Skip to content
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 2025

P2: Refined prototype – Angela Mao

October 27, 2025

You can find the link to my digital game here. Questions I’d Like Feedback On I feel like the design of the game doesn’t…

P2: “Blank Canvas” Playtest 10/27

October 27, 2025

Since I am a bit behind due to a busy weekend, I do not have a playable link where the game is published, but…

P2 Refined Prototype

October 27, 2025

Link to Twine game: file:///Users/evelynhur/Downloads/Lab%20Notes.html (Best on 200% zoom) Playtest 3 (with Version 3) Feedback / Issue Changes to be Made Felt one of…

Giant Steps: Refined Prototype

October 27, 2025

Title: Giant Steps: Chapter 1 – Autumn in New York (inform/parser prototype)Link: https://www.sebastianblue.github.io/giantstepsWhat changed since studio: tightened the professor letter; clarified directions (“GO TO…

P2: Refined Prototype

October 27, 2025

This writeup documents two playtests: one with Krystal in class 5B, and one with Brian over the weekend. Link to the newest twine prototype…

P2: ‘Anchor’ Refined Prototype [Ryan Loo]

October 27, 2025

Playable Prototype Notes & Questions: I made the final pivot. Away from pigeons, interrogations, and clowns. Now I’ve moved to something a bit more…

P2: Refined prototype

October 27, 2025

Playable link: https://brydiesigg.github.io/brydie-377g-p2/ Questions for teaching team: I’m curious if the text blocks are too big—should I be using more “click to advance” links?…

P2: Refined prototype

October 27, 2025

Here’s a link to my game: https://juliabiswas.itch.io/erosion. I’ve been going back and forth on stats for so long (basically switching between yes or no…

P2: Refined prototype

October 26, 2025

Playable link: https://unsent-vibe-sync.lovable.app/ Notes: The story needs a lot more detail. I added a backstory page which I think adds a lot more context…

The Rhetoric of Video Games – Ian Bogost

October 26, 2025

Ian starts with an example of the game Animal crossing. This game is a life simulator where the player performs mundane labor, like collecting…

P2: Wild Space, Playtest #3

October 21, 2025

Wild Space, the anthropomorphic animal alien dating simulator has been coming along nicely for the past couple of days. Here are some of the…

Read & Play: The Rhetoric of Video Games

October 21, 2025

Spoilers Ahead! (Depression Quest) To better understand narrative architecture and interactive fiction, I played Depression Quest on a Chrome web-browser on my Windows computer. Depression…

P2: Playtest prototype

October 21, 2025

Playtest 2 (with Version 2) Figure 1: Playtest with CS co-term student in EVGR   Overall, the player liked how the right choice wasn’t…

P2: Playtest_Prototype_MarielleZheng

October 20, 2025

Playtester: Female masters student with no particular experience in game design or in playing narrative-based games. I conducted the playtest with her by first…

P2: Map, premise, project plan – Krystal Li

October 20, 2025

Premise: In this game, Vincent, a man who is on the verge of a divorce has a fight with his wife before being hit…

P2Premise_Map_ProjectPlan_MarielleZheng

October 20, 2025

Premise (Setting and Characters): My narrative game is about two outcasts from different worlds who help each other discover their identity, purpose, and sense…

P2: Playtest Prototype

October 20, 2025

Playtester: Same as last time (see other notes), CS coterm student. During Playtest: Playtester liked the “improved” assets Player tried to “break” the experience…

P2: Playtest prototype

October 20, 2025

My playtester was a 22-year old female CS Coterm student. She played the game twice, effectively deciding to do nothing the first round and…

P2 – Witness Plan [Ryan]

October 20, 2025

Premise: In Witness (working title that I just came up with right now), you play as John (working name) as he’s questioned about the…

P2: Premise, Map, Plan

October 20, 2025

Premise In this story, our character wakes up and wants to finish up their to-do list. We have to walk our dog and visit…

Posts pagination

Previous 1 2 3 … 8 Next

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

  • April 2026
  • March 2026
  • December 2025
  • November 2025
  • October 2025
  • September 2025
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • February 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • September 2020
  • February 2017

Recent Posts

  • Critical Play: Competitive Analysis – Tray
  • Critical Play: Competitive Analysis (Priorities and Dealbreakers)
  • Critical Play: Competitive Analysis – Secret Hitler
  • Critical Play: Competitive Analysis
  • Critical Play: Competitive Analysis

Recent Comments

  • Cristofer Acosta on Sketchnote: Game Design Patterns for Building Friendship
  • ban on You Will Always Be at the Mercy of the Author’s Ghost (RWP)
  • Jeffery Cai on Critical Play: Bluffing, Judging and Getting Vulnerable…
  • Trini Rogando on Honkai: Star Rail – MDA & 8 Kinds of Fun
  • EvvrryyDDY2 on Critical Play: BABBDI

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

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
Copyright The Mechanics of Magic. All rights reserved. | Theme by SuperbThemes