What is a GDD?

That was the question I asked my fellow colleagues. It was for the NASSCOM Gaming Summit presentation. I wanted to tell people about the current ignorance and the actual importance of the Game Design field here in India.


This video of course was partly true and partly fake as few guys wanted to give a funny answer. But the truth is most people have no clue what it is?
Here my colleague Pradip, a tech analyst went around asking the question for me.
The results are hilarious!

The video quality is not that great. And the audio sync maybe slightly off. The embed is not all that accurate.
We shot with Pradip's N73 phone. It was a momentary and my last moment decision to get this video done. I thought it would be fun and easy to break the ice with the audience :)

Some of the conversations are in Hindi. For those who want a translation, look below the video embed :)
Please bear with the buffering speed. May vary depending on any factor in the universe :D

Translations:
(anything in square brackets, is my take on the replies)

Q. What is a GDD?

Guy1 (Programmer): GDD is a…*cleans throat* …GDD…Documentation something… documentation!

Guy 2 (Senior Game Designer): *my sparkling whites*

Guy 3 (Producer): Good Question!

Guy 4 (Tech Analyst): First, you tell me what a GDD is! *Gotcha!*

Guy 5(Lead Animator): Have to ask Purnima! I’ve heard about it! It’s something BIG! [Oh yes, its Big!]

Guy 6(Producer): GDD is a document that sometimes gets done after the game is developed! *Hahahha*

Girl 1(Asst. HR Manager): GDD? Game Design Document, right? *not sure*

Guy 4 (Again): Game Developer of Disco? Game Developer of Dance? What is it? What does GDD mean??

Girl 2 (Asst. Acct Manager - Publishing): GDD? *never heard of that term ever in my life!* [I like her reaction!]

Guy 7 (Studio Head): There is a large rotating dial with a depiction of Shiva about it! *this is more interesting, sorry I didn’t hear u!* [I wonder which game it is...]

Guy 4(Again?): *thinking…* *hints?*

Guy 8 (Programmer): Game Design Document *yay I got it right!* (Have you ever read a single GDD?) *LOL* No!!

Guy 9 (Studio Manager): Well…a GDD is what a game can be!  It’s not what a game will turn out to be, but it’s what a game can be! *Honest!*

Guy 4 (OMG!): Game Disco Developer? Game Developer Disco? Game Dance? *oh that’s only GD!* Game Dance Dance?

Guy 10 (QA Lead): Description of game which actually somehow doesn’t get implemented due to technical reasons and time du…. time constraints! [boy, u should be into management…so much diplomacy, yet the truth!]

Guy 11(Engine Lead): *Serious* Why? *Can anyone help me out here?* [he doesn’t like getting distrurbed during his tower defense or farm games]

Guy 4(It’s him again!): *thinking man… still thinking… it helps!* [yup! Go on]

Guy 12(Senior Game Designer): *ya right!* *help me out here!* What is his problem with life?

Guy 13 (Senior Programmer): I mean that’s the only thing that programmers hate! *true confession*

Guy 14 (Graphic Artist): (What is a GDD?) *err……* (GDD means what?) *still err…* (Gee Dee Dee!) *errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…..am I gonna get into trouble for this??*

Guy 4 (Enough already!): Too much options I’ve given you! You can take any of that!

Guy 15 (Senior Graphic Artist): They never follow except the producer! Because the producer truly believes that a game design document is really important for every … *nod*  [you've to complete the sentence! :P]

Guy 16 (Senior Programmer): I hate games! [Ooo boy, so much frustration but with a cheerful face..lolz]

Girl 3(Asst. HR Manager): *heeeeee heeeee heeeeeeeeeee* *trring trring*

Guy 4(Last time we hope!): Thank you, thank you guys! Meet you again! [AGAIN?? Noooo!!]

Hope you all enjoyed it!
Still no idea what a GDD is? Try searching the term "Game Design Document" on Google. Don't know how to use Google? You don't need to know what a GDD is! :D

NASSCOM Gaming Summit 2009 & 24fps Award

Should have posted earlier... but then I got all busy with my marriage preparations and then besides facebook, I forgot to update it anywhere else...So here it goes....better late than never :)

NASSCOM ANIMATION AND GAMING SUMMIT 2009

November 7th 2009 saw the first ever 'full fledged' Indian gaming summit that took place in Hyderabad.

It was inaugurated by Ernest Adams of the 'Designer's Notebook' fame. An industry veteran of over 20+ years of experience in Game Design, Ernest Adams, spoke about 'The Promise of India: Ancient Culture, Modern Game Design.'

I was honored to be one of the speakers at this summit.
Here's a small article on my session:
Writing a Game Design Document - What the books don't teach you!



My husband (Arjun Nair) along with another colleague - Vishwas Kasat, presented a session on 'Bringing a killer console game to mobile which spoke about bringing the console game 'BioShock' to the mobile (3D and 2D).
There were a lot of informative sessions that took place. All articles can be found here.


For the first time, people like us had the opportunity to interact with others in the Indian gaming industry.Otherwise GDC and other gaming summits abroad are usually attended by the CEOs or senior management staff and hence our chance to mingle and interact with others is very rare. So the NASSCOM gaming summit came as a saviour. I hope more and more local summits like this happens and enables people working in the industry to get to know each other and share knowledge!

MAAC 24FPS AWARDS

Also around the same time, i.e. on 6th November 2009, we won the Best Game Design award at the 24fps Animation Awards organized by MAAC for Movin' Maze 3D - iPhone. We shared the award with Ghajini, the game.


Unfortunately, due to some miscommunication, I wasn't informed that we won the award. So, at the last moment, another studio head, Shaina Rajan went ahead and collected the award on my/our dept's behalf.


How I wish I was there to collect the award! *sigh* 


Anyways cheers! :D
The complete list of winners are here. 
(Indiagames is misspelled as Indian games)