Ask HN: A game concepts resource?

I am writing a game. Cocos2D-x and OpenGL, C++, OS X, iOS. Going well, I have never written a game before, the concepts are different (i.e, tracking sprites, etc)

I am learning, then finding a better way, then refactoring, rinse and repeat.

What I wish I had some knowledge of is how do other devs decide on class layout, data structures to use, etc for storing the state of the elements of the game? How did NES developers do it back in 1984-? See what I mean? Not how to write a game, the concepts of writing a game, laying it out, managing, life cycle management, event loop considerations.

Does anyone have any of those types of resources?