Depends on how much you've done.
I don't think anybody who hasn't tried to write a program really understands how much *work* the design phase really is. My current project, a 4X space strategy game, is well over 100kb of plain text, and I've yet to produce a truly definitive design document. I have notes on how basically every aspect of the game is to work, what features are important to the design, and even an outline for what could be a game-wide design document... but I don't have that design. Part of it is that I don't *know* everything that'll go into the game- I understand the mechanics that are unique, and I have a good sense of what else has to be in it, but I look at my feature list, and go 'There MUST be things I'm missing! This isn't all of it!' Part of it is assumptions, too- when you do a design, odds are you might write down three features, only to skip over the other five that go with them because they're just so *obvious* they don't really need mentioning.
If you're just starting, than you've made just a little bit of progress. If you're even half done with the document, I salute you- you've done quite a bit.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
I don't think anybody who hasn't tried to write a program really understands how much *work* the design phase really is. My current project, a 4X space strategy game, is well over 100kb of plain text, and I've yet to produce a truly definitive design document. I have notes on how basically every aspect of the game is to work, what features are important to the design, and even an outline for what could be a game-wide design document... but I don't have that design. Part of it is that I don't *know* everything that'll go into the game- I understand the mechanics that are unique, and I have a good sense of what else has to be in it, but I look at my feature list, and go 'There MUST be things I'm missing! This isn't all of it!' Part of it is assumptions, too- when you do a design, odds are you might write down three features, only to skip over the other five that go with them because they're just so *obvious* they don't really need mentioning.
If you're just starting, than you've made just a little bit of progress. If you're even half done with the document, I salute you- you've done quite a bit.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.