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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

Writing Precise Rules — Response (Kyle Nguyen)

March 9, 2023

I chose to read “Writing Precise Rules,” advice for rule writing by game design veteran Mike Selinker. Selinker was a creative director for several…

Sketchnote: Rules & Tutorials – Charlotte Feng

March 9, 2023

P3 Reflection: Alejandro Cid

March 9, 2023

My team worked on a digital game which modeled a sensitive planetary ecosystem and put the player in a position where their actions would…

Sketchnote: Writing Precise Rules (Ember Fu)

March 9, 2023

Response: Rules & Tutorials

March 9, 2023

George Fan’s video “How I Got My Mom to Play Through Plants vs. Zombies” is a heartwarming account of how he introduced his mother…

P3 – Reflection

March 9, 2023

It was interesting to work on Get Schooled! after Clinic Superhero, since both are card-based system games. I thought it would be easier this…

P3: Reflection (Miranda Diaz)

March 9, 2023

Coming into this project, I had experience playing a few popular systems games. I was really excited to get to make one myself, but…

Sugar Showdown: Reflection – Amy Lo

March 9, 2023

The type of fun that Sugar Showdown exhibited was challenge and fellowship. Since our game was a competitive, cooperative game, players played in teams…

P3 Reflection: Sugar Showdown

March 9, 2023

As I reflect on my experience designing the systems game Sugar Showdown, I am filled with a sense of accomplishment. It was challenging to…

Sketchnote: Rules & Tutorials – Amy Lo

March 9, 2023

Sketchnote: Rules & Tutorials (Miranda Diaz)

March 9, 2023

Sketchnote: Rules & Tutorials

March 9, 2023

Sketchnote How I got my mom to play through plants vs zombies

March 9, 2023

Fractal Gridded it TeeHee :)!

P3 Reflection: Spaceboi vs. The World

March 9, 2023

Spaceboi vs. The World is/was a super fun and challenging project. I worked with Ale and Shimea to create a polished slice of what…

P3: Spaceboi vs. The World Reflection

March 9, 2023

Going into P3, I knew I wanted to help make a digital game so I was grateful when both Nick and Alejandro agreed to…

P3: Reflection of Sugar Showdown

March 9, 2023

My team designed the game Sugar Showdown, which models the competition between school health programs and food companies for the influence of the school…

P3: Overgrowth Reflection

March 8, 2023

Working on Overgrowth has been a thoroughly enjoyable process. It’s certainly the most complex game I’ve worked on so far! I really have to…

P3 – Get Schooled!

March 8, 2023

Game Designers: Marielle Burt, Alyssa Li, Lucy Lu, Ada Zhou Overview Get Schooled! is a competitive, card-drafting game for four to five players. It’s…

P3: Reflection – Ji Hong Ni

March 8, 2023

Overgrowth simulated an environmental and urban system coming together to build toward a sustainable future. In this fantasy region, the player’s goal is to…

P3 Reflection (Ember Fu)

March 8, 2023

For P3, our team designed an ecosystem for social media and those engaging in it as content creators. The ecosystem was modeled as a…

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

  • Sketchnote: The Role of Architecture in Video Games
  • Critical Play: Cube Escape: Paradox
  • Sketchnote: Designer’s Notebook: The Role of Architecture in Videogames – Jinpu
  • Sketchnote: Designer’s Notebook: The Role of Architecture in Videogames
  • Sketchnote: Game Architecture

Recent Comments

  • Tray Chen on P1: The Shrimp Game
  • Samantha Leventis on Maybe We Should Be Evil: Slay the Princess
  • Samantha Leventis on The Illusion of Choice: How Constraint Gives Meaning to Evil in Slay the Princess
  • Samantha Leventis on The Princess You Get Is the One You Believe In
  • Ryan Li on P1: The Shrimp Game

Categories

  • Slay The Princess
  • P2: The Empathy Machine
  • Featured
  • Project One
  • milestone
  • P2: The Future We Deserve
  • mindmap
  • P1: Social Games
  • CS247G
  • Assignments
  • Lectures
  • P1: those who play, teach
  • 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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