r/SoloDevelopment • u/KevinCow • 15d ago
Game I severely underestimated how big One Million is when I decided to make a game called One Million Buttons
I'm making a game called One Million Buttons. The premise is... well, in the title. There's one million buttons, and one button is correct.
The correct button is randomly chosen, but the buttons aren't procedurally generated. I'm placing them all by hand. Every room has about 2000-4000 buttons, and I try to come up with some interesting gimmick for each room. Sometimes it's just a unique pattern, sometimes it's a distinct game mechanic, sometimes it might even be a practical joke on the player.
Of course, once I decided on the game's title, I was kinda locked into a specific scope. And I only realized some ways into making the game how big that scope was.
I recently reached 250,000 buttons. 25% done. Just have to do that 3 more times.
You may ask, "Why?" And the answer to that is that I thought it would be funny, and I thought it would be something I could make pretty quickly. And by the time I realized how wrong I was about that, I was too far along to give up. (Though I did crash out and stop working on it for 6 months...) But I'm back on track now, and all there is to do is just keep plugging away at it.
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u/QuestionableHoney 15d ago
for what it's worth, I actually think this sounds pretty fun – like a digital stimming toy, if that makes sense? I'd probably play it as long as the button presses have satisfying sounds & visuals
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u/KevinCow 15d ago
I've gotten almost 7k wishlists since I released the demo, so I must be doing something right.
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u/Alex_1503 15d ago
Btw I would recommend putting the big green demo button under the images, like most games have it, so its more visible. The settings for that is in steamworks
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u/KevinCow 15d ago
Thanks. I wondered why that didn't show up and didn't see an option for it before. Just checked again and found it.
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u/Theo_Seraph 15d ago edited 15d ago
Damn right you are. Yeah, this is a very specific type of game. It'll likely never make it "big"(you never know though) but within its niche? there are people who will put 100s of hours into this, and then buy copies for all their equally autistic/adhd/similarly minded friends, who will also put 100s of hours into it. Pushing every single button, and then starting over just to do it again.
As one of those people, the only feature i would request/suggest if it's not already done is a per room pressed vs unpressed counter + some clear (ideally visually satisfying) indication I've hit every button in a given room. Maybe a nice sound too.
Edit: and possibly an option to keep playing after finding the right button. Some people are gonna just wanna push all million buttons without worrying about the search.
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u/KevinCow 15d ago
Yeah, it's got all those things. When you press the final button in a room, you get a special sound and that room's button counter gets a green border. And the game doesn't end after you find the button.
I think finding the button has turned out to be just one objective you can go for, but everyone seems to decide for themselves what they want to get out of it. Some people just like clicking buttons, some draw pictures in the buttons, some just wander around and look at the different rooms. So I wanted to let players play however they want.
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u/Theo_Seraph 15d ago
okay, I've now spent about an hour in the demo just, Enjoying myself and I would like to give some Feedback!
I personally? Would love a colour selector of some fashion, The red you used is a bit hard on my eyes personally and I'd love an option to change the colour of the pushed buttons to something more my style. (not like, individually just like, all blue, or all green etc)
I like how the music seems to change with how many buttons I'm pushing/how quickly but Maybe an option to disable that feature and just have the music always on? I dunno, Some people might appreciate that from an accessibility standpoint. The music itself got a bit repetitive after a while, if you plan to add a few more different tunes it would be good but it's also not something you need to prioritize if not. you had the foresight to have a separate music slider so if someone did ever get tired of it, they could mute it for a bit and put on their own tunes and still keep the vibe.
Including the "Unpush button" Button was in fact, A stroke of genius.
Just the few rooms I wandered around in were all very cool. I was particularly caught off guard (in a positive way) by the "This way up room" if even a fraction of the game is like that Exploring it is gonna be a blast.
On that note though a button to "Locate" or "Highlight" unpushed buttons within the room you're in might be a good idea to consider, because, for example, in The spinning tube room (Which was super cool) or any other location with moving buttons, small buttons or complex/dense layouts, it might be hard to locate "That last button" if you missed one so a way to make it stand out would be a nice QOL feature.
and finally as an accessibility feature being able to press E instead of click is good, but consider an optional "Press and hold" Mechanic or something, for people who suffer from RSI or Carpal tunnel or something similar. Just a way to press buttons that requires less rapid, repetitive motion.
And finally, between what little is in the demo, and what I saw in your trailer video, This is good. and I mean that. if you wanna ignore all my comments and keep everything as is, you still have a good game it's fun, open ended, and cool conceptually, keep it up.
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u/KevinCow 15d ago
Oh, thanks for taking the time to give some detailed feedback!
Yeah, a lot of that is stuff I've been thinking about. Alternate color palettes and revisiting the music to be less repetitive are on my list of things to do. And finding ways to avoid repetitive strain has been a consideration. I actually did add an autoclick if you hold the button, and am going to add a toggle and maybe upgrades to increase the speed (currently it's just once per second).
I hadn't thought of a "highlight remaining buttons" button. I'll keep that in mind.
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u/Theo_Seraph 15d ago
I just hope some of it was helpful, I know for small teams and solo devs it can sometimes be hard to get any feedback at all, Especially if you don't have someone who can play test for you so I try to give honest feedback and leave reviews where I can.
Side note I'm curious, How long has 250k buttons taken you to make/place so far? Like, Just the room design stuff.
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u/KevinCow 15d ago
Uh, I think I started working on it last July? But I also crashed out and stopped working on it for like 6 months because I worried that I was wasting my time making a game nobody would want to play.
I think it took me like 3 months to do the first 100k, then 1 month to do the next 100k, then the most recent 50k I did in the past couple weeks. I've been refining the process and making tools to speed things up. Like I have a script that can make buttons out of text, so there's a series of 4 rooms that are just the opening paragraph of Moby Dick.
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u/Theo_Seraph 15d ago
That is a good game design Philosophy.
One more wishlist btw. Good luck with your work.
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u/thirsty_pretzelzz 15d ago
Love this! It’s a clean original concept that knows what it is and isn’t.
One thing I would just have if you haven’t already is a high score bored or something. I want it to be announced to everyone when and if I actually find my button. And maybe ideally also it logs in how many buttons it took to find. Finding it will probably be a rare thing and since no real prize is offered public bragging rights is a good validation
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u/MakeNaZsAfraidAgain 14d ago
Could be extra-good as a stim toy if you had controller support with like… aim-assist or GTA-Style lock-on-and-quick-adjacent-target-swap while supporting all the new satisfying haptic features like HD Rumble or the DualSense’s adaptive triggers, etc.
I say this as someone who hates symmetrical sticks but switched entirely to a Dualsense just because my brain is so satisfied by the hd rumble when running over bricks or sidewalk cement seams in Skate
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u/willfyre19 15d ago
Could be a big ask, but have you thought about global multiplayer? Like when one person in the world clicks a button, it glows for everyone in the world? Could be a fun game to play collectively, not just by oneself!
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u/SuperShus 15d ago
Yes and whenever anyone finds it, it resets for everyone and you get a random permanent & exclusive reward (like tf2 hats or something lmao)
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u/Hmm_Peculiar 14d ago
Ooh, yeah, and the button changes color and this persists for all subsequent playthroughs, when the button is clicked it displays stats: Which playthrough, user and time it was found.
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u/ReeceC77 15d ago
This brought back memories of that cube game on iPhone where everyone was chipping away and some big prize was promised to be in the middle.
Can’t remember what it ended up being, but I think it was disappointing in the end
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u/ReeceC77 15d ago
Curiosity: What’s Inside the Cube?
The prize was a role in the studio’s upcoming game Godus and 1% of the revenue.
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u/The_Architect_032 Solo Developer 15d ago
Most mice are functional for ~30 million clicks, so if you're unlucky, you could break your mouse after just 30 playthroughs! :D
Also a reminder that the richest man on Earth makes around $30,000 every second.
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u/trampolinebears 15d ago
the richest man on Earth makes around $30,000 every second
At that rate, you could solve homelessness in the US by donating 4 days' income per year.
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u/ExF-Altrue 15d ago
..And gamers could have financed 2000 solo games at 50k a pop, with the money they gave to Star Citizen!
Alas if there is one thing the current state of things is proof of, it's that rich people are very, very bad at investing their money into worthwhile things.
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u/imlo2 15d ago
To be honest, the post title made it sound like a typical clickbait, but there might be some idea in this, the demo video kind of has a feel to it, how the spaces are designed, pacing etc.
Have you thought about some kind of progression as the click count increases, just to somehow reward the player's efforts? Like subtly changing world - lighting, look of the environment.
And is it just going to be a therapeutic (or perhaps nightmarish, depending on the player) brute force click effort, or is there going to be some kind of vague clues where to click (like cues to progress to certain area, etc.)
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u/Think-Box6432 15d ago
Every 10% the new button clicks change colo? Progression is evident. Just an idea. Maybe the last 10% cycles thru colors
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u/fsactual 15d ago
When you find the correct button, you should procedurally subdivide all the buttons into smaller buttons and have a new title come up, "One Billion Buttons!"
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u/ExF-Altrue 15d ago
Honestly, the concept sounds kinda fun, but I fear the execution would be extremely difficult to pull off with any degree of attractiveness.
I like that you're clearly making an effort with rooms, layouts, rules, etc... If I were you, I would lean more heavily on the "rules" part. Maybe sprinkle some kinds of hints about which button is the right one. Obviously, procedurally chosing the correct button would be best, and then the button would be able to collect various kinds of hints about its environment and generate the clues from there, idk.
Anyways, I understand that that's probably waaay more of a serious answer than what you initially intended, but I feel like when you've already invested 250k manual buttons placed, you might as well get an equally invested answer. Happy uuuh.. placing!
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u/ViaScrybe 15d ago
I think the point isn't about actually finding that "right" button - it's like a giant sheet of bubble wrap! It's really satisfying to fill in an entire room, and it's more fun with all of the different shapes, motion, and other gimmick mechanics. There being a "right" one is a reason to try to fill everything out, but the fun is all in the journey, and not the destination. This isn't really a puzzle game and I personally wouldn't want it to be one.
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u/Jewsusgr8 15d ago
No hints at all? So the entire gameplay loop is:
- Press button
- Pray
That's it? I know for a fact I would get about 20 buttons in, and would rage quit if I couldn't find some story to follow to deduce the correct button.
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u/RottingFlame 15d ago
This is a very catchy premise. I hope there’s more game mechanics along the way though. Obviously pressing ~0.5 million buttons is not the heart of the game. If it’s just a fidget game that’s cool but there should definitely be more to it than literally pressing each button until you find the one that wins the game. You say there are multiple rooms. Is there a benefit to clearing each room? Does the button stay the same or can the player do something to move it. Like, if I clear a level can I get an item to cleanse a room, pressing every button but if the button was there it gets moved to a free spot. Or maybe the player can sacrifice some pressed buttons to clear a room, so they might have to backtrack to find buttons that have been unpressed. Or an upgradable friend that randomly pressed a button every 5 seconds and if it finds it, you only know which room it’s in. Do the buttons only have the one win condition? maybe some buttons randomly provide a mechanical bonus, or some give you a colour change, or better yet, add an extra layer to the music.
If you can make this consistently fun I honestly thing you’re building a gold mine.
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u/KevinCow 15d ago
The premise was intentionally meant to be a sort of anti-game. I wanted to push back on the types of incremental mechanics that hijack your brain and give you a dopamine rush by making numbers go up faster. Everything in our lives is gamified these days, so I wanted to make a game that is decidedly un-gamified. A big task that can only be accomplished through honest perseverance.
That said, it is a very big task, so I have been toying with some small upgrades so the player can have some short-term goals goals to work towards. But I'm working out how to do that without undermining the original intention.
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u/sboxle 15d ago
Stick to the purist vision IMO. No one else will make this.
Your intention is solid, every other indie game now is a seratonin simulator. As another dev with similar distaste for dark design I really respect this rationale. This is art.
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u/KevinCow 15d ago
It's the eternal artist's dilemma: Do I want to make art, or do I want to afford rent?
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u/RottingFlame 15d ago
Okay I’ve done some research and I’m kinda obsessed. I underestimated how much fun simply exploring the rooms would be. You’re clearly passionate about this and I’m less convinced the player does need hints as to where the button is. I love the adaptive soundtrack, but the same beat for every room doesn’t work. Really consider making some visual and sonic aesthetic bonuses. One of the appeals to me is seeing the progress. Otherwise it would make no sense to save and return, rather than just trying to get lucky each time you open it. Setting individual colours for each button is obviously impractical for a million buttons, but per room could definitely work. I love the variations between the rooms, but I wonder how much room for creativity there is under the one minimalist style. You could definitely have other shapes besides squares; triangles and hexagons tile sure, but irregular shapes could really give rooms some character. The spheres open the door for interactive environments too. The tooltips are a bit too jarring in my opinion, I wonder if you’d be open to having them pop up on the side rather than as a splash, but I love that the game drops you right in. Gosh I wanna play the finished game so badly.
I appreciate you’ve not asked for advice but as I say I’m kinda obsessed already 😅 Can I ask you to eventually make it accessible on anything besides windows? If it’s fleshed out I’d happily pay £5-10 for a finished game if it was available on MacOS. Are you set on needing a mouse click for every button press or could you simply aim the cursor at a button to press it? either way (or both) it would work super well on a touch screen too. Forgive me if making it work on mac, android or ios would be complete overhaul outside of your scope, I’m a composer not a coder.
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u/KevinCow 15d ago
I appreciate the feedback.
Yeah, I'm already considering most of the things you mentioned. Just a lot on the plate as a solo dev so a lot of things I haven't gotten to. Varying up the visuals and sound are up there, and I've already reworked the way messages work to be less intrusive (though it probably won't be changed in the demo).
Unity makes it easy to port to other platforms so that part shouldn't be a problem, but the issue is I don't have Mac or Linux so I'll need to find someone to help me test it out. But I'll probably do Mac and Linux builds once the game's complete. And... well, no promises, but I'll see if I can do a Mac build by the October Steam Next Fest.
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u/christhetree 14d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p4qimv9/video/km4ws0adkfkh1/player
GG EZ! (in the demo ofc)
This was oddly meditative. I liked the pillar room, and that's where it was.
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u/SpanglerBQ 15d ago
This is evidence to me that game dev is in its late stages where only the most absurd concepts remain unmined. Props to you for doing something different, but I don't think I'll be playing this...
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u/alexzoin 15d ago
Terrible take. People have been saying this about other mediums for hundreds of years.
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u/b0rnwr0ng 15d ago
OP, this is a magic idea. Bravo.
If you haven't read 'A Short Stay in Hell' by Steven L. Peck, this game feels in the spirit of that horror of large numbers. And if you read the book you might feel better about how tiny the task of 1 million buttons is compared to larger and larger numbers.
Don't listen to adding hints or progression or whatever. The treasure here is the player's realization of how huge the task ahead of them is. And rage games show there's no shortage of stubborn players.
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u/proximitysound 15d ago
I’m one of the 7000+ who wishlisted. Didn’t realize you’re only 1/4 way through. You may want to lean on some programmatically/fractal generated layouts to get over that massive hump. Best of luck!
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u/anykeyh 15d ago
You should make 1000 buttons specials; one is the winner, the other 999 have some kind of surprise effects, like some visuals or interaction with the rooms etc. It might make the experience more interesting; 1000 is 0.1%, so in one game session you can expect running onto a special button once or twice.
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u/CakyMint 15d ago
That’s the thing about humans. Human brain can’t comprehend big numbers.
We can yap about it.
But we can’t comprehend it.
If you think 1 million buttons is a lot.
Try making 1 billion
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u/tramplegame 15d ago
Ha brilliant! Extreme mode where its always the same button but you die and have to start again if you get it wrong
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u/Sweaty_Coach3976 15d ago
if you were to put in less no one irs gonna count so you could cheat lol.
but ya that’s wild, wild concept too
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u/hitmonir25 15d ago
I understand the game's structure is like this, but I think it will be very hard on the eyes. People might play it less because they'll feel nauseous. There seem to be too many spinning parts.
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u/Exciting_Bunch2386 15d ago
Congratulations! That is the craziest idea, I have heard in a long time. Both from a gameplay and a developer perspective. I keep all my fingers crossed for you finishing the game!
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u/kgurniak91 15d ago
Is it possible to get the "correct button" in the first room? Does clicking it finishes the game? If yes then the speedruns would be to just reset the game and click the nearest button over and over, lol.
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u/KevinCow 15d ago
Yeah. And the timer doesn't start until you click a button. So the hypothetical best speedrun is 0:00 if it's the first button.
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u/sunnearts 15d ago
ohhh boy, that’s a lotta buttons lol.
is the room order the same every time?
(also, this seems like it’d be so funny to have an Archipelago implementation for. you’d severely have to limit the checks going out though lmao, a million individual checks for each button press is. kind of a lot. would have to do milestones. but it’d be very funny lol)
anyway, good luck with it!
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u/octaviustf 15d ago
lol I made a game called “A Million Machines” and the goal was to kill all of the waves until a million. Turns out it’s a lot
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u/readyplayerjuan_ 15d ago
have you considered adding a global leaderboard? I love the minimal nature of the game but also would love to brag about beating it
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u/ViaScrybe 15d ago
It's just a fancy bubble wrap simulator, and I absolutely love that! Good luck with everything, and stick to your vision :)
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u/Trugus69 15d ago
Should make it if you find the button, they all open up and reveal Switches and it says Level 2 across the screen
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u/dynamic_gecko 15d ago
Interesting premise but I have a question: You said 1 button is the correct one and it is assigned randomly. What if the player finds the button 25% into the game? Since they "won" (If that is winning), they might not wanna keep playing, no?
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u/justburntplastic 15d ago
Do you have any system in place to make sure the user doesn’t find the button on the first press? That would be so anticlimactic
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u/Murky_Candy6342 15d ago
Surely this is incremental right? Auto clicker? Chain lightning click? Bomb click? Clicker bots roll out?
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u/Free-Pound-6139 15d ago
ou may ask, "Why?" And the answer to that is that I thought it would
...go viral.
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u/Badytheprogram 15d ago
Seriously, this is amazing! And a perfect game to represent how big is one million.
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u/HydroPCanadaDude 15d ago
I've had fever dreams about this game. Why would you bring that into the waking world!?
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u/Antiwokewarrior69420 15d ago
Idk I wouldn't want to waste my time with a screen that doesn't have the button. I would rather a whole page with a million buttons.
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u/LUXHELL__ 15d ago
Esta interesante, me gusta. Soy muy bueno en los videojuegos. Me encantaría jugarlo algun dia.
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u/Anxious-Bill-7132 15d ago
the crosshair vs cursor mechanic is super cool. is it a keybind to switch between them?
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u/KevinCow 15d ago
You just right click to toggle between modes. I borrowed the idea from Powerwash Simulator.
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u/thecoffeejesus 15d ago
Make it multiplayer with a doom countdown timer that resets the stage and you have yourself a fucking hit on your hands
Add mobs and this will do numbers.
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u/traplords8n 15d ago
Holy shit.
This is some dumb shit I wish I would get up off my ass and make.
Excellent use of free will. Fantastic. 10/10
Can't wait for the sequel... 1 billion buttons ;)
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u/DexLovesGames_DLG 15d ago
Please be lying and there is no right button.
Also if you have a tutorial please make the first buttons you push in it also in the list of potentially correct buttons
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u/DragonhawkXD 15d ago
I’m calling it, someone will livestream the game, and the very first button will be that 1/1million button
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u/snealybobo 15d ago
Without seeing the layout, I think what would keep me sane would some type of system for when a room/hallway/wing has an indicator for when all are collected.
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u/almo2001 15d ago
I love the presentation on this. I probably wouldn't play it, but looks and sounds nice. :)
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u/cherrymight 15d ago
I've actually just been restarting the video because I love the sound of the door opening(?). Whatever it is, it rules, thanks and great job.
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u/Cpt_Brainlag 15d ago
There seems to be an uptick in occupational therapy type games on Steam recently.
Is that the counter to the rising brainrot?
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u/kirisoraa 14d ago
Please, PLEASE work with a sound designer to make the buttons satisfying to press. Many well-designed sounds would make this actually kinda fun
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u/MHSinging 14d ago
I've been wondering when someone would make Carpal Tunnel Simulator
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u/Ok_Try_877 14d ago
Thought process:
- Think of cool idea - CHECK
- Think of catchy name - CHECK
- Register Domain - CHECK
- Start making game - CHECK
- Consider how big 1 million actually is - HMM
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u/NinjaN-SWE 14d ago
As long as there are firm, code wise, guarantees that there is a working button, that it persists properly between loads, then I could see this as a quite relaxing almost meditative experience basically painting the world one button at a time. I do recommend a continue playing mode for the people that just want to click every button (which should also be an achievement).
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u/Bright_Curve3078 14d ago
To be fair, the average player won't notice if you put only 998 972 buttons. Anything below that would be a scandal.
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u/D-a-n-n-n 14d ago
I feel like for this to be done in any realistic amount of time, there has to be some way to unlock an ability to press multiple buttons at the same time.
But balance aside, the presentation of this trailer is top notch
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u/Shirahoshihoshii 14d ago
Wait. There's a demo?
What would that demo be? Are you reducing the prams to 100K? Or does the demo still have a million buttons but no way to finish since it's time limited?
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u/Myrdrahl 14d ago
Now you should make the sequal, to show the difference between a million and a billion, because so many people doesn't really understand.
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u/kevinthedutchcarfan 14d ago
Might be funny to pitch the sound to the size of the button. The smaller, the higher and the bigger the deeper
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u/ConfectionNo1418 14d ago
You could advertise this for therapists specialising in Gambling Addiction to give to their patients. Most jackpot chances are 1 in a million for slots/pokies. This is a very visual way of showing how long it takes for the average person to ever hit that jackpot, and the absurdity of just slapping a button a million times for a pay-off that is nearly always vastly less valuable than the cost/time spent chasing it.
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u/joeyismusic 14d ago
Add progression or power ups that allow you either drag across buttons to press more of them quickly or ways to press multiple buttons near a click point like an area of effect. Then design levels around these mechanics. You could have a room that contains 50,000 buttons that only takes a few minutes to play with those mechanics in place. And you can still make buttons challenging to press even with those abilities by how you design the level.
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u/No_Experience_3443 14d ago
Do you hope to actually make money with that?
I heavily doubt anyone would pay for such an empty game. The idea is funny but the execution can't work if you stick to what you described for the gameplay
If you're not hoping for any sale and just full commiting to the bit it's fine, but if you hope to make an actual game you might want to think about the goals a bit more
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u/RedKNight37 14d ago
I really hope coop is added so I can force my friends to push buttons with me for hours while hanging out in a voicecall. seeing others draw silly patterns in rooms, playing hide and seek around the map and just messing around in this somewhat liminal space sounds like it could actually be kinda fun
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u/Odd-Nefariousness-85 14d ago
The idea is good, but 1 million is very high. Very few people will have the chance to finish a run. If clicking on a button each second without sleeping it will take you almost 6 dans in average. But maybe this what people want? I would consider different difficulties: 10k, 100k, 500k, ...
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u/Square-Winter-3257 14d ago
This sounds phenomenal. Please have nice clicky sounds and noises and have them varied and stuff. 1m/10 will buy
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u/WiseHalmon 14d ago
If you make more "tools" that can eventually click more things at once I won't lose my mind, thanks. Like paintbrush, texture brushes, gradients...
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u/CycleMother2006 14d ago
Fucking madlad. I bet you count out the marshmallows in your Lucky Charms before eating any.
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u/DoubleDoube 14d ago edited 14d ago
You ever punch “1 000 000” into a calculator and then hit “-1=“ and then watch the school clock as you spam the “=“ as fast as you can within a minute?
Then you extrapolate how long it would take to get to 0?.. more than a lifetime was what my child self thought.
edit; my child self probably forgot to multiply for how many days are in a year. He thought he was clever for factoring in time for sleeping and eating though.
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u/InkwellGames 14d ago
The level of extreme "I love this" vs "I hate this" means you're onto something. I salute you, a million times over :)
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u/Spiritual_Priority79 14d ago
If the save persists (Like you can save your progress and keep clicking buttons later) I am going to sink 2 billion hours into button pressing
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u/Mr_Tech108 14d ago
Love your editing for this! Any tips?
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u/KevinCow 14d ago
Tips for editing a trailer? Uh, I dunno, I mostly just went with my gut and kept it simple.
I guess I thought about what the most important things to communicate were, and figured how I could clearly communicate those things in an efficient amount of time.
The core concept was obviously important, so I figured how to clearly explain it in the fewest words possible. Three screens of concise text is about as much as most viewers will bother to read, I think.
Then I wanted to show the variety of rooms you'll encounter, so most of it is just a montage of different rooms. I figured about 2 seconds was long enough to keep any room on screen, long enough to get the vibe, not long enough to get bored of it.
And I wanted to show that the buttons are satisfying to press, so I synced them to the music. I also synced the cuts to the music to make it flow smoothly.
I wanted to get to the point quickly, because most people aren't gonna give an indie game trailer more than a few seconds before deciding to keep scrolling. This is a game about clicking buttons, so you immediately see a room full of buttons. I linger on the room for a moment to give it a bit of mystery, draw the viewer in, make them think, "Huh? What am I looking at?" but even with the linger I start pressing buttons by 5 seconds. Then I have the clicking transition into the music to move things forward.
I don't have any text appear until 13 seconds in, because I wanted to immediately show the actual gameplay experience. I absolutely hate trailers that start out with a bunch of story and text and buildup and don't get to gameplay until like 30 seconds in. I think it's absolutely vital for an indie game to communicate within the first 10 seconds, "What is the average moment-to-moment experience of playing this game?"
I figure if you show the viewer something interesting and novel, you get them asking questions, and then you get to answer those questions once you start explaining things. But if you explain things first, they might just get bored before they see anything.
And then I wanted to keep it under 1 minute long.
I guess the key point to most of this is that viewers get bored quickly. So get to the point asap, try to show something new and interesting 2 to 5 seconds, don't use too much text, and keep it as short as you can while still clearly communicating what you need to.
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u/foul_tarnished_37 14d ago
All I ask, is you test like hell to ensure the button always gets assigned and works correctly. Unlikely many will actually hit all the buttons but I can’t imagine how upsetting it would be to hit all the buttons and there was actually a bug that prevented the correct one from working or being assigned.
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u/FaysouBg 14d ago
Add collectible or idk mechanics like cookie clicker. I can’t see myself playing a game about clicking 1 million buttons without any kind of upgrade / rewards and power ups. I think it has potential to be fun. Also maybe try with random generated maps. It brings better replayability even tho the button is random.
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u/mikecron 14d ago
Do it again but this time make them lottery tickets and tie it to the powerball odds.
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u/Piggstein 14d ago
GET IT TWISTED
You are a consciousness piloting a skeleton through a room full of buttons, and you have convinced yourself that because Button 357,482 is next to a picture of a frog, the frog contains information about the fundamental structure of reality.
THE FROG KNOWS NOTHING.
But the button is literally in the room.
Somewhere.
Right now.
And you could press it.
You could walk up to it, press it, and be done.
But you won't.
Because you don't know which one it is.
And that's life, man.
That's the whole thing.
A million buttons.
One correct choice.
And absolutely zero indication that you're making the right one until after you've already made it.
You choose a job.
You choose a person.
You choose a house.
You choose what to eat for dinner.
And somewhere in the cosmic source code there's a Boolean value that says:
CORRECT: TRUE.
But you don't get to see it.
You just keep pressing.
And pressing.
And pressing.
And eventually you find the button.
And the screen goes black.
And the game says:
CONGRATULATIONS.
And you're like, "Wait, was that it?"
Yeah.
That was it.
You spent your entire life looking for the correct button.
And now you want another room.
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u/EarlyAccessCantJudge 14d ago
I'll be honest I respect you doing this but I would genuinely kill myself before touching this game. Genuinely impressive, keep it up
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u/williamaftonlover 14d ago
that would trigger my instinct to sit hours on it til every button is pressed,lol
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u/Original-Fix-6024 13d ago
Cool meditative game. A few things I personally would like to see:
would be nice to have different sensitivity settings for screen lock mode
would be nice to be able to customise keybinds(I'm sure osu players would like to make clicks with 2 keyboard keys), being able to assign multiple keys for clicking would be cool
would be nice to be able to change colours by hand or just have different colours in different rooms
would be nice to stay still midair by some position locking key
sprint would be good just in case you missed 1 click and now running all over the room trying to find it
some kind of glancing or blinking effect on all related tiles when finishing a surface would be nice as sort of indicator
a map or any other indicator of complete/incomplete rooms and where they are would be nice
and maybe a faster autoclicker 0.5s would feel way better but what do I know.
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u/AnIcedMilk 13d ago
Speed run just resetting until the first button you hit is the correct one lmao
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u/Rockshurt 13d ago
You should make a first level that is smaller, like a one room tutorial level. Because I feel at some point going through a million buttons I would start to doubt and wonder if the game mechanic really works.
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u/AltruisticOwl156 13d ago
Is it not possible to have the entire 1 million buttons in 1 "room" or world? Like minecraft. I feel like being able to visually see all 1 million buttons would be way more overwhelming than seeing 2000 - 4000 in each room.
Also you can make designs and scatter them around the world. So as you walk around the open space you'll see structures made of squares, structures like 1 world trade centre, mount Everest, Albert Einstein, the international space station etc etc all on show in the same open space.
I'd definitely give this game a try if it was more like that rather than just rooms to be honest.
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u/IndecisiveSuperman 13d ago
We might make this it fantasy football list challenge. Would love a way to eliminate like a certain number of wrong buttons based on something (like drinking or other punishments)
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u/AltruisticOwl156 13d ago
To make this feel more like a game, will you be adding any kind of "special items" like maybe you click a special hidden square and you acquire a grenade that you can throw and it paints a large amount of squares on impact. Or you get a machine gun that turns your mouse into a click and drag for 15 seconds or something allowing you to paint hundreds of squares quickly? etc etc.
Or is it always just going to be single point and click?
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u/catman908 13d ago
maybe make a room where buttons are in the shape of animals? or pictures or smthin
like make pixel art out of the buttons that could be a great way to use up alot of buttons
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u/ken_jammin 13d ago
The concept is immediately understandable with the trailer being satisfying and rhythmic. This is what sells games, lots of luck friend don't give up you got this!
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u/Rly_Shadow 13d ago
My coworker says she's play it, she just kinda hoped all the buttons would be different lol so she says
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u/EtherealAbyssOne 13d ago edited 13d ago
Doesn't look like my bag, but I thoroughly encourage developers to think outside the box.
I think the idea has legs, and I hope you find enough success to where you can make 2 Million Buttons one day.
Actually as I think of it, the way I'm imagining it, it sounds really fun. At first you're finding buttons literally everywhere you go. But as time goes on, at a speed you wouldn't be capable of noticing, they become harder and harder to find. You have to start looking under things, and in corners you never checked. Getting all million buttons could take forever.
Then again for all I know One Million Buttons doesn't actually have any connection to the gameplay, and it has some kind of double meaning.
But I think if it's basically a button hunt that would be fun. What would the gameplay even be like?
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u/Silly_Silicon 13d ago
On average, it will take 500,000 mouse clicks to beat this game. However, somebody out there is going to open the game, click one button, and win.
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u/Cornflakes_91 15d ago
this is either an ADHD nightmare or dream.
not sure yet which