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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 2025

Premise, Map, and Project Plan – Angela Mao

October 20, 2025

Premise  Player Role The player is Bowser, a purple Jellycat hippo who lives at the Paper Source in Stanford’s Town and Country. He is…

P2: Playtest – Krystal Li

October 20, 2025

My game, tentatively titled Undying Love,  is a narrative-driven IF game where players take on the role of Vincent, a middle-aged man on the…

P2: Tiny Playable Prototype #2

October 20, 2025

Player profile Name Age Gender Testing Environment Background (Family, Culture) Overall comments Brian 22 M At home, Figjam flow chart Felt like the theme…

P2: Playtest – [Ryan Loo]

October 20, 2025

Documenting my Prototype: Throughout my interactive fiction (which unfortunately remains untitled until I can escape this creative rut), players adopt the identity of a…

P2: Playtest Prototype

October 20, 2025

Version 1 to Version 2 After playtesting in class, I wanted to incorporate one main piece of feedback and expand on the story in…

P2: It’s just a burning memory

October 20, 2025

Playtest #2 Date: 10/18 Player: One (former) screenwriter Test version: The system of the video game version (not all content was implemented) Board game…

P2: Map, premise, project plan

October 20, 2025

Premise Click enter. The computer’s black screen flashes on, a white logo spinning lazily as it loads. Green letters fade onto the screen. Welcome….

P2 – Giant Steps Plan, etc.

October 20, 2025

Premise In Giant Steps, you play as Desmond, a newly graduated jazz saxophonist trying to make it as a musician after he graduates from…

P2: “Blank Canvas” Playtest 10/19/25

October 20, 2025

Playtest 10/19/25 Player: Alex, a college-aged student. Alex is not an artist, but does not like AI art. Observations:  Fig 1. Conversation with first…

P2: Introducing “Blank Canvas”

October 20, 2025

Premise In Blank Canvas, you play as a struggling artist trying to make ends meet in New York City. With a father who doubts…

P2 Playtest Prototype – Angela Mao

October 20, 2025

The Miraculous Journey Of Bowser Step 0: Document your prototype My interactive fiction prototype was still on paper for this playtest. I kept the…

P2: Map, Premise, Project Plan

October 20, 2025

Game: It’s just a burning memory Precise For players This game unfolds through a non-linear, gradually revealed structure. The following text first briefly introduces…

P2: Map, premise, project plan

October 20, 2025

Premise I have yet to determine the name of my P2 Game, but it is a text based narrative game about loss of a…

October 19, 2025

Paragraph premise: The time is 10 p.m. at Ravenscroft High School, the night before the building is torn down to the ground. Kai Mendez…

P2: Map, premise, project plan

October 19, 2025

Premise Player Role The player is a lab-grown rabbit that is transferred from its farm to a laboratory for clinical testing. Since the player…

P2: Map, Premise, Project Plan

October 19, 2025

Hello everyone! Here are some notes I’ve made in an effort to try and flesh out + build the foundations for my P2. I’m…

P2: Playtest prototype

October 19, 2025

Tester profile: no IF experience player, played on the Inform 7 interpreter, took them around 20 minutes, and they reached the end goal. Overall…

P2: Map, premise, project plan

October 18, 2025

Premise The player takes on the role of June, a 24-year-old engineer at Cerebra. June joined the company right out of college and has…

P2: Map, premise, project plan

October 18, 2025

In this game, the player wants to keep talking to a stranger on the phone, to prevent them from harming themselves. But, the player…

Tiny Playable Prototype: Answer Me

October 18, 2025

Above is an example of the prototype I brought in to playtest in class. I had roleplayed a few options that I wrote down…

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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  • September 2020
  • February 2017

Recent Posts

  • Sketchnote: Game Design Patterns for Building Friendships
  • Critical Play: Blood on the Clocktower – Tianze
  • Sketchnote: Game Design Patterns for Building Friendships
  • Sketchnote: Game Design Patterns for Building Friendships – Jinpu
  • Sketchnote: Game Design Patterns for Building Friendships – Tray

Recent Comments

  • 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
  • Male Monitor – Seminar Group 2 on Through the Looking Glass: Gendered Gazes in Video Games 

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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