But Buttons

`"THE REAL PROBLEM IS NOT WHETHER MACHINES THINK, BUT WHETHER HUMANS DO."`

Touch screens, voice commands, fingerprints, facial recognition... all these technologies have replaced the good old-fashioned button. We used to use buttons for almost everything: turning on the TV, ringing the doorbell, playing video games, and so on. (Speaking of video games—how I miss the old-school ones!)
In honor of this now-obsolete technology, this game features plenty of buttons.
"*But Buttons*" is a very simple game. Just activate all the buttons, and the level exit will appear, allowing you to move on. That’s all there is to it!

`Controls`🕹️

• Keyboard arrows (Up, Down, Left, Right).

`Tools ⚒️`

• Art: Piskel (https://www.piskelapp.com/)

• Sound: Famitracker (http://famitracker.com/)

• Engine: Game Maker Studio

👉👉👉👉👉👉👉 [PLAY HERE]👈👈👈👈👈👈👈

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Brasileiro

`"O VERDADEIRO PROBLEMA NÃO É SE AS MÁQUINAS PENSAM, MAS SE OS HUMANOS O FAZEM."`

Touch Screen, comando de voz, impressão digital, reconhecimento facial... todas essas tecnologias substituíram o saudoso e querido botão. O usávamos para quase tudo: ligar a TV, tocar a campainha, jogar videogame, etc. (E por falar em videogame, que saudade dos jogos antigos!)
Em homenagem à essa tecnologia obsoleta teremos muitos botões nesse jogo.
"*But Buttons*" é um jogo muito simples. É só ligar todos os botões para que a saída da fase apareça e você possa seguir adiante. Apenas isso!

`Controles`🕹️

• Setas do teclado (Cima, Baixo, Esquerda, Direita)

`Ferramentas ⚒️`

• Arte: Piskel (https://www.piskelapp.com/)

• Som: Famitracker (http://famitracker.com/)

• Engine: Game Maker Studio

Comments20

el_chivo_vivo20 Oct 2026, 01:15

This main mechanic reminds me of the science experiment where they taught rats to drive little "cars". Its a really simple initial mechanic that scales drastically in interest with the nesting functionality. I think this is a simple yet very strong idea with lots of puzzling potential!

Ralex_x20 Oct 2026, 01:43

That's one of the coolest design I've ever seen so far! Putting buttons in buttons( and in buttons again) is Really astonishing!

smilewood20 Oct 2026, 01:46

That is quite the scaling movement mechanic. The rapid degradation of precision as the recursive control schemes take over is really something, a really cool idea for a game jam game. Lots of potential there. The simple art style works well for the game, letting the gameplay carry all the weight, although I didn't really see the connection between each level and the classic game that showed up once the buttons were pressed. Overall a very neat game, well done!

nathmate20 Oct 2026, 02:18

It's an interesting concept but I found it a bit frustrating to play, the experience of knowing what you have to do but finding it difficult to control is unpleasant. The initial figuring out of "ok I have to go left to go right to go up" etc is fun though, it's just the execution of it I found annoying.

Perhaps not entirely resetting the level on a "death", i.e. leaving pushed buttons pushed, would make it a bit more forgiving.

Euler Moisesauthor20 Oct 2026, 10:39

@el-chivo-vivo Thanks so much for playing. I’m a big fan of simple concepts that grow more complex. I’m glad you enjoyed it!

@ralex-x Thanks so much for playing. I hope you had fun.

@smilewood Thanks so much for playing. The image of the classic game is just a little bonus—by "turning on the light" to see the exit, you get a memento of old-school gaming technology. ;)

@nathmate Thanks so much for playing. My inner retro gamer wouldn’t let me be kind enough to keep the buttons pressed down even after the player dies! :D I hope you had fun.

Em_Perrier20 Oct 2026, 11:05

Such a good idea ! I miss a key on my keyboard it was difficult but so fun to play !

andriybyelikov20 Oct 2026, 11:26

It's an interesting idea, but nah, by the third level it was too hard to play.

TechnicalityCreations20 Oct 2026, 11:53

Very unique controls that mess with my mind. The exit didn't appear after I beat level 2, however. Also, there should be music in the levels

Caerind20 Oct 2026, 12:04

The green button really suprised me, and made a big smile out of me! Very elegant game idea!

SeYoke20 Oct 2026, 13:10

funny idea with cool design and mechanics

leandre0020 Oct 2026, 13:42

Now this is an original way to control a character, love it !

Euler Moisesauthor20 Oct 2026, 14:29

@em-perrier @caerind @seyoke @leandre00 Thank you very much for playing. I hope you had fun!

@andriybyelikov Thanks for playing. Don’t worry. It’s a very good thing to know one’s own limits. I hope you had fun for as far as you were able to go.

@technicalitycreations How strange! Can you tell me what happened? Did you try more than once?
The music serves as a "reward" after the player manages to press the buttons. The silence helps with thinking things through. Thanks for playing. I hope you had fun!

Wendel Scardua20 Oct 2026, 15:45

Que coincidência que ambos fizemos algo parecido :) (no sentido de controlar algo indiretamente, controlando botões dentro do jogo)

Eu pausei (ainda não sei se desisto ou não) no terceiro nível porque começa a ficar bem difícil 😅 Você chegou a experimentar diferentes velocidades? Me pergunto se a lentidão pra mover a bolinha tá deixando as coisas mais difíceis ou o quê (acho que é só aquilo que os jovens chamam de "skill issue" rs)

Frizifrench20 Oct 2026, 16:10

Hahaha what is these controls, you game is horibly good

marks20 Oct 2026, 17:26

I like the unique method of movement! Somehow gives me the feel of steering a massive ship.

I was surprised by, and really loved the presentation idea of revealing the theme/ game after completing the movement pattern!

I think the levels were mostly too silent, maybe a cool idea would be to have the final music come together one instrument/ channel at a time as you press more buttons, or maybe some sound effects from the retro game? On the other hand, the silence made the music reveal quite more rewarding.

I sadly wasn't able to complete the game as I also was stuck on the third level. Managing 3 layers was too much mind-bending for me.

Fis20 Oct 2026, 18:21

Oh god... my brain hurts... it does work well, but I couldn't go on after the third box - this was simply too much. But I do wonder how deep these controls go..

mikoolec20 Oct 2026, 20:22

It's a concept easy to understand, but actually playing it is more frustrating than fun.

Euler Moisesauthor21 Oct 2026, 00:03

@wendel-scardua Coincidência boa. Pensei em algo simples por não conseguir fazer nada mais complexo no momento. E vou te falar que me deu bastante trabalho mesmo assim. :D
Eu testei bastante as velocidades. Mais devagar demorava demais e me deixava ansioso e mais rápido não dá tempo de corrigir a direção caso houvesse um erro. Também testei os tamanhos das plataformas e menor que esses acontecia de apertar dois botões ao mesmo tempo ou a plataforma ficou grande demais. Por esses motivos eu deixei o level design mais de boa. Já é complicado andar com as plataformas por si só. O segredo é paciência. Todos os botões tem uma margem de comando mais do que suficiente. Uma dica: aperte os números de cada fase para ir direto para elas. ;)
Obrigado por jogar, meu amigo.

Euler Moisesauthor21 Oct 2026, 00:12

@frizifrench Thank you so much for playing. I hope you had fun.

@marks Thank you so much for playing. The idea of opening a separate sound channel for each button is truly great! I should have thought of that. My initial idea was to have the platforms produce sound—each one at a different frequency, creating a chord if all three moved together—but I couldn't quite pull it off. As a beginner programmer, that’s currently beyond my skill set.
I hope you had fun!

@fis Thanks so much for playing. *But Buttons* only has 3 levels. Does that encourage you to give it another try? :)
I hope you had fun.

@mikoolec Thanks for playing.
As someone who grew up playing classic games, I’m a fan of challenging titles.
I hope you get over your frustration soon! :)

NBumgardner21 Oct 2026, 03:24

The beginning music is awesome. I could see the reason for it not repeating would be because it would be high pitched and repetitive, but if it were threaded into a longer song I wouldn't mind it playing on repeat by default.

Level 3 was hard, and level 4 even more so by messing with my sense of directions. A way that could make the game easier would be to have a mode where the blue stars become walls instead of death spikes. Even if the buttons gave 100 points and the stars cost 1 point every time you touch them, that could feel better while still rewarding players that never touch a spike by giving them a perfectly maxed out score.

Thinking on it again, the game does leave me wondering, how far does the box-ception go? Will there be more cool animations and music upon completing a level? How many levels could there possibly be? Makes me curious!