How to explain game design

[NickOOOShea]

Hey guys,
so I have a bit of a problem. I have an idea for a game, and I have all the
3d models and such, but I have no clue how to program. I hired a couple of guys to
work for me, but here's the thing. I have no CLUE about anything regarding coding.
What do I have to tell them to code? Like, do I give them my story, characters and stuff?
Or do I have to do something else? I know it sounds dumb, but what do I give them to work with? If anyone could help, that would be awesome!
P.S. They are C++ coders. I don't know if that makes a difference.

[Aranarth]

You give them every last detail of gameplay and the design of the interface. They'll need to know what your game world can contain, how the player can interact with it and any characters in it (such as talking, fighting). Each topic requires you to go more in-depth, so if there is combat, you'll need to explain the details of how it is supposed to work.
The story is largely irrelevant to them, as it mainly affects the game world, character interactions (dialogues), etc. That's not their job (unless you make it - but then you should hire game (world) designers or story writers instead). Programmers will just provide the tools that allow others to build said game world.

[spoonlicker]

You give them every last detail of gameplay and the design of the interface. They'll need to know what your game world can contain, how the player can interact with it and any characters in it (such as talking, fighting). Each topic requires you to go more in-depth, so if there is combat, you'll need to explain the details of how it is supposed to work.
The story is largely irrelevant to them, as it mainly affects the game world, character interactions (dialogues), etc. That's not their job (unless you make it - but then you should hire game (world) designers or story writers instead). Programmers will just provide the tools that allow others to build said game world.

If you have no clue on how to program and want to hire people who do then you tell them exactly how you want the game made, otherwise you hire new people who can do the job for you the way you want them to, nothing more or nothing less.

Nonetheless, I'd prefer to do it myself, but to each their own.

[ajst]

you dont need to know how they are going to program each feature. imagine you are playing your game.

And describe how each feature of the game work.
E.g
In the bottom of the right hand corner i want a minimap that displays the map and all units and buildings on the map as well but scaled down.

this is proberly a bad example because if you say minimap to most programmers they know what you need there and then, but you can see what im getting at. some features will not need as much info as others depening how complicated the task or feature may be.

[DaSpirit]

Real game designers use Design Documents, documents that explain everything about the game, from graphics, to where everything is placed, to coding issues. These design documents go through edits as game development goes on and the programmers use these to have a general guideline.