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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

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture

May 2, 2022

Sketchnote: Game Architecture

May 2, 2022

A game I enjoy is League of Legends, a multiplayer team-based battle arena by Riot Games where players use champions to eliminate enemy champions…

Checkpoint 1 – Concept Doc

May 2, 2022

Synopsis: It’s been 3 weeks since you’ve seen your friend in CS 247G. You receive a text from an unknown number to go look…

Moodboard and Checkpoint 1 – Rita

May 2, 2022

Here are my moodboard slides: Rita Concept Doc Here is my Youtube playlist.  

Sketchnote: Game Architecture

May 2, 2022

Here’s my sketchnote: One of the games that I keep finding myself coming back to is Terraria. Terraria is similar in structure to its…

P2: Checkpoint 1

May 2, 2022

Potential storylines for escape room: 1 – Someone’s friend has gone missing for 3 weeks. You go and check up on their room and…

Checkpoint 1: Concept Doc (Individual)

May 2, 2022

Escape from the Prison Moodboard: Spotify playlist:   Concept #1 The year is 1571. You’ve been wrongfully accused of the betrayal of a king…

Mindmap: Narrative Architecture

May 2, 2022

Concept Doc: What’s The Move?

May 2, 2022

By Carina Ly, Nadin Tamer, Alisa Wang, Francesca Bottazzini, Rick Robert Synopsis It’s a been jam-packed week and you’ve been on the grind with…

Checkpoint 1

May 2, 2022

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5T2k3y8U9jAomMcOZFxXyd?si=5b0f4b1469de49e1 1 game of possession Backstory group of teens are staying at an inn Each teen gets the choice of investigating the power outage,…

Tara’s Individual Concept Doc for Checkpoint 1

May 2, 2022

We decided as a group to build an escape room with a murder mystery focus. We each explored a few narrative directions for our…

Moodboard and Checkpoint 1 – Christina

May 2, 2022

My 3 directions and moodboard, see the slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-JU7DpyI86VjNDUtsA9gXhAw7y77zs0G1jvgaTj6RNQ/edit  1. Soul collector documents the last denizens of the dying world. 2. Make wacky combination…

Concept Checkpoint

May 2, 2022

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v7MMZvawxA-uhvdpyfq-lrQXPRZBdlRbzhPd0QZIQH0/edit?usp=sharing  

Untitled Fruit Game: Concept Doc

May 2, 2022

Untitled Fruit Game (Concept Doc)

Walking Simulators: The Stanley Parable

May 2, 2022

Before I discuss The Stanley Parable, I recommend you turn on my favorite music track from the game to get a sense of how…

Critical Play: The Stanley Parable

May 2, 2022

Introduction The Stanley Parable was developed and released by Davey Wreden, Galactic Cafe, and William Pugh on October 17, 2013. Types of Fun and…

Checkpoint 1: Individual Concept Doc

May 2, 2022

For our Escape Room, we want to build a tense narrative around the setting of a secretive office environment. We aim to embody 4…

Ben Liao — P2 Concept

May 2, 2022

Moodboard   Spotify Playlist   Direction The first layout I had in my mind was an ordinary office space; we would embed the puzzles…

Sketchnote: Game Architecture

May 2, 2022

One game I enjoy is Destiny 2. This game is a first person shooter with both a single player story and multiplayer competition. The…

P2 Checkpoint 1: Concept Doc (Individual)

May 2, 2022

Mood board: Spotify Playlist: I am hoping to go for a murder mystery theme for this project, so I selected some spooky piano background…

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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

  • Project 1: Martian Massacre
  • Team Squirrel — Prey Tell
  • Project 1: Social Mediation Game – 404 ALIGNMENT NOT FOUND
  • Corruption – P1 Team Chipmunk
  • Project 1: Social Mediation Game – Summit Rush – Team Gopher

Recent Comments

  • jasonzz on Mooney Ranch
  • Sizhe Wu on Introduce Yourself – Carl
  • Christina Wodtke on Short Exercise: Learning to Play closely
  • Christina Wodtke on Short Exercise: Learning to Play Closely – Fruit Ninja
  • Aksel Kolasinski on Hi! I’m Mathias

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
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