When asked whether game designers like to work theme-first or mechanic-first, many answer experience-first. It’s about having an idea for a particular feeling or moment that you want to inspire in people playing your game. An experience-first idea that I had came to mind when watching a film with the kids where there was a big red button that a character was not allowed to push, and how all they wanted to do was to push it. The thrill of excitement and that release of anticipation when you finally get to push it felt like something that would make for a fun inclusion into a game. It also feels like a moment that marries up to that point in the game where you get to do something bold and exciting, like a final stand-up die roll to determine the outcome of a close-run game; the moment where you can finally execute your masterplan that you’ve been building up to throughout a long run session; or even the dramatic crescendo of a jenga tower as it comes crashing down onto the table.

The Idea

‘Push the Button’ is my answer to trying to combine these particular feelings. My vision that there will be a physical big red button in the centre of the table. This button would be a container of sorts, into which tokens or other small pieces could be placed. The gameplay itself would be dead simple - players would start with a number of tokens, and each turn they would either place a token into the button; or hit the button, spilling all of the tokens onto the table. The player who hit the button would then keep all of the tokens. Each player would have a card that they could flip depending on whether they had hit the button yet that round or not (something as simple as a green side, meaning they could still hit the button if they chose to, and a red side meaning they had already hit it). If you have already hit the button then you have no further choices to make - on your turn you must simply add a token to the centre, until you have no more tokens and are eliminated from the game. When all but one player has hit the button, then all players may flip back to the green side and are back in the game.

The intention is that these simple rules will lead to a quick, easy-to-learn game of chicken. If you push too early, then you don’t win many tokens; however the longer you leave it, the more the pot builds, and the more chance another player has of getting in before you and taking the tokens for themselves. The button in the centre of the table would hopefully have good table presence, and the tokens spilling out should be a dramatic jenga-style moment - I think those irregular acrylic gems would be great for this, they make a satisfying noise as they cascade in a pile, and due to their shape they should tumble pleasingly without rolling off the table which would be extremely annoying.

I’d love to figure out a mechanism for the button that works something like the dice pyramid in Camel Up; cardboard and elastic bands, cleverly constructed to store + release the tokens.

Concerns

• Is this enough of a game? Does it even work? I really need to playtest this - luckily the MVP for this is literally just a pile of anything to use as tokens, and some cards which could be flipped to indicate a players state in the game.
• I’m concerned that one strategy that could win, though would make for an extremely tedious “game”, would be to simply hit the button every time you could. Could lots of small wins add up to victory? Hopefully the rule about having to wait for all but one other player to hit the button would prevent this, but I’m not certain.
• Player elimination is an unpopular mechanic in modern games; however I only anticipate a round of this taking 10 minutes or so, so I think that in this case it’s acceptable.
• How will the game work when down to two players? Will it ever be possible to eliminate the second-last player?
• Maybe other end conditions?
  • Finishing when only 2 players remain and the winner is the one with the most tokens maybe? Is this likely to lead to frequent ties? That wouldn’t be good…
  • Finishing when the first player runs out of tokens? This would remove the player elimination issue, but could lead to even higher chance of ties?

Pros

• The button would be an eye catching component
• Pressing it should be satisfying
• There should be an innate tension about when to press it that could be really fun
• Really simple gameplay + quick playtime means easy to play with new players, and easy to find time for a game
• If button can be stored assembled, or is very easy to assemble, then there’s practically no setup time - just hand each player a card and X number of tokens and get started