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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

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…

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games

May 3, 2026

Drive link    

Individual Concept Doc – P2

May 3, 2026

1. Moodboard I’m thinking of eerie, empty, horror-inspired themes. 2. Spotify Playlist 3. Game Directions A. Interactive Gameplay The player could explore places inside…

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games

May 3, 2026

Sketchnote: Puzzles in Games, Puzzles as Games

May 2, 2026

Critical Play: Mysteries & Escape Rooms

May 1, 2026

I played Cube Escape: Paradox, a game created by the Dutch indie developers Rusty Lake. The Cube Escape series shares a larger universe. Paradox…

shelrock bolmes

Critical Play: Mysteries & Escape Rooms – Tray

May 1, 2026

For this week’s critical play I wrote about Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, a mystery find-the-killer analogue game designed by Raymond Edwards, Suzanne Goldberg, and…

Memory as Maze: How Cube Escape: Paradox Uses Architecture to Tell Its Story

May 1, 2026

The game opens on a black screen. You don’t know who’s asking. You don’t know who “she” is. You don’t know where “here” even…

Critical Play: Escape the Room: Mystery at the Stargazer’s Manor

May 1, 2026

Escape the Room: Mystery at the Stargazer’s Manor (2015) is a tabletop escape room (ER) in a box, designed by Rebecca Bleau and Nicholas…

Checkpoint 1: Concept Doc

May 1, 2026

Moodboard: Music list: Three directions: College life — Design your college life Format: Single-player narrative / choice-based progression Concept: You play as an incoming…

screenshot of gameplay from gone home

Critical Play: Mysteries & Escape Rooms (Gone Home)

May 1, 2026

Gone Home is a “walking simulator” developed by The Fullbright Company. I played it on PC, and the target audience is likely players age…

Critical Play: Mysteries & Escape Rooms – Kelvin

May 1, 2026

For this critical play, I chose Tiny Room Stories: Town Mystery, which is a mobile escape room game developed by Kiary Games, and is…

Sketchnote: The Role of Architecture in Video Games

April 30, 2026

Critical Play: Mysteries & Escape Rooms

April 30, 2026

Gone Home Creator: The Fullbright Company | Platform: PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, iOS | Target audience: Players who like narrative games,…

Sketchnote: The Role of Architecture in Video Games

April 29, 2026

Sketchnote: Architecture in Videogames

April 28, 2026

High quality PDF Link!

Team Reithrodon Team Norms

April 28, 2026

Say if you can’t make a meeting Say if you’re stuck on something/having problems Within 24 hour reply times Value alignment and vision alignment…

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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  • December 2023
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  • January 2022
  • June 2021
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  • April 2021
  • September 2020
  • February 2017

Recent Posts

  • Critical Play: Factory Balls
  • sketchnote: loops and arcs
  • Sketchnote: Loops & Arcs
  • Critical Play: Worldbuilding
  • Shuci Critical Play Puzzles Storyteller

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

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