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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: Critical Play

Critical Play: Among Us

April 7, 2022

Among Us is a multiplayer strategy game built by Innersloth. I played the game on iOS, but the game supports mobile (Android and iOS),…

Critical Play – One Night Werewolf

April 7, 2022

I played One Night Werewolf by Bezier Games with my project 1 team in person. We played with four players, but the game is…

Mindmap on Formal Elements

April 7, 2022

David G  

Critical Play: Robot Interrogation

April 7, 2022

For my first critical play, I played Robot Interrogation, which is an online version of the game Inhuman Conditions, created by Tommy Maranges and Cory…

Critical Play: Spyfall

April 7, 2022

Game, creator, platform: Spyfall created by Alexandr Ushan on netgames.io Target audience: I believe that the target audience for this game is young teenagers…

Formal Elements of Game Design Mindmap — Alex Tsai

April 7, 2022

Critical Play: Among Us

April 7, 2022

Stuck out in space, you and your crew, with only one goal…survival. Everyone has jobs they must complete if you’re hoping to make it,…

Critical Play: Spyfall – Amy Lo

April 7, 2022

SpyFall is social deception game created by Alexandr Ushan in 2013. The target audience of SpyFall on the original card game is 13+, or…

Critical Play 1: Among Us

April 7, 2022

For my first critical play, I played Among Us, created by Innersloth, on iOS (iPad Air). Among Us is a unilateral competition game with…

Critical Play: The Resistance

April 7, 2022

The Resistance is a social-deduction party game designed by Don Eskridge and published by Indie Boards and Cards. The game was originally released as…

Critical Play: First Critical Play of Among Us – Wilmer Zuna

April 7, 2022

The video game that I chose for my first Critical Play is Among Us!, a cross-platform (iOS, Android, PC, Nintendo Switch, Play Station, XBox)…

Critical Play: Inhuman Conditions

April 7, 2022

Name of Game: Robot Interrogation (Inhuman Conditions) Creators: Tommy Maranges and Cory O’Brien Platform: Online, source can be found on GitHub here For my…

Critical Play #1: Inhuman Conditions – Selaine Rodriguez

April 7, 2022

My first critical play was on the game Robot Interrogation. Robot Interrogation is an online version of the game Inhuman Conditions, which was created…

Among Us First Critical Play

April 7, 2022

Name of game, creator, platform I played Among Us on the mobile app. Among Us is is created by the indie game studio Inner…

Critical Play – Spyfall

April 7, 2022

We played Spyfall on net games.io. It’s hosted on an online platform created by a group of friends so they could play these games anywhere….

Malika’s Critical Play: Among Us

April 7, 2022

Name: Among Us Creator: InnerSloth LLC Platform: Android iOS Microsoft Windows Nintendo Switch PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Xbox One Xbox Series X/S Overview: Among…

Inhuman Conditions – Nancy Hoang

April 7, 2022

For this project I played Inhumane Conditions which is a web application game based on a board game developed by Tommy Maranges and Cory…

Spyfall – Critical Play

April 7, 2022

Spyfall – What is it? Although I played Spyfall from the online website netgames.io, Spyfall is originally a 2014 card game by Alexandr Ushan…

Critical Play: Your first critical play! – Ulo Freitas

April 7, 2022

Hi everyone! For my first critical play, I chose to play Spyfall with a few of my friends! I’ve heard other people talk about…

Critical Play: Among Us — Alex Tsai

April 7, 2022

Game: Among Us Creator: InnerSloth LLC Platform: Multiple platforms; I played on iOS Target Audience: Young adults and teenagers, mostly between ages 14-30. It…

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

  • Read and Play: The Rhetoric of Video Games_Marielle Zheng
  • Read and Play: The Rhetoric of Video Games
  • Read & Play: Rhetoric of Video Games
  • Read & Play: The Rhetoric of Video Games – Angela Mao
  • Read and Play: The Rhetoric of Video Games

Recent Comments

  • Unlocking New Levels: Challenges in Dress-Up Games - Outfits Game on Pixel Runway — Or, What Games Teach Fashion‑Tech About Joyful Retention
  • Christina Wodtke on Sketchnote 1 — amaru
  • Christina Wodtke on Sketchnotes: MDAO by Ngoc
  • Among Us Features Gameplay Download Guide | GridBox on Among Us: Critical Play of Social Deduction
  • Hollow Knight and Silksong: Redefining Game Narrative - FizzClick.com | Your Source for Business, Technology & Entertainment News on Hollow Knight, Metroidvanias, and Storytelling

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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