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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: mngo118

Final Class Reflection – Myan

June 6, 2025

Before this class, I never thought of myself as a gamer. I rarely play video games, and for most of my life, I assumed…

[Extra Credit] Sketchnote or Mindmap: Cursed Problems – Myan

June 4, 2025

Here’s my sketchnote for this week!

Critical Play: Play Like a Feminist – Myan

May 30, 2025

For this critical play analysis, I played Monument Valley II by Ustwo on an iPhone (thank you Netflix mode for the free version). Monument Valley II is…

Sketchnote: Onboarding in Plants vs Zombies – Myan

May 27, 2025

Here’s my sketchnote for this week’s reading!

Critical Play: Games of Chance & Addiction – Myan

May 22, 2025

For this critical play analysis, I played Yahtzee by Milton Bradley using a free online simulator. Yahtzee is a turn-based (physical) dice game where…

Sketchnote: Addiction by Design – Myan

May 21, 2025

Here’s my sketch note:

Critical Play: Worldbuilding – Myan

May 16, 2025

For this critical play analysis, I played Super Mario World by Nintendo on the web (the Internet Archive). It’s a 2D platformer that follows…

Sketchnote: Loops & Arcs – Myan

May 12, 2025

I love playing Cooking Mama, where each cooking step is implemented as an independent mini-game, each with its own rules, internal state machines, and…

Critical Play: Puzzles – Myan

May 8, 2025

For this critical play analysis, I played Factory Balls by Bart Bonte on my web browser (also available on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android)….

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games – Myan

May 7, 2025

Here are my sketchnotes for today’s reading!

Checkpoint 1: Individual Deliverables – Myan

May 3, 2025

For the second project, my team wants to create a 2D aesthetic platformer(?) game set in a magical forest. From this general idea, here…

Critical Play: Mysteries & Escape Rooms – Myan

May 1, 2025

For this critical play analysis, I played Tiny Room Story: Town Mystery by Kiary Games Ltd on my iPhone (also available on Android). This single-player…

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

April 29, 2025

here’s my sketchnotes for this week!

Project 1: Social Mediation Game – Pastry Party

April 26, 2025

Pastry Party Group 3 (Mai Mostafa, Myan Ngo, Thu Le, Kimberly May, Tesvara Jiang) Artist Statement We created Pastry Party to be a casual,…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators – Myan

April 25, 2025

For this critical play analysis, I played Places by jlv on my web browser (only available PC). Places is a minimalist interactive experience that invites the player to…

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture – Myan

April 21, 2025

Here’s my mindmap for today’s reading!

Critical Play: Competitive Analysis – Myan

April 17, 2025

For the competitive analysis, I played Candy Crush by King on my iPhone (though it’s available on Android, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Web browser, Windows…

Sketchnote: Game Design Patterns for Building Friendships – Myan

April 14, 2025

Here’s my sketchnote for the video on Game Design Patterns for Building Friendships!

Critical Play: Bluffing, Judging and Getting Vulnerable… – Myan

April 10, 2025

Reflection I played a free and online version of We’re Not Really Strangers, originally designed to deepen relationships through guided conversation. Though the official…

Short Exercise: What do Prototypes Prototype? – Myan

April 10, 2025

Q1: How can we encourage sabotage while also encouraging teamwork? This is an important question to answer because it is the core of our…

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

  • The Cog of Gameplay: Mashing MDAO w/ SOPHIA
  • P1 Heartland Prototype Notes, Part 2
  • My Relationship with Sophia (Sketchnotes)
  • Консультация юриста без оплаты в Москве: способы получения защиты интересов по исковым требованиям и вопросам, связанным с банкротством, в разных ситуациях Обращение к юристу в Москве
  • Sketchnote: MDAO

Recent Comments

  • Christina Wodtke on Sketchnote 1 — amaru
  • Christina Wodtke on Sketchnotes: MDAO by Ngoc
  • 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

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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