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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

Category: Assignments

Read & Play: The Rhetoric of Video Games – Sabrina

October 27, 2026

Notes on The Rhetoric of Video Games can be found here. For this Read & Play, I played Spent and and It’s Just a…

Read & Play: The Rhetoric of Video Games – snoopy

October 27, 2026

Read: Animal crossing teaches about debt! Get more stuff, need more space. Get more space, need more stuff. All this has a cost, and…

P2: Refined Prototype – Saharat “Game” Laksanasut (สหรัฐ ลักษณะสุต)

October 26, 2026

The Road Beyond the Village (Platform: Arcweave) Figure 1: A screenshot of the first page of the game. 1. Link to My Game in…

Read & Play: The Rhetoric of Video Games – Saharat “Game” Laksanasut (สหรัฐ ลักษณะสุต)

October 25, 2026

Sketchnote: The Rhetoric of Video Games by Ian Bogost Game 1: We Become What We Behold Creator: Nicky Case | Platform: Web Browser |…

P2: Map, Premise, Project Plan – snoopy

October 21, 2026

Premise: The player is the shopkeeper to a shop for all things witchcraft, wizardry, and magic – however they themselves are not able to…

P2: Playtest Prototype – snoopy

October 21, 2026

After much finagling with Ren’Py, I finally have my first digital prototype! The conversion from preliminary, on-paper story to an actual usable virtual item…

P2: Playtest Prototype – Saharat “Game” Laksanasut (สหรัฐ ลักษณะสุต)

October 21, 2026

My game, What We Carry Forward, started as an interactive fiction project about Ang Sila, my hometown in Thailand. The player took the role…

Sketchnote: Rise of the Video Game Zinesters – snoopy

October 20, 2026

Attached are my two sketchnotes for the reading.    

Read & Play: Game Design as Narrative Architecture – snoopy

October 20, 2026

Notes for Game Design as Narrative Architecture Ludologists: wanted to study/shift focus onto mechanics of gameplay Narratologists: interested in studying games alongside other storytelling…

P2: Tiny Playable Prototype – snoopy

October 19, 2026

For this P2 prototype, not only is it my first time making a game (“officially”) solo, it is my first time making a digital…

P2: Tiny Playable Prototype – Sabrina

October 19, 2026

My current concept is a game where you play as a player who is trying to fix their relationship with their grandmother as their…

P2: Tiny Playable Prototype – Saharat “Game” Laksanasut (สหรัฐ ลักษณะสุต)

October 19, 2026

“What We Carry Forward” What We Carry Forward is an educational interactive fiction game that I will be working on for the P2 project….

Read & Play: Game Design as Narrative Architecture – Saharat “Game” Laksanasut (สหรัฐ ลักษณะสุต)

October 18, 2026

Sketchnote: Game Design as Narrative Architecture by Henry Jenkins Game Overview and My Play Experience for the First Time: “Night in the Woods” Figure…

Sketchnote: Rise of the Video Game Zinesters – Saharat “Game” Laksanasut (สหรัฐ ลักษณะสุต)

October 17, 2026

   

P1: Reflection — Sabrina Yen-Ko

October 15, 2026

I came into this project with more than a little baggage from making my previous two games in 247G. Creating those games was one…

P1: Reflection – snoopy

October 15, 2026

Project 1 was a very interesting journey for me, as it was the first time I tried to make a game that was more…

P1: Reflection – Saharat “Game” Laksanasut (สหรัฐ ลักษณะสุต)

October 15, 2026

“Is It Truly a Good and Ethical Idea to Teach players/learners to Be SCAMMERS?” This question arose during the initial brainstorming activity for our…

Precision of Emotion: A New Kind of “Fun” Approach in Educational Games (Emma Wong)

October 7, 2026

Precision of Emotion – snoopy

October 7, 2026

I took notes while watching the lecture, then synthesized what I felt were important topics into a list with some drawings! I provided both…

Precision of Emotion

October 6, 2026

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

  • P2: Expect the Unexpected (Jessica)
  • Read&Play: The Rhetoric of Video Games – Judy He
  • P2: Refined Prototype
  • P2: Playtest Prototype
  • Read & Play: The Rhetoric of Video Games – Adventures with Anxiety!

Recent Comments

  • @SEO_LINKKK in Telegram | הימורי ספין בפוקר ובמכונות: מדריך טכני לשחקן הישראלי – Quin Creative on Critical Play: Luigi’s Picture Poker
  • Jeffery Cai on P2: Playtest Prototype – Noe Chicas-Aranda
  • dkkoba on Critical Play: Blood on the Clocktower (Bluffing, Judging, and Getting Vulnerable) – Sabrina
  • Jeffery Cai on P1: Cave Talk
  • syenko on P1: Cave Talk

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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