For a few years now, I’ve been on a hunt for one-button games — video games that have a single button to control all the action. I argue that anyone designers who can create a game with one single control — and a mouse-with-button-clicks doesn’t count, because that’s two buttons — truly understand the ludological underpinnings of play, since they do not need to hide behind elaborate 3D to produce a sense of excitement. In games, as in poetry, it’s the limitations that produce creativity.

So I was thrilled when Alexandre Houdent, a game designer, sent me a link to GlobZ Mini Games — a site where he has created no less than twelve single-button games! And I am happy to report that they are all a total blast. That one above is UFO Panic (pictured above), in which the little turrent swings to and fro and you try to time your mouse-click so that you shoot the descending aliens. In KidSki, a single click switches your slaloming from left to right; in Roboto, the length that you click and hold the button determines how far your robot jumps. The concept behind each game is similar — you have to time your button-pushes perfectly to navigate a system in which objects oscillate with regular periodicity. But they’re beautifully, wonderfully done.

(Thanks to Alexandre for this one!)