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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: Fbottazzini

Final Class Reflection

June 1, 2022

I came into this class with very little knowledge about game design. I have always loved games. Growing up, I would spend hours at…

Sketchnote/Mindmap: Cursed Problems

May 31, 2022

Sketchnote: Terror in Subnautica

May 31, 2022
May 26, 2022

For this week’s critical play, I will analyze Settlers of Catan, a game that my family and I played more times than we can…

Sketchnote: Onboarding in Plants vs Zombies

May 24, 2022

Critical Play: Puzzles

May 18, 2022

For this week’s critical play, I played Monument Valley on my iPad. This game was developed by Ustwo games and designed by Ken Wong. …

Sketchnote/Mindmap – Puzzles In Games, Puzzles As Games

May 16, 2022

Critical Play: Mysteries

May 10, 2022

Critical Play: Year Walk For this week’s Critical Play, I played Year Walk on an iPad. This game was created by Simongo, and is…

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

May 8, 2022

Critical Play: Walking Simulators

May 5, 2022

For this critical play, I played What Remains of Edith Finch. This game was designed by Ian Dallas, developed by Giant Sparrow, and published…

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture

May 3, 2022

Evocative Spaces: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery This game builds off of players existing knowledge of the Harry Potter characters, world and story and adds…

Sketchnote: Game Architecture

May 2, 2022

A game that I really enjoy playing is the Sims. Through different characters, you get to experience different simulations of the real world, shaping…

Project 2: Moodboard, Playlist, and Description

April 28, 2022

In our escape room, we are hoping to evoke emotions of excitement, mystery, eeriness, and curiosity. I think this can be achieved by a…

Sketchnote: Balancing Games: Chance and Skill

April 25, 2022

Critical Play: Skribbl.io

April 20, 2022

I played Skribble.io, a multiplayer game that was created by @ticedev and is available online. This is a really fun game that can be…

Visual Design of Games

April 19, 2022

Exercise: The Elements of Cheese or Font Elements Thumbnail Sketches: Size, Color, and Type Thumbnail Sketches: Beautiful Game Analysis: The Sims Freeplay I find…

Sketchnote: Game Design Patterns for Building Friendship

April 19, 2022

Competitive Analysis: Never Have I Ever

April 13, 2022

  Never Have I Ever has some important differences with the game that my team and I designed, but it is very similar in…

What do Prototypes Prototype?

April 11, 2022

Should players write their own questions or should the game provide pre-written questions for the players to answer? This is an important question to…

MDA & 8 Kinds of Fun: 2048

April 11, 2022

2048 is one of my favorite games. The mechanics of this game include a 4×4 grid and tiles that have values that are powers…

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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

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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
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  • From the Instructor
  • Project Four REFINE
  • Assignments
  • Project Two: The Future We Deserve
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