Button

🎮 About This Game

Button is curling reduced to the one decision that makes curling a game: where do you put this stone, knowing your opponent throws next. Each end you get three stones, you throw them alternately, and whoever ends up closest to the button — the dot at the centre of the house — takes the end. You do not score one point for that; you score one for every stone of yours that sits closer than your opponent's best. So an end can be worth one, or it can be worth three, and the difference is whether you spent your early stones stacking the house or knocking theirs out of it. The last stone of an end is worth more than the other five, because it answers everything already on the ice. In Button that stone alternates on a fixed schedule — you have it this end, they have it next, all match. That single rule is what keeps the game honest, and it is the one thing here that was decided by measurement rather than by taste. First to five points wins, which lands most matches at around three minutes.

🎯 How to Play

Drag back from your stone and release — like pulling a slingshot. The direction you pull is the direction the stone will not go; it travels the opposite way, and the further you pull the harder it goes. The dotted line and the faint circle at the end of it are not a hint, they are the answer: the stone stops exactly there if nothing gets in its way. Release with almost no pull and the throw is cancelled, so you can drag around and look before you commit. On a keyboard, ◀ ▶ aim, ▲ ▼ set power and SPACE throws. Each end is six throws, three per side, taken in turn. When the last stone stops, every stone inside the house is measured from the button, and the side with the closest one scores for each stone it has closer than the other side's best. If nobody is in the house, the end is blank and nobody scores. Then the hammer flips and the next end begins. First to five points takes the match.

💡 Tips & Strategy

• ▸Count before you throw. If you are already lying two and they have one stone left, you do not need another stone in the house — you need their line to it blocked. If you are lying nothing with one stone left, a takeout is worth more than a perfect draw that finishes second.
• ▸The stone that is closest is the only one that matters for the win, but every stone behind it matters for the size of the win. Multi-point ends are how matches actually get decided, and they only happen if you keep stones in the house instead of trading them off one for one.
• ▸A takeout needs enough power to carry the target off the sheet, not just to touch it. The preview circle shows where YOUR stone stops — if that point is well past the target, you have enough behind the hit to move it.
• ▸Overpowering is the most common way to lose a stone. Come in too hot and both stones run out the back, which turns your throw into a free clear-out for the opponent.
• ▸Side walls bounce and the two ends do not. A stone that clips a wall keeps most of its speed and stays in play, so an angled shot into the wall is a real option when a direct line is blocked.
• ▸A guard is a stone deliberately left short of the house, between the thrower and the button. It is worth playing when you are already lying shot: it does not score, but it makes the answer to your scoring stone much harder to throw.
• ▸The hammer alternates no matter what happens, so a blank end is not a neutral result — it is an end where you gave up your advantage without cashing it. When you have the hammer and the house is empty, take the single point rather than nothing.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions