Sarah Clarity Studios

Chapter 4: Documentation That Downstream Teams Love

Created by Sarah Choi (prompt writer using ChatGPT)

Documentation that Downstream Teams Love

For weapon concept artists working on Modularity, Attachments & Skin Systems—written equally for concepting and production artists.

Why documentation is a design tool

Documentation is not clerical overhead; it is a continuation of design that translates intent into executable instructions for everyone who touches the weapon after you—3D, tech art, rigging, animation, VFX, audio, UI/UX, monetization, live ops, QA, and localization. When your docs are clear, teams spend their time enhancing the idea rather than guessing at it. The best weapon documentation treats modularity, attachments, and skins as first-class systems with rules, not one-off exceptions. This article outlines how to architect those rules, prove them visually, and ship a package that downstream teams love.

Vocabulary and scope

Clarity starts with shared language. Define the following on page one and use these terms consistently throughout your package:

Family: A related set of base weapons that share silhouette logic, rail/sockets, and AO/UV conventions, designed to host a compatible set of attachments and skins.

Variant: A configuration of the base (e.g., Starter/Elite/Legendary) distinguished by trim level, materials, and limited silhouette changes that preserve readability and balance.

Trim: Material and small form updates that convey value tiers without breaking socket alignment or gameplay silhouettes.

Attachment: A discrete, swappable module (optics, grips, stocks, barrels, muzzle devices, batteries) that follows physical and gameplay constraints and connects via defined sockets.

Socket: A defined attachment interface with transform, orientation, envelope, and collision/rigging expectations.

Skin: A purely cosmetic material/decals set that preserves silhouettes, socket transforms, and read-critical markings.

Material ID / Color ID: Authoritative mask indices that drive shaders, trim sheets, and skin authoring.

Rarity: A communications layer (not a modeling requirement) indicating acquisition difficulty. Rarity may modulate trims and materials but must not confer power.

Stating these up front prevents the common pitfall where “skin,” “variant,” and “trim” are used interchangeably and later create production inconsistencies.

The single source of truth: Master Spec Sheet

Create a one-page master spec that every other artifact references. This is your contract with downstream teams.

Contents (explained as prose within the page rather than bullets): The master spec captures the family name, the canonical base weapon, the list of intended variants with their trim philosophies, and the attachment architecture. It notes exact socket names, coordinate frames, and neutral poses; it records envelope dimensions for each hardpoint and acceptable tolerances. It establishes color/material ID maps, shader channels, and decal UV conventions, with a small thumbnail diagram to orient the reader. Finally, it embeds an ethics statement for monetization and readability (see below) and points to the source file path where the rest of the package lives.

Families and trims: visual logic that scales

Design families so that value escalates in ways production can scale. A Starter tier should communicate hardy, service-grade materials, minimal ornament, and clear machining. An Elite tier layers improved finishing, selective knurling, and differentiated anodize/ceramic treatments. A Legendary tier uses bolder patterning and micro-ornament that respects silhouette purity and socket function. Write this philosophy as narrative paragraphs with micro-examples: how serrations deepen, how chamfers sharpen, how anodized hues shift within an approved gamut. Explain which surfaces are allowed to change between trims and which are locked by the family contract (e.g., rail top profile, ejection port framing, front/back index features). This protects animation and first-person readability while giving production a palette of safe upgrades.

Modularity architecture: rails, sockets, and transforms

Document sockets as if they were API endpoints. Each socket needs a name, a parent bone, a neutral transform, an axis diagram, a soft envelope, and callouts for obstruction and recoil paths. Describe the logic of each rail or interface: how many slots, their spacing, and which attachment families they accept. If your world uses fictional standards, define them with the same detail you would a real-world spec. Include a short paragraph explaining the ideology behind forward compatibility: why a family’s Gen2 optic still seats on the Gen1 rail, and how back-compat informs silhouette continuity. This inoculates the package against later “surprise” requests to support new modules.

Orthos and exploded reads for real production

Orthographic sheets should present more than flat views; they should narrate how pieces nest and what must never drift. Write labels as complete sentences that state intent: “The barrel shroud’s interior taper creates a compression seat for muzzle devices; do not thicken this wall.” An exploded view should read like a blueprint for assembly order, showing the path that attachments take when sliding into sockets. Provide a paragraph under the view that explains service access, fastener philosophy, and torque logic. Downstream teams will use these paragraphs to argue for or against parting lines and to plan UV seams.

UV logic, trim sheets, and decal systems

Explain the UV strategy in words first: which islands are sacred, where texel density varies, and how trim-sheet lanes map to surfaces. Describe the skinning workflow as channels in the shader rather than one-off materials: a metalness/roughness base, a tiling normal for fine machining, a free mask for decals and wear, and an accent channel for trims. Tell texture artists which mask channel drives which story: oiling at the ejection port, soot cones at the muzzle, hand oils at grips. Clarify how decals inherit world-space or UV-space transforms and how livery numbers snap to alignment marks. This creates a shared grammar for skins to scale across the family.

Color, materials, and value tiers

Write a materials section that reads like a brand style guide. Name the alloys, polymers, ceramics, and composites in-world, and specify their finish narratives (bead-blast, DLC, nitrided, cerakote, lacquered wood). For each tier, describe how specular size, roughness range, and micro-scratch density evolve. Explain your approach to color gamuts per tier—Starter lives in utility neutrals, Elite can introduce richer midtones, Legendary earns controlled high-chroma accents. Keep these rules tied to gameplay readability: critical controls remain high-contrast and never disappear under skins.

Animation, rigging, and VFX hooks

Describe the motion vocabulary the weapon expects. If charging handles, latches, chambers, and safeties articulate, note their arcs and stops in prose and reinforce with a simple arrow overlay. State strict no-fly zones for geometry in animation sweeps. For VFX, narrate how muzzle flash, heat shimmer, or plasma bloom should anchor to attachment transforms, and describe particle color ranges per tier to preserve class identity. For audio, write intent about material sounds—polymer creak versus milled-metal clack—so foley can match trims without inventing a new identity for each variant.

Readability and competitive integrity

Put an explicit paragraph on what must never change across skins or trims: hitbox silhouette, sight picture, front-post geometry, ejection cues, muzzle device length limits, and recoil readability. If your game communicates zeroing offsets or smart-sight parallax, explain how skins keep those affordances legible. State plainly that no skin may reduce occlusion of targets or conceal muzzle flash beyond a defined envelope. Downstream teams appreciate when the design pre-defends fair play.

Monetization ethics: value without pressure

Declare your stance in writing: upgrades are cosmetic, never power. Explain how families, trims, and skins communicate value with craft, lore, and finish—not by shrinking silhouettes, muting recoil, or blending into biome palettes. Describe bundle logic (base + attachment + skin) while committing to transparent acquisition (no blind boxes). Address accessibility ethics: avoid flicker-prone emissives, offer colorblind-safe palettes for UI badges, and ensure store thumbnails reflect in-game lighting. Put guardrails for cultural respect: reference inspirations responsibly, avoid sacred symbols unless the narrative earns it, and include a review step for localization and legal. Downstream teams will cite this paragraph when making hard calls later.

Packaging for handoff

End your documentation with a compact, human-readable handoff plan. Describe where to find the source files, which naming conventions you follow, and how variant prefixes/suffixes are applied. Explain directory structure in plain language so an outsourcing partner can sync in minutes. Call out the exact files that define sockets, transforms, and masks. Provide a small paragraph on version control etiquette (branching for variants, tagging for LOD handoffs) and on how to submit back fixes without stomping material IDs. The goal is a package that a new teammate can open and trust within the first hour.

Test cases and proof of readiness

Close with short scenario narratives that QA and producers can execute: equipping three different optics across the family and verifying zero obstruction; swapping a long muzzle device and checking that it does not encroach on the field-of-view gate; applying the most emissive Legendary skin in a dark biome and confirming that reticle and UI remains readable. Writing these as prose test cases ensures anyone can validate the integrity of your rules without needing tribal knowledge.

Final thought

Downstream-loved documentation is design stewardship. When you narrate your systems—families, trims, sockets, skins—in precise, readable paragraphs, you spare teams rework, shore up fairness, and create a consistent, scalable identity for your weapons. The time you invest in the doc pays dividends in every subsequent variant, skin, and attachment the game will ever ship.