Animated Reel Zone Shuffling for Balanced Bonus Symbol Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Electronic gaming machines face challenges in achieving balanced symbol selection and volatility distribution due to biased movement of expandable zones, which affect return-to-player (RTP) and game design, particularly on devices with confined screen sizes.
Innovation Solution
A gaming system with a display device and controller that animates a zone on reels, shuffles symbol sets between instances, and expands the zone when a threshold of specific symbols is collected, using random number generation to ensure balanced symbol selection and volatility distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If an expandable zone is animated to move within a matrix of display positions to capture special symbols, then the player is given additional chances to generate awards, but biased symbol selection occurs affecting RTP and volatility distribution
Solution Approach 1:
The matrix of display positions is divided into multiple individual reels, each with its own reel strip. The expandable zone is segmented to capture symbols from specific reels. By shuffling reel strips between instances and selecting symbols from individual reels based on RNG outcomes, the system maintains fair RTP and volatility distribution while providing additional award chances through the expandable zone feature.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the zone is expanded to provide additional chances of generating awards, then player opportunities increase, but redundant processing of possible destination locations occurs
Solution Approach 1:
Reel strips are shuffled between game instances in advance, and symbol selection for each reel is determined by RNG outcomes before the expandable zone animation. This preliminary determination of symbol selections eliminates redundant processing during the zone movement animation, as the outcome is already determined. The expandable zone simply reveals pre-determined symbols, providing additional award chances without computational redundancy.
3Illumination intensity
If the zone movement is animated on confined screen sizes, then visual feedback is provided, but effective communication of award generation becomes challenging
Solution Approach 1:
The expandable zone provides localized visual feedback by highlighting specific reels and symbols within the confined display area. When the zone expands, it draws player attention to specific locations where special symbols are captured. The system communicates award generation through localized animations and visual cues at the relevant reel positions, ensuring clear information transmission despite limited screen real estate.
Data Source
AI summary
A gaming system including a display having a plurality of reels. A controller controls the display to animate a zone that occupies a subset of the reels, and selects symbols for the zone and the rest of the reels from a first set of symbols including zone symbols, and a second set of symbols both zone symbols and gem symbols, respectively. The first and second symbol sets associated with the reels are shuffled from a current instance to a subsequent instance for a balanced symbol selection. For the current instance, assigned values of zone symbols selected for the zone are collected, but only the assigned values of the gem symbols selected for outside the zone are collected. The zone is expanded for the subsequent instance when enough gem symbols selected for outside the zone are collected.