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The Mechanics of Magic

The Mechanics of Magic

Game Design Writings by Students at Stanford taking 247G and 377G

  • 247G Syllabus
    • 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
  • The How and Why of Sketchnotes
  • Graphic Design Resources

Category: P2: Games In Space

Project 2: RPG in RPG

August 5, 2022

The Game Play it: https://qintin.itch.io/rpg-in-rpg The Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOCkiX-jwTk The game is made in Godot, using an open source dialogue system I made myself a…

Project 2: RPG in RPG Concept Doc

July 11, 2022

Narrative/Concept I wanted to pay homage to typical RPGs by making my own action RPG, including some of my favorites such as Zenonia and…

Project 2: The Dall-E Alchemist

June 3, 2022

Group members: Cole Sohn, Rita Tlemcani, Annie Nguyen Table of Contents Artist Statement Design Process Target Audience Game Mechanics Game Map Core Concepts Main…

Heist! At the Cantor: Games in Space

June 1, 2022

Heist! At the Cantor Game Designers: Alahji Barry, Cathy Zhang, Jialin Zhuo, Ji Hong Ni, and Kathleen Yuan   Artist’s Statement Heist! At the…

Project 2: soRRRt

June 1, 2022

Initial Brainstorm Moodboards and Spotify Playlists  Amanda Spotify Playlist Anna Spotify Playlist Selaine Spotify Playlist Pinterest Moodboard Wilmer Spotify Playlist Initial Team Medium Article…

Project 2: Games in Space — Art Heist

June 1, 2022

Art Heist Creators: Will Coors, Allie Littleton, Blake Sharp, Alex Tsai Artist’s Statement  As avid puzzlers and readers, we set out to create a…

Project 2: Note

June 1, 2022

We hope you have as much fun with Note as much as we had in making it. Read all about the process of making Note below….

Project Two: Heartwood

May 31, 2022

Created by John Altankhuyag, Krain Chen, Star Doby, and Sammy Puckett Game Walkthrough Final Playtest Video Table of Contents Design Process Playtesting and Iteration…

P2: Monster Mayhem

May 31, 2022

CS247G Project 2 Monster Movie Mayhem  By Kayla Kelly, Rachel Naidich, Melissa Ran   Artists’ Statement  Inspired by the likes of Tamagotchi and Fireboy…

Project 2: Ghostly Stars

May 31, 2022

GHOSTLY STARS BY JANICE, CHARLOTTE, KATHERINE, CONNOR, STEVEN, AND SHIMEA ARTIST STATEMENT We set out to make a game that is simultaneously innocent and…

Project 2: Secrets of Stanford

May 31, 2022

link to slides

P2 – Sandbox

May 31, 2022

Artist Statement    Sandbox is a hybrid digital/physical miniature escape room experience. Players interact with the game both through a computer terminal and via…

Project 2: Ma Nasa / “Weird Place” (Peter Gofen, Qiantan Hong, Emily Hsu, Neha Vinjapuri, Tristan Wang)

May 31, 2022

Artist’s Statement Ma Nasa (Weird Place) is an escape room built around authenticity and immersion. While we quickly made the decision to hone in…

Sketchnote — Onboarding (in PvZ)

May 23, 2022

Critical Play — Fez

May 19, 2022

Fez is a playground. It succeeds in sparking childlike wonder, and it’s made me appreciate exploration and discovery as types of fun, and when…

P2 Concept Doc: Evergreen (working title!)

May 6, 2022

Evergreen or A Flower in the Desert (We’re working on the title). By: Cole Lee, Harry Moran, Gilbert Rosal, David Ryan, Tommy Tang Ideas…

Critical Play — Firewatch

May 4, 2022

Good mechanics for storytelling are simple, but flexible. In Firewatch, the central mechanic is the interactions with the walkie-talkie, which create a simple repeatable…

Project 2 Checkpoint 1: Concept Doc

May 4, 2022

Individual Concept Docs Checkpoint 1: Concept Doc Project 2 Checkpoint 1: Individual Concept Doc Concept Doc- Noel Sarduy

P2 Checkpoint 1: Concept Doc

May 3, 2022

Ideas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrEsNI0aCPk  Narrative game where the narrator is schizophrenic and has to listen to audio Synesthesia, inter-related senses, connecting colors with sounds Haunting sounds…

P2 – Moodboard

May 3, 2022

Moodboard: Directions: 2-D game such as “line rider” focussed on audio elements controlling the main game play. 2-D platformer where players have to climb…

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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

  • 247G Syllabus
    • 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
  • The How and Why of Sketchnotes
  • Graphic Design Resources

Archives

  • 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

  • P4: i dream of dragons
  • P4: Chipot-play
  • P4 | Get Schooled!
  • P4: Interactive Fiction
  • sketchnote: playtesting formally – alejandro cid

Recent Comments

  • Christina Wodtke on P2 – Barrier or Bridge?
  • Christina Wodtke on P2 – Split
  • Christina Wodtke on P2: The Last Moment of Sun
  • Christina Wodtke on P2: Zauberkurg Kartoffel Farm
  • Christina Wodtke on P2: The Future We Deserve https://mechanicsofmagic.com/?p=13253&preview=true

Categories

  • mindmap
  • 377G: Serious Games
  • P2: The Future We Deserve
  • P4: Refine a Game
  • CS247G
  • Project One
  • milestone
  • P2: Games In Space
  • Critical Play
  • Lectures
  • Sketchnotes
  • Project Two
  • From the Instructor
  • Project Four REFINE
  • Assignments
  • Project Two: The Future We Deserve
  • ReadWritePlay
  • Project Three: The Game of Unexpected Consequences
  • SGSG

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