Remember when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone way back in January 2007 by prefacing the reveal by first saying it was a “a widescreen iPod with touch controls”, “a revolutionary mobile phone” and “a breakthrough Internet communications device”? It certainly delivered upon those three pillars, but as the iPhone and iOS has evolved over the years it has become evident that the iPhone (and subsequently the iPod touch and iPad) is also an innovative and impressive portable gaming device. Gaming has become a big selling point for iOS devices and since the App Store launched there have been a number of truly great and innovative games that have both shown what the devices are capable of and offered unique experiences that weren’t available anywhere else.

Today, ‘Buttonless: Incredible iPhone and iPad Games and the Stories Behind Them’ has been released on Amazon. It’s a new book by Ryan Rigney that aims to introduce you to a selection of the very best iOS games and then peel away the curtain, revealing the story and people behind the games. To compile the book, Rigney selected 65 of the “best and most beloved” iOS games and then conducted over 100 interviews with the developers and designers of the games. The result is 244 pages of interesting ‘behind-the-scenes’ stories that are unlikely to be found anywhere else.

I was given a pre-release copy of the book and below the break is my full review of ‘Buttonless’.

What Exactly Is In The Book?

The structure of ‘Buttonless’ is rather uniform, with each ‘chapter’ covering one game, and for each game Rigney describes the gameplay and then goes behind-the-scenes — this is the meaty section, and also the interesting part. I found myself skim-reading the actual gameplay descriptions for a lot of games — not because they were badly written but merely because the actual game just didn’t interest me. That was not the case for the ‘Behind the Game’ section, these were by and large interesting, regardless of the style of game that was being developed.

Rigney also includes two boxes in each chapter, one titled “Statistics” and the other “Fun Facts”, if you are anything like me you will instantly be drawn to these boxes. They are fairly self-explanatory but it is fascinating to read them and be surprised by how few, or how many units a particular game might have sold - or a cool little factoid that you had no idea about before. As an example, the chapter on Toki Tori includes a Statistics box that reveals the original Game Boy Color version of the game sold 40,000 copies, whilst the iOS version sold 200,000. The Angry Birds chapter includes a “Fun Fact” that “the red bird does have a special power to unleash when players tap the screen - Rovio calls it the “war cry” (it does nothing)”.

The Games And The Stories Behind Them

Perhaps the most impressive feat that Rigney has achieved with ‘Buttonless’ is to get such a complete collection of great iOS games included in the book. To be able to get the “behind-the-scenes” of virtually every great iOS game, from Angry Birds to Flight Control to Canabalt to Rolando to The Incident to Infinity Blade to Plants vs. Zombies to Words with Friends is simply astounding to me. Not only did Rigney get interviews with the people behind all these games but he also got some truly personal, fascinating and exciting stories and experiences for the book.

It’s important to realise that Rigney doesn’t tell a complete story about the development process of each of these games. Instead he editorializes and tells us the more interesting stories from the developers and includes portions of the development process. Had he done so, ‘Buttonless’ would span thousands of pages and undoubtedly be a dull book, I think Rigney has chosen the better way by dedicating a few pages to explain each game and the story behind it. Whilst you may not get the “complete” story behind Angry Birds (you still learn more about them), when you take the book as a whole, you start to see the similarities that iOS game developers face, and some different experiences that arose between the developers interviewed.

Earlier I said that even if I was uninterested in one of the games featured in the book, the “Behind the Game” section was largely still interesting because my interest in that section wasn’t really correlated with the type of game it was. That is certainly the case, but I did feel as though Rigney included a few too many obscure and uninteresting games in the book - I won’t name names (because who knows, maybe you’re a fan of the game), but I felt as though in a few sections of the book I hit a “boring” section of games. I found myself waiting to read about the next “big hit” game, which because of their success (often unexpected) were more likely to be both more positive and with more fascinating tidbits inside.

I’m not sure how much of that was my own tastes and how much of that was the book’s fault - I’m sure different readers will have different experiences on that point. Nevertheless I think Rigney could have included a few less games - perhaps making up the lost pages by extending the length of some of the other stories. I should also note one example of a game that I have zero interest in but found the back story to be one of the best in the game - ‘Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure’. It’s a point and click adventure game but what makes it unique is that the game was all drawn by a 5-year-old girl named Cassie - the story behind how this game was made and why she drew everything was great and definitely worthy of inclusion in ‘Buttonless’.

One Step Short Of Greatness

As I neared the end of the book I became aware that the book was missing a little something from being really great. Rigney has done a great job of getting interviews with a great selection of developers, done well describing them and then including a fascinating section behind the games. But in my opinion he has missed a great opportunity to add some unique commentary and insight after speaking with all the kingmakers of iOS gaming.

Perhaps Rigney felt as though it might hijack the purpose of the book (to tell the stories of those behind the games we love) or perhaps he felt that would be better suited to another book - I don’t know but I really hope I hear more from Rigney in the future because it is clear he is one of the authoritative journalists in the iOS gaming community. As a side-note, I interviewed Rigney last month and I did try tease out some insight from him — you can read the full interview here.

Conclusion

It’s quite amazing to see how the iOS gaming industry has flourished so quickly and equally amazing to look back and see how innovative the games have been, and continue to be. ‘Buttonless’ lets you go back in time to when these games were in development, giving you a front seat to how these games were formed into innovative, unique and great games.

Whether you are just a casual iOS gamer, occasionally flinging a bird in Angry Birds or are a dedicated iOS gamer, trying all the latest and greatest games, you’ll be fascinated by the stories behind those games you love — and some of those that you have never heard of before. The big achievement of ‘Buttonless’ is that it comes close to being a reference book for iOS gaming because Rigney has done such a spectacular job reaching out to the developers of all the standout iOS games and getting their stories in the book. It’s that achievement that subdues my criticisms and leaves me with a positive experience to say that I recommend this book — it’s a book that any MacStories’ reader should enjoy, even if they only occasionally play a game on their iOS device.

You can read our previous interview with Ryan Rigney here.

‘Buttonless’ is now available for purchase on Amazon for $29.95.