FIFO Symbol Store for Gaming Bonus Awards
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current gaming systems lack alternatives to maintain or increase player enjoyment, as they primarily rely on randomly displaying symbols for determining game outcomes without innovative mechanisms for awarding bonus prizes.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that selects symbols during a game event, stores them in a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) symbol stack, and determines if they meet an award criterion, with the award module providing bonus credits or additional games when the criterion is met, and displaying the symbol store in association with the game.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If symbols are randomly displayed to determine game outcomes, then the game provides basic enjoyment, but player enjoyment cannot be maintained or increased over time
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-selects and stores symbols in a symbol store during base game play before the bonus game is triggered. This preliminary accumulation of symbols creates the foundation for subsequent bonus awards, allowing the system to provide enhanced player enjoyment through bonus features without requiring complete system redesign.
Solution Approach 2:
The gaming system is divided into distinct segments: base game play, symbol selection and storage, and bonus game evaluation. The symbol store acts as a separate storage segment that accumulates symbols independently, while the bonus game evaluation segment determines awards based on stored symbol combinations. This segmentation allows each component to function independently, maintaining system manageability while enabling enhanced player engagement.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a symbol store is implemented to accumulate symbols for bonus awards, then bonus prizes can be awarded based on symbol combinations, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The symbol store serves multiple functions: it accumulates symbols during base game play, stores selected symbols for bonus evaluation, and enables various bonus game types (free spins, instant wins, progressive jackpots). This multi-functionality allows the same core component to support diverse bonus features, increasing system versatility without proportionally increasing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The symbol store acts as an intermediary component between base game play and bonus game evaluation. It receives symbols from the base game, maintains them in a structured format, and provides them to the bonus evaluation logic. This intermediary role simplifies the overall system architecture by creating a clear interface between game play and award determination, reducing the complexity of direct integration.
3Productivity
If symbols are stored in FIFO order with automatic removal, then the symbol store manages maximum capacity efficiently, but information about earlier symbols is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a FIFO (First-In-First-Out) removal rule where symbols that have been in the store the longest are automatically removed when the maximum capacity is reached. This efficient management ensures the symbol store maintains optimal size for processing, while the loss of historical symbol information is acceptable because the bonus evaluation only requires recent symbol combinations, not complete historical records.
Data Source
AI summary
An example method of gaming includes selecting symbols appearing in a game event. The selected symbols are stored in a symbol store arranged to store a plurality of symbols. The symbol store is arranged such that, once a maximum number of symbols is reached, storage of a further symbol in the symbol store results in the removal of a stored symbol from the symbol store in accordance with a removal rule. The method includes determining whether the stored symbols meet an award criterion.