Top all-time · #6306
Soren Johnson
Personal blog · designer-notes.comgamesdesign
Soren Johnson writes DESIGNER NOTES, a personal blog at designer-notes.com about games and design. Since 2009, 12 different Hacker News readers have linked it 17 times, most often “Cheating AIs”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-07, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (4) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Soren Johnson's blog covers game design, with interviews with developers such as Chris DeLay, creator of Uplink, and discussion of Civilization's AI design history. Commenters link it for these topics.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 4 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Soren Johnson's Game Design Journal
Most-linked posts?
- Cheating AIs2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-09-02
What Hacker News says?
Fun fact: The original Civilization actually had it hardcoded into the AI that if the player was in the lead when the year 1900 was reached, all the AI would declare war on her. It's slightly less obvious in the later games, but there are definitely still diplomatic penalties for the human player such that the AI are less likely to make deals with them and more likely to declare war. Anyone interested should read So…
Comment linking /
on “Civ II game a decade old”Submitted Sid Meier's Rules as a story · 94 points
HN discussionSirlin has written what seems to be the most commonly referenced piece whenever games and "thinking" come up. Playing to Win, available free at his website (www.sirlin.net/ptw/), doesn't directly deal with game design, but it comes up throughout. His blog generally trends on game design topics. (He's been a fighting game pro, rebalanced SF2 for the most recent version, and is in the process of releasing some physica…
Comment linking /?p=132
on “Game Theory - Marginal Advantage”Submitted Designer notes: Fear and loathing in Farmville. as a story · 7 points
HN discussionThe below are not necessarily indie/solo focused, but interesting nonetheless. - Sausage Factory by Cane & Rinse: https://caneandrinse.com/category/sausage-factory/ - Industry & analysis: https://twitter.com/unboxingpod - Simon Carless from GameDiscoverCo experimented with a podcast (Tales From GameDiscoveryLand), and I really want him to continue: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tales-from-gamediscove... - De…
Comment linking /category/podcast/
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite podcasts about indie game design/development?”Submitted Spore: My View of the Elephant as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThere is a great semi-recent, two part Podcast interview of Chris DeLay, the creator of Uplink at: http://www.designer-notes.com/designer-notes-68-chris-delay-... and http://www.designer-notes.com/designer-notes-69-chris-delay-...
Comment linking /designer-notes-69-chris-delay-part-2/
on “The fun factor of the video game Uplink”Submitted The Case for Piracy as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted This Game Kills Fascists as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Soren Johnson on Asynchronicity in Games as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Water Finds a Crack as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Do free-to-play games mean the end of single-purchase games? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Theme is Not Meaning - Soren Johnson on Game Design as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Cheating AIs as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Designing for Free: Soren Johnson (Game Developer) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
