Skip to content
The Mechanics of Magic

The Mechanics of Magic

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

  • Library
    • 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
    • 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: kmpeng

Final Class Reflection

June 10, 2023

When I was younger, I used to love playing video games; I would spend hours playing Pokemon, Super Smash Bros, Assassin’s Creed, League of…

Critical Play: Play Like a Feminist

May 31, 2023

Intro For this week’s critical play, I decided to play Super Smash Bros Ultimate,  a crossover platform fighting game directed by Masahiro Sakurai and…

Sketchnote: Onboarding in Plants vs Zombies

May 26, 2023

Critical Play: Games of Chance

May 24, 2023

Intro For this week’s critical play, I decided to play the card game Blackjack on washingtonpost.com.  It’s a casino banking game played between each…

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games

May 19, 2023

Critical Play: Puzzles

May 17, 2023

Intro For this week’s critical play, I decided to play Baba Is You, a puzzle game all about changing the rules by which you…

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

May 12, 2023

Critical Play: Mysteries

May 10, 2023

Intro For this week’s critical play, I played the first episode of Life is Strange on Steam, an episodic mystery game created by DONTNOD…

Team 7: Checkpoint 1 Concept Doc

May 9, 2023

Descriptions of Our Game  Story In the game, the player spawns on an abandoned yacht, anchored within view of the shore. The yacht is…

Checkpoint 1: Concept Doc (Individual)

May 9, 2023

Emotions Tense, Pressured, Eerie Moodboard Spotify Playlist Directions

Sketchnote: Game Architecture

May 6, 2023

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild uses a large combination of loops and arcs. Within the game, there are many loops that…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators

May 3, 2023

Intro For this week’s critical play, I decided to play The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, the sequel to the famed game The Stanley Parable,…

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture

May 1, 2023

Evocative spaces: The Witcher Enacting stories: Breath of the Wild Embedded narratives: Death Stranding Emergent narratives: Minecraft

Project 1: Closer with Every Shot

April 29, 2023

Team 11: Alex Lee, Jiwon Lee, Dylan Ly, Kaitlin Peng Artist’s Statement Our idea began from a simple question: how can we turn Beer…

Critical Play: Bluffing, Judging and Getting Vulnerable…

April 28, 2023

Intro The game skribbl.io, developed by ticedev, is a online multiplayer drawing game where players take turns drawing a word while the other players…

Critical Play: Competitive Analysis

April 21, 2023

Intro The game Never Have I Ever is a classic conversational game in which players start by putting up 10 fingers then go around…

Short Exercise: Visual Design of Games

April 21, 2023

Exercises Identify elements Core Words being classified Input box to type C or F Supportive Timer Score  The header “Cheese or font?” The subheading…

Sketchnote: Game Design Patterns for Building Friendships

April 19, 2023

Critical Play: Spyfall

April 14, 2023

Spyfall The game I decided to play and analyze is Spyfall. Though the game was originally a 2014 card game designed by Alexandr Ushan…

What do Prototypes Prototype?

April 13, 2023

(Sketchnote from 247B) Our team is creating a variation of beer pong where at the bottom of each cup, there is a challenge/truth or…

Posts navigation

1 2 Next

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
    • 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
    • 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

  • 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

  • Useful Link Round Up
  • CS 247G – Outstanding Assignments
  • Shana’s Stanford Senior Reflection (Shana E. Hadi)
  • Beyond the Valley: How Mods Affect Games like Stardew Valley
  • Final reflection + Thank you note!

Recent Comments

  • Christina Wodtke on Shana’s Stanford Senior Reflection (Shana E. Hadi)
  • Ilee on RWP: Experimental Games
  • phuctran on Hollow Knight, Metroidvanias, and Storytelling
  • phuctran on RWP Week 6 – Hollow Knight: please play this game oh my god its so good ahhhhh
  • phuctran on RWP: Hollow Knight

Categories

  • CS247G
  • P1: Social Games
  • mindmap
  • P2: The Future We Deserve
  • Project One
  • milestone
  • Assignments
  • Lectures
  • P2: Games In Space
  • Critical Play
  • Project Two
  • Sketchnotes
  • P4: Refine a Game
  • Project Four REFINE
  • From the Instructor
  • Project Two: The Future We Deserve
  • ReadWritePlay
  • Project Three: The Game of Unexpected Consequences
  • 377G: Serious Games
  • SGSG

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
Copyright The Mechanics of Magic. All rights reserved. | Theme by SuperbThemes