Hey all, I've been thinking lately about how to make an original game. One thing that strikes me as a major factor in making a game original is the control scheme, just take a look at the Nintendo Wii for proof of this! Anyhoo, that's not quite the point of this thread, but it got me thinking about games with original control schemes. More often than not, the real innovative games tend to have an indirect control scheme of some sort. Now I have an idea for an interesting indirect control scheme for a game I am making. The idea is to take a Super Monkeyball style game, but have the player control the ball indirectly by clicking on various machines that form the level, so we could have simple elements like fans, platforms, buttons and most interestingly of all - magnets. The magnets are the key part of the idea. The idea is that the player clicks on a magnet to activate it, then the magnet attracts the ball towards it at a pace depending on the distance of the ball from the magnet. Each magnet also has an energy level which diminished with use and refreshes over time, as the energy runs out, the magnet could either get weaker, or fail entirly. Alternatively we could transfer the energy level to the player, and have the player collect energy or have it replenish over time. We could even have the player control multiple avatars simultaneously (a team of sorts) by simply using the magnet control scheme. So, now we have an innovative control method to navigate a monkeyball style level, but without imposing strict time limits, the game still wouldn't be very difficult as the control scheme is quite easy to understand. In order to make the game more fun, I have decided to make the standard gameplay a deathmatch over said monkeyball style level. This now means that their is no annoying time limit, but there is the pressing matter of an opponent to deal with, someone who can knock you off course or push you off the edge of the arena, or into a spike trap, etc. As I have heard it said before, a game can be seen as a series of interesting choices. I think this idea presents more than enough choices which also are dynamic, dependant upon the situation instead of static and unchanging each time the ame is played. You now have to make decisions about which magnet to activate, does it have enough power to move you quick enough? Will it pull you towards your intended destination? Which magnet should be used after the current magnet? Can I wait for the magnet to recharge before my opponent hits me? Do I have the added worry of being knocked out of the arena (losing automatically)? Do I have enough health to survive hitting the spike trap? I have a couple more original twists on the idea that I wont go into (as I'd like to have some Aces up my sleeve if I persue the idea!), but the point is not so much to discuss my idea as it is to just discuss ideas of providing indirect control in any game. What methods of indirect control can you think of? Can you think of any more methods of controlling the environment in my game that would be fun? have you seen any other games offering indirect control? Have you seen any games using the idea I've thought of already? Cheers! Steve

I could easily see a puzzle style game where you had to activate various entities along the way in order to move a ball from one location to another. Not familiar with monkeyball however.

See

>this video if you haven't heard of Super Monkeyball.... though the gameplay is taken to extremes with the speedruns you see, it should give you a general idea of the gameplay.

You control a monkey inside a ball by effectively tilting the level rather than directly controlling the ball (which is somewhat indirect, but to all intents and purposes might as well be classed as direct control)... i.e pressing up still moves forward, but tilts the horizon so that it is higher in the air. You collect bananas along the way to gain extra lives and score better if you complete the level in a quicker time. That's about it really, plus it has some nice minigames as well. Simple, but good fun :)