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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: Mateus

Hello! My name is Mateus Gheorghe de Castro Ribeiro, I am a PhD student in the Stanford Sustainable Systems Lab (S3L) at Stanford University 🌲. I am passionate about leveraging artificial intelligence and engineering to drive research that contributes to a better world 🌎👨‍💻💡 Throughout my career, I have explored diverse topics, including fuzzy logic systems ✨, ultrasonic waves 🔉, signal processing 🖥️, and Structural Health Monitoring 📌 Currently, my research focuses on AI-driven solutions for sustainable energy systems, particularly machine learning applications to optimize the integration of renewables 🌤, storage 🔋, electric vehicles 🚙, and charging infrastructure ⚡ In my free time, I love both playing and watching soccer ⚽. When it comes to games, I’m especially into video games 🎮. Although I don’t play as much nowadays, my favorites are RPGs like Skyrim, open-world games like Grand Theft Auto, and soccer games like FIFA.

Final Class Reflection – Mateus

June 7, 2025

Today marks the end of my Spring 2025 quarter and also the end of CS247G. I’ll admit: I chose this class primarily to fulfill…

P2 Final Writeup – Team 14 – New York City Pigeon Simulator

June 7, 2025

Artists’ Statement NYC Pigeon Simulator grew out of our fascination with the chaos and strange social rules that define city life, but we imagined…

Critical Play: Play Like a Feminist – Depression Quest – Mateus

May 29, 2025

In this critical play analysis, I will focus on Depression Quest, an interactive fiction game released in 2013, created by Zoë Quinn, with writing…

Sketchnote: Onboarding in Plants vs Zombies – Mateus

May 28, 2025

Critical Play: Games of Chance & Addiction – 24/7 Poker – Mateus

May 23, 2025

In this critical play analysis, the focus is on a game that has existed for over two centuries: poker. Originating in the early 19th…

Sketchnote: Addiction by Design – Mateus

May 19, 2025

Critical Play: Worldbuilding – A Dark Room – Mateus

May 15, 2025

In this critical play, the chosen game is A Dark Room. This single-player, text-based game was originally developed by Doublespeak Games and relies solely…

Sketchnote: Loops & Arcs – Mateus

May 14, 2025

Critical Play: Puzzles – Factory Balls – Mateus

May 8, 2025

In this critical play, I will examine the game Factory Balls, created by Belgian independent developer Bart Bonte and hosted on Poki.com. Based on…

Mateus - Puzzles

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games – Mateus

May 6, 2025

Individual Concept Doc P2 – Mateus

May 5, 2025

Moodboard The goal of our game is to evoke the following emotions: Suspense Distrust Cunning Fun Playlist   Narrative Directions All the game directions…

Critical Play: Mysteries & Escape Rooms – Tiny Room Stories: Town Mystery – Mateus

April 30, 2025

In this critical play, the focus is on the game Tiny Room Stories: Town Mystery, created by Kiary Games. Available for free on the…

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

April 29, 2025
places_mateus

Critical Play: Walking Simulators – Mateus

April 28, 2025

In this critical play, I focused on Places, a free walking simulation game hosted on jlv.fi/places. The game consists of small, atmospheric 3D “paintings”…

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture – Mateus

April 28, 2025

Critical Play: Competitive Analysis – Mafia vs. Prisoners of War – Mateus

April 17, 2025

An indirect competitor to our conceptual game Prisoners of War is the well-known game Mafia, where players are assigned roles as civilians or mafia…

Sketchnote: Game Design Patterns for Building Friendships – Mateus

April 16, 2025

What do Prototypes Prototype? – Mateus

April 11, 2025

Here are some of the questions we intend to explore with our Prisoners of War prototype: Should we use a password with a single…

spyfall

Critical Play: Spyfall – Mateus

April 10, 2025

In this post, I will present a critical report on Spyfall, a game developed primarily with the goal of breaking the ice at parties…

what games are Mateus

Sketchnote: What Games Are and Aren’t – Mateus

April 8, 2025

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

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Recent Posts

  • Sketchnote: MDAO
  • Elements of Play
  • Games, Design and Play: Elements – Huijun Mao
  • Games, Design and Play: Elements by Ngoc
  • Games, Design, and Play: Analysis

Recent Comments

  • Among Us Features Gameplay Download Guide | GridBox on Among Us: Critical Play of Social Deduction
  • Hollow Knight and Silksong: Redefining Game Narrative - FizzClick.com | Your Source for Business, Technology & Entertainment News on Hollow Knight, Metroidvanias, and Storytelling
  • Christina Wodtke on Read, Write, Play: Starcraft 2 – Varsha
  • Christina Wodtke on Reflection Seb
  • Christina Wodtke on Final Class Reflection – Mateo LF

Categories

  • Featured
  • Project One
  • P2: The Future We Deserve
  • milestone
  • 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
  • Sketchnotes
  • P4: Refine a Game
  • 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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