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Lostgarden
Personal blog · lostgarden.comgamesdesignwriting
Lostgarden is a personal blog at lostgarden.com about games, design and writing. Since 2007, 94 different Hacker News readers have linked it 126 times, most often “Eight basic rules of productivity very well nailed”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-05-24, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 13 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers cite Lostgarden for Daniel Cook's essays on productivity and long hours, game mechanics and design, and platform strategy, most often the 2008 'Rules of Productivity' presentation.
- Recommended for · 13 comments
- Commenters call a 'nice presentation' and an 'excellent essay' good, 'a good take', 'worth reading', 'a gem', 'a great presentation', and one says it is the bes
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
You've found a rare treasure trove of readable, thoughtful essays on game design theory, art and the business of design. Recent Posts Popular Posts All Posts
Most-linked posts?
- Eight basic rules of productivity very well nailed14 people · 17 mentions · first linked 2010-06-23
- Autumn of Indie Game Markets5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2016-11-18
- The Game of Platform Power4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-03-18
- Rules of Productivity4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2008-09-29
- How to achieve greater productivity of teams4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2008-09-28
- Ribbon Hero turns learning Office into a game3 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2010-09-21
- Nintendo's Genre Innovation Strategy (2005)3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-08-11
- /2007/02/rockets-cars-and-gardens-visualizing.html3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2008-05-19
- Visualizing the Creative Process3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-08-17
- Improving Bug Triage with User Pain 3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2008-05-20
What Hacker News says?
I think that'd definitely wrong. Some kinds of coding do benefit from lack of interruption, so that's can be an argument for very focused work. But one way coding is different than, say, factory work or service work, is that our errors accumulate. It takes just seconds to put a bug in, but hours or days to take it out again. So anybody working long enough to get tired will very quickly hit diminishing returns. There…
Comment linking /2008/09/rules-of-productivity-presentation.html
on “Preindustrial workers worked fewer hours than today's (2009)”Submitted Steambirds: How handcrafted levels prevent game design iteration as a story · 81 points
HN discussionAt first I thought the name was a bit misleading. It looked more like a how-to on visual effects than underlying mechanics. But then I saw the linked page, and it gave a pretty decent definition of Game Mechanics: http://www.lostgarden.com/2006/10/what-are-game-mechanics.ht...
Comment linking /2006/10/what-are-game-mechanics.html
on “Game Mechanic Explorer – examples for game mechanics, algorithms, and effects”Submitted Loops and Arcs as a story · 66 points
HN discussionYeah, that was the same reaction I had. I also long ago stopped believing that 80-hour engineering weeks are much more productive than 40-hour weeks. For one week? Sure. Two? Maybe. Months? Nope! Definitely not better, probably worse. (Why is a long answer, but for one take, this is good: http://www.lostgarden.com/2008/09/rules-of-productivity-pres... But even if none of that human-factors stuff were true, I'd still…
Comment linking /2008/09/rules-of-productivity-presentation.html
on “Success at Work, Failure at Home”Submitted Fixing the Turn-based Strategy genre as a story · 56 points
HN discussionThat's exactly what has been found, as cited on another comment in this discussion: http://www.lostgarden.com/2008/09/rules-of-productivity-pres... The cited research claims total overall productivity of working 60 hours a week starts showing a deficit to working 40 hour weeks, after about 4 weeks.
Comment linking /2008/09/rules-of-productivity-presentation.html
on “The Post-YC Slump”Submitted How to achieve greater productivity of teams as a story · 46 points
HN discussion"At the end of a YC batch, the general consensus among the partners is that about 25% of the companies are on a trajectory that could lead to a multi-billion dollar company. Of course, only a handful of them do. Most go on to be decent or bad." "You have to keep up a high level of intensity for many, many years." Don't take this the wrong way /u/sama, but could it be that perhaps business models are the problem and…
Comment linking /2008/09/rules-of-productivity-presentation.html
on “The Post-YC Slump”Submitted Using Game Mechanics To Teach Users MS Office as a story · 38 points
HN discussionI have no doubt that determination and enthusiasm are positively correlated with both success and with working long hours. However, as a rational skeptic, I've yet to see evidence that working long hours has a causal relationship to success. However, there is evidence to suggest an inverse relationship may exist. Furthermore, hazing is effective in building solidarity, and people are generally more likely to retroac…
Comment linking /2008/09/rules-of-productivity-presentation.html
on “"Any time you have worked long hours, it is a sign of a broken process."”Submitted Failing Fast - 'finding the fun' in a design as a story · 23 points
HN discussionThey have enough cash to not work on a brink of bankruptcy[0] all the time – Valve has great working conditions too. [0]: http://www.lostgarden.com/2015/04/minimum-sustainable-succes...
Comment linking /2015/04/minimum-sustainable-success.html
on “Video Games Are Destroying the People Who Make Them”Submitted Visualizing the Creative Process as a story · 22 points
HN discussionBoth— > We turned on a new enforcement system yesterday that took user feedback much more heavily into account. —and— > My apologies for the suddenness of the action. The numbers were high enough to cause a real loss of trust in applications, which can impact the entire platform. —remind me of this talk, well worth reading: http://www.lostgarden.com/2011/03/gdc-2011-game-of-platform-... It's openly biased toward the…
Comment linking /2011/03/gdc-2011-game-of-platform-power.html
on “Facebook autobot going berserker ”Submitted Lost Garden: Flash Love Letter (2009) Part 1 as a story · 15 points
HN discussionHere's a meta-citation for you: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=971708 In short, Henry Ford did experiments in his factory and decided that 40h/week was optimal. Unfortunately, this figure has stuck, even though newer research indicates that for knowledge work and creative work, less than 40 is more appropriate. (35-40 suggested by these slides: http://www.lostgarden.com/2008/09/rules-of-productivity-pres... )
Comment linking /2008/09/rules-of-productivity-presentation.html
on “I own you, and you're easily replaceable.”Submitted Minimum Sustainable Success as a story · 12 points
HN discussionAs a matter of fact, freely usable Tyrian gfx are also available at that blog :) http://www.lostgarden.com/2007/04/free-game-graphics-tyrian-...
Comment linking /2007/04/free-game-graphics-tyrian-ships-and.html
on “Mining a 1993 game design for innovative game mechanics”Submitted Building a Princess Saving App: How to Build Learning and Fun into Your Applications [pdf] as a story · 11 points
HN discussionResources which helped me get started: "Challenges for Games Designers" by Brathwaite & Schreiber. This was by far the most helpful, as it laid out a process of finding & refining fun game ideas. "Game Feel" by Swink. Examines why jumping feels better in Super Mario than Donkey Kong, why Street Fighter feels the way it does, etc. This way of breaking down & examining mechanics was eye opening and can be applied to o…
Comment linking /2006/10/24/what-are-game-mechanics/
on “Ask HN: Recommend resources that helped your game dev journey?”Submitted An assessment and overview of creating flash games as a story · 10 points
HN discussionAnother good take on long hours in software is here: http://www.lostgarden.com/2008/09/rules-of-productivity-pres...
Comment linking /2008/09/rules-of-productivity-presentation.html
on “Watch a VC use my name to sell a con (2011)”Submitted Improving Bug Triage with User Pain (2008) as a story · 9 points
HN discussionThis presentation has been around for a bit and points to actual research: http://www.lostgarden.com/2008/09/rules-of-productivity-pres...
Comment linking /2008/09/rules-of-productivity-presentation.html
on “How GitHub Works: Hours are Bullshit”Submitted Nintendo's Genre Innovation Strategy as a story · 9 points
HN discussionYeah I agree, I think it kind of relates to this: http://www.lostgarden.com/2010/08/visualizing-creative-proce... Where basically if you don't experiment and then cull, you'll end up too constrained and never find "the good stuff."
Comment linking /2010/08/visualizing-creative-process.html
on “Bad Habits that Crush Your Creativity and Stifle Your Success”Submitted Rules of Productivity as a story · 9 points
HN discussionI would be amazed if it were sustainable for even that long. My recollection is that it's a couple of weeks before productivity ends up back where it would be if you were just working reasonable hours. And then you rapidly descend into less and less productive states. (There used to be a great presentation with linked research about this here [1], but their website seems shaky.) I think it's an especially bad idea a…
Comment linking /2008/09/rules-of-productivity-presentation.html
on “Dr. Elon and Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell”Submitted Learning from Touring Bands: Game business model suitable for other businesses too as a story · 9 points
HN discussion
