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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

Sketchnote: Designer’s Notebook: The Role of Architecture in Videogames

May 8, 2023

Critical Play: Mysteries

May 8, 2023

NOX is an iOS/Android escape room game by Everbryte that starts with you, the player, in a locked cell with zero context of how…

P2 Checkpoint 1: Individual Component

May 8, 2023

Emotions we want to Evoke: “Ah ha!” moments Tension Playful Directions Narrative 1: The Lost Captain’s Treasure Map Story: Players are part of a…

Concept and Mood Board – P2 Checkpoint 1

May 8, 2023

Mood: Mystery, Investigative, Horror We are setting our game on a university campus, but with cult and dark/mysterious undertones because there are a series…

Narrative Architecture

May 8, 2023

Find PDF: Narrative Blueprint

Concept & Mood – Ore – Team 8

May 8, 2023

For this game, all of my approaches and moods center on a type of lonely exploration through a pacific northwest-town with moments of beauty…

P2 Checkpoint 1 (Individual) – Jiwon

May 8, 2023

We plan to create a satirical dating simulator that is set at Stanford and leans into the silly tropes of Stanford students. Emotions: Laughter…

Checkpoint 1: Individual Component

May 8, 2023

Link to Elizabeth’s Moodboards/Concepts/Playlists: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1QSMvrjht7UmZNk0KK7pwRcne4XQemZLPZ06v8n1nCKw/edit?usp=sharing

Checkpoint 1 Concept Doc — Tara Jones

May 8, 2023

Emotions: Curious Eerie Awe Three Game Ideas: Ski Chalet Mystery: You are trapped in a ski house with a bunch of interesting characters (like…

Sketchnote: Interaction Loops and Arcs

May 8, 2023

One game I enjoy is NBA 2K, which has a mostly loop based architecture, as it is based upon playing different iterations of the…

Sketchnote: Architecture

May 8, 2023

P2 Checkpoint 1: Individual Deliverable

May 8, 2023

Emotions to evoke: mysteriousness, curiosity, wonder Moodboard: Spotify playlilst: Train of Ghosts Different directions this game could take: You as an alive human trying…

P2 Ideation

May 8, 2023

One direction I imagine our game going towards is a dark, mysterious, tense feel. The ocean can be a dangerous place, and there is…

Critical Play: Mysteries

May 8, 2023

NOX – Escape Games is an iOS/Android escape room adventure created by Everbyte, intended for anyone who’s looking to play a good escape room…

Checkpoint 1 Individual Deliverables

May 8, 2023

Three emotions I can see our game evoking are tranquility, whimsy, and jubilation. Our concept is focused around a Daikon Radish boy, who as…

(AW) P2 Checkpoint 1 Individual Deliverable

May 8, 2023

Moodboard: The team was talking about forests and greens and blues, and I loved what I had seen in Hollow Knight but also loved…

Critical Play: Mysteries

May 8, 2023

The game I played is Disco Elysium. It is developed by ZA/UM and released in 2019. It was designed by Robert Kurvitz and composed…

Loops and Arcs Sketchnote

May 8, 2023

Critical Play: Mysteries

May 8, 2023

I played “Life is Strange Episode 1” by Square Enix through Steam, a game intended for an adult audience who enjoys games that include…

Critical Play: Mysteries

May 8, 2023

For my critical play, I chose Year Walk, a 2013 mobile game by Simogo published for iOS. This game’s target audience is those who like…

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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

  • 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
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  • SGSG

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