'One Button Design Challenge': The Results, New Challenge

Sister web site GameCareerGuide.com has been running a weekly design challenge for many months now - and the most recent one asked the community of aspiring game-makers to designing a one-button FPS game. A lively and rather educational discussion ensued on the site’s forum about why one-button games are significant to players with limited mobility. The best solutions have been posted on GameCareerGuide.com, alongside a new challenge. The “One Button” challenge came from Brandon Sheffield, senior editor of Game Developer magazine, who, in conjunction with Jill Duffy, editor of GameCareerGuide.com, determined the winners. The winning entries included Evgueni Dozov's multiplayer game, in which players have one action, shooting, which has two effects: firing the weapon and moving the player backward. Each time a player shoots, she experiences an exaggerated recoil that's so strong, it propels her backward. In addition, Connor Hogan takes second place in this week's challenge for Death Crane on a Death Train. Imagine a train flying down a roller-coaster like track with a giant crane that is forever circling above an array of objects just waiting to be picked up and hurled at enemies. Hold the object too long, and the momentum will yank the train right off the track. The latest challenge has proven to give some aspiring or current designers and artists pause about what it really means to have many good ideas with, not just one or two. The new Design Challenge task is to come up with 10 suggestions for new objects that could stand in for a standard crate in a next-gen game. GameCareerGuide.com’s Game Design Challenge is posted every Wednesday. Professional game developers are welcome to participate or offer advice to the community via the forum.