Game device, game region expansion and contraction method, game program and information storage medium

Abstract

A method and apparatus for a game that makes it possible to freely establish a region by expanding or contracting various regions relating to a game with a simple operation. If a closed region for expansion or contraction is moved to a position adjacent to an already established expansion or contraction object region, and an expansion operation performed in a state where a boundary of the closed region for expansion or contraction and a boundary of the object region, the closed region for expansion or contraction is added to the original object region to enlarge the area of the object region. Thus, the boundary displayed overlapping on the object region and the closed region for expansion or contraction are removed, and a single linked boundary is formed on the new object region.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to a game device, a region expansion and contraction method for a game, a game program and an information storage medium, and particularly relates to technology for expanding or contracting various regions involved in a game with a simple operation. [0002] Various games have been proposed where if a player sets any region in a game space, game progress related to that region is controlled. For example, in an urban development simulation game, if a player sets a construction region in a game space, buildings etc. are constructed in that region. [0003] In this type of game, when a region is set on a game screen, a method can initially be considered where the width and shape of setting regions are predetermined, and only an arbitrary few of these regions are arranged at arbitrary positions on the game screen (game field). A method of arbitrarily determining the width, shape and position of setting regions using a pointing...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008] According to the present invention, an expansion or contraction object region and a closed region for expansion or contraction are displayed on a game screen. It is possible for a player to instruct changing of a relative position of the closed region for expansion and contraction with respect to the expansion or contraction object region. In the event that the closed region for expansion or contraction comes into contact with the expansion or contraction object region (including the case where all or a part of the closed region for expansion or contraction overlaps the expansion or contraction object region), expanded or contracted regions are determined in response to the player's command. An expansion or contraction object region is constituted by adding a portion of the closed region for expansion or expansion that does not overlap the expansion or contraction object region to the expansion or contraction object region, or by removing a portion of the region closed for expansion or contraction that does overlap the expansion or contraction object region from the expansion or contraction object region. The expanded or contracted region is then displayed on the game screen instead of the expansion or contraction object region. In this way, it is possible to freely establish regions by expanding or contracting various regions relating to the game with a simple operation. It is also possible to have the present invention constructed to enable both expansion and contraction of expansion or contraction object regions, or to enable one of either expansion or contraction.

[0022] If the game program of the present invention is made to run on a computer such as a game device or the like, it is possible to expand various regions relating to the game with a simple operation to freely establish regions, by a player instructing a change in a relative position of an expansion or contraction position mark with respect to a base region. It is also possible to construct the present invention to enable both expansion and contraction of the expansion or contraction object region, or to enable only one of expansion or contraction.

Problems solved by technology

However, with the first of these two methods, the setting regions themselves can not be expanded or contracted because the width and shape of the setting regions are determined in advance and each region is handled separately.

This means that if the width, shape and position are arbitrarily determined by a player, there is a problem that it is not possible to implement a game where a story unfolds according to those regions.

Also, with the second of these two methods, because a pointing device such as a mouse is required, there is a problem that it is not suitable for a game device with poor operating means, for example, a portable game machine.

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