ABSTRACT
If you look for games where the player controls more than the staple character or a camera there just isn't much out there. A few obscure mini-games, perhaps, and some awesome but abridged indie experiments like Kyle Gabler's The Swarm and Student Showcase finalist Empyreal Nocturne. Nothing large in scope or budget, though. Perhaps complexity is the reason: Fusion Frenzy for the Xbox featured a mini-game where the player controlled a character with one thumbstick and a bomb with the other but it was gallingly, frustratingly difficult. I think this is because
the designers of that mini-game were asking the wrong questions, though. They seemed to be asking, "How many different ways can we have the players attack one another?" The idea of controlling a bomb and a character separately was just one experiment among many and if it was hard to control, so be it. We're not hanging the whole thing on this one control scheme. Players wi l l choose the games they like and ignore the rest anyway. On to the next idea!
