The GG button: everyone on main, and a button that screams

On our desk at MadSword stood a physical button with a sound. Press it, and it yelled loudly. It was pressed when someone broke the build — and it turned into a race: you’d just be reaching for it, and someone else had already got there.

Behind the joke was a culture: we all pushed straight to the main branch. Everyone got updates instantly — and when something broke, it broke for everyone instantly too. The button made that visible and funny instead of tense.

MadSword office, 27 November 2013 — the GG button sits on top of the partition.

The other side showed up too. One UX designer spent more than a month in his own branch, and merging it back gave me terrible conflicts.

What I took from it: for a small team, integrating early and often beats long-lived branches — as long as breaking the build is loud, fast to notice and nobody’s shame.