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The Mechanics of Magic

The Mechanics of Magic

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

  • 247G Syllabus
    • 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
  • The How and Why of Sketchnotes
  • Graphic Design Resources

Month: June 2022

Meaning of Games Jack Yuan

June 29, 2022

One year ago, I talked to this dude who started one of the largest MMO gaming companies in China during the 90s and served…

Sketchnote or Mindmap: Terror in Subnautica

June 28, 2022

Sketchnote Onboarding in Plants vs Zombies

June 28, 2022

Catan: Is this game balanced?

June 27, 2022

The Setters of Catan, is a multi-player game that was published in Germany by Franckh-Kosmos Verlag in 1995. It is a 2-6 people zero-sum…

Monumental Valley Critical Analysis

June 27, 2022

Monumental Valley was created by an indie game studio from London and was launched to all major mobile gaming platforms in 2014. It is…

Critical Play: Is this game balanced? – Unstable Unicorns

June 17, 2022

Unstable Unicorns Unstable Unicorns Formal elements Unstable Unicorns by Ramy Badie in 2018 for 2-8 14+ players is a wondrous card game where players…

Sketchnote: Terror in Subnautica

June 17, 2022

Sketchnote: Onboarding in Plants vs Zombies

June 16, 2022

Critical Play: Puzzles — Superliminal

June 16, 2022

Critical Play: Puzzles – Superliminal Superliminal by Pillow Castle Games is a surreal puzzle game released in 2019 for PC, Xbox, PS4, or Nintendo Switch…

Sketchnotes: What is a Puzzle and Design

June 15, 2022

Sketchnotes: Architecture in Games

June 14, 2022

Critical Play: Mysteries

June 12, 2022

Mysteries: Year Walk Year Walk by Simogo released in 2013 on IOS for those 12+ relies on mild horror and puzzles to create a…

Critical Play – Walking Sim – Places

June 12, 2022

Places: Walking Simulator  This game, Park, is a walking sim game for all ages, focused on exploring a calm and scenic park. I played…

Final Reflection

June 9, 2022

I actually only started playing games during the beginning of the pandemic and had begun as a way to fit in with my friends…

Final Class Reflection

June 9, 2022

Before this class, I thought about design as something primarily graphic: visual design for cohesiveness using colors, fonts, space, composition, etc. While I recognize…

Critical Play: Theme Only Games

June 9, 2022

For this critical play, I played two games in the ‘Match Three’ genre: Dots and Cat Condo, both mobile games on iOS. The similarities…

Critical Play: Is this game balanced?

June 9, 2022

For this critical play, I played the game Settlers of Catan, a German-style board game created by Klaus Teuber. I play this game regularly…

Critical Play: Puzzles

June 9, 2022

For this critical play, I played the game Factory Balls, a simple online puzzle game developed by Bart Bonte. I LOVED playing this game…

Critical Play: Mysteries

June 9, 2022

For this critical play, I played the game Life is Strange, an episodic adventure/mystery game on macOS created by Square Enix and released on…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators

June 9, 2022

For this critical play, I played the game Journey, a walking simulator game on iOS created by ThatGameCompany in 2012. The target audience for…

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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

  • 247G Syllabus
    • 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
  • The How and Why of Sketchnotes
  • Graphic Design Resources

Archives

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  • February 2017

Recent Posts

  • Playtesting Alone! Sketchnotes
  • Solo Testing Sketchnote
  • Sketchnote: Playtesting Alone – Ji Hong Ni
  • Playtesting Alone Sketchnote
  • P1: Those Who Play, Teach – corporate vision

Recent Comments

  • sarakolb on Final Reflection Essay
  • sarakolb on P4: Refine a game
  • sarakolb on Project 3 Reflection Essay
  • sarakolb on P3: The Game of Unexpected Consequences
  • sarakolb on Create Project 4 Rubric

Categories

  • mindmap
  • CS247G
  • Project One
  • milestone
  • P2: Games In Space
  • Critical Play
  • Lectures
  • Sketchnotes
  • Project Two
  • From the Instructor
  • Project Four REFINE
  • Assignments
  • Project Two: The Future We Deserve
  • ReadWritePlay
  • Project Three: The Game of Unexpected Consequences
  • SGSG

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