0 Buttons Game Roundup
August 31st, 2010
August’s ZERO BUTTONS theme had a whole mess of quality games, 40 to be exact. While a few games broke the rules and opted to use a button or two most followed the theme creating a bunch of awesome mouse-only game, with some microphone and camera based games thrown in for good measure! Hopefully September will be as fruitful – we’ll have a fun announcement tomorrow for next month’s theme.
Until then, get to the gamin’:
Capz Machinery, by Harry Trautmann
A glimpse into the glamourous life of the bottle capper. An addictive, additive mouse-only game.
Shake the whole world using the mouse to get the cube to the star. Sharp visuals, and a fun mechanic work together really well.
Keep the UFO on screen as long as possible. Love the grainy, retro look.
Avoidal, by Hybrid Mind Studios
Lure enemies into mines to destroy them – has a nice combo sytem and a good difficulty ramp. The retro aesthetic works very well.
Somnius ex Machina, by Nathan McCoy
Discovering the meaning is half the fun. The best I’ve managed is 13 dreams – anyone done any better?
An interesting experience, and a literal example of why the games-to-movie comparison doesn’t work. Play the game once, then a second time after reading the spoiler.
Dragonflute (Microphone Only), by Tobias
A fly and collect game powered by the sound of your voice.
Balance, by Zink Interactive
Guide the blue cube to the green zone in this level-by-level physics based game. Lovely visuals and good song choice here.
Control the entire level with the mouse to guide the ball to its goal. Left and right movements control one set of items, while up and down control the others.
Legacy of Wisdom, by Jeremy Kang
Avoid trees, collect powerups in this metaphorical game with a strong Asian-calligraphy theme.
A physics toy which has you shattering cubes until they’re completely destroyed. Pretty mesmerizing.
A Field of Beartraps (Microphone Only), by Mr. Alistair
Talk into the microphone to make your character jump over incoming beartraps. I really wish it recorded and used my scream when I died.
Stairs to Heaven, by Michalebe
Never ending vertical platformer – use the mouse to guide your character ever higher.
Bug Invaders (Webcam Only), by Marco
Crush bugs with your webcam and barehands. Man I look awkward playing this game.
Auto-created jigsaw puzzles that get increasingly difficult as you proceed. Mouse-only, but does involve pressing some mouse buttons.
Story based, zombie-escape game. Use the mouse to guide your character and escape the cosmetics building.
Use the mouse to determine the amount of electricity you fire. Don’t let any of the clouds get past you.
Draw lines to protect the red ball from incoming enemies. A little buggy, but it strikes a good balance.
Avoid enemies, while using them to explode each other.
A dodge-and-destroy game pitting you against an endless field of evil red dots.
Move the mouse back and forth quickly to reach the cone before time expires.
Smite the People, by Juan Bosquecillo
Presentation is nice, but it feels like there needs to be more variety/challenge. Scrubbing the screen with the mouse seems to be the best strategy.
Cube Dodger, by Roan Contreras
Navigate a field of evil cubes. Gets increasingly more difficult as new enemy types are added.
Dodge meteors and try to survive as long as possible with your auto-shooting ship.
I Was Throwing Bubbles to the Sky, by Mark Skyzoid
Use the mouse to control the angle of your bubble canon. I would love to see this expanded further, and it feels like the bubbles shoot a little too slow.
Dodge incoming meteors, which can come from either direction of the screen.
Don’t Die Fat Man, by Joe Gribbin
Guide the fat man to the flag without touching the walls.
A 2-player fight over the mouse kinda game. Could get violent, don’t play with strangers.
A simple grab and dodge game.
A scrolling path-tracing game. Avoid touching the black parts of the screen.
Ultimate Ninja Attack, by Ben Brunton
Protect yourselves from ninjas with your ridiculously big sword.
Catch the Green Square, by Guhritta
Avoid the red squares while grabbing the green ones.
Dodge incoming evil mouse curors.
Banana Defense, by Scott Washington
Position canons to defend the banana from incoming enemies.
Suicidal Sojourn, by MisfitByte
A top-down dungeon tile-pushing game, inspired by Karoshi and the Final Fantasy series.
Give umbrellas to men jumping off of buildings to save them. Like the idea, but it was a little hard to see the umbrellas.
Ultimate Bomb Escape, by Aizen Sousuke
Avoid squares with bombs as long as possible. An odd, odd game.
The Mouse Eats the Cheese, by Matt Perrin
It’s all in the title, really – and the sound effects are quite charming.
Deflect projectiles back at enemy circles.
Mouse over anything that moves to kill it.
Use mouse gestures to defeat incoming tanks. Love the idea, but I had difficulty picking up trees.
We're a group of indie game developers, running a friendly competition every month. The rules: Make a game based on the month's theme, and don't spend more than 7 days. New games posted at the end of every month.