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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 2025

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games

May 5, 2025

Individual Team Member Deliverables-Allie

May 5, 2025

Emotions:  Surprise, Excitement, Suspicion (direction 2), Intrigue Direction 1:  2-8 players Each person is trapped on a different floor/room of a castle  Phone will…

Checkpoint 1: Individual Team Member – Aimen

May 5, 2025

Emotions to Evoke Wonder Melancholy Warmth 3 Game Directions Whimsical Exploration Free-roaming through bioluminescent groves, discovering hidden nooks and tiny critters. Mythic forest spirits…

Individual Concept Doc P. 20 — Yosief Abraham

May 5, 2025

MoodBoard Game Playlist: Narrative Directions Direction #1: The plot is a fraternity pledge tripping out while completing tasks around the house. Throughout the day…

Sketchnote – Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games – Jack Ryan

May 5, 2025

Individual Concept Doc P2 – Mateus

May 5, 2025

Moodboard The goal of our game is to evoke the following emotions: Suspense Distrust Cunning Fun Playlist   Narrative Directions All the game directions…

Checkpoint 1: Concept Doc

May 5, 2025

spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7AugVF5rUFnQRAwlLzWeH1?si=e53f00f57ff54499 pinterest: https://pin.it/7tnhjXDD1

Checkpoint 1: Concept Doc – Team 16

May 5, 2025

Team Concept Doc Synopsis It’s Big Game Week, and chaos is unfolding on Stanford’s campus. It’s been a long tradition for Berkeley students to…

P2 Concept Doc – Lisa Ing

May 5, 2025

Moodboard Playlist Narrative Directions My team has tentatively decided on a top-down point and click visual novel for our P2 project, so my brainstorming…

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games- Abbie

May 5, 2025

puzzles

Checkpoint 1: Concept Doc – Dorian Gulley

May 5, 2025

Moodboard:   Spotify Playlist: Emotions: Upbeat, Raising Spirits, Big Game Vibes, College Excitement   One narrative direction I am considering for our game is…

Individual Concept Doc – Evan

May 5, 2025

Escape Room in a Box – Gingerbread House Direction 1: Players play as a group of kids who accidentally wandered in a gingerbread house….

Critical Play: Puzzles – Ilaria

May 5, 2025

For the Puzzle Critical Play, I chose to play Storyteller. Storyteller is designed by Daniel Benmergui and published by Annapurna Interactive in 2023. It…

P2 Concept Doc – Luke McFall

May 5, 2025

  Exploration Platformer I like the idea of the player being completely unfamiliar with this dark, scary forest where they have to explore to…

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games – Dorian Gulley

May 5, 2025

Made using Notability

Metafiction and The Stanley Parable – Justin

May 5, 2025

Warning: Spoilers Ahead Like an onion, and like all good stories, The Stanley Parable has layers. On the surface, you have a walking simulator about a…

Individual Team Member Deliverables – Checkpoint 1

May 5, 2025

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6PeszY1vTKdzTUPKFTmxrv?si=8f2591b2ff9e4a1a Emotions: Urgency, comedic horror, dread One narrative direction I was thinking for the game was to lean into “annoying rich people” aspect of…

P2 Checkpoint 1: Individual Concept Doc – Andrew

May 5, 2025

Mood Board: Playlist:   Early Art:   Game Directions: 1) Point and Click:  The game features a ladybug exploring different stages and solving basic…

P2 Moodboard

May 5, 2025

So far, the team is on the same page for making a bug-themed game. I’m inspired by Stardew valley both for the casual gameplay/music/vibe,…

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games

May 5, 2025

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

  • Critical Play: Project Winter
  • Narrative architectures mindmap
  • Mindmap: Narrative Architecture
  • Critical Play: Bluffing, Judging and Getting Vulnerable
  • Short Exercise: Learning to Play Closely

Recent Comments

  • jasonzz on Mooney Ranch
  • Sizhe Wu on Introduce Yourself – Carl
  • Christina Wodtke on Short Exercise: Learning to Play closely
  • Christina Wodtke on Short Exercise: Learning to Play Closely – Fruit Ninja
  • Aksel Kolasinski on Hi! I’m Mathias

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
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