A twelve-week course in how much interaction a single button can hold. Each week adds one new primitive to a shared vocabulary — press, hold, release, rhythm, sequence, momentum, context — building toward a complete one-button game.
SLOP1614 · Semester 1 2027
How much interaction can one button contain?
Every player action in this course, all twelve weeks of it, comes from a single button — one bit of digital input, plus its timing. No second button, no stick, no keyboard shortcut standing in when things get hard. That's not a beginner constraint you graduate out of; it's the constraint the whole course tests.
What you will do
Each week adds one new thing that single button can mean — starting with a plain press, then how long it's held, when it's released, the gap between presses, short-and-long sequences, a value that outlives the gesture, one press meaning different things depending on context, and on through movement, failure, a second player, and an input method built for someone who can't time a press themselves. Every week ends with a small prototype you build and test yourself, not a discussion. By week 12 you finish one complete one-button game, built by deciding which parts of that vocabulary it actually needs and cutting the rest.
Who it is for
Anyone willing to build something playable most weeks, whether or not you've made a game before — week 1 assumes no prior prototypes. It suits you if you'd rather work inside a hard constraint and see what it forces open than start from a blank, unrestricted brief.
Start here
New to the course? Week 1: Press is the first studio session, and its lecture carries the opening slide deck. Nothing earlier is assumed.