Dynamic Special Effect Assignment in Video Games
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional video games lack player engagement due to oversimplified special effects that can be anticipated by players, leading to decreased interest as benefits are predetermined and easily known.
Innovation Solution
A video game processing apparatus that dynamically selects and assigns special effects to a player character based on established conditions, incorporating a special effect selection representation and assignment mechanism, allowing for unpredictable outcomes and increased player interaction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If special effects are predetermined and specified in advance, then the game system is simple and easy to understand, but player interest decreases due to lack of mystery and excitement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic special effect assignment system where the type of special effect granted to the player character is not predetermined but determined at runtime based on accumulated action values. This creates variability and mystery while maintaining clear rules about how effects are earned, resolving the contradiction between simplicity and engagement.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism (the special effect selection representation and action value accumulation system) that mediates between player actions and special effect outcomes. This intermediary layer adds complexity and mystery to the process while keeping the underlying system rule-based and understandable.
2Adaptability or versatility
If special effects are randomly assigned when conditions are met, then player excitement and engagement increase, but the game system becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically determines which special effect to assign based on accumulated action values, creating variability and excitement. The complexity is managed by using a finite set of predefined effect types that are selected based on simple accumulation rules rather than complex algorithms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of special effect type from a fixed value to a variable that depends on accumulated action values. This parameter change creates engagement through uncertainty while the underlying accumulation mechanism remains simple and rule-based.
3Reliability
If players can predict what benefits they will receive, then game rules are clear and fair, but mystery and excitement are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system maintains reliability by ensuring that special effects are awarded based on clear, rule-based accumulation of action values. The unpredictability arises from which specific effect type is selected from the available options, not from whether effects will be awarded at all. This preserves fairness while adding mystery.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback through the accumulation of action values that players can track, providing clear information about progress toward earning special effects. The mystery element comes from not knowing which specific effect will be awarded, even though the accumulation process is transparent and predictable.
Data Source
AI summary
A controller executes a special effect selection representation using a slot representation representing a slot machine when a fever accumulative value, which is accumulated by a player character doing damage to an enemy character, reaches a predetermined value, and a fever gauge becomes filled up, in accordance with a player's operation. The controller assigns a special effect to the player character in accordance with a result of the representation. Then, when the fever accumulative value is sequentially subtracted and reduced to an initial value, the assignment of the special effect to the player character is finished. Thus, the special effect to be assigned to the player character when predetermined selection allowance conditions are fulfilled is prevented from being specified in advance by the player, and increase the player's interest in a game.