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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: April 2024

I want my mom – Yume Nikki Critical Play

April 30, 2024

I’ve never tried psychedelics, but if I did, I wonder if the experience would be similar to my play testing of Yume Nikki, a…

[Critical Play] Walking Simulators: Journey – Kongmeng

April 30, 2024

For this next critical play, I played the quintessential walking simulator: Journey. Initially released in 2012, Journey still holds up to the many games…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators

April 30, 2024

Journey   Journey is a beautiful game that tells a story without any dialogue from the characters. A great example of a walking simulator,…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators – Valerie

April 30, 2024

Journey is a walking simulator game created by Thatgamecompany. It is available on Playstation, Steam, iOS and other platforms. Its target audience is children…

Critical Play: Walking Simulator

April 30, 2024

BABBDI is a single-player, first-person, exploration-based video game created by Sirius Lemaitre and Léonard Lemaitre and released in late 2022. The game is likely…

Critical Play: Walking Simulator

April 30, 2024

As someone completing the creative writing minor with a longstanding interest in storytelling, I found the concept of passive/narrative games like Journey very interesting…

Walking Simulators Critical Play – Babbdi

April 30, 2024

Babbdi Walking simulators have evolved significantly as a genre within the gaming industry, providing a platform for storytelling through the exploration of detailed environments….

Critical Play: Walking Simulators

April 30, 2024

For my critical play, I played the game “Journey,” which is targeted towards anyone 4+ years or older.  I installed it on my iPhone,…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators – What Remains of Edith Finch

April 30, 2024

For this critical play, I played What Remains of Edith Finch, a walking simulator created by Giant Sparrow which is available on PC, Xbox,…

Critical Play: Journey – Yuren Sun

April 30, 2024

Journey is a walking adventure game by Thatgamecompany and directed by Jenova Chen. It is available on Play Station, Windows system with Steam or…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators (Jailia Y)

April 30, 2024

Babbdi is a first-person exploration game that prompts players to explore the city and figure out how to leave. It was created by Sirius…

Journey | Critical Play: Walking Simulator

April 30, 2024

Developed by Thatgamecompany, Journey is an indie adventure game where user explores a mysterious world, surrounded by desert, alone. While Journey is most recommended…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators, Journey

April 30, 2024

Journey was created by Thatgamecompany in 2012 and is considered an indie game. Like other games of the walking sim genre, in Journey, you…

Firewatch Critical Play

April 30, 2024

Firewatch is a walking simulator game by the developer studio Camp Santo. The game, which is perfect for teens and young adults that enjoy…

Critical Play (Walking Simulators) – A Short Hike

April 30, 2024

I’ve always felt dissuaded from purchasing “Short and Sweet” games. Why buy a 10-hour experience over a 100-hour one for the same price? Though…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators (bsalt) [SPOILERS for Firewatch]

April 30, 2024

Link to photos I took during my playthrough [contains spoilers]: https://firewatch.camera/RedBurrAbyss/ Content Warning: Themes of familial struggles, death, loss of loved ones, immense guilt,…

Critical Play: Walking Sim

April 30, 2024

For this critical play, I had the pleasure of playing Journey on IOS! Journey is an indie adventure game developed by Thatgamecompany and published…

Critical Play: Walking Simulator (Xinyi Wang)

April 30, 2024

BABBDI, created by Sirius Lemaitre, Léonard Lemaitre, is an exploration game from the first-person perspective, where the player finds themselves in the district of…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators – Nick Hafer

April 30, 2024

What Remains of Edith Finch [WRoEF] is a first person exploration narrative game created by Giant Sparrow. It’s offered on PC, PS4/5, Xbox, Switch,…

Critical Play – A Short Hike

April 30, 2024

For the last few years, I have been meaning to play A Short Hike. Released in 2019 by indie game designer Adam Robinson-Yu, I…

Posts pagination

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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

  • Final Class Reflection
  • Final Class Reflection – Mateo LF
  • [Makeup Work] — Critical Play: Onboarding — Jack Ryan
  • [Extra Credit] Sketchnote or Mindmap: Cursed Problems
  • [Extra Credit] Sketchnote or Mindmap: Cursed Problems

Recent Comments

  • amaru on Critical Play: Mysteries & Escape Rooms – Amelia Chen
  • suyeshen on Critical Play: Bluffing, Judging and Getting Vulnerable – Sue Shen
  • Izzy on P2: AI Judgment Day
  • Izzy on P2: The Future We Deserve – The Broadcast
  • Izzy on P2: Pokemon The Next Adventure

Categories

  • Featured
  • Project One
  • P2: The Future We Deserve
  • milestone
  • 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
  • Sketchnotes
  • P4: Refine a Game
  • Project Two: The Future We Deserve
  • From the Instructor
  • Project Three: The Game of Unexpected Consequences
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