Pillars Doc
A document stating three to five design principles every decision must satisfy — constraints that keep a team aligned when specifics are disputed.
A pillars document defines the adjectives your game must always be. Not “fun” — that is not a pillar, it is a goal. Pillars are decision filters: when two designers disagree on a mechanic, the pillars tell you which one is right for this game. Examples: “Legible at a glance,” “Rewarding to master,” “Never punishes curiosity.”
A good pillars doc has three to five entries. More than five and they stop functioning as filters — the team can rationalize any decision past a long list of vague aspirations. Each pillar should have a one-sentence definition and one example of a decision it would change.
The pillars doc is usually the shortest document in the project and the most important. Everything else — the GDD, the feature specs, the balance tables — should be defensible against the pillars. When a feature doesn’t survive the filter, that’s the document doing its job.
How it works in Gameframe
In Gameframe, a pillars doc is a first-class versioned document. Teams typically keep it in a shared vault so all designers can reference it. The document’s version history records when pillars changed — which matters, because a pillar revision mid-production is a significant event worth preserving in the record.
Specialist Reviews in Gameframe can reference your pillars doc when reviewing other specs in the same vault, flagging features that appear to be inconsistent with the stated design intent.
Import your existing pillars doc or start from a Gameframe template.