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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: CS247G

Sketchnote: The Role of Architecture in Videogames

May 14, 2024

Critical Play: Puzzles – Regina Sevilla

May 14, 2024

For this week’s critical play, I chose to play Fez, a 2012 indie puzzle-platform game developed by Polytron Corporation and published by Trapdoor intended…

Critical Play: Mysteries – Almost Gone

May 14, 2024

The Almost Gone is a mystery, narrative, explorative game that follows a young girl’s spirit as she finds her way to the afterlife. This…

Critical Play – Puzzles

May 14, 2024

This week, I sat down to play Factory Balls, a 2008 Bart Bonte game for all ages where the player must take a blank…

Critical Play: Puzzles

May 14, 2024

For this week’s Critical Play, I played the game Gorogoa. Gorogoa is a puzzle video game developed by Jason Roberts and published by Annapurna…

Critical Play: Monument Valley

May 14, 2024

Monument Valley 1 is a digital puzzle game developed by Ustwo and can be played on iOS, Android, and Windows platforms. The game developers…

Critical Play — Cascadia

May 13, 2024

Cascadia is a game of overlapping puzzles—literally and figuratively. It leverages this overlap to create an incredibly satisfying puzzle experience. In Cascadia, players take…

Critical Play: Puzzles

May 13, 2024

Game Information Name: Monument Valley Creator: Ustwo, ustwo studio Ltd. Platform: Android, IOS, and Windows Target Audience: Ages 4+ Monument Valley is a game…

Sketchnote ; Designer’s Notebook: The Role of Architecture in Videogames ; Amy Zhou

May 13, 2024

Critical Play: Puzzles

May 13, 2024

Target audience: 13+ Name of the game: Portal 2 Game’s creator: Valve  Platform of the game: Switch, PC, PS3/4/5, Xbox 360/One   Portal 2…

Critical Play: The Room Three

May 13, 2024

For this week’s critical play, I played The Room Three, the third game in The Room series. This is a puzzle game developed by…

Critical Play: Puzzles (Factory Balls)

May 13, 2024

For this week’s critical play, I played Factory Balls! Factory Balls is a problem-solving mystery video game that simulates one’s own logical reasoning, deduction,…

Critical Play: Monument Valley (Puzzles)

May 13, 2024

In my exploration of Monument Valley, developed for iPad (but also available on phones and computers) for ages 4+ by ustwo, I have delved…

Critical Play: Puzzles – Ethan Foster

May 13, 2024

For my critical play, I decided to play through The Almost Gone, a puzzle game developed by Playdigious and released on iOS. The Almost…

Asgard’s Wrath Puzzle Critical Play

May 13, 2024

Asgard’s Wrath 2 is a full-fledged VR open-world action RPG that I have been dying to play. I am a huge VR fanatic and…

Critical Play: The Portal Series

May 13, 2024

For my critical play, I took an in-depth look at two games that were a huge part of my childhood: Valve’s Portal series. Comprising…

Critical Play – Portal 2 [Leon MacAlister]

May 13, 2024

Portal 2 was developed by Valve and released on console and PC in 2011 and is recognized (rightfully so) as one of the most…

Critical Play: Cube Escape — Paradox

May 13, 2024

For the puzzles critical play, I played Cube Escape: Paradox an escape room-style game surrounding a murder detective who is trapped in a room…

Mayshu Zhan – Critical Play – Puzzles

May 13, 2024

The Game Monument Valley targets gamers interested in artistic and thought-provoking puzzle experiences. It was developed by ustwo games and can be played via…

Sketchnote: Designer’s Notebook: The Role of Architecture in Videogames

May 13, 2024

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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

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Recent Posts

  • CS199 Reflection – Rat King
  • Hex and The Wizard’s Codex [Ryan’s CS199 Final Reflection]
  • CS 399 Reflection: Hotpot! – Krystal Li
  • Read, Write, Play: Final Essay – Krystal Li
  • Authority and Meaning

Recent Comments

  • Christina Wodtke on Read, Write, Play: Final Essay – Krystal Li
  • Christina Wodtke on CS 399 Reflection: Hotpot! – Krystal Li
  • Christina Wodtke on The Wizard’s Codex: CS399 Spring 2026
  • Christina Wodtke on Shuci Final Reflection
  • Christina Wodtke on Final Class Reflection

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
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  • SGSG

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