At this year’s LudoNarraCon, I got to try out a demo for Button City. While going in, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I am happy to report that my stay at Button City was an exceedingly happy one.
Button City is, without a shadow of a doubt, immensely enjoyable. From its colourful art style to its delightfully hilarious dialogue, Button City knows how to grab your attention. Simply put, there was never a dull moment while playing.
“It is an absolutely beautiful game.”
There is an outstanding amount of charm to be found in Button City’s quaintly colourful dioramas. Wherever you go, you’re bound to bump into one of its eclectic cast of characters. Each interaction is oozing with humorously witty dialogue that helps create a warm, friendly, and silly atmosphere. And yet, surprisingly, Button City doesn’t lack depth. There’s a real sense of world-building going on, with each of the character’s dialogue interactions extending beyond just goofy fun. I never felt as if characters were entirely one-dimensional and was immediately drawn to several of the cast.
Button City is an absolutely beautiful game too. Its low-poly style is vibrantly colourful, which makes each location pop with life. It adds to that bountiful charm that Button City thrusts upon you the moment you boot it up. The exceptionally endearing characters are reminiscent of the villagers from Animal Crossing. The developers,
Subliminal, have managed to design a whole city’s worth of unique and distinctive characters, despite being limited by basic animal designs. The uniqueness of each character helps in developing meaningful connections with them. Even in the very brief demo, I felt an immediate connection with characters such as Seasame and Cilantro.
“Honestly, I can’t wait until I can elongate my stay at Button City.”
There’s a lot to do around Button City. Exploring various locations netted me items I could use later on, which made me feel like my exploratory efforts weren’t wasted. It is fun interacting with the many things dotted around Button City’s dioramas as you’re treated to fun pieces of dialogue, not unlike the incredibly fun Cyanide & Happiness: Freakpocalypse.
Outside of exploration, there’s a fun mini-game that you get to partake in. Once you’ve gathered up enough teammates, you can play a short, but intensely fun game in the arcade. The game seems to be packed with these arcade-style games, and more will be available in the full release. I’m excited to try out the various games on offer, as they seem like they’d be a lot of fun.
Button City is a lot of fun. My time spent with it was all-too-brief, and I cannot wait to jump back in when it launches. I love the characters, the feel and the gameplay. There is so much to uncover here and so many new friends to meet. I want to know more about Cilantro’s insane theories (although I reckon he’s onto something) and chill out with Sesame a little more. Honestly, I can’t wait until I can elongate my stay at Button City.
Be sure to head on over to Button City’s Steam store page to try the demo out for yourself. You can also wishlist it on Steam to be notified of any future updates.