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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: Jeffery Cai

Sketchnote: Addiction By Design

May 20, 2026

GDrive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y6hx33aDIOS4aM1AH5HNlAvWSgJnX8H1/view?usp=sharing  

Critical Play: Worldbuilding — Hollow Knight

May 15, 2026

This week, I played Hollow Knight (hereafter HK) by Team Cherry. The game was released in 2017 on PC and then ported later to…

Sketchnote: Loops and Arcs

May 13, 2026

GDrive link here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YjPkUOmRunyc79TtmXzZr3OXRYA9HjhB/view?usp=sharing I’ve been playing a lot of the Arena mode in League of Legends lately, so I will talk about that!…

Critical Play: Puzzles — Fez

May 8, 2026

The game I played was Fez, which was created by Polytron Corporation in 2012. The game is HEAVILY targeted towards players (of all ages)…

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games

May 6, 2026

Drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n-EbMm-ZIPd1C1CeeaMMOQ-J-UMFVSav/view?usp=sharing

P2 Concept Doc Individual Submission – Reithrodon Jeffery

May 4, 2026

Three directions for the game to go in: Doomscrolling sim: You send reels to the character(s) on screen in a sequence. Each reel sent…

Critical Play: Mysteries & Escape Rooms — Escape Simulator 2 (Dracula 1-3)

May 1, 2026

The game I played was Escape Simulator 2 (ES2), a video game developed by Pine Studio and released in 2025. The game is rated for…

Sketchnote — Designer’s Notebook: The Role of Architecture in Videogames

April 28, 2026

Drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TydRy7fTuU16nxkaLuBKnJPOov73nVP_/view?usp=sharing

Edith Finch coverart

Critical Play: Walking Simulators — What Remains of Edith Finch

April 24, 2026

What Remains of Edith Finch (hereafter “Edith Finch“) is a narrative video game that reveals its layers slowly as the player moves forward in…

mindmap for narrative architecture

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture

April 22, 2026

Drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MzRrYiTKnE_5F3Nz23BZX12oU-vTUmqd/view?usp=sharing Game choices are in the mindmap, written in red! Wasn’t sure if you wanted a brief explanation as to why we…

Game set for Secret Hitler

Critical Play: Competitive Analysis – Secret Hitler

April 16, 2026

My group’s concept is a role-based social deduction game where players have the option to exchange voting power for private investigations on others. To…

Jeffery Cai sketchnote friendships

Sketchnote: Game Design Patterns for Building Friendships

April 15, 2026

I really like making puns with the phrases and terms that each speaker coins (rattle rattle).   Alternative link (use your Stanford email!): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Dbn_5DruHbo-GqoEwD5fuzPHifZrogiI/view?usp=drive_link

Critical Play: Bluffing, Judging and Getting Vulnerable – Avalon

April 9, 2026

For this critical play, I played the bluffing game Avalon. It is a board game designed by Don Eskridge for teens, young adults, and prolific liars….

Snakebite

What do prototypes prototype? – Jeffery

April 8, 2026

Featured image is clickbait. Since my post talks a lot about cards, actions, and balance, I wanted to put the glorious 2 mana 55…

Sketchnotes: What Games Are and Aren't

Sketchnote: What Games Are and Aren’t – Jeffery

April 6, 2026

The sketchnote can be found on Google Drive via the following link, logged in with Stanford e-mail. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KUZ1bL7C4DfH87HkmZhXcGC4gKmUhhjj/view?usp=sharing

MDA & 8 Kinds of Fun – League of Legends

April 3, 2026

I want to use League of Legends as the example to discuss the 8 types of aesthetics/fun because it’s a perfect encapsulation of how…

Formal Elements of Games mindmap

April 1, 2026
me with leaf

Jeffery introduction

April 1, 2026

Hi friends! My name is Jeffery, you can call me either Jeffery or Jeff. I’m a first year MSME student doing a depth in…

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

  • Sketchnote: Addiction By Design – Jinpu
  • Sosi Day Addiction by Design Sketch Notes
  • Sketchnote: Addiction By Design
  • Shuci Addiction Design Sketchnote
  • Sketchnote: Addiction by Design

Recent Comments

  • Christina Wodtke on Critical Play: Cartographers
  • Aanika Atluri on RWP Week 5: A Short Hike and Wandering Games
  • Aanika Atluri on A Short Hike: Why Wander?
  • Aanika Atluri on A Short Hike, A Long Distraction
  • Jay on Sketchnote: Game Design Patterns for Building Friendship

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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  • From the Instructor
  • Project Three: The Game of Unexpected Consequences
  • ReadWritePlay
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  • SGSG

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