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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: SGSG

P1: Those Who Play, Teach – corporate vision

January 26, 2023

Game Designers: Shana Hadi, Nick Feffer, Charlotte Feng We live in an era where corporations “trade in human futures” (Shoshana Zuboff). Premise corporate vision…

P1: Those Who Play, Teach – Fable

January 26, 2023

A storytelling game by Kyle Nguyen and Yuchen Wang 📖 Download Fable here! We made Fable because we believe stories are a crucial part…

P1: persona predictions, 2B Playable Prototype

January 19, 2023

Group members: Shana Hadi, Charlotte Feng, Nick Feffer persona predictions (working title) is a competitive social game (3-5 players) that teaches how corporations use…

Precision of Emotion: A New Kind of “Fun” Approach in Educational Games

January 19, 2023

P1: Playable Prototype

January 19, 2023

Team: Amy Lo and Shimea Bridgewater Our focus in our playtest was to test out different mechanics. Our game was based on the board…

Fable Playtest #1

January 19, 2023

The original “back of the napkin” design for Fable Playtest #1 in-class 1/19 We designed a storytelling game called “Fable” for children aged 6…

Precision of Emotion (Kyle Nguyen)

January 19, 2023

Cruel to be Kind

January 17, 2023

I played cruel to be kind with just my friend Nathan, as a result of my having an acute stomachache and cancelling a bigger…

Cruel 2B Kind (Kyle Nguyen)

January 17, 2023

I ran a modified game of Cruel 2B Kind this past weekend. It taught me about how to take advantage of the “magic circle”…

Sketchnote — MDAO (Kyle Nguyen)

January 17, 2023

Mindmap — Formal Elements of Games (Kyle Nguyen)

January 12, 2023

Project 2: Escaping Cherry Hills

June 1, 2022

Our Design Process Artist Statement:  The goal of Escaping Cherry Hills is to create a game that brings people together in an experience that…

SpaceMail

May 31, 2022

Team: Amy Lo, Jin-Hee Lee, Kyle Nguyen, Michelle Qin, Sam Silverstein Table of Contents Artist’s Statement Target Audience Our game at a glance Visual…

Project 2 Checkpoint 1: Individual Brainstorm – Amy Lo

May 1, 2022

Moodboard Art Direction Spotify Playlist Concepts Concept #1 Kind of fun Sensation, Fantasy, Fellowship Narrative Approach Space diner (inspired by Dennys / midnight breakfast…

Project 1: Social / Party Game — Court Case | Dilan Nana, Alahji Barry, Labib Rahman, Gustavo Vegas

April 22, 2022

Artist Statement  Do you like having a good argument with friends? Or have a real appreciation for making sure justice prevails? Introducing Court Case,…

Project 1: Outlaw’d

April 22, 2022

Outlaw’d By Shimea Bridgewater, Alejandro Cid, Nancy Hoang, Manan Rai Outlaw’d is a lively social deduction game centered around getting to know the people…

Three Night Alibi – Project 1: Social / Party Game

April 21, 2022

Artist’s Statement Three Night Alibi is a role-playing murder mystery board game designed for small groups of friends. Our goal is to empower players…

🌲MajoriTREE Rules: A Stanford-themed Social Game for P1. 🌲

April 21, 2022

Hi there! These are the P1 deliverables for MajoriTREE Rules, made up of Ulo Freitas Ecy King, Alejo Navarro from Eugene’s Monday 9:45 am…

Project 1: MajoriTree Rules

April 21, 2022

Final Deliverable CS247G P1

Project 1 – Ask Everyone: The Food-Themed Mystery Party Game!

April 21, 2022

Ask Everyone: The Food-Themed Mystery Party Game! Our Mission Some of our fondest memories are late nights playing identity games with friends — Avalon,…

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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

  • 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

  • Playtesting Alone! Sketchnotes
  • Solo Testing Sketchnote
  • Sketchnote: Playtesting Alone – Ji Hong Ni
  • Playtesting Alone Sketchnote
  • P1: Those Who Play, Teach – corporate vision

Recent Comments

  • sarakolb on Final Reflection Essay
  • sarakolb on P4: Refine a game
  • sarakolb on Project 3 Reflection Essay
  • sarakolb on P3: The Game of Unexpected Consequences
  • sarakolb on Create Project 4 Rubric

Categories

  • mindmap
  • 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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