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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

Mayowa – Critical Play: Worldbuilding

May 15, 2026

Pokémon Emerald is a 2004 adventure RPG developed by Game Freak and released on GBA. For my Critical Play, I used an emulator to…

Critical Play: Worldbuilding – Tray

May 15, 2026

This week, I chose to play Blood on the Clocktower, a social deduction game created by Steven Medway and published by The Pandemonium Institute. While…

Critical Play: Worldbuilding

May 15, 2026

Celeste is a 2D precision platformer and one of the most celebrated indie games of its generation. The game was released and published in…

Critical Play: Cartographers

May 15, 2026

Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale (2019) is a tabletop [roll &] write game (where you “roll” through a card deck) designed by Jordy Adan. With…

Sketchnote: Addiction by Design

May 15, 2026

Critical Play: Worldbuilding

May 13, 2026

I played A Dark Room that was originally created by Michael Townsend. It is a minimalist browser game without any complicated setting or clear…

Sketchnote: Loops & Arcs

May 13, 2026

Sketchnote—Loops & Arcs—Akary Buenrostro

May 13, 2026

Link to Sketchnote (Below: Akary complains about The Sims for 2 minutes) I love The Sims 4. I love how it has a core…

Sketchnote: Loops & Arcs

May 13, 2026

Loops and Arcs

Brooke Ballhaus Sketchnote: Loops & Arcs

May 13, 2026

Sketchnote: Loops & Arcs

May 13, 2026

Sketchnote based on “Interaction Loops and Arcs” by Daniel Cook. Created by Ananya Navale. A game I can think of that utilizes both interaction…

Critical Play: Games of Chance & Addiction

May 12, 2026

Luigi’s Picture Poker (LPP) is an itch.io adaptation by Marcy4000, playable on web and on Windows, Linux, and macOS. The minigame originated in Super…

Sketchnote: Loops & Arcs – Tray

May 12, 2026

  A game I really enjoy is Hades, and I think the loop/arc architecture it has is micro parallel arcs, where you get small…

Critical Play: Worldbuilding

May 12, 2026

Game: Hollow Knight | Creator: Team Cherry | Platform: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation | Target audience: Fans of challenging 2D action platformers Hollow Knight…

Critical Play: Worldbuilding (Undertale)

May 12, 2026

Undertale by Toby Fox is, as he describes it, “the RPG game where you don’t have to destroy anyone”. It’s suitable for players ages…

Sketchnote: Loops and Arcs

May 12, 2026

Drive link Please note Freeform on iPad OS, which is what I’m using to make these, is having some bug where the colors I…

Sketchnote: Addiction by Design

May 12, 2026

Sketchnote: Loops & Arcs

May 11, 2026

I enjoy Cube Escape: Paradox. Its architecture is a mix of loops and arcs. The gameplay loop comes from exploring the room repeatedly, finding…

Sketchnote: Loops & Arcs

May 9, 2026

One game I enjoy is Gone Home. Its architecture is  an exploration loop wrapped inside a narrative arc. The core loop is simple: I…

Critical Play: Worldbuilding

May 8, 2026

Wizard 101 is an MMORPG from KingsIsle Entertainment, released in 2008 and active across Windows, macOS, Chromebook, PlayStation, and Xbox. The player takes on…

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

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

Recent Posts

  • Sketchnote: Addiction by Design – Mai
  • Addiction Sketchnote
  • Mayowa – Critical Play: Worldbuilding
  • Read, Write, Play: Papers, Please – Krystal Li
  • Ryan Li, Critical Play: Worldbuilding

Recent Comments

  • Christina Wodtke on Critical Play: Cartographers
  • Aanika Atluri on RWP Week 5: A Short Hike and Wandering Games
  • Aanika Atluri on A Short Hike: Why Wander?
  • Aanika Atluri on A Short Hike, A Long Distraction
  • Jay on Sketchnote: Game Design Patterns for Building Friendship

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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