My Book
Buttonless: Incredible iPhone and iPad Games and the Stories Behind Them
Published December 2011 by CRC Press/A K Peters
Buttonless: Incredible iPhone and iPad Games and the Stories Behind Them is the result of a lot of hard work. Telling the stories behind 67 games was no easy task, so I’m just as relieved as I am excited to see that the book is finally available on Amazon.com. I’d write about what the book is, but I think it’d be better for you (whoever you are) to read the book’s preface.
If you prefer to sample before you buy, several websites have posted excerpted chapters from Buttonless. Please give them a visit.
Preface (from Buttonless)
The book that you’re holding is the result of a strange obsession. Since 2009, I’ve spent an unreasonable amount of time and money purchasing, playing, and writing about games for the iPhone and iPad. What began as a hobby quickly turned into a daily part of my life, and before long I had accrued enough experience covering the iOS scene to land a job writing a weekly column about the App Store for GamePro.com.
Over the course of the following year, I wrote about and reviewed hundreds of iOS games. I interviewed many of the most interesting App Store developers, and my growing knowledge about the iPhone and iPad gaming market earned me writing gigs with magazines like PC Gamer, MacLife, and Macworld. One day, while sitting through a cousin’s graduation ceremony, it hit me—I could write a book about this stuff.
The 67 games that you’ll read about in Buttonless were not selected at random. I’ve purchased and played well over a thousand iOS games, and about a quarter of those were really worth something.
The games that populate this book are not merely good. They’re the most interesting, well-designed, notable games on the App Store. Some of them were included because of their inventive mechanics or polished design. Others made it in because of their incredible popularity. But they all have one thing in common—they’re worth your time and money.
Buttonless is not just a buyer’s guide. Within the following pages, I hope to show you some interesting games that you might not have heard of, but my real goal is to share the stories behind these games. Games are created by people, not machines, and people struggling to create something awesome and original inevitably go through their fair share of trials while creating it.
To learn these stories, I conducted hundreds of exclusive interviews with the people behind the games I selected. I asked them questions about their creative process and the adversities they had to overcome, and pried for funny/interesting anecdotes from behind the scenes. I spoke with dozens of the most brilliant game designers in the world, and they continually surprised me with their insights and opinions about the ever-changing games industry that they’ve helped to shape.
If there’s one thing I learned from those conversations, it’s this: on the forefront of the mobile gaming revolution are real people with stories that are crazy, stressful, hilarious, and (in some cases) heart-wrenching. These people have stories that are worth telling, and that’s what Buttonless is about. I hope you enjoy it.
- Ryan Rigney
The Games Included in Buttonless / The People Interviewed
100 Rogues / Keith Burgun and Wes Paugh
Across Age DX / Philipp Döschl
Angry Birds / Mikael Hed and Jaakko Iisalo
Babylonian Twins Premium / Rabah Shihab, Murtadha Salman, and Mahir Alsalman
Battle for Wesnoth / David White and Kyle Poole
Blobster / Henrik Jönsson
The Blocks Cometh / Derek Laufman and Melvin Samuel
Broken Sword: Director’s Cut / Charles Cecil
Canabalt / Adam Saltsman
Compression / Craig Kemper
Cow Trouble / Justin Leingang
Cut the Rope / Semyon Voinov
Dark Nebula: Episodes I & II / Anders Hejdenberg
Dirt / Stephen Gazzard
Doodle Jump / Igor Pusenjak
Doom II RPG / Katherine Anna Kang
Edge / David Papazian
Enviro-Bear 2010 / Justin Smith
EpicWin / Rex Crowle
Flight Control / Robert Murray
Forget-Me-Not / Brandon Williamson
Frogatto / Ben Anderman
Fruit Ninja / Luke Muscat
Garage Inc. / Wojtek Kawczynski
Geared / Bryan Mitchell
Godville / Dmitry Kosinov and Mikhail Platov
Halcyon / Zach Gage
Hand of Greed / Farhad Shakiba
Hard Lines / Andrew Smith
Helsing’s Fire / Lucas Pope
Hook Champ / Kepa Auwae
The Incident / Matt Comi
Infinity Blade / Laura and Donald Mustard
Jet Car Stunts / Luke Ryan
Karoshi / Jesse Venbrux
Labyrinth 2 / Marcus Andersson
Land-a Panda / Paul Virapen
Minigore / Timo Vihola
Monkey Island: Special Edition I & II / Craig Derrick
Mos Speedrun / Nick Donnelly
Nimble Strong: Bartender in Training / Adam Ghahramani
No, Human / Rolf Fleischmann
Osmos / Eddy Boxerman
Pizza Boy / Annica Strand
Plants vs. Zombies / George Fan
Pocket God / David Castelnuovo
Pocket Legends / Jake Rogers
Poto and Cabenga / Ricky Haggett
The Raging Dead / Travis Houlette
Robosockets / Nadia Sydorenko
Rolando / Simon Oliver
A Short Game About Jumping / Markus Ruh
Shot Shot Shoot / Erik Svedäng
Silverfish / Frank Condello
Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure / Ryan Creighton
Solipskier / Mike Boxleiter and Greg Wohlwend
Soosiz / Ville Mäkynen
Space Miner: Space Ore Bust / Brandon Curiel
Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor / David Kalina
Super Stickman Golf / Jordan Schidlowsky
Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP / Kris Piotrowski
Sword of Fargoal / Jeff McCord
Tilt to Live / Adam Stewart and Alex Okafor
Tiny Tower / Ian Marsh
Toki Tori / Colin Van Ginkel
Words With Friends / Paul Bettner
Zen Bound / Jani Kahrama
