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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: Clair Tang

[Extra Credit] Sketchnote or Mindmap: Cursed Problems

August 12, 2026

High res link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fszlHnifCIYae_NPNslrBteTgZM1DB2G/view?usp=sharing

Critical Play: Mysteries & Escape Rooms

August 7, 2026

This week, I played Cube Escape: Paradox, which is an escape room-like game created by Rusty Lake. I played the first chapter for free…

Sketchnote: Onboarding in Plants vs Zombies

August 4, 2026

  High res link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pG3PG-QSWeQlewd-OycIMNd6z15AHNHY/view?usp=sharing

Critical Play: Puzzles

July 30, 2026

This week, I played Gorogoa, which is a puzzle game published by Annapurna Interactive for anyone who likes storytelling and puzzle games. The gameplay…

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games

July 28, 2026

  High res link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Xb15ubo0_D0hnMSstTZcgPoAwp7–lod/view?usp=sharing

Critical Play: Worldbuilding

July 24, 2026

For this critical play, I played Pokemon Black and White, a game that I’ve played a bit as a kid and wanted to try…

[EXTRA CREDIT] Sketchnote: Designer’s Notebook: The Role of Architecture in Videogames

July 21, 2026

  High res link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M9eC5VXcumG5-1iq4lIyJlbZo00Q4MNE/view?usp=sharing

Sketchnote: Loops & Arcs

July 21, 2026

  High res link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sb94mdUH94avy5uRDTxjWqQUe_3QfkgX/view?usp=sharing

Individual Concept Doc: Claire Tang (Bathyergus)

July 21, 2026

Moodboard: Spotify Playlist: Three Directions: Representing Van Gogh’s mind with layers of the puzzle box. In each level, the player unlocks parts of Van…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators

July 16, 2026

This week, I played A Short Hike, a game developed by Adam Robinson Yu that can be played on various different platforms including Steam,…

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture

July 14, 2026

High res link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16xYCPSyTA6icde7YvfRaeJ_nUsPCwzvt/view?usp=sharing A game that I love is Minecraft and I believe it uses emergent narratives.

Project 1: Martian Massacre

July 11, 2026

Martian Massacre By Claire Tang, Carl Liu, Xatrik Bera Artist Statement A research base has been infiltrated by aliens! Among the humans in the…

Critical Play: Competitive Analysis

July 9, 2026

I chose to play One Night Ultimate Werewolf, which is a casual social deduction game with a physical card format published by Bezier Games….

Sketchnote: Game Design Patterns for Building Friendships

July 7, 2026

  High res link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t3ijYr3T8l8ZU75IJas1wnm3Q8pfEf5Y/view?usp=sharing

Sketchnote: What Games Are and Aren’t

July 2, 2026

Mindmap: Formal Elements

July 2, 2026

Critical Play: Spyfall

July 2, 2026

I chose to play Spyfall, which is a social deduction game meant for a group of 3-8 in which everyone is given a role…

Learning to Play Closely: Undertale

July 2, 2026

I game that I’ve played a bit of (admittedly maybe not enough to fully understand) is Undertale. It is structured like many RPG games…

MDA & 8 Kinds of Fun: Pokémon GO

July 2, 2026

A game that I really like is Pokemon GO, since it lets you feel like you’re exploring the world and collecting interesting things. In…

Introduce Yourself – Claire

June 29, 2026

Joined this course late, so here is my introduction! I’m Claire and I use she/her pronouns. My favorite game of all time is Overcooked….

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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Recent Posts

  • [Extra Credit] Sketchnote or Mindmap: Cursed Problems
  • Mindmap: Narrative Architecture
  • Sketchnote – cursed problems
  • Critical Play: FEZ
  • Sketchnote or Mindmap: Cursed Problems

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Categories

  • P2: The Empathy Machine
  • Featured
  • Project One
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  • Lectures
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  • Project Two
  • Project Four REFINE
  • P4: Refine a Game
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