Persistent Reel Tagging for Cluster-Based Gaming Awards
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The gaming industry faces challenges in balancing the long-term negative return on investment with short-term randomness and volatility to create a feeling of luck, while also enhancing game play with improved animations to encourage prolonged and frequent player participation.
Innovation Solution
A gaming system that includes a gaming machine with an electronic display and game-logic circuitry to animate symbol positions, spin and stop reels to land value-bearing symbols, award based on these symbols, and animate to untag tagged symbol positions, creating clusters for enhanced gameplay and awards.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the gaming apparatus uses random element generators to create short-term luck and volatility, then player engagement and participation are improved, but the long-term return on investment becomes increasingly negative
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-tags symbol positions before the reel spin, establishing predetermined outcomes and award triggers in advance. This preliminary action allows the random element generator to create short-term volatility and player engagement while the pre-determined tagging structure ensures long-term control over return on investment, resolving the contradiction between player excitement and financial sustainability
2Productivity
If the gaming apparatus provides frequent awards and volatile outcomes to create a feeling of luck, then player participation increases, but the complexity of game mechanics and animation systems increases
Solution Approach 1:
The game mechanics are segmented into distinct functional components: symbol tagging, reel spinning, award triggering, and cluster formation. Each component operates independently with clear rules, allowing frequent player participation through simple interactions while the underlying complexity is managed through modular system architecture rather than overwhelming game mechanics
3Adaptability or versatility
If the gaming apparatus uses cluster-based symbol interactions and animations to enhance gameplay, then player engagement is improved, but the computational resources and processing time required increase
Solution Approach 1:
Symbol positions are pre-tagged with potential award values before the spin occurs, and cluster relationships are pre-calculated based on the tagged positions. This preliminary computation of cluster formations eliminates the need for complex real-time calculations during the spin and award determination phases, reducing computational resource consumption while maintaining enhanced gameplay through cluster-based interactions
Data Source
AI summary
A gaming system comprises a gaming machine and game-logic circuitry. The gaming machine includes an electronic display device configured to display an array of symbol positions. The game-logic circuitry is configured to perform the operations of: spinning and stopping symbol-bearing reels to land one or more first value-bearing symbols borne by the reels in the array; animating the array to tag the symbol positions in which the first value-bearing symbols land; again spinning and stopping the symbol-bearing reels to land a second value-bearing symbol borne by the reels in one of the tagged symbol positions; awarding an award based on the value borne by the second value-bearing symbol; and animating the array to untag the one of the tagged symbol positions and any other ones of the tagged symbol positions that are in a cluster with the one of the tagged symbol positions.