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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: Justin Hall

Final Class Reflection – Justin Hall

June 5, 2026

Before this class, I didn’t really think about games as a fundamental part of our lives, but I learned so much from the class…

Critical Play: Play Like a Feminist

June 2, 2026

For this week, I chose to play Depression Quest, a fictional, free web browser, single-player game created by Zoe Quinn. The game was released…

Sketchnote (Plants vs Zombies / 10 Tips for Tutorials) – Justin Hall

May 27, 2026

attempted to use a new layout (hexagon styled layout)

Critical Play: Games of Chance & Addiction

May 25, 2026

Critical Play For this week, I chose to focus on Luigi’s Picture Poker, which immediately caught my eye due to my addiction to this…

Sketchnote: Addiction by Design

May 22, 2026

Critical Play: Worldbuilding

May 19, 2026

For this week, I chose to play A Dark Room, a web browser text based worldbuilding game developed by Michael Townsend of Doublespeak Games….

Sketchnote: Loops & Arcs

May 13, 2026

Game I enjoy: Geometry Dash Geometry Dash is a 2D platformer / rhythm game that’s architecture really comes in it being fun because it…

Critical Play: Puzzles (Factory Balls)

May 11, 2026

For this week, I chose to play Factory Balls, a 14 level flash game developed by Bart Bonte that was eventually extended to a…

Checkpoint 1: Individual Concept Doc

May 5, 2026

Moodboard: Emotions / Traits I want to evoke: Curiosity, Caring, Persistent Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5oIbGilSzRAeZbjMtQkNh9?si=T3DzvW_UTIKhsWAXLNwrKw Game Directions 1. Was discussed in our playtest feedback, but…

Critical Play: Mysteries & Escape Rooms

May 3, 2026

For this week, I played Cube Escape Paradox, which is an escape room, murder mystery game created in 2018  by the game studio Rusty…

Checkpoint 0: Team Norms

April 30, 2026

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

April 29, 2026

Project 1: Séance

April 25, 2026

Team Meerkat: Akary Buenrostro, Justin Hall, Reyna Duffy, Sally Wang Artist Statement Séance is a 6 player murder mystery, social deduction game with many…

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture

April 23, 2026

Spatial Stories: Super Mario Bros or any Mario game really (favorite one is SM3DW) Enacting Stories: I don’t really play a ton of them,…

Critical Play: Competitive Analysis (Among Us)

April 17, 2026

My group is creating a social deduction, murder mystery hybrid game called Accomplices & Alibis (name is TBD, but it is a Samaritans [good]…

Sketchnote: Game Design Patterns for Building Friendships (w/ Optional Challenge)

April 13, 2026

What do Prototypes Prototype?

April 12, 2026

Our group currently has two ideas, a Mafia style game w/ in between minigames, as well as a mafia-clue hybrid style game. For the…

Critical Play: Bluffing, Judging and Getting Vulnerable… (Coup)

April 10, 2026

Critical Play For this week, I played Coup, which is a social deduction styled game created by Rikki Tahta and published by Indie Boards…

Sketchnote: What Games Are and Aren’t

April 8, 2026

Short Exercise: MDA & 8 Kinds of Fun (Mario Party Chance Time)

April 7, 2026

One mechanic that I like is from Mario Party is Chance Time, which is a pretty simple mechanic in which three timed wheels from…

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

  • June 2026
  • May 2026
  • April 2026
  • March 2026
  • December 2025
  • November 2025
  • October 2025
  • September 2025
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • February 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • September 2020
  • February 2017

Recent Posts

  • The Letter
  • CS199 Final Reflection
  • Critical Play: Games of Chance & Addiction
  • Critical Play: Puzzles
  • (no title)

Recent Comments

  • Jinhyo Huh on Final Reflection – Leo Sui
  • Jinhyo Huh on Jinhyo – Final Class Reflection
  • ban on CS199 Reflection – Rat King
  • Christina Wodtke on Read, Write, Play: Final Essay – Krystal Li
  • Christina Wodtke on CS 399 Reflection: Hotpot! – Krystal Li

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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