Gaming Machine Symbol Array Unlocking Feature
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Solution Overview
Problem
Gaming systems face challenges in striking a balance between providing a feeling of luck to players through random and volatile outcomes while maintaining long-term negative returns, and in improving processing speed and efficiency to support advanced graphics and features, as well as enhancing gameplay with new animations to encourage prolonged player participation.
Innovation Solution
A gaming system that uses an electronic display to show locked and unlocked symbol arrays, where a stack of value-bearing symbols in an unlocked array can be held for subsequent spins, providing payouts for winning combinations and improving gameplay with enhanced animations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the game offers complex features, advanced graphics, and multiple bonus formats to improve entertainment value, then player engagement increases, but processing speed and efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The game display is segmented into multiple symbol arrays (e.g., 5x3 grids) that can be independently locked and unlocked. This segmentation allows the system to process and display symbols in discrete units, improving processing efficiency while maintaining complex game features and graphics.
Solution Approach 2:
Symbol stacks are pre-generated and held in memory before being displayed on the reels. This preliminary action allows the system to prepare graphical elements in advance, reducing real-time processing requirements and improving rendering speed during gameplay.
2Ease of operation
If the game provides random and volatile outcomes to create a feeling of luck, then player participation increases, but long-term return control becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
Different symbol arrays have different volatility characteristics. Some arrays may contain higher-value symbols or trigger bonuses more frequently, while others are more conservative. This local differentiation allows the game to provide varied luck experiences while maintaining overall return control through weighted distribution across arrays.
Solution Approach 2:
The game dynamically adjusts which symbol arrays are locked or unlocked based on game state, bet size, and random outcomes. This dynamic configuration allows the system to control volatility and returns in real-time while maintaining player engagement through varying luck experiences.
3Duration of action of moving object
If symbol stacks are held for multiple spins to improve player engagement, then gameplay duration increases, but processing and memory resource usage increases
Solution Approach 1:
Held symbol stacks are extracted from the main reel spin sequence and displayed separately in locked arrays. This extraction allows the system to reuse the same symbol graphics across multiple spins without regenerating them, reducing memory resource usage while extending gameplay duration.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates visual copies of held symbol stacks and displays them in locked arrays rather than physically storing multiple instances. This copying approach allows the same graphical data to be displayed across multiple spins, extending gameplay while minimizing actual memory resource consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a gaming system, gaming machine, and method that utilize an electronic display device configured to display a plurality of symbol arrays associated with respective sets of symbol-bearing reels. The arrays may be locked or unlocked. In response to a reel spin that generates a stack of value-bearing symbols in an unlocked array, a locked array is unlocked and the stack is held in its array for a number of subsequent reel spins, Payouts are provided for winning combinations of standard symbols and value-bearing symbols in the unlocked arrays.