quick-design

To document small gameplay tuning changes without a full game design document, you can draft a lightweight quick design spec. This format captures rationale, acceptance criteria, and GDD references for changes taking roughly four hours or less to implement.

You should use a quick design specification instead of a full GDD for minor tweaks, tuning adjustments, or small standalone systems under one week of development. A full GDD is unnecessary when cross-system impact is limited.

Classifying gameplay changes for design documentation involves categorizing the request as tuning, a tweak, a minor addition, or a new small system. Correct classification determines whether a quick-spec or full GDD workflow is needed.

You can reference existing game design documents when creating a quick spec. The process scans current GDDs, prior quick-specs, and data assets to ground the new specification and avoid design conflicts.

The limitation of using a quick-spec is that it only applies to changes with limited cross-system impact. If a modification exceeds four hours of implementation or affects multiple systems, you must redirect to the full GDD workflow.

The best way to format a quick design spec for a simple achievement popup system is to include rationale, acceptance criteria, and relevant GDD references. The formatted file is then prepared for the design quick-specs directory.