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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

Journey: A Walking Simulator Critical Play

May 1, 2024

My critical play for Journey can be found here.

May 1, 2024

Name of the game: Babbdi Game’s creator: Lemmaiti Bros (Ded 2022) Platform of the game: Steam (PC) “How does walking tell the story in…

Critical Play: Babbdi as a Walking Simulator

May 1, 2024

Babbdi is a first person exploration game created by the Lemaitre Bros in 2022, playable on Linux, macOS, and Windows. This single-player game is…

Crit Play: “What Remains of Edith Finch” – Ellie

May 1, 2024

What Remains of Edith Finch (referred to from now on as Edith Finch), created by Giant Sparrow, tells the story of Edith Finch returning…

Babbdi Critical Play

May 1, 2024

BABBDI is a first-person walking simulator created by Leonard Lemaitre and  Sirus Lemaitre. The game’s target audience is players aged 16 and up and…

Critical Play: Walking Simulator

May 1, 2024

Dear Esther is a walking simulator developed by Robert Briscoe and The Chinese Room. It was released in 2012.  The target audience is teens…

Critical Play: Journey – Ryan Kang

May 1, 2024

In the world of video games, the genre known as “walking simulators” often stands out for its distinctive approach to storytelling and gameplay. Among…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators (Hamidou Guechtouli)

May 1, 2024

In my exploration of the game “Places,” I delved into various environments, each carefully designed to evoke distinct moods and experiences. Take “Sketch 5,”…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators

May 1, 2024

For this critical play, I played the walking simulation game Journey. It was created and developed by the Thatgamecompany. It was originally on PlayStation, available on…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators (Journey)

May 1, 2024

I played the game Journey for this assignment. Journey is an adventure game developed by Thatgamecompany, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. I could…

Critical Play: Journey – Krystal Li

May 1, 2024

Journey is an online adventure game that was developed by Thatgamecompany and available for play on PlayStation, iOS, and Windows. I played on iOS. …

Critical Play: Journey

May 1, 2024

For this week’s critical play, I played Journey, a walking simulator for those ages 12 and above developed by Thatgamecompany. Because the game is…

Critical Play- Walking Simulator

May 1, 2024

Critical Play of Yume Nikki Last night, I played Yume Nikki, a game by developer kikiyama and published by PLAYISM intended for what I’d…

Critical Play – Walking Sim

May 1, 2024

What Firewatch doesn’t have: side quests, multiple endings, crafting, puzzles, resource management, combat. What Firewatch does have: a rich, absolutely gorgeous open world; a…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators

May 1, 2024

Babbdi is an abstract, short adventure, walking simulator game designed for players who may be surfing the Steam market in hopes of running across…

Critical Play: Walking Simulators – The Stanley Parable by Ngoc

May 1, 2024

“The Stanley Parable” is a thought-provoking interactive narrative experience designed by Davey Wreden and William Pugh, and released in 2013. The game’s target audience…

Critical Play: Babbdi

May 1, 2024

For this critical play, I chose BABBDI, released in 2022 and created by the Lemaitre Brothers (Sirius and Leonard Lemaitre). This digital game played…

Critical Play: Places

May 1, 2024

Places is a walking simulator game created in 2013 by jlv. It is playable online through a web browser, as well as through Linux…

Critical Play : Places

May 1, 2024

For this week’s critical play on walking sims, I played Places for the first time – which in my opinion was less like a…

Critical Play: Walking simulator

May 1, 2024

Name: Babbdi Creator: Sirius and Léonard Lemaitre Platform: PC, Steam Target audience: Unspecified (but perhaps PG13 – has some weird characters, and the atmosphere…

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

  • Critical Play: Play Like a Feminist – Kai Ssempa
  • Critical Play: Games of Chance and Addiction – Kai Ssempa
  • Critical Play: World Building – Kai Ssempa
  • Critical Play: Puzzles – Kai Ssempa
  • Pixel Runway — Or, What Games Teach Fashion‑Tech About Joyful Retention

Recent Comments

  • Christina Wodtke on Read, Write, Play: Starcraft 2 – Varsha
  • Christina Wodtke on Reflection Seb
  • Christina Wodtke on Final Class Reflection – Mateo LF
  • Christina Wodtke on Final Class Reflection – Thu
  • Christina Wodtke on Final Class Reflection

Categories

  • Featured
  • Project One
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  • milestone
  • mindmap
  • P1: Social Games
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  • P1: those who play, teach
  • Lectures
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  • Critical Play
  • P3: The Game of Unexpected Consequences
  • Project Two
  • Project Four REFINE
  • Sketchnotes
  • P4: Refine a Game
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