Europa Universalis lead says design documents stifle creativity: 'You end up with a bunch of idea guys who write all the documents and the rest are there to follow'

It takes a village to make a videogame, and there's no one way to do it. Solo devs and quintuple-A studios alike face all sorts of challenges trying to make all a game's moving parts cohere, and the more cooks you add to the kitchen, the more different design philosophies are bound to conflict. That's where design documents come in—living, comprehensive treatises that outline all a game's systems and design goals to be referenced by those working on the game—at least, for some.

Johan Andersson...