- News – Release Window Delay - 27 July 2026
Hey everyone, It's been an overwhelmingly busy time for me working on The Button Effect. I had initially planned to launch the game this August, but unfortunately, I will not be able to make that date. The sheer amount of work left to do has caught up to me. To be safe and to ensure quality, I have decided to move the release window to Q1 2027 Your excitement and support these past few months have meant a lot to me, and I did not make this decision lightly. Wrapping up the late-game puzzle design and the game's finale is taking longer than expected, affecting my timelines for proper play-testing, implementing feedback and final voiceovers. I want to make sure the ending receives the same level of care and polish as the rest of the game. Since it is just me working on the game, this extra time protects both the quality of the game and my health. I'll share more specifics with you as soon…
- Demo Build - Update 0.1.7 - 6 June 2026
Updated the game's logo and added it to the Steam Demo build. After receiving a lot of feedback about the readability of the previous logo, I worked with the community to find an improved version for it. The main goal was improving the readability of the 'O'. Changes: Updated the logo in the title screen Updated the logo in the options menu / pause screen Special thanks to Hiyshhiysh and everyone else in the Discord for workshopping it with me!
- Trailer – New Puzzles & Release Window - 26 May 2026
Hey Steam! The Button Effect will take part in the Cerebral Puzzle Showcase and Steam Next Fest June soon! To celebrate, I've released a new trailer. It features new buttons and puzzles set in the mysterious downstairs area of the museum – planned to open to the public August 2026 Q1 2027: I can't wait for you all to explore beyond the previous limits of the demo barriers! These new areas introduce additional buttons, rule sets, puzzle types and art installations. I've worked hard to keep the building's secrets (and the narrative) under wraps for now. I want to thank you all for your support so far; I'm incredibly proud of the game, and I couldn't have made it this far without your feedback. I'll be working hard these next few months to bring the game's finale together. In the meantime, please feel free to spread the word to any first-person puzzle fans you know. Wishlists and word-of-m…
- Demo Update – Translations & Improvements - 22 May 2026
Hey Steam! I've updated the demo with translations for 12 new languages, several puzzle improvements and additional polish. Huge shout-out to the LocQuest team for localizing the UI and narration with great care! The demo is now available in English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Korean and Japanese. I've also made several quality-of-life improvements and adjusted a handful of early-game puzzles to better introduce certain mechanics. If you've played the demo before, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on the changes – feel free to share feedback on my Discord. Due to changes in the puzzle design flow and other technical adjustments, save files from version 0.1.5 are not compatible with this updated demo. For a complete list of changes check out the patch notes: Demo Update 0.1.6 Thanks again to…
- Demo Build - Update 0.1.6 - 22 May 2026
Added localizations and improvements to the Steam Demo build. Note: Due to changes in the puzzle design and other technical adjustments, save files from version 0.1.5 are not compatible with this updated demo. Added Languages: - 繁體中文 (Traditonal Chinese) - 简体中文 (Simplified Chinese) - 日本語 (Japanese) - 한국어 (Korean) - FRANÇAIS (French) (AZERTY keyboard option included) - DEUTSCH (German) - ESPAÑOL (Spanish) - ITALIANO (Italian) - PORTUGUÊS BRASILEIRO (Brazilian Portuguese) - NEDERLANDS (Dutch) - РУССКИЙ (Russian) - POLSKI (Polish) Improvements: - Improved the introduction puzzles to improve onboarding - Added a rotary phone sculpture with sound effects to improve onboarding - Added to and improved the black window introduction puzzles - Added clarity to the tower puzzle to improve visibility - Added clarity to the poem puzzle - Changed the rotation logic of a certain sculpture Bugs: - Fixe…
- Thinky Awards – Showcase Stream - 30 January 2026
Hey Steam! The Button Effect is nominated in the Most Anticipated category of the Thinky Awards! Watch the event live with me on Wednesday, February 4th at 10AM PST / 6PM UTC – I'll be watching and hanging out in the chat to support my fellow puzzle game nominees. Mark your calendars – or set a reminder! Shout-out to some first-person puzzlers in other categories: Chroma Zero (nominated for Most Innovative Game), Lingo 2 (nominated for Game Of The Year) and ofcourse Blue Prince (multiple nominations). The creativity on display across nominations is inspiring. I'm excited to be part of such a dedicated puzzle game community – and I'm honored to be nominated for an award! Tip: Hit the notification bell on YouTube to get notified See you there – in the chat? -Tim (Frycandle)
- Devlog – New Year, New Buttons - 9 January 2026
Hey Steam! First off, since it's 2026, I hope you have a great year ahead of you! It's an important one for me, as I'm working hard to wrap up development and prepare for release this year. I can't tell you when exactly (yet), since there's quite a few things I still want to work on. Until then, I hope you'll stick around? This first week has been good to me, I've been making steady progress integrating new puzzle designs into new parts of the building. The past year I've quietly added new button rules (teased below), new puzzles and more interconnected spaces to explore. Architecturally I've added a neat staircase to the building that lets you explore the downstairs basement areas of the game. This level of the building is still growing every day as I work towards the game's finale. It's been an exciting time focusing on development and design these past months. For many of the new puz…
- News – Performance & Auto-Saving - 8 September 2025
Hey Steam! I've updated the demo with some performance improvements and a fully reworked auto-saving system. Overall framerates should be better, and you'll have more options to tweak low / medium / high settings to your preference – like the option to turn Lumen, Reflections or even AA off completely. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3563110/The_Button_Effect__Demo/ Auto-saving is now much lighter and will store all of your steps – in case of a crash or unexpected power outage, it will reload your progress and store a back-up of the previous save file on the next play. I've also added a few smaller QoL changes, like increasing the range of the Sensitivity slider for better control and adding a Brightness slider for devices with darker screens. For a complete list of changes check out the patch notes: Demo Update 0.1.5 Looking ahead, I'll be focusing on new puzzle content and level de…
- Demo Build - Update 0.1.5 - 8 September 2025
Several performance improvements to the Steam Demo build. In the past months I've been focusing on performance improvements to address some of the issues players were having on low/medium and high setups. Framerates should now be improved on all presets, especially allowing more options to be tweaked for low and medium setups. I've also completely reworked the saving system with more performant autosaving to reduce framedrops. (!) Note: If you're playing on an older save from 0.1.4 or earlier, you'll have to toggle between the quality presets or reset to default video settings to apply the new changes correctly. (!) Note: If you're playing on an older save from 0.1.4 or earlier the autosaving will still default to the less performant saving method to ensure backwards compatibility. Fresh saves use the new system. Changes: - Reworked Low / Medium / High quality presets - Added a Global I…
- Demo Build - Update 0.1.4 - 4 June 2025
Several smaller fixes to the Steam Demo build. Bugs: Fixed any strangely rotated and broken elements in the tower puzzle (caused by a float value of 0.000001 after a certain number of game save/loads) Implemented a broader fix to prevent future float value issues Fixed a collision issue where the player could get stuck on top of a barrier Fixed a bug where the player would maintain movement speed on pause Steam Deck: Fixed a bug where the Fullscreen setting on Steam Deck would warp the resolution and aspect ratio incorrectly displaying the game with black borders Known issues – to be fixed: Overall performance and compatibility issues Steam Deck resetting progress causes the menu and game input to stop working. The touchscreen does work, quitting and restarting solves the issue for now (have not reproduced this issue yet)
- News – Demo Out Now! - 29 May 2025
Hey Steam! The very first public demo for The Button Effect is out! I'm equally nervous and excited to see your responses to the demo, which kicked off with a feature in Thinky Direct, the Cerebral Puzzle Showcase and a lovely review by Alpha Beta Gamer! The demo has its own Steam page with the option to leave a review – honest reviews help others find out if the game is up their alley, so please consider describing your experience for them. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3563110/The_Button_Effect__Demo/ There's a lot to discover, solve and see in this demo – please try to protect your friends from spoilers! If you'd like to share your thoughts or if you run into any issues feel free to post in the discussions forum here on Steam, I'll be around to answer any questions. Alternatively, you can join the Discord here! Thank you for playing, reviewing and wishlisting – it helps a lot! -…
- News – Thinky Direct Showcase - 20 May 2025
Hey Steam! I'm excited to share that The Button Effect – and the upcoming demo – will be featured in the brand new Thinky Direct Showcase stream May 29th with an exclusive demo reveal trailer! The demo will become available a few days early – any reviews, reposts and sharing of the news would help me out a lot! Feel free to stream, post and talk about the demo once it's out – and please do try to protect your friends from those precious secrets and puzzle spoilers! :) Thanks again to all play-testers, and thank you for your support! -Tim (Frycandle)
- News – Looking For Playtesters - 21 April 2025
Hey Steam! The Button Effect is featured in the Minimal & Chill Showcase as an upcoming game this week! While the demo is still being polished and tested, I have set the demo release to be next month: May 26th These next couple of weeks I'll be focusing on one thing: Playtesting. This allows me to make sure the demo build is as up-to-date as possible before the public launch. Giving the early demo build a try and sharing your thoughts and feedback would be very helpful. I've opened up playtest sign-ups for the duration of the showcase, and will grant access in small groups as I update the demo. If you'd like to skip the line: join the Discord and respond to my call for testers there. It'd be nice to meet you and listen to your feedback – as I always prefer to talk to players directly ːsteamthisː That's all for now, I'm excited to start sharing the demo soon! Thanks for reading, -Tim (Fr…
- Devlog – Puzzle Design Process - 18 January 2025
Hey Steam! Welcome to all the new puzzlers here from Reddit, you've helped me and my game reach 2000 wishlists and nearly 100 followers here on Steam! Thank you for your support, it helps! The comments on my Reddit post were genuinely kind and supportive. One of those comments was an interesting question about the game's puzzle design and my process: This devlog answers that question. If you're short on time though, here's what I replied: That's the short answer. but I wanted to elaborate on this because the process of 'coming up with the puzzles' is one of the most fulfilling aspects of game development for me. It's one of the tasks I could do for hours on end, happily, and completely lose track of time. It triggers my perfectionism and curiosity to keep going until I've found the most interesting solution or interaction. I have to thank Patrick Traynor (Patrick's Parabox) for a lot of…
- Devlog – Crouch and Zoom - 13 December 2024
Hey Steam! The most requested feature from a recent play-test session: Crouch. I'm constantly testing the game to improve it based on player feedback. One of the bigger play-test sessions (~20 play-testers playing the same build) had an overall positive response, plus constructive feedback to improve the experience. Wanting to crouch was mentioned by almost every single tester. When I first started developing the game I aimed to keep the controls as simple as possible. WASD / Arrow keys = Move Left-click = Interact Shift = Speedwalk In one of the earliest builds I had enabled a tiny jump (Spacebar), but there wasn't a single reason or function to the jump. I didn't want jumping over/on top of puzzles to be a requirement anywhere since it's a skill focused on agility and timing, so I ended up scrapping jump entirely. I had considered crouch in the past as it has the potential to open up…
- Frequently Asked Questions - 23 November 2024
Hey Steam! Thanks for following along, wishlisting the game and sharing my announcement! With your help, the game has managed to hit nearly 1000 (988) wishlists in the first two weeks. On top of this, I've felt the support from fellow developers and the Thinky Games community: Alexander Bruce quote re-tweeted my game Jonathan Blow streamed the game on his Twitch channel Thinky Games covered and added the game to their database Shout-out to Davor Hunski (The Talos Principle), Albert Shih (Superliminal), Elyot Grant (Islands of Insight), Patrick Traynor (Patrick's Parabox), Le Slo (Alephant), Matthew VanDevander (Taiji), Alan Hazelden (Draknek), Nozomu (Robot Detour), Thomas Mackinnon (THE CORRIDOR), Tad Cordle (Sensorium) and many more for play-testing early builds of the game. This is my first devlog after over a year of development. As a developer, I'm a bit torn on what I should or sh…
- The Button Effect – Game Announcement - 8 November 2024
Hey Steam! After over a year of quietly working on this project, I’m excited to announce my upcoming first-person puzzle game: The Button Effect In this short, minimalist first-person puzzler you explore a dense, interwoven architecture – a museum, full of hidden connections and spatial insights... My name is Tim, and I’m the (mostly) solo game developer working on this game. Whether you’re an avid first-person puzzler or new to the genre, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the concept. I look forward to telling you more about the game and its inspirations. If you’re curious about the development of the game, follow along by clicking follow and wishlist. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2299940/ Wishlisting the game on Steam and telling your friends about its existence are some of the best ways to support this project! Thanks, -Tim (Frycandle)
