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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: October 2024

Reflection of Roommate Beef – Grace

October 12, 2024

The game “Roommate Beef” is designed to afford fellowship and challenge by implementing different mechanics. To make the game challenging, we designed the game…

P1: Reflection_Shirley

October 12, 2024

Our game aims to teach players how to do collaborative housekeeping with their roommate. The game is set in a cozy apartment and players…

P1: Reflection

October 12, 2024

Before diving into the development of Sunnyvale, I imagined designing a teaching game would feel like curating a lesson plan—organized, linear, and driven by…

P1 Reflection | Assault on Arrillaga | Gordon Yeung

October 12, 2024

Our P1 game, Assault on Arrillaga, seamlessly blended fun with strategic play, balancing competitive elements and educational goals. The core mechanics—drawing food and action…

P1: Those who Play, Teach – Bugs Don’t Have HIPPA

October 12, 2024

OVERVIEW “Bugs Don’t Have HIPAA” is a game for a group of 3-5 young/new adults designed to teach skills from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT),…

P1: Those Who Play, Teach – Fish Reproduction

October 11, 2024

CS377: Designing Serious Games P1: Those Who Play, Teach Fall 2025 Fish Reproduction Zoe Clute, Arnav Mehta, Khushi Malde, Jason Lin Note: The final…

P1 Group 2

October 11, 2024

Overview Assault on Arrillaga is a competitive, educational multiplayer card game where players race to create nutritionally balanced meals. Designed for young adults, like…

Roommate Beef

October 11, 2024

Roommate Beef Ana Nguyen, Thanh Tieu, Shirley Wei, Grace Xu Overview  The name of our game is “Roommate Beef”. The intended player number for…

P1: Those Who Play, Teach. Sunnyvale, CA

October 11, 2024

Overview Welcome to Sunnyvale, California! You care deeply about the housing crisis currently afflicting the state and strongly support the construction of more affordable…

P1: Those Who Play, Teach – Assault on Arrillaga

October 11, 2024

P1: Reflection | Gracielly Abreu

October 11, 2024

Creating my first serious game was a rewarding experience. My group developed a game called Assault on Arrillaga, which aimed to educate players about…

P1: Those Who Play, Teach – Inspector, Inspector!

October 11, 2024

Overview: Inspector, Inspector! is a four-player asymmetrical argumentation game aiming to teach players about the various problems affecting the NYC subway system, the largest…

EndangerED—P1 T1

October 11, 2024

Team 1: Asher Hensley, Butch Nasser, Haven Whitney Overview EndangerEd is a multiplayer board game intended for 2-6 players ages 13+. Players play as…

P1: Reflection (Jason Lin)

October 11, 2024

“Fish Reproduction” was the first serious board game I have ever built, and I greatly enjoyed the process — aided especially by the proactiveness…

P1: Reflection (Inspector, Inspector!)

October 11, 2024

Learning outcome: showcase the priorities and tradeoffs of operating the NYC Subway and foster a sense of empathy for the stakeholders involved. Dynamics: Narrative,…

Precision of Emotion: A New Kind of Game

October 10, 2024

P1: Reflection (Bugs Don’t Have HIPPA)

October 10, 2024

I’m glad that we made a game teaching CBT knowledge, even if it focuses on cognitive distortions only. What’s more, I’m glad that we…

Sketchnote: Rise of the Video Game Zinesters (Jason Lin)

October 10, 2024

(?)note: Precision of Emotion – Ellie

October 8, 2024

Precision of Emotion: A New kind of “Fun” Approach in Educational Games

October 8, 2024

According to some, all games are tools for teaching. We learn things from pretty much any game we play. Some games are very effective…

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

Archives

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Recent Posts

  • P2: Playtest Prototype – Rachel Zhao
  • Map, Premise, Project Plan – Rachel Zhao
  • P2: Map, Premise, Project Plan_Paprika
  • P2: Map, Premise, Project Plan (Emma Wong)
  • P2: Map, Premise, Project Plan – Judy

Recent Comments

  • 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
  • Christina Wodtke on Personal Reflection

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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