Skip to content
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

Critical Play: Puzzle Games – Tray

May 8, 2026

Baba Is You is a single-player digital puzzle video game developed and self-published by Arvi Teikari. I downloaded it off of Steam (thanks to…

Sketchnote: Puzzles – Leyth Toubassy

May 7, 2026

Critical Play: Puzzles

May 6, 2026

Game: Storyteller (2023) Creator: Daniel Benmergui Interactive Platform: PC, Nintendo Switch, and Netflix mobile Target audience: players who enjoy narrative, logic, and experimental puzzle…

Sketchnote—Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games—Akary

May 6, 2026

Link! You can’t see the glitter pen ink 🙁

Checkpoint 1: Concept Doc (Team Myopus)

May 6, 2026

Team Members: Violet Crow, Hunaida Elhassan, Shane Adam, Mayowa Adesina, Fiona Han Plot Synopsis: Myopus is a species of lemming living deep in the…

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games

May 6, 2026

Sketchnote based on “What is a Puzzle?” by Scott Kim and “Designing the Puzzle” by Bob Bates. Created by Ananya Navale.

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games – Kelvin

May 5, 2026

Sketchnote: Loops & Arcs

May 5, 2026

A game I’ve sunk way too many hours into is Minecraft. The architecture is built on stacked loops: basically you’re farming, mining, learning new…

Critical Play: Puzzles

May 5, 2026

There’s a moment in Chapter 3 of Monument Valley that I keep coming back to. Princess Ida is on a vertical sliding platform that…

puzzle sketchnote tray

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games – Tray

May 5, 2026

P2 Individual Concept Doc – Cristofer

May 5, 2026

MOODBOARD PLAYLIST Narrative Directions Some emotions we want to evoke are imposition, instability, and confoundment. Direction 1 – Narrative Storytelling Through Action Each action…

P2 Individual Concept Doc – Kelvin

May 4, 2026

Moodboard Playlist Narrative Directions Some emotions we want to evoke are contentment, unease, disorientation. Direction 1 – Puzzle centered mystery and escape room The…

Tray's moodboard

Checkpoint 1: Concept Doc (Individual) – Tray

May 4, 2026

Moodboard Goofy, low-poly, 2000’s, fantasy x reality vibe, cozy yet eerie.   Playlist   Directions Direction 1: Convenience Store Worker This would be a…

Brooke Ballhaus P2 Checkpoint 1 Individual Team Member Deliverable

May 4, 2026

When I think about the directions that our game could go, I think about the message that we should try to instill in our…

Checkpoint 1: Concept Doc Individual

May 4, 2026

Moodboard Playlist Narrative Directions 1. Free Exploration + Interactive Story This direction focuses on exploration where the player moves through the house at their…

P2 Individual Concept Doc

May 4, 2026

Moodboard Playlist The three emotions I want to evoke: Mischief, Tension, Triumph. Direction 1 – 2D Pixel Platformer (Axe Heist) A Celeste-style 2D pixel…

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games

May 4, 2026

Checkpoint 1: Concept Doc (Individual)

May 4, 2026

I had some primary themes in mind for this, but we’ll see if I can convey them in images, sounds, and descriptions first before…

screenshot from monument valley

Critical Play: Puzzles (Monument Valley)

May 4, 2026

Monument Valley by Ustwo Games is a simple but beautiful puzzle game originally developed for mobile operating systems (I played on iPad OS), but…

Individual Concept Doc

May 3, 2026

Moodboard See the Pinterest board here! Playlist Listen here! Narrative Directions Game Platform Fully Digital – Point and Click This would look similar to…

Posts pagination

1 2 … 215 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
    • 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
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • February 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • 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

  • Critical Play: Puzzles
  • Critical Play: Puzzles — Fez
  • Critical Play: Puzzles – Kelvin
  • Critical Play: Puzzle, Monument Valley 3
  • A Short Hike: The Fantasy of Existing Outside Productivity

Recent Comments

  • Jeffery Cai on Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games — Sabrina
  • Krystal Li on The Escape Room: How Bastion Weaponizes Your Need to Win
  • Krystal Li on Video Games Can Just Be Great Video Games, ft. Bastion
  • Krystal Li on The Dangers of Colonial Nostalgia in Bastion
  • Jinhyo Huh on Jinhyo – Sketchnote: The Role of Architecture in Videogames

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

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