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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

The Rhetoric of Video Games – Ian Bogost

October 26, 2025

Ian starts with an example of the game Animal crossing. This game is a life simulator where the player performs mundane labor, like collecting…

P2: Wild Space, Playtest #3

October 21, 2025

Wild Space, the anthropomorphic animal alien dating simulator has been coming along nicely for the past couple of days. Here are some of the…

Read & Play: The Rhetoric of Video Games

October 21, 2025

Spoilers Ahead! (Depression Quest) To better understand narrative architecture and interactive fiction, I played Depression Quest on a Chrome web-browser on my Windows computer. Depression…

P2: Playtest prototype

October 21, 2025

Playtest 2 (with Version 2) Figure 1: Playtest with CS co-term student in EVGR   Overall, the player liked how the right choice wasn’t…

P2: Playtest_Prototype_MarielleZheng

October 20, 2025

Playtester: Female masters student with no particular experience in game design or in playing narrative-based games. I conducted the playtest with her by first…

P2: Map, premise, project plan – Krystal Li

October 20, 2025

Premise: In this game, Vincent, a man who is on the verge of a divorce has a fight with his wife before being hit…

P2Premise_Map_ProjectPlan_MarielleZheng

October 20, 2025

Premise (Setting and Characters): My narrative game is about two outcasts from different worlds who help each other discover their identity, purpose, and sense…

P2: Playtest Prototype

October 20, 2025

Playtester: Same as last time (see other notes), CS coterm student. During Playtest: Playtester liked the “improved” assets Player tried to “break” the experience…

P2: Playtest prototype

October 20, 2025

My playtester was a 22-year old female CS Coterm student. She played the game twice, effectively deciding to do nothing the first round and…

P2 – Witness Plan [Ryan]

October 20, 2025

Premise: In Witness (working title that I just came up with right now), you play as John (working name) as he’s questioned about the…

P2: Premise, Map, Plan

October 20, 2025

Premise In this story, our character wakes up and wants to finish up their to-do list. We have to walk our dog and visit…

Premise, Map, and Project Plan – Angela Mao

October 20, 2025

Premise  Player Role The player is Bowser, a purple Jellycat hippo who lives at the Paper Source in Stanford’s Town and Country. He is…

P2: Playtest – Krystal Li

October 20, 2025

My game, tentatively titled Undying Love,  is a narrative-driven IF game where players take on the role of Vincent, a middle-aged man on the…

P2: Tiny Playable Prototype #2

October 20, 2025

Player profile Name Age Gender Testing Environment Background (Family, Culture) Overall comments Brian 22 M At home, Figjam flow chart Felt like the theme…

P2: Playtest – [Ryan Loo]

October 20, 2025

Documenting my Prototype: Throughout my interactive fiction (which unfortunately remains untitled until I can escape this creative rut), players adopt the identity of a…

P2: Playtest Prototype

October 20, 2025

Version 1 to Version 2 After playtesting in class, I wanted to incorporate one main piece of feedback and expand on the story in…

P2: It’s just a burning memory

October 20, 2025

Playtest #2 Date: 10/18 Player: One (former) screenwriter Test version: The system of the video game version (not all content was implemented) Board game…

P2: Map, premise, project plan

October 20, 2025

Premise Click enter. The computer’s black screen flashes on, a white logo spinning lazily as it loads. Green letters fade onto the screen. Welcome….

P2 – Giant Steps Plan, etc.

October 20, 2025

Premise In Giant Steps, you play as Desmond, a newly graduated jazz saxophonist trying to make it as a musician after he graduates from…

P2: “Blank Canvas” Playtest 10/19/25

October 20, 2025

Playtest 10/19/25 Player: Alex, a college-aged student. Alex is not an artist, but does not like AI art. Observations:  Fig 1. Conversation with first…

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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