Game Character Movement Control for Balanced Mini-Game Participation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing game systems lack a mechanism to create a strategic and engaging experience by allowing characters to join mini-games at different times based on their position on a map, leading to uneven participation and advantage disparities.
Innovation Solution
A game system where characters move on a map with randomly determined movement amounts, with the first character reaching a predetermined cell initiating a mini-game, and others joining with a delay based on their distance, allowing players to influence delay times through input operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If all characters join the mini-game simultaneously, then the mini-game execution is simple, but characters that have not yet reached the event cell cannot participate, leading to uneven participation
Solution Approach 1:
The mini-game execution is segmented into multiple phases based on character arrival at the event cell. Characters join the mini-game sequentially rather than simultaneously, with each character's participation timed to their arrival. This segmentation allows all characters to participate while maintaining manageable execution complexity through phased initialization.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by preparing the mini-game environment in advance and initializing it when the first character arrives. Subsequent characters join after their movement is finalized, with the system having already prepared the necessary game state. This preliminary preparation simplifies the execution complexity while enabling universal participation.
2Adaptability or versatility
If characters join the mini-game at different times, then participation becomes more balanced, but determining delay times and join sequences adds complexity
Solution Approach 1:
Each character's delay time is self-determined based on their own movement characteristics and distance to the event cell. The system calculates delay times automatically for each character independently, using their movement amount and current position. This self-service approach balances participation without requiring complex centralized coordination, as each character's join timing is determined by their own game state.
3Productivity
If the first character to reach the event cell initiates the mini-game, then the mini-game starts promptly, but characters arriving later are disadvantaged by not being able to influence the game setup
Solution Approach 1:
The mini-game environment and initial state are prepared in advance when the first character arrives, but character-specific configurations are applied subsequently as each character joins. This allows the game to start promptly with the first character while still enabling later characters to influence their own participation parameters, such as their specific role or starting conditions within the mini-game.
4Speed
If characters with larger movement amounts can reach event cells faster, then gameplay is dynamic, but it creates advantage disparities for characters with smaller movement amounts
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary preparation of the mini-game environment before all characters arrive, ensuring that characters with smaller movement amounts are not disadvantaged. By initializing the game state in advance and allowing sequential joining, the system compensates for movement speed disparities, enabling all characters to participate meaningfully regardless of their movement amount characteristics.
Solution Approach 2:
The mini-game execution timing is dynamic and adapts to each character's arrival at the event cell. Rather than using a fixed simultaneous start time, the system dynamically adjusts the join sequence based on each character's movement characteristics. This dynamic approach maintains the speed advantage for fast-moving characters while ensuring fair participation for all through sequential inclusion.
Data Source
AI summary
Movement amount identifying unit 111 of exemplary game device 1 identifies, for each of characters, a movement amount, based on which a character is moved on a map, the movement amount being randomly determined. Movement processing unit 112 moves, for each of the characters, a character on the map based on a movement amount determined for the character. Mini-game executing unit 113 executes a mini-game on detecting that a first character included in the characters has reached a predetermined first cell on the map. When doing so, mini-game executing unit 113 starts the mini-game, the first character joining the mini-game from the start of the mini-game, and causes a second character included in the characters to join the mini-game subsequent to the first character with a delay, the second character having failed to reach the first cell as of the start of the mini-game.