Button Mashing Duel

This is the game I made at the Berlin Mini Game Jam on June 2015.  During the jam I wrote the prototype in Löve2D.  Afterwards, I thought that I’ll get more reach if I port it to HTML/Javascript, so that the game runs in the browser, avoiding the need for a downloadable binary.

The week before the jam, I had been thinking about online arguments.  I had an idea for a possible game where the person who gets the last word in “wins”.  But if someone else replies, then the other person is “winning”.  This is a minimalist interpretation of that concept, where you “win” by being the last to press the button. The catch is that if you “reply” again when you were the last to “talk”, you “contradict” yourself, so you lose points.  In terms of this game, this means double-clicking is punished, you need to be alternating presses between the two players.  The point of the game is to trick the other player into double-clicking, so that you can get ahead in the race for maximum score.

The game was playtested during the jam, the players generally liked it and some suggested turning it into a drinking game, which I think it’s a cool idea.

The browser version supports gamepad controls: just plug 2 gamepads, one per player.  If you don’t have gamepads, you can use the keyboard: left player uses the “A” key, right player the “L” key.  But part of the point of the game is to psychologically trick the other player into double-clicking, therefore physical contact is not allowed, nor touching the other player’s button.

Enjoy!

• Play the game in your browser (HTML5)
• Source code repository (github)