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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

Author: Amy Lo

P1: Time Travel Arcade

January 26, 2023

Game Designers: Amy Lo, Shimea Bridgewater Overview In the world of “Time Travel Arcade”, you and your friends are the owners to an unsuccessful…

Sketchnote: Precision of Emotion – Amy Lo

January 18, 2023

P0: Cruel 2B Kind – Amy Lo

January 17, 2023

Cruel2BeKind is a game where random acts of kindness kill through benevolent assassination. One of the core dynamics is the anonymity among players which…

Sketchnote: MDAO – Amy Lo

January 15, 2023

The Structure of Games – Amy Lo

January 12, 2023

Final Class Reflection – Amy Lo

June 2, 2022

Before this class, I never thought of myself as a gamer. I always felt like games had a negative perception, and that playing games…

Mindmap: Terror in Subnautica — Amy Lo

May 31, 2022

SpaceMail

May 31, 2022

Team: Amy Lo, Jin-Hee Lee, Kyle Nguyen, Michelle Qin, Sam Silverstein Table of Contents Artist’s Statement Target Audience Our game at a glance Visual…

Critical Play: Is this game balanced? – Amy Lo

May 27, 2022

​Introduction Hay Day is a farming simulator created by SuperCell. Its target audience is both kids and adults who want to relax and enjoy…

Sketchnote: Onboarding in Plants vs Zombies – Amy Lo

May 25, 2022

Critical Play: Puzzles | Escape Machine City: Airborne – Amy Lo

May 19, 2022

​Introduction Escape Machine City: Airborne is an escape room puzzle game for mobile phones. It is designed by Snapbreak Games and is intended for…

Mindmap: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games – Amy Lo

May 16, 2022

Critical Play: Mysteries | Nox – Amy Lo

May 12, 2022

​Introduction Nox is a mobile game created by Everbyte designed for audiences age 12+ who love click-and-point adventures and an escape room mystery. Formal…

Sketchnote: Designer’s Notebook: The Role of Architecture in Videogames – Amy Lo

May 10, 2022

Critical Play: Tales of the Neon Sea | Walking Simulators – Amy Lo

May 6, 2022

Introduction I played “Tales of the Neon Sea”, a walking simulator on iOS (also available on Steam). This was created by Palm Pioneer. The…

Project 2: Group Concept Doc – Amy, Kyle, Sam, Michelle, Jin-Hee

May 3, 2022

Individual Brainstorms Amy Lo Sam Silverstein Kyle Nguyen Michelle Qin Jin-Hee Lee Synopsis The game is about working as a space package delivery person…

Sketchnote: Game Architecture – Amy Lo

May 3, 2022

Example of a game and its architecture A game that I enjoy is Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery. It is a role-playing game in which…

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture – Amy Lo

May 3, 2022

Evocative spaces: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Nintendo DS game) Enacting stories: Infinity Blade Embedded narratives: Poptropica (Carrot Island) Emergent narratives:…

Project 2 Checkpoint 1: Individual Brainstorm – Amy Lo

May 1, 2022

Moodboard Art Direction Spotify Playlist Concepts Concept #1 Kind of fun Sensation, Fantasy, Fellowship Narrative Approach Space diner (inspired by Dennys / midnight breakfast…

Sketchnote – Balancing Games: Chance and Skill – Amy lo

April 26, 2022

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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  • June 2021
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  • April 2021
  • September 2020
  • February 2017

Recent Posts

  • Protected: P2 Refined Prototype — amaru
  • Protected: P2 Playtest Prototype — amaru
  • P4: It’s just a burning memory
  • Reflection Seb
  • P4: Giant Steps V2: Welcome To Tall’s

Recent Comments

  • Male Monitor – Seminar Group 2 on Through the Looking Glass: Gendered Gazes in Video Games 
  • brysigg on Conclave: A Prayer Simulator — P2
  • brysigg on P2: The Empathy Machine – Angela Mao
  • brysigg on P2: The Empathy Machine
  • angmao on P2: “Blank Canvas”

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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