Zen Puzzle Garden is NP-complete · HackerPapers discussions

Zen Puzzle Garden is NP-complete — mentioned by robinhouston

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 10:26:34 GMT

I really liked Zen Puzzle Garden back in the day. I spent a lot of time playing it when I ought to have been working on my PhD, and I even ended up writing a paper on it. [0] It’s interesting that Gwern explicitly mentions ZPG as an inferior predecessor, because – for reasons I cannot clearly articulate or explain – I find it much more enjoyable to play than Samon. The player experience feels a lot more polished. For a while, you could upload your own ZPG garden designs to the Lexaloffle BBS, where they would be playable on the web. I designed a few brutally difficult gardens, which were…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Zen Puzzle Garden is NP-complete — HN submission

Thu, 14 May 2020 16:45:42 GMT

Zen Puzzle Garden is NP-complete (2011)

2 points; 0 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

Zen Puzzle Garden is NP-complete — mentioned by ikeboy

Fri, 13 May 2016 12:53:11 GMT

Similar examples: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9022021 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1315551 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10317224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9645845 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10574895 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGI-GqAK9c https://bosker.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/adrift-is-np-complet... https://arxiv.org/abs/1106.2104 https://nadamhu.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/my-ios-game-based-o... http://www.gwern.net/Turing-complete http://for.mat.bham.ac.uk/R.W.Kaye/minesw/ordmsw.htm (Generated by going through HN search results for Turing…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.

Zen Puzzle Garden is NP-complete — mentioned by robinhouston

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:08:35 GMT

In a selfish sort of way, I hope this discussion doesn’t end up being completely dominated by the question of whether the “Humble Bundle” offers are going downhill or whether their web page is well enough designed. I’d like to see Voxatron succeed, not only because it’s the most interesting indie game I’ve played for a long time, but also because I’ve admired Lexaloffle for years, since I became dangerously obsessed with his beautiful game Zen Puzzle Garden, and I like to think that quiet inventiveness and careful dedication deserve the occasional reward. I heard on Saturday that a paper I…

Paper and discussion history. A mention is not an endorsement.