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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

Month: May 2023

Critical Play: Walking Simulators

May 8, 2023

What Remains of Edith Finch is a first-person, narrative-focused walking simulator with an air of mystery. The story follows seventeen year old Edith Finch,…

Checkpoint 1: Concept Doc

May 8, 2023

Emotions to evoke: cute, fun, adventurous Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1FrE22fYOSM2g3mPfCFCsm?si=9148826989004a93 Moodboard: Possible types of fun: challenge, narrative 1. The main character is the captain’s son…

P2 Individual Checkpoint

May 8, 2023

Emotions Tense Stimulating Joyful Mood Board: Directions: The player wakes up in a dream state and is confused about everything they are doing. They…

Checkpoint 1: Individual part Joseph Ngo

May 8, 2023

Emotions: Thrilling, Wonder, Suspense Ideas: A mystery. Wake up stranded on a boat, meet new characters, overcome obstacles, find hints to your past, and…

P2-21:Checkpoint 1

May 8, 2023

Emotion: Mystery, Wonder, Psychological Thrill Moodboard: Spotify playlist:  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2xVl9M6eLghNZMB9wKusWq?si=8596ceb69d5d4dcf Game Directions: Approach 1: Narrative could be centered around futuristic doomsday where plays have a…

Dria – Individual Checkpoint 1

May 8, 2023

Emotions: suspense awe excitement Ideas: Maze/Treasure Hunt. Our player can start in the middle of the Incan mountains. From there, they have to get…

Checkpoint 1: Individual Member Mood Board, Playlist, and Ideas

May 8, 2023

Title: “Squid Trials” Moodboard                           Emotions: Anxiety, Curiosity, and Triumph Setting: A…

(AW) Critical Play: Mysteries

May 8, 2023

Game Introduction This week, I played Gone Home, a first-person mystery video game that seems to be for players of mature enough age to…

P2 Individual Checkpoint 1 — Jeong

May 8, 2023

A daikon walks into a supermarket… Moodboard Emotions to prioritize: Charm, Unpredictability, Cleverness Three possible directions Narrative 1: Last Daikon Standing Premise: Daikon boy…

Checkpoint 1: Individual Member Mood Board, Playlist, and Ideas

May 8, 2023

Emotions: Mysterious Dark Mood Board: Playlist:   Narrative & Game Design Ideas: Player comes back to their dorm room to find the room is…

P2 – Individual Checkpoint 1, Dylan

May 8, 2023

Emotions  Apprehension Satisfaction Curiosity Moodboard  Directions for the Game  An escape room style game with mini challenges and puzzles all while there is some…

Critical Play – Mysteries

May 8, 2023

In the 1940s, Hollywood was not as it is today. In fact, it wasn’t even called Hollywood (Hollywoodland). Set in post World War II…

P2 Checkpoint 1 – Individual Component Shreya

May 8, 2023

Emotions: Funny, sarcastic, energetic Directions for the game: A dating simulator that’s  something similar to Club Cardinal – where the space is a map…

Critical Play – Mysteries – Ore

May 8, 2023

Oxenfree is a game by Night school studio. I played it on PC, and purchased it on steam. It’s about a girl and her…

Sketchnote on Architecture in Video Games

May 8, 2023
May 8, 2023

3 Emotions: whimsical, bubbly, enchanting Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4lRyk1Vamgm61WKbU4zx5G?si=5beb4df0d85144ac   Direction 1 You wake up in the middle of a forest, separated from all of…

P2 checkpoint 1: individual component – penny

May 8, 2023

Emotions to evoke: seems cute but actually dark, irony, playful Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2iPsSLsrhEJWo06qazX8T9?si=2491e0f00f344bbe Moodboard: Directions of game: Possible types of fun: narrative, challenge Our…

Concept and Mood – Project 1

May 8, 2023

Our team had discussed a mystery game that takes place on a train.  The main premise I came up with for the game was…

Checkpoint 1 Individual Deliverables_Janet

May 8, 2023

Emotions: Wonder, Magical, Silly   Moodboard:   Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4f7nn8EQfmSnkGTNmFjhMP?si=0ddfeb3beea44a3f   Game Directions: Premise: There have been century-long tensions (conflicts, wars) among different areas…

Concept & Mood – Defne

May 8, 2023

In class, we discussed as a team how we enjoyed the idea of a mystical forest as a game setting, so we individually came…

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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

Archives

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Recent Posts

  • P2: Map, Premise, Project Plan – Sabrina
  • P2: Map, Premise, Project Plan – snoopy
  • P2: Playtest Prototype – snoopy
  • P2: Playtest Prototype – Jeffery
  • P2: Map, Premise, Project Plan – Saharat “Game” Laksanasut (สหรัฐ ลักษณะสุต)

Recent Comments

  • Jeffery Cai on P2: Playtest Prototype – Noe Chicas-Aranda
  • dkkoba on Critical Play: Blood on the Clocktower (Bluffing, Judging, and Getting Vulnerable) – Sabrina
  • Jeffery Cai on P1: Cave Talk
  • syenko on P1: Cave Talk
  • snoopy on Games, Design and Play: Elements – Noe Chicas-Aranda

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
  • From the Instructor
  • Project Three: The Game of Unexpected Consequences
  • ReadWritePlay
  • 377G: Serious Games
  • SGSG

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