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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

P3: Playable first draft

November 16, 2023

Questions we’d like feedback on: Overall impression: Are there specific aspects that are particularly enjoyable or challenging, or any elements that seemed confusing or…

Sketchnote: Game Balance

November 16, 2023

P3: Playable first draft

November 15, 2023

Our initial prototype was not really a system game. For the new prototype, we have developed a collection of headlines, a mix of real…

Mind Map + Writeup: Working With System Dynamics

November 15, 2023

Mindmap: Write-Up: The game we are designing simulates the action of “retweeting” and explores how misinformation and fake news spread and intensify on the…

P3: Playable First Draft

November 15, 2023

Playable First Draft We created the playable first draft for Tuesday’s Class. It used the map below, along with actions cards and election cards….

P3: Playable First Draft – Tax Hero

November 14, 2023

We modeled our game idea as a clicker game similar to cookie clicker or universal paperclips. You can play our tiny prototype here. We…

P3: Concept Map

November 14, 2023

Team / Game: Congrats Grad! Joyce, Jason, Graciela, Emily System Concept Map Game Concept Map The main difference is that the system concept map…

P3: Playable First Draft | Breaking my Silence

November 14, 2023

Pictures of our game in progress: [In-Class Playtest + Custom Spinner] [Example Cards] [Current Rule Sheet]   Questions for feedback: We learned a lot…

P3: Concept Map – Truth or Troll

November 14, 2023

Having completed two concept maps, we noticed that they are quite similar. Specifically, for our chosen system—news accounts publishing news on social media—we researched…

Youssef, Chang, Urech, Yu P3: Concept Maps

November 14, 2023

Immigration Journey   Description In our concept map of the immigration system, we’ve illustrated the different classes of individuals based on their legal status…

Mind Map + Writeup: Working With System Dynamics

November 14, 2023

Pathfinder’s Quadrant, a strategic board game, immerses players in a digital matrix where collaboration, strategic flexibility, and problem-solving are key to navigating a constantly…

P3: Concept Map – Tax Zero

November 13, 2023

Tentative Game Title: Tax Zero Team: Noor, Ore, Ting, Anthony Concept Map for System: Concept Map(s) for Game:   Writeup: Our concept map for…

P3: Concept Map

November 13, 2023

Concept Map for Youtube Cancel Culture: Concept Map for Our Game: Write-up: Our game is based on how Youtubers navigate cancel culture on the…

Mind Map + Writeup for System Dynamics

November 12, 2023

The game we are designing, tentatively named TAX FRAUD, is a simulator game where you are a nouveau-rich millionaire who has just earned your…

P3: Playable first draft

November 12, 2023

Team / Game: Congrats Grad! Joyce, Jason, Graciela, Emily 1.A picture of your P3 game in progress, once changes have been made based on…

Mind Map + Writeup for System Dynamics

November 11, 2023

In “Congrats Grad!”, the core values we explore are autonomy, ambition, and adaptation/change. These values are pivotal in shaping the post-grad experience and are…

Mind Map + Writeup: Working With System Dynamics

November 11, 2023

  In our game, “Breaking my silence” (named after an infamous YouTube video in which one content creator severs ties with another amidst a…

Youssef_Mind Map + Writeup: Working With System Dynamics

November 11, 2023

Title: Animal Kingdom In “Animal Kingdom,” our design decisions have intentionally created constraints that frame the game’s interpretation around specific political and social values….

Working with System Dynamics

November 10, 2023

  In our game we are considering modeling it based on the idea of Manufactured Consent, a book by noam Chomsky. Manufacturing consent is…

Mind Map + Writeup: Working With System Dynamics

November 10, 2023

I think one of the primary values that we would like to communicate through the game we are currently designing is of policy impact…

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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

  • P2: Introducing “Wild Space”
  • Read & Play — Animalia (amaru)
  • Read & Play: Game Design as Narrative Architecture
  • Game Design as Narrative Architecture – Leyth Toubassy
  • Read & Play: Game Design as Narrative Architecture by Ngoc

Recent Comments

  • 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
  • Christina Wodtke on Read, Write, Play: Starcraft 2 – Varsha

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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