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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: ReadWritePlay

RWP Final Paper – Why Sandbox Games are so Successful

June 13, 2024

Introduction Sandbox games have carved out a significant niche in the gaming industry, captivating millions of players worldwide. Their success can be attributed to…

Slay the Princess

June 13, 2024

I only played the demo so Idk what was supposed to happen, but the demo was disappointing for me. The core loop was really…

Inscryption

June 13, 2024

I watched Markiplier’s gameplay of this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxW84qnvZEc The art style is really cool. The cards are dark and inky, minimal, and illustrative. The colors…

RWP 2024 — Hades (Jasmine Steele)

June 13, 2024

Despite hearing its praises sung from every corner of my social circle the year it came out (and ever since), I avoided playing Hades…

RWP 2024 – Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising (Jasmine Steele)

June 13, 2024

At first, I was terrified to pick up Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising because I knew it was the sort of game you were supposed…

RWP 2024 — Inscryption (Jasmine Steele)

June 13, 2024

The atmosphere of this game hit me full-force the moment I first opened it, saw that the New Game option was greyed out and…

Ace Attorney Review

June 12, 2024

When I was in high school, my biggest dream was to become an attorney (which has changed since getting to college), so playing this…

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising Review

June 12, 2024

Following our play of a mysterious and confusing game like Inscryption, I felt a lot more at ease and understanding of this game. I…

Inscryption Review

June 12, 2024

I am not someone that plays video games very often, so this intricate game really stumped me from the beginning. Although I was confused…

Inscryption Cover Art

RWP – Inscryption (Week 2)

June 12, 2024

For this week’s game, I played Inscryption with a few friends. Inscryption is a rogue-like deck-building game developed by Daniel Mullins Games and published…

RWP – Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising (Week 2)

June 12, 2024

For this week’s game, we played Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising. Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is a relatively new 2D fighting game developed by Arc…

RWP 2024 — Teamfight Tactics (Jasmine Steele)

June 11, 2024

I’ve played some games with autochess components before, but none as focused on that mechanic as Teamfight Tactics. At first glance, and after playing…

RWP – Hades (Week 6)

June 11, 2024

For this week’s game, we played Hades. Hades is a dungeon-crawler / rogue-like action game developed by Supergiant Games, and is available on platforms…

RWP – Slay the Princess (Week 5)

June 11, 2024

For this week’s game, we played Slay the Princess. Slay the Princess is a horror narrative adventure game published by Black Tabby Game for…

RWP – Ace Attorney (Week 4)

June 10, 2024

For this week’s game, we played Ace Attorney. Ace Attorney is a visual novel game developed by Capcom which follows the rookie attorney Phoenix…

RWP – Unpacking (Week 7)

June 10, 2024

For this week’s game, we played Unpacking. Unpacking is cozy puzzle video game developed by Witch Beam that can be played on various platforms,…

RWP – Teamfight Tactics (Week 8)

June 10, 2024

For this week’s game, we played Teamfight Tactics. Honestly, I am still decently new at TFT as I started playing on-and-off towards the beginning…

RWP Week 8: Teamfight Tactics

May 31, 2024

Rating: 9/10 This week, I played Teamfight Tactics (TFT) with a group of friends. TFT is the only game that I have played prior…

Strategic Depth and Mobile Mastery: A Reflection on Teamfight Tactics

May 31, 2024

Teamfight Tactics (TFT) is Riot Games’ foray into the auto-battler genre, an offshoot of the popular mod for Dota 2 known as Auto Chess….

Unpacking: The Art of Rediscovering Life Through Simple Objects

May 30, 2024

Unpacking, a puzzle game of your own memories and psyche, taps into a wide range of emotions. It accomplishes this feat while managing to…

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

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Recent Posts

  • Mind Map: Sarah
  • mindmap – jay
  • Protected: introduction – jay :)
  • Introducing Me (Reyna)
  • Mind Map – Graham

Recent Comments

  • EvvrryyDDY2 on Critical Play: BABBDI
  • Male Monitor – Seminar Group 2 on Through the Looking Glass: Gendered Gazes in Video Games 
  • brysigg on Conclave: A Prayer Simulator — P2
  • brysigg on P2: The Empathy Machine – Angela Mao
  • brysigg on P2: The Empathy Machine

Categories

  • P2: The Empathy Machine
  • Featured
  • Project One
  • milestone
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  • mindmap
  • P1: Social Games
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  • Assignments
  • P1: those who play, teach
  • Lectures
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  • Critical Play
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  • Project Four REFINE
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