Game System Design Platform (GSDP)

Living GDD A living map of your game’s design.

Living GDD is a Game System Design Platform — a structured, interconnected workspace built for how games actually get made: prototypes, iteration, changing intent, and systems that depend on each other.

Not a “design bible.” Not a promise of certainty. Just a living place to keep intent, decisions, and dependencies coherent as your game evolves.

Powered by SystemLink™, the relationship engine for game systems.

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Indie-friendly pricing. Early adopters stay grandfathered for life.

GDDs break down when they try to be “the truth” instead of a tool for learning.

Games are discovered through playtests, iteration, and time pressure. A doc that tries to lock everything down upfront either becomes a burden or quietly drifts away from what’s actually in the game.

Living GDD is designed to embrace that reality: keep things modular, keep intent visible, and make change easy to track.

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Monolithic “design bibles” become dense, stale, and ignored.

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Two realities form: the doc reality and the game reality.

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Relationships are implicit, so changes create invisible ripple effects.

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Ownership is unclear, so updates fall behind under time pressure.

This is not a design bible.

Living GDD is intentionally designed to avoid the failure modes that make people resent traditional GDDs.

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Not a promise of certainty.
Games are discovered through prototyping and playtesting. Living GDD exists to evolve alongside that discovery — not lock it down upfront.

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Not a replacement for conversation.
Meetings, playtests, and shared context still matter. Living GDD supports those conversations by keeping intent and dependencies visible.

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Not exhaustive by default.
Capture the minimum necessary structure early. Add detail only when systems stabilize and it actually pays off.

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Not a single, static source of truth.
Living GDD is a living map of the team’s current understanding — designed to make drift visible, not pretend it won’t happen.

If you’ve been burned by heavyweight documentation before, this section exists for you.

Why not just use Notion, Google Docs, or Obsidian?

Those tools are excellent for text and freeform notes. Living GDD isn’t trying to replace them — it focuses on something they don’t model well: game systems as connected, evolving entities.

Where general-purpose notes tend to struggle (for games)

  • Relationships and dependencies are implied, not explicit.
  • Design intent gets buried under content lists and pages.
  • When something changes, ripple effects are easy to miss.
  • Over time, structure decays unless someone constantly curates it.

What a Game System Design Platform adds

  • Characters, quests, items, mechanics, and locations are first-class entities.
  • SystemLink™ makes dependencies queryable and visible.
  • Fast navigation designed for scanning connected systems, not scrolling pages.
  • A living design map that evolves alongside prototypes and playtests.

Living GDD doesn’t try to predict fun on paper. It helps you keep track of what you’re learning as the game changes.

A Game System Design Platform keeps your game’s knowledge connected.

Living GDD evolves the traditional GDD into a structured workspace built for iteration. Capture intent, connect systems, and keep design context navigable — without pretending a document can “lock down” a game before it exists.

Living GDD · Sample Project

Entities

  • Characters
  • Quests
  • Items
  • Locations
  • Factions
  • Mechanics

Eira, Flamebound

Main protagonist · Fire-tuned mage

Role

Main character · Narrative anchor

Tagline

“If the world breaks its rules, why can’t I?”

Alignment

Good

Roadmap: Building the first Game System Design Platform

Living GDD evolves alongside real workflows: prototypes first, then structure where it earns its keep. Here’s what’s available today — and what’s coming next.

MVP (Available Now)

  • • Structured entities
  • • Categories
  • • Three-panel navigation
  • • SystemLink™
  • • Status tracking
  • • Basic version history

MVP+ (Next 1–3 Months)

  • • Enhanced versioning
  • • Expanded status workflows
  • • File uploads
  • • Templates
  • • Search & filters
  • • Overview dashboards

Future Vision

  • • Dialogue tree editor
  • • Quest graph editor
  • • Crafting system designer
  • • Location map editor
  • • SystemLink™ graph visualization
  • • Studio collaboration features

Built for indie teams and solo devs

Designed for long dev cycles, part-time schedules, and small teams wearing too many hats. Keep your design knowledge navigable and connected — without turning documentation into a second job.

Minimum necessary

Capture the intent and dependencies that matter. Avoid exhaustive lists that rot the moment you iterate.

Drift-aware

When designs change, Living GDD helps you notice the ripple effects earlier — before confusion compounds.

Grows with you

Start simple. Add structure as prototypes become real systems. No “GDD rewrite” phase required.

Build with iteration in mind.

Join early access to help shape Living GDD. You’ll get devlogs, system-design insights, and early access updates. Early adopters receive permanent grandfathered pricing.

No spam. Just devlogs, system-design insights, and early access updates.