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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 2026

Sketchnote: What Games Are and Aren’t

April 8, 2026

Click here for the sketch note: Sketchnotes

Short Exercise: MDA & 8 Kinds of Fun – Kevin Nguyen

April 8, 2026

I have played many games. I have hundreds of hours logged on some of them, yet the game closest to my heart is one…

Sketchnote: What Games Aren’t – Leyth Toubassy

April 8, 2026

  Sorry! I can’t figure out how to embed the PDF of my Sketchnote so I have an image below! If the resolution is…

Sketchnote: What Games Are and Aren’t

April 8, 2026

Sketchnote: What Games Are and Aren’t – Akary Buenrostro

April 8, 2026

Here is a link to a google drive with better image quality.

Sketchnote: What Games Are and Aren’t

April 8, 2026

Brooke Ballhaus Short Exercise: MDA & 8 Kinds of Fun

April 8, 2026

I’ve often played the game Taboo with my family. The game has many mechanics. Players are grouped into two teams. Each turn, a member…

Critical Play: Bluffing, Judging and Getting Vulnerable…

April 8, 2026

I had a blast playing Avalon during Monday’s board game night. Avalon is a hidden-role social deduction board game designed by Don Eskridge for…

MDA & 8 Kinds of Fun

April 8, 2026

My favorite game at the moment is a somewhat simple card game called “Gin Rummy” (or at least the version my friends taught me)….

Short Exercise: MDA & 8 Kinds of Fun (What Remains of Edith Finch)

April 8, 2026

Some of my favorite stories are the ones that make me cry. Many times, video games will have small parts that move me, especially…

Potential game box cover art for a photo scavenger hunt called Snapshot

What do Prototypes Prototype- Jessica

April 8, 2026

Image generated by ChatGPT While prototypes can be made to test many elements, the most important elements in my mind at this time are…

Pulling the Levers: The Theatrical Excellence and Mechanical Limits of Dr. Langeskov

April 8, 2026

Without reading the reviews beforehand, I expected a high-stakes robbery, potentially breaking into a museum or some other Indiana Jones-esque escapade from the title…

Sketchnote: What Games Are and Aren’t

April 8, 2026

Short Exercise: What do Prototypes Prototype?

April 8, 2026

In yesterday’s class, our group discussed about making bluffing and social deduction games. While nothing is decided yet, I’ll assume that we’re working on…

Critical Play: Bluffing, Judging and Getting Vulnerable…

April 8, 2026

Target audience: Classmates and anyone interested in social deduction games Game: Avalon Creator: Don Eskridge Platform: Tabletop card game, also played through online adaptations…

Sketchnote (What Games Are and Aren’t)

April 8, 2026

    Citation: brain image, creative commons: https://creazilla.com/media/clipart/69755/brain  

Sarah : MDA & 8 Kinds of Fun

April 8, 2026

A game I love is Code Names, and the MDA framework helps explain why it works so well for me. The key mechanics are…

Ryan Li, Sketchnote: What Games Are and Aren’t

April 8, 2026

My first sketchnote! Google drive link.

Sabrina Yen-Ko Sketchnote: What Games Are and Aren’t

April 8, 2026

High quality pdf link

Sketchnote: What Games Are and Aren’t

April 8, 2026

Sketchnote based on “Theory of Fun for Game Design” by Raph Koster. Created by Ananya Navale.  

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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  • March 2026
  • December 2025
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  • December 2023
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  • January 2023
  • December 2022
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  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • September 2020
  • February 2017

Recent Posts

  • Critical Play: Tiny Room Stories
  • Team Rakali, Checkpoint 0: Team Norms
  • Sketchnote: The Role of Architecture in Video Games
  • Brooke Ballhaus Critical Play: Mysteries & Escape Rooms
  • The Escape Room: How Bastion Weaponizes Your Need to Win

Recent Comments

  • Daniel Shen on The Dangers of Colonial Nostalgia in Bastion
  • anavib on Bokura Planet: Where Does Trust Really Come From?
  • anavib on Defining “Feeling” With the Aliens of Bokura: Planet
  • anavib on Bokura Planet is Not Really About Trust or Bats?
  • Jinhyo Huh on Jinhyo – Sketchnote: The Role of Architecture in Videogames

Categories

  • Slay The Princess
  • P2: The Empathy Machine
  • Featured
  • Project One
  • milestone
  • P2: The Future We Deserve
  • mindmap
  • P1: Social Games
  • CS247G
  • Assignments
  • Lectures
  • P1: those who play, teach
  • 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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