun for Game Design - Raph Koster's influential book on why games are fun.
- Raph Koster's Blog - Ongoing essays from the author of A Theory of Fun.
- Game Maker's Toolkit - Mark Brown's video library analyzing game design principles.
- Lost Garden - Daniel Cook's influential game design blog with essays and frameworks.
- The Door Problem - Liz England's classic essay on what a game designer does.
- Designer Notes - Soren Johnson's game design podcast and blog.
- Ask a Game Dev - Industry Q&A from a veteran game developer.
- Game Design Patterns Wiki - Academic design pattern collection from Chalmers University of Technology.
- Game Developer - Industry news, design articles, and technical postmortems.
- The Level Design Book - Free, actively maintained reference on level design theory and practice.
- Steve Lee - Level design breakdowns from a lead designer on Dishonored 2 and BioShock Infinite.
- GDKeys - Practical deep dives into economic systems, skill trees, and progression.
- Deconstructor of Fun - Analysis of free-to-play economies and monetization.
- Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling - Canonical archive on interactive fiction and storylets.
- Game Narrative Resources - Curated, mostly free narrative design resources.
- The Gamer's Brain - Celia Hodent's work on cognitive science and game UX.
- Gamer Motivation Model - Empirically grounded player motivation taxonomy from Quantic Foundry.
- Game UI Database - Searchable reference of game user interfaces.
- Game Feel: A Game Designer's Guide to Virtual Sensation - Steve Swink's definitive text on game feel.
- Game Accessibility Guidelines - Industry-standard accessibility checklist.
- Can I Play That? - Accessibility reviews and reference guides.
- AbleGamers - Accessible Player Experience design patterns.
- GameSoundCon - Game audio industry surveys, talks, and resources.
- A Sound Effect - Sound design interviews and craft articles.
- Game Audio Learning - Structured free learning paths for game audio.
- Polaris Game Design Retreat Reports - Collaborative practitioner reports on design problems.
- Project Horseshoe Reports - Annual collaborative design reports.
- Game Studies - The founding open-access games research journal.
- DiGRA Digital Library - Open archive of DiGRA conference proceedings.
- ToDiGRA - Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association.
- MIT OCW: Creating Video Games - Full MIT lecture videos and projects, free.
- Game Design and Development with Unity - Michigan State University specialization.
- GDC - Hundreds of free Game Developers Conference talks.
- Extra Credits - Foundational game design theory series.
- Adam Millard — The Architect of Games - Essays on game loops, progression, and roguelikes.
- AI and Games - Research-backed analysis of game AI and procedural generation.
- Razbuten - Empirical studies of onboarding and readability.
- Design Doc - Essays on tutorials, feedback, and difficulty.
- Board Game Design Lab - Long-running tabletop design interview podcast.
- Game Developer Podcast - Production and interview podcast.
- Think Like a Game Designer - Newsletter and podcast by Justin Gary.
- GameDiscoverCo - Data-driven game discovery and market analysis.
- Game Maker's Toolkit Newsletter - Written companion to the GMTK channel.
(The following archive was originally compiled from pixelprospector.com and is preserved via the Wayback Machine.)
- 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 (Housemarque) [2015]
- Stardew Valley - Solo developer Eric Barone's retrospective on the four years of crunch behind Stardew Valley.
- Crashlands - Postmortem from Butterscotch Shenanigans, written while the studio was fighting cancer.
- Disastr_Blastr - Solo developer post-postmortem from the Steam Greenlight era.
- PONCHO - Five-year multi-platform indie postmortem.
- Slime Rancher - GDC talk: a preemptive postmortem from Monomi Park.
- Tangled Orbs - Solo Unreal Engine 4 postmortem.
- Slay the Spire: Metrics - GDC talk on the data-driven design of Slay the Spire.
- Celeste - Free GDC level design workshop for Celeste.
- Starcom Nexus - Early Access to 1.0 postmortem.
- Drunk Shotgun - Solo developer postmortem on a commercial failure.
- Immortal Darkness: Curse of the Pale King - Postmortem on the gap between making and selling a game.
- Mika and the Witch's Mountain (Chibig) [2020]
- A Short Hike - Free GDC postmortem from solo developer Adam Robinson-Yu.
- Hades [VIDEO] (Supergiant Games) [2020]
- Core Defense - Solo developer case study with revenue numbers.
- Inscryption - GDC talk: Sacrifices Were Made, from solo developer Daniel Mullins.
- Balatro Timeline (LocalThunk) [2024]
- Dredge - Postmortem interview with Black Salt Games.
- Inkbound - Early Access journey postmortem from Shiny Shoe.
- Empires of the Undergrowth - Seven years of Early Access.
- The Last Humble Bee - Solo development and mental health postmortem.
- Saturnalia - GDC postmortem on a game that did not meet commercial expectations.
- Windy Meadow - Narrative indie deep dive from Aureus Gaj.
- Let's! Revolution! - Prototyping to turn-based roguelike postmortem.
- The Ouroboros King - Solo developer's first commercial game postmortem.
- Rusted Moss - Developer retrospective on what they would change in a sequel.
- Outer Wilds - Conference talk on weaving the open world mystery of Outer Wilds, plus the making-of documentary.
- Orient: A Hero's Heritage - Postmortem for a cancelled project from RAS Ltd.
- The Cycle: Frontier - Production postmortem from a shut-down live service game.
- Slay the Spire: Metrics - Data-driven design postmortem.
- Among Us: The Data - InnerSloth's data analysis of Among Us (self-described as not quite a postmortem).
- Core Defense - Solo developer case study with revenue numbers.
- Rocket Jockey (JS13k) - JS13k game jam postmortem from Ryan Kubik.
- Linux Game Jam 2023 - Game jam retrospective with placement data.
- Neongarten - Jam-to-Steam postmortem from Tiny Mass Games.
- Infographic: Game Jam Postmortems (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]
- Psychonauts - Classic postmortem on the fraught development of the original Psychonauts.
- 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]
- The Walking Dead - Classic postmortem on Telltale's episodic production.
- Dance Central - Postmortem on Harmonix's Dance Central.
- Katamari Damacy - Postmortem on the singular design of Katamari Damacy.
- American McGee's Alice - Classic postmortem on the 2000 cult classic.
- Haunt - Classic postmortem on NanaOn-Sha's Kinect-era title.
- 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 Playlist - YouTube playlist collection of GDC postmortems.
- Dundoc - Collaborative game design document and idea management tool.
- Nuclino - Lightweight collaborative wiki for team knowledge and documents.
- Affine - Self-hosted note-taking and knowledge base that works well for GDD creation.
- IMS Creators - Collaborative game design tool integrated with project management.
- Milanote - Visual boards with purpose-built game design templates.
- World Anvil - Worldbuilding and lore wiki with timelines and maps.
- LegendKeeper - Lightweight collaborative worldbuilding wiki for small teams.
- Kanka - Self-hostable campaign and world wiki.
- PlayWeld - Free Apache-2.0 desktop workspace for game-project files, Markdown design notes and local search; Windows/Linux unsigned testing prerelease.
- Overwatch Gameplay Architecture - GDC talk by Timothy Ford on Overwatch's ECS usage.
- Game AI Pro - Free professional chapters on behavior, pathfinding, and scheduling.
- Game Engine Architecture - Jason Gregory's standard reference on engine subsystems.
- Red Blob Games - Interactive guides on pathfinding, hex grids, and procedural generation.
- Arrow - Open-source tool for nonlinear interactive storytelling.
- Twine - Open-source tool for interactive, nonlinear stories.
- articy:draft - Professional narrative design tool with version control and collaboration.
- Ink/Inky - Inkle Studios' narrative scripting language.
- Yarn Spinner - Dialogue system used in Night in the Woods and other narrative games.
- Arcweave - Web-based narrative design tool with real-time collaboration.
- StoryPlay - Visual editor for building interactive experiences.
- Ren'Py - The standard open-source visual novel engine.
- Dialogic - Full visual novel dialogue addon for Godot.
- Dialogue Manager - Lightweight Godot dialogue system with a visual editor.
- PatterKit - Line-based voiced dialogue pipeline with coverage testing.
- Machinations - Visual design tool for game systems and balancing.
- Loopy - Draw feedback-loop and system simulations in the browser.
- Tiled - The de-facto 2D tilemap editor.
- LDtk - Modern 2D level editor with auto-layers and engine integrations.
- TrenchBroom - Modern Quake and Doom-class 3D brush editor.
- Ogmo Editor - Simple 2D level editor.
- 3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development - Free book on the math used in game development.
- Collision Detection - Book explaining collision algorithms using basic shapes.
- The Book of Shaders - Free, hands-on fragment shader book.
- The Nature of Code - Free book on vectors, forces, particles, and neural networks.
- Game Programming Patterns - Free online book on essential programming patterns for games.
- IGDA - 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.
- 80.lv - Technical art and game development articles and interviews.
- GameFromScratch - Engine and tool news and reviews.
- awesome-gamedev - Broad game development list.
- magictools - Large game development tools list.
- awesome-game-engines - Engine catalogue.
Contributions welcome! Read the contribution guidelines first.