Ratcheting Enhancer Objects in Gaming Machine Animations
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Solution Overview
Problem
The gaming industry faces challenges in creating gaming apparatus and games that balance yield versus randomness and volatility to encourage prolonged and frequent player participation, while also providing innovative animations to enhance gameplay experience.
Innovation Solution
A method of animating ratcheting objects paired with game symbols, where enhancer values persist across game cycles, enhancing win events, and resetting or incrementing these values to maintain engagement and excitement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of moving object
If enhancer values are made to persist across game cycles to enhance player engagement, then player participation duration increases, but game outcome predictability worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic enhancer values that change state across game cycles - persisting for certain symbols while resetting for others. This dynamic adjustment of parameters creates variable gameplay conditions that maintain player engagement while preserving underlying game integrity and predictability through controlled randomness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system modifies game parameters (enhancer values) based on game outcomes and cycle progression. By changing these parameters dynamically - incrementing them for non-winning symbols and resetting for winning symbols - the game maintains adaptability and player interest without compromising the fundamental random nature of game outcomes.
2Reliability
If random number generation is used to ensure fair game outcomes, then game fairness is improved, but player excitement and engagement worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates feedback mechanisms where game outcomes influence future game conditions through persistent enhancer values. Winning and non-winning outcomes trigger different enhancer behaviors, creating a feedback loop that adapts the game experience while maintaining fair random outcomes, thereby balancing fairness with player excitement.
Solution Approach 2:
The system prepares enhancer values in advance for different symbol types before game cycles begin. These pre-configured enhancers are then applied based on game outcomes, allowing the game to maintain structured fairness through predetermined rules while introducing excitement through variable enhancement effects on wins and losses.
3Productivity
If complex animation sequences are implemented to enhance gameplay experience, then player engagement improves, but device complexity worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the animation system into separate, independently controllable components - different animation sequences for winning versus non-winning outcomes, and distinct enhancer types for different symbol categories. This segmentation allows complex engagement-enhancing animations to be implemented through modular, manageable units rather than a monolithic complex system.
Data Source
AI summary
An example method of animating a set of ratcheting objects paired, via a persistent-enhancer table, with game symbols for a game. Each ratcheting object persists across a plurality of game cycles. The method further includes animating, for a first game cycle, an occurrence of a win event using a given game symbol. The method further includes animating an enhancement of a game feature associated with the win event using an enhancer value for one of the set of ratcheting objects that is paired respectively with the given game symbol. The method further includes, in response to animating the enhancement, animating a reset of the enhancer value to a default value. The method further includes animating an increment of each respective enhancer value for other ones of the set of ratcheting objects that were not used for the enhancement. The set of ratcheting objects persists to a subsequent second game cycle.