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The Mechanics of Magic

The Mechanics of Magic

Game Design Writings by Students at Stanford taking 247G and 377G

  • Library
    • CS247G Community Game Design Resources
    • Game Design Resources
    • Graphic Design for Game Designers
    • Graphic Design Resources
    • Chapter 11 from Game Balance
  • Read Write Play
    • Hollow Knight: RWP 4 2023
    • Mystic Messenger: RWP 6 2023
    • Undertale: RWP 3 2023
    • What Remains of Edith Finch: RWP 5 2023
    • Catan: RWP1 2023
    • 80 Days: RWP 2 2023
  • 247G Syllabus
    • The Formal Elements of Game Design
    • Design for Play | Week One | Lecture A
    • Design for Play | Week One | Lecture B
    • Design for Play | Week Two | Lecture A
    • Design for Play | Week Two | Lecture B
    • Design for Play | Week Three | Lecture A
    • Design for Play | Week Three | Lecture B
    • Design For Play | Week Four | Section A
    • Design For Play | Week Four | Section B
    • Design for Play | Week Five | Class A
    • Design for Play | Week 5 | Class B
    • Design for Play | Week 6 | Class A (no class)
    • Design for Play | Week 6 | Class B
    • Design for Play | Week 7 | Class A
    • Design for Play | Week 7 | Class B
    • Design for Play | Week 8 | Class A
    • Design for Play | Week 8 | Lecture B
  • Serious Play Study Group Overview
    • Study Group Week by Week Breakdown
      • Formal Elements of Games
      • Final Reflection Essay
    • [Optional Material] What is fun?
    • Project 1: Those Who Play, Teach
      • READING Visual Design of Board Games
      • Pitch Your Teaching Game
      • Sketchnote: Playtesting Boardgames
      • Sketchnote: Erin Hoffman // Wind, Not Sand: Mapping Dynamic Emotion Across a Product Landscape
      • SketchNote: MDAO
      • Critical Play: Write up your game of FLUXX
      • [Optional Material] Playtesting
      • OPTIONAL Board Game Usability
    • P2: The Future We Deserve
      • Critical Play: A Mechanic and a Story to Tell
      • Interactive Fiction: Tiny Playable Prototype
      • Introducing Interactive Fiction
      • Map and Premise
      • Critical Play: Story AND Storytelling games
      • Essay or Sketchnote: Rise of the Video Game Zinesters
      • Sketchnote: Art of game design- Story
      • [Optional Material] Emergence and Progression
      • Essay or Sketchnote: Rise of the Video Game Zinesters
      • Project 2 Reflection Essay
      • Share what you Learned: Writing Excuses Podcast
      • Values at Play & P2 Peer Grading
    • P3: The Game of Unexpected Consequences
      • P3 Concept Doc
      • Playable prototype
      • Working With System Dynamics (mindmap the reading, apply it to your game)
      • Mapping Systems
      • Sketchnote/Response for Rules & Tutorials
      • Project 3 Check-in
      • Project 3 Reflection Essay
    • P4: Refine a game
      • Sketchnote/Response for Playtesting with Strangers
      • Read: Mechanic is the Magic
  • On Sketchnotes
  • Printing at Stanford

Critical Play: Walking Simulators – Babbdi

April 23, 2026

I played the game Babbdi, made by brothers Sirius and Leonard Lemaitre, meant for people aged 16+. It is a single-player game (1 player…

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture

April 23, 2026

Games I love for each type: Enacting Stories: GTA V Embedded Narratives: Monument Valley Emergent Narratives: Minecraft

Critical Play: Walking Simulators

April 23, 2026

There’s a question that’s been nagging me while playing Giant Sparrow’s What Remains of Edith Finch on Steam: if a game made for players…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators – Paperbark

April 23, 2026

I played Paperbark by Paper House studio for this critical play. It is a short but charming walking simulator where you control a small…

Clara Lu — Walking Simulators

April 23, 2026

Clara Lu — Babbdi Critical Play  Babbdi, released on Steam in 2022 by brothers Sirius and Léonard Lemaitre under Lemaitre Bros, is a free…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators – Sally

April 23, 2026

A Short Hike: Walking as Storytelling A Short Hike is a 2019 indie walking simulator developed by Adam Robinson-Yu, available on PC, Nintendo Switch,…

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture

April 23, 2026

Jolie – Critical Play: Walking Simulators

April 22, 2026

Trees Hate You (the demo) is a fantastic and simple single-player walking simulator rage game created by Tykenn. The game invites people who enjoy…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators

April 22, 2026

Game: What Remains of Edith Finch | Creator: Giant Sparrow | Platform: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Windows | Audience: Players who enjoy slow,…

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture

April 22, 2026

link

Brooke Ballhaus Mindmap: Narrative Architecture

April 22, 2026

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture – Akary Buenrostro

April 22, 2026

Drive Link to enhanced pic Games are hard to see within the stars but listed below! Also linked their Steam links or equivalent.  …

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture – Leyth Toubassy

April 22, 2026

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture

April 22, 2026

Sketchnote

April 22, 2026

Mindmap: Game Design As Narrative Architecture

April 22, 2026

Mayowa – Mindmap: Narrative Architecture

April 22, 2026

Note Apr 22, 2026 Please click on the link above. Games Listed: Hogwarts Legacy, Red Dead Redemption II, VA-11 Hall-A, Hollow Knight, Minecraft

Kalu Obasi – Mindmap: Narrative Architecture

April 22, 2026

Mindmap: Narrative Architextures

April 22, 2026

Matthew Cortez Aguilar If low quality, refer to this link, it is the file titled Mindmap_Narrative_Architectures.pdf

Reyna’s Mindmap: Narrative Architecture

April 22, 2026

I had done this all on my ipad and then my ipad deleted everything because my GoodNotes storage was full… so apologies for the…

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Welcome to the Stanford HCI Game Design Blog.

Currently this blog holds two formal classes being taught by Christina Wodtke as well as Independent Study Work. In winter of 2022, cs377g was cancelled because of covid-19 uncertainty, and became a study group. You can follow along by looking at the SGSG syllabus and weekly break down.

CS 247G: Design for Play(SYMSYS 195G)

A project-based course that builds on the introduction to design in CS147 by focusing on advanced methods and tools for research, prototyping, and user interface design. Studio based format with intensive coaching and iteration to prepare students for tackling real world design problems. This course takes place entirely in studios; please plan on attending every studio to take this class. The focus of CS247g is an introduction to theory and practice of the design of games. We will make digital and paper games, do rapid iteration and run user research studies appropriate to game design. This class has multiple short projects, allowing us to cover a variety of genres, from narrative to pure strategy. Prerequisites: 147 or equivalent background.

CS 377G: Designing Serious Games

Over the last few years we have seen the rise of "serious games" to promote understanding of complex social and ecological challenges, and to create passion for solving them. This project-based course provides an introduction to game design principals while applying them to games that teach. Run as a hands-on studio class, students will design and prototype games for social change and civic engagement. We will learn the fundamentals of games design via lecture and extensive reading in order to make effective games to explore issues facing society today. The course culminates in an end-of- quarter open house to showcase our games. Prerequisite: CS147 or equivalent. 247G recommended, but not required.

SGSG: Serious Games Study Group

  • Library
    • CS247G Community Game Design Resources
    • Game Design Resources
    • Graphic Design for Game Designers
    • Graphic Design Resources
    • Chapter 11 from Game Balance
  • Read Write Play
    • Hollow Knight: RWP 4 2023
    • Mystic Messenger: RWP 6 2023
    • Undertale: RWP 3 2023
    • What Remains of Edith Finch: RWP 5 2023
    • Catan: RWP1 2023
    • 80 Days: RWP 2 2023
  • 247G Syllabus
    • The Formal Elements of Game Design
    • Design for Play | Week One | Lecture A
    • Design for Play | Week One | Lecture B
    • Design for Play | Week Two | Lecture A
    • Design for Play | Week Two | Lecture B
    • Design for Play | Week Three | Lecture A
    • Design for Play | Week Three | Lecture B
    • Design For Play | Week Four | Section A
    • Design For Play | Week Four | Section B
    • Design for Play | Week Five | Class A
    • Design for Play | Week 5 | Class B
    • Design for Play | Week 6 | Class A (no class)
    • Design for Play | Week 6 | Class B
    • Design for Play | Week 7 | Class A
    • Design for Play | Week 7 | Class B
    • Design for Play | Week 8 | Class A
    • Design for Play | Week 8 | Lecture B
  • Serious Play Study Group Overview
    • Study Group Week by Week Breakdown
      • Formal Elements of Games
      • Final Reflection Essay
    • [Optional Material] What is fun?
    • Project 1: Those Who Play, Teach
      • READING Visual Design of Board Games
      • Pitch Your Teaching Game
      • Sketchnote: Playtesting Boardgames
      • Sketchnote: Erin Hoffman // Wind, Not Sand: Mapping Dynamic Emotion Across a Product Landscape
      • SketchNote: MDAO
      • Critical Play: Write up your game of FLUXX
      • [Optional Material] Playtesting
      • OPTIONAL Board Game Usability
    • P2: The Future We Deserve
      • Critical Play: A Mechanic and a Story to Tell
      • Interactive Fiction: Tiny Playable Prototype
      • Introducing Interactive Fiction
      • Map and Premise
      • Critical Play: Story AND Storytelling games
      • Essay or Sketchnote: Rise of the Video Game Zinesters
      • Sketchnote: Art of game design- Story
      • [Optional Material] Emergence and Progression
      • Essay or Sketchnote: Rise of the Video Game Zinesters
      • Project 2 Reflection Essay
      • Share what you Learned: Writing Excuses Podcast
      • Values at Play & P2 Peer Grading
    • P3: The Game of Unexpected Consequences
      • P3 Concept Doc
      • Playable prototype
      • Working With System Dynamics (mindmap the reading, apply it to your game)
      • Mapping Systems
      • Sketchnote/Response for Rules & Tutorials
      • Project 3 Check-in
      • Project 3 Reflection Essay
    • P4: Refine a game
      • Sketchnote/Response for Playtesting with Strangers
      • Read: Mechanic is the Magic
  • On Sketchnotes
  • Printing at Stanford

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Recent Posts

  • Critical Play: Walking Simulators – Babbdi
  • Mindmap: Narrative Architecture
  • Critical Play: Walking Simulators
  • Critical Play: Walking Simulators – Paperbark
  • Clara Lu — Walking Simulators

Recent Comments

  • Christina Wodtke on Critical Play: Competitive Analysis (Incan Gold)
  • ban on Monsters of the Mirror (RWP)
  • ban on Absurdity in Slay the Princess: An Essay on Violent Contrasts
  • Trini Rogando on Monsters of the Mirror (RWP)
  • Trini Rogando on Choosing Evil in Slay the Princess

Categories

  • P2: The Empathy Machine
  • Featured
  • Project One
  • milestone
  • P2: The Future We Deserve
  • mindmap
  • P1: Social Games
  • CS247G
  • Assignments
  • P1: those who play, teach
  • Lectures
  • P2: Games In Space
  • Critical Play
  • P3: The Game of Unexpected Consequences
  • Project Two
  • Project Four REFINE
  • P4: Refine a Game
  • Sketchnotes
  • Project Two: The Future We Deserve
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  • Project Three: The Game of Unexpected Consequences
  • ReadWritePlay
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  • SGSG

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