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The Mechanics of Magic

The Mechanics of Magic

Game Design Writings by Students at Stanford taking 247G and 377G

  • 247G Syllabus
    • 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
  • The How and Why of Sketchnotes
  • Graphic Design Resources

Author: Elee

Final Reflection – Eunji Lee

June 1, 2022

I was never a huge “gamer” before this class! I took this class because I love escape rooms – I love everything about them!…

Sketchnote – Terror in Subnautica – Eunji Lee

May 31, 2022

Critical Play – Balance in Games – Eunji Lee

May 26, 2022

Name of game, creator, platform: Switch Sports by Nintendo (for the Switch) Target Audience: 10+ Switch Sports is a game that is very fun,…

Sketchnote – Onboarding in Planets vs Zombies – Eunji Lee

May 23, 2022

Critical Play – Monument Valley – Eunji Lee

May 19, 2022

Name: Monument Valley Created by Ustwo Games Platform: iOS (for iPad) Target Audience: 4+ “Monument Valley” is a puzzle game that gets progressively more…

Mind Map – Puzzles – Eunji Lee

May 17, 2022

Critical Play – Mysteries – Eunji Lee

May 12, 2022

Since we are making a physical escape room, I wanted to write about an escape room I did with my friends recently that focused…

Sketchnote – Architecture in Games – Eunji Lee

May 10, 2022

Tried a hand-drawn sketchnote this time 🙂

Critical Play: What Remains of Edith Finch – Eunji Lee

May 5, 2022

Game Introduction I played “What Remains of Edith Finch” by Giant Sparrow on iOS (iPad). The target audience is 12+ according to the description…

Locked-Door Office Hours: P2 Concept Doc

May 3, 2022

Game Designers: Ben Liao, David Guo, Eunji Lee, Jason Ah Chuen, Ricky Grannis-Vu Link to Concept Doc: P2 checkpoint 1

Sketchnote: Game Architecture – Eunji Lee

May 3, 2022

  One game that I enjoy is Switch Sports. It has both loops and arcs, depending on how long people want to play. In…

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture – Eunji Lee

May 2, 2022

Spatial Story: Monopoly Evocative Spaces: Universal Studios Enacting Story: improv Emergent Narrative: Webkinz Embedded Narrative: any physical escape room    

Eunji Lee – P2 Concept

May 2, 2022

moodboard spotify playlist where to go from here you and your friends are students at an old boarding school. rumor is, your old history…

Sketchnote: Chance and Skill – Eunji Lee

April 26, 2022

C’est La Vie

April 21, 2022

Creators: Benjamin Liao, Eunji Lee, Jason Ah Chuen Creator’s Statement We set out to create a situation where strangers could become friends, and friends…

Critical Play – What Do You Meme – Eunji Lee

April 21, 2022

Game: What Do You Meme? Creators: Elie Ballas, Ben Kaplan, Elliot Tebele Target Audience: 17+ Platform: Analog Card Game Players: 3-20 (it’s a party!) Formal Elements…

Sketchnote – Game Design for Building Friendship – Eunji Lee

April 19, 2022

Visual Design of Games – Eunji Lee

April 18, 2022

Elements of Cheese or Font Core Names of cheeses and fonts to guess Text box to enter guess Timer Supportive Your score Column labels…

Critical Play – Competitive Analysis: Trial by Trolley – Eunji Lee

April 13, 2022

Name of Game: Trial by Trolley Creator: Cyanide and Happiness (could not find names of individual creators) Platform: Originally a card game, but we…

MDA & 8 Kinds of Fun – Monopoly Deal – Eunji Lee

April 10, 2022

One of my favorite games is Monopoly Deal, which is a faster-paced card game version of Monopoly. I love how the added mechanics of…

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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

  • 247G Syllabus
    • 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
  • The How and Why of Sketchnotes
  • Graphic Design Resources

Archives

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Recent Posts

  • Sketchnote: Rise of the Video Game Zinesters – Ji Hong Ni
  • Sketchnote: Playtesting Alone! – Jasmine Steele
  • rise of the video game zinesters
  • Rise of the Video Game Zinesters Sketchnote
  • Sketchnote: Playtesting alone – Charlotte Feng

Recent Comments

  • sarakolb on Final Reflection Essay
  • sarakolb on P4: Refine a game
  • sarakolb on Project 3 Reflection Essay
  • sarakolb on P3: The Game of Unexpected Consequences
  • sarakolb on Create Project 4 Rubric

Categories

  • mindmap
  • CS247G
  • Project One
  • milestone
  • P2: Games In Space
  • Critical Play
  • Lectures
  • Sketchnotes
  • Project Two
  • From the Instructor
  • Project Four REFINE
  • Assignments
  • Project Two: The Future We Deserve
  • ReadWritePlay
  • Project Three: The Game of Unexpected Consequences
  • SGSG

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