Game design

Game design is the process of designing the content and rules of a game. The term is also used to describe both the game design embodied in an actual game as well as documentation that describes such a design. All of the above have designs which make the clear and concise definition of video game design difficult. 

The complex nature of video game development arises because of interdependencies between these design disciplines. Decisions made in one area tend to create constraints in others. For example, art specifications can conflict with technical constraints, or the design might appear coherent overall, but be impractical to build.

Many games have been developed primarily through iterative prototyping which, depending on the type of game, can be a more appropriate way of discovering new designs than theorizing on paper. In practice, some combination of forward planning and iterative design is used in the development of a game.

This was particularly true of early video games where the programmer was often also the designer and designs were much more constrained by technology, while at the same time new and ingenious programming techniques were being devised in parallel with the game design itself.