Patent Grant
11779848
This disclosure relates to providing and implementing an online game on individual client devices, in particular facilitating event implementation in the online game.
Game scripting languages that enable programmers and/or non-programmers alike to develop a new game for to customize an existing game is generally known in the art. Some game scripting languages allow users to create and populate data structures that are later consumed by the game engine. Such game scripting languages are often declarative and are either executed or parsed offline or at runtime when the data is loaded into memory. Some game scripting languages are intended to be executed within the context of the game engine at runtime. These languages are usually used to extend or customize the hard-coded functionality of the game engine's game object model and/or other game engine systems. Some examples of game scripting languages are QuakeC, unrealScript, Lua, and Python.
Some scripting languages allow game object types that have been implemented in the native language to be extended via script. Callbacks and event handlers are examples of this. An event handler is typically a special type of hook function whose purpose is to allow a game object to respond to some relevant occurrence within the game world (e.g., responding to an explosion going off) or within the engine itself (e.g., responding to an out-of-memory condition). Many game engines allow users to write event handler hooks in script as well as in the native language.
One aspect of the disclosure relates to facilitating implementation of events within an online game. Interfaces may be provided on client devices to enable users to provide award types such that instances of awards of user provided award types may be distributed to players within the online game. An award handler corresponding to a given award type provided by the user(s) may be stored and invoked by a game engine, and/or other components that execute scripts or functions of the online game to distribute instances of the awards of the award type to players within the online game. Similarly, intuitive interfaces may be provided on client devices to enable the users to create or modify events for implementation in the online game. Such interfaces may enable the users to provide event information such that the game engine, and/or components that execute scripts or functions of the online game s may automatically implement the events in accordance with the event information provided by the users. When providing event information for a given event, the users may be enabled by the interfaces to specify one or more instances of awards of the award types provided by the users as event awards to be distributed to the players participating in the given event, to specify award requirements for distributing the instances of the awards, and/or any other operations. In some examples, an event handler corresponding to a given event provided by the user(s) may be stored, and may include scripts or functions for implementing the given event. Such scripts or functions may be executed by the game engine for implementing the event within the online game automatically. This may facilitate developing and/or implementing the online game by users without requiring the users to recompile or redeploy the online game.
In some implementations, a system configured to facilitate implementation of events within an online game may include one or more servers, which may comprise one or more processors configured to execute machine-readable instructions. The one or more processors may comprise a game engine, an event controller, a messenger daemon, a delivery daemon, an event interface component, an event information component, an award interface component, an award information component, and/or any other components.
The game engine may be configured to execute user actions to facilitate interaction of the users with the online game and/or each other in response to receiving online game commands input by the users. Within the instance of the online game executed by the game engine, awards may be distributed to players. The distributed awards may induce changes to the online game state or other game related effects that make other goals easier to complete. Within the instance of the online game executed by game engine, events may be implemented for participation by the players. Typically, an event implemented in the online game may include one or more goals, objectives, targets, preset achievements (e.g., player levels), and/or other types of agenda for the players to achieve. Awards may be distributed to players at the end of a given event in the online game.
The event controller may be configured to control implementation of events in the online game based on event information provided by users. This may involve obtaining the event information from an event information database, determining one or more events are to be started in the online game, implementing the one or more events in the online game in accordance with the event information by updating the game interfaces on the client devices and/or updating one or more online game databases, updating results of event(s) that is currently is in session in the online game, ending event(s) that has finished as indicated by the event information, and/or any other operations. The event information based on which the events may be implemented by event controller may contain various details regarding the individual events to be implemented in the online game. In some implementations, the event information regarding a given event may include information indicating a corresponding event handler for implement the given event in the online game. Such an event handler may include a block or blocks of script code. The event controller may be configured to execute scripts, routines, programs, and/or any other type of directives or executables provided by provider, administrator, moderator, users, and/or any other entities related to the online game. The scripts, routines, programs and/or any other type of directives or executables that may be executed by the event controller may be for automatically implementing events in the online game, distributing and/or determining event awards to players within the online game, and/or for causing the event controller to perform any other operations.
The messenger daemon may be configured to transmit to client devices messages regarding the events implemented by the event controller. In some implementations, the messenger daemon may receive instructions from the event controller to transmit messages regarding a specific event implemented by the event controller. For example, the messenger daemon may receive a specific event announcement request from the event controller, and the received request may include the announcement message the event controller requests the messenger daemon to transmit to the client devices.
The delivery daemon may be configured to determine and/or distribute awards for the players participating in the events implemented by the event controller. This may involve instantiating Awards of corresponding award types, distributing the instances of the awards to the inventory of players, recording the awards that have been distributed to the players, and/or any other operations. In some implementations, the delivery daemon may determine and/or distribute awards to individual players based on award information regarding individual types of awards, which may be obtained from an event information database, a game database, and/or any kind of electronic storage related to the online game. In some implementations, the award information regarding a given type of award may include information indicating a corresponding award handler. Such an award handler may include a block or blocks of script code. For example, the award handler may be used by the delivery daemon to control award determination and/or distribution of instances of the award of the given type. The delivery daemon may be invoked by the event controller when implementing a given event to distribute one or more event awards to inventories of the players based on their rankings at the end of the event.
The event interface component may be configured to provide an interface on a client device enabling a player associated with the client device to provide event information, which may be used by the event controller to implement events in the online game.
The event information management component may be configured to manage event information provided by the users of the online game. Managing event information by the event information management component may include storing, retrieving, updating, deleting, backing up the event information provided by the users, and/or any other operations.
The award interface component may be configured to provide award interfaces on client devices to enable users to provide information regarding awards to be distributed within the online game.
The award information management component may be configured to manage award information provided by the users of the online game. Managing award information by the award information management component may include storing, retrieving, updating, deleting, backing up the award information provided by the users, and/or any other operations. For example, the award information management component may be configured to retrieve award information in response to a request from the even controller and/or the delivery daemon as described above.
These and other features and characteristics of the present technology, as well as the methods of operation and functions of the related elements of structure and the combination of parts and economies of manufacture, will become more apparent upon consideration of the following description and the appended claims with reference to the accompanying drawings, all of which form a part of this specification, wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding parts in the various figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that the drawings are for the purpose of illustration and description only and are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention. As used in the specification and in the claims, the singular form of “a”, “an”, and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
The game engine 124 may be configured to execute an instance of the online game. The instance of the online game executed by the game engine 124 may be implemented by client computing platforms 104 for presentation to and interaction by the users of the online game. Within the instance of the online game executed by the game engine 124, users may interact with elements in the online game and/or with each other through gameplays provided by the online game. The gameplays may include role-playing, first-person shooter, real-time strategy, turn-based strategy, simulation, music or rhythm playing, card playing, board game, social interaction, twitching, and/or any other gameplays. The execution of the instance of the online game by game engine 124 may include determining a state associated with the online game. The state may be communicated (e.g., via streaming visual data, object/position data, and/or other state information) from server 102 to client computing platforms 104 for presentation to users. The state determined and transmitted to a given client computing platform 104 may correspond to a view for a user character being controlled by a user via the given client computing platform 104. The state determined and transmitted to a given client computing platform 104 may correspond to a location in a online game associated with the online game. The view described by the state for the given client computing platform may correspond, for example, to the location from which the view is taken, the location the view depicts and/or other locations, a zoom ratio, a dimensionality of objects, a point-of-view, and/or view parameters of the view. One or more of the view parameters may be selectable by the user.
The instance of the online game may be persistent. That is, the online game may continue on whether or not individual users are currently logged in and/or participating in the online game. A user that logs out of the online game and then logs back in some time later may find the online game associated with the online game has been changed through the interactions of other users with the online game during the time the user was logged out. These changes may include changes to the simulated physical space, changes in the user's inventory, changes in other users' inventories, changes experienced by non-user characters, and/or other changes.
The instance of the online game may comprise a simulated online game, e.g., a online game that is accessible by users via clients (e.g., client computing platforms 104) that present the views of the online game to a user. The online game may have a topography, express ongoing real-time interaction by one or more users, and/or include one or more objects positioned within the topography that are capable of locomotion within the topography. In some instances, the topography may be a two-dimensional topography. In other instances, the topography may be a three-dimensional topography. The topography may include dimensions of the space and/or surface features of a surface or objects that are “native” to the space. In some instances, the topography may describe a surface (e.g., a ground surface) that runs through at least a substantial portion of the space. In some instances, the topography may describe a volume with one or more bodies positioned therein (e.g., a simulation of gravity-deprived space with one or more celestial bodies positioned therein). The instance executed by the computer components may be synchronous, asynchronous, and/or semi-synchronous.
The instance of the online game may comprise online game entities automatically controlled in the instance of the online game. Such online game entities may not be associated with any user. As such, the automatically controlled online game entities may be generated and/or developed by artificial intelligence configured with the server 102 by provider(s), administrator(s), moderator(s), and/or any other entities related to the online game. These automatically controlled entities may evolve within the online game associated with the online game free from user controls and may interact with the entities controlled by or associated with the users, other automatically controlled online game entities, as well as the topography of the online game. Certain manifested traits may be associated with the automatically controlled entities in accordance with the artificial intelligence configured with the server 102.
The above description of the manner in which the state of the online game associated with the online game as determined by game engine 124 is not intended to be limiting. The game engine 124 may be configured to express the online game in a more limited, or richer, manner. For example, views determined for the online game representing the state of the instance of the online game may be selected from a limited set of graphics depicting an event in a given place within the online game. The views may include additional content (e.g., text, audio, pre-stored video content, and/or other content) that describes particulars of the current state of the place, beyond the relatively generic graphics. For example, a view may include a generic battle graphic with a textual description of the opponents to be confronted. Other expressions of individual places within the online game are contemplated. As another example, the online game may be simply expressed as a background for card playing actions, e.g., simple art depicting a table top. As yet another example, the online game may be expressed as a game board on which game pieces associated with the users may be moved.
Within the instance of the online game executed by game engine 124, the users may participate in the instance of the online game by controlling one or more of an element in the online game associated with the online game. The user-controlled elements may include avatars, online game characters, online game units (e.g., troops), objects (e.g., weapons, horses, vehicle and so on), simulated physical phenomena (e.g., wind, rain, earthquakes, and/or other phenomena), and/or other user-controlled elements. The user-controlled avatars may represent the users in the online game. The user characters may include heroes, knights, commanders, leaders, generals, and/or any other online game entities that may possess strength, skills, abilities, magic powers, knowledge, and/or any other individualized attributes. The online game units controlled by the user may include troops and/or any other online game entities that may be trained, recruited, captured, and/or otherwise acquired by the users in groups or en-mass. The objects controlled by the users may include weapons, vehicles, projectiles, magic items, wardrobes, boots, armor, knapsacks, medicine, healing potions, and/or any other virtual items that may be employed by the users for interaction within the online game.
In any case, the user-controlled elements may move through and interact with the online game (e.g., the automatically controlled entities, elements controlled by other users, and/or topography in the online game) associated with the online game. The elements controlled by a given user may be created and/or customized by the given user. The given user may have an “inventory” of virtual goods and/or currency usable within the online game.
Controls of virtual elements in the online game may be exercised through commands inputted by a given user through client computing platforms 104. The given user may interact with other users through communications exchanged within the online game. Such communications may include one or more of textual chat, instant messages, private messages, voice communications, and other communications (if any). Communications may be received and entered by the users via their respective client computing platforms 104. Communications may be routed to and from the appropriate users through server 102 (e.g., through game engine 124).
A given user may input commands with specific parameters to undertake specific deeds, actions, functions, spheres of actions, and/or any other types of interactions within the online game. For example, the given user may input commands to construct, upgrade, and/or demolish virtual buildings; harvest and/or gather virtual resources; heal virtual user-controlled elements, automatically controlled entities, and/or elements controlled by other users; train, march, transport, reinforce, reassign, recruit, and/or arrange troops; attack, manage, create, demolish, and/or defend cities, realms, kingdoms, and/or any other online game locations controlled by or associated with the users; craft or transport virtual items; interact with and/or compete against or along with non-user entities and/or online game elements controlled by other users in combats; research technologies and/or skills; mine and/or prospect for virtual resources; complete missions, quests, and/or campaigns; exercise magic power and/or cast spells; draw and/or deal cards; move pieces on a game board; and/or perform any other specific deeds, actions, functions, or sphere of actions within the online game. In some examples, the given user may input commands to compete against elements in an environment within the online game—i.e., User vs. Environment (PvE) activities. In some examples, the given user may input commands to compete against each other within the online game—i.e., User vs. User (PvP) activities.
The game engine 124 may be configured to execute user actions to facilitate interaction of the users with the online game and/or each other in response to receiving online game commands input by the users. Execution of the user action by the game engine 124 may produce changes to the game state, which may reflect progression and/or results of the user actions. In some examples, state changes caused by the execution of the user actions may be recorded in the electronic storage 110 to facilitate persistency throughout the instance of the online game. In some examples, execution of the user actions may not produce persistent changes to the game state (e.g., a user character jumping forward and backward successively may not produce any perceivable game state changes to other users).
Within the instance of the online game, virtual currencies may be provided to store and/or exchange of online game values. Units of the virtual currencies (for example, gold, gem, silver, coin, token, and/or any other types of virtual currencies) may reflect online game values as determined by a provider, administrator, moderator, user, and/or any other entities related to the online game. Through one or more units of virtual currencies, online game values may be captured, stored, and circulated in the online game. As one non-limiting example, combinations of user actions, skills, virtual items, time, and/or any other online game elements may be captured, stored, and circulated through virtual currencies to reflect online game values created by user labor in interacting with the online game. For instance, a user may be provided 1,000 gems after prospecting and mining for the gems in the online game for a period of time with certain required mining equipment operable only by a skilled online game miner, which the user has expanded labor to become.
Within the instance of the online game executed by the game engine 124, virtual currencies may be collected, earned, purchased, gifted, or otherwise acquired by the users. For example, the users may purchase the virtual currencies with real-world money consideration (e.g., credit payment through credit card, electronic vouchers provided by the provider of the online game, physical tokens, and/or any other types of real-world currencies) through a virtual store. The users may earn the virtual currencies, for example through gameplays provided in the online game (e.g., PvP activities, PvE activities, in-game tournaments, tasks, quests, missions, and/or any other gameplays in the online game). By way of non-limiting example, a given user may earn a predetermined amount of virtual currencies after completing an in-game task in the online game. In some examples, the provider of the online game may simply make a certain amount of virtual currencies available to the users, for instance through treasure troves in the online game such that the users may gratuitously collect the virtual currencies by exploring for the treasure troves. In some other examples, the users may acquire virtual currencies by receiving gifts that comprise virtual currencies from other users. One of ordinary skills in the art will appreciate that there are other ways for the users to acquire virtual currencies in the online game.
Within the instance of the online game executed by the game engine 124, resources may be, for example, generated, cultivated, mined, harvested, purchased, earned, consumed, traded, and/or gifted over time by units, characters, pets, buildings, facilities, and/or any other infrastructure or entity in the online game for the user. Resources may be prospected. Resources may be virtual items of value that can be accumulated through participation in the online game, rather than virtual currencies that store values in the online game as described above. As such, resources may be used to satisfy resource requirements in the online game. By way of non-limiting examples, online game resources may include food (e.g., rice, fish, wheat, etc.), minerals (e.g., wood, iron, ore, coal, oil, stone, crystal, etc.), plants, animals, and/or any other resources appropriate for the online game. Transfer of resources between users may be reflected through user inventories such that the transferor user's inventory reduces an amount of the transferred resources that are added to the transferee user.
Within the instance of the online game executed by the game engine 124, awards may be distributed to players. The distributed awards may induce changes to the online game state or other game related effects that make other goals easier to complete. Awards may be divided into awards that affect gameplay and those that are extra-game consequences, typically winning the game or winning a bet based on the game. The distributed awards may be redeemed and/or accessed within online game. Awards that can be redeemed and/or accessed within the online game, or in-game awards, may include, for example, improved or new abilities, improved rankings or levels, virtual items, new player characters, virtual currency, redeemable services within the game space, and/or other type of Awards.
Within the instance of the online game executed by game engine 124, events may be implemented for participation by the players. Typically, an event implemented in the online game may include one or more goals, objectives, targets, preset achievements (e.g., player levels), and/or other types of agenda for the players to achieve. The event may specify one or more locations within the online game the event is to take place; an event period; one or more player criteria the event requires participating players to have; one or more in-game actions involved in the event; one or more resources required for participation in the event; and/or any other event specifics. For example, by way of illustration, an event may be implemented in the online game for players to reach a production goal, e.g., to produce 1000 pieces lumber within the next hour. As another example, a racing event may be implemented in the online game such that top 12 ranked players are invited to the event to compete in a virtual car race at a selected race track in the online game. Still as another example, a tournament event may be implemented in the online game such that teams of players may compete against each other in the tournament until a winner is determined. Other examples of events that may be implemented in the online game are contemplated. Awards may be distributed to players at the end of a given event in the online game. For example, a virtual item, virtual currency, new abilities, new skills, and/or certain amount of points in the online game may be distributed to participating players who have achieved certain results at the end of given event. For example, the first 10 players that have reached certain ranks in the online game during an event period may be awarded with a highly demanded virtual item usable in the online game.
The event controller 126 may be configured to control implementation of events in the online game based on event information provided by users. This may involve obtaining the event information from an event information database, determining one or more events are to be started in the online game, implementing the one or more events in the online game in accordance with the event information by updating the game interfaces on the client devices and/or updating one or more online game databases, updating results of event(s) that is currently is in session in the online game, ending event(s) that has finished as indicated by the event information, and/or any other operations. The event controller 126 may be configured to execute scripts, routines, programs, and/or any other type of directives or executables provided by provider, administrator, moderator, users, and/or any other entities related to the virtual space. The scripts, routines, programs and/or any other type of directives or executables that may be executed by the event controller may be for implementing events in the online game, distributing and/or determining event awards to players within the online game, and/or for causing the game engine 124 to perform any other operations.
By way of example, the event controller 126 may obtain the event information regarding a given event to be implemented in the online game, generate instructions to one or more other components of game engine 124 (e.g., such as the messenger daemon 128 shown in
As will be discussed below, the event information based on which the events may be implemented by event controller 126 may contain various details regarding the individual events to be implemented in the online game. By way of illustration, the event information regarding a given event may include information such as the start and end time of the given event within the online game, one or more requirements of the given event, update interval (e.g., how often the result of the event is to be updated), one or more awards to be distributed to the players participating in the given event, one or more locations of the event in the online game, one or more criteria for participating in the given event, one or more objectives of the given event, and/or any other event information. Below is one example of event information used in one embodiment for controlling implementation of an event in the online game in accordance with the present disclosure.
In some implementations, the event information regarding a given event may include information indicating a corresponding event handler for implement the given event in the online game. Such an event handler may include a block or blocks of script code that can be executed by the game engine 124 shown in
For example, without limitation, a race event handler may be created to implement event functionality specific to the race event such as rank calculation of the race event, reporting player performance metrics after each race in the race event, determine specific awards for distribution to the participating players based on the result of the event and/or any other functionality specific to the race event; a production competition event handler may be created to execute event functionality specific to the production competition such as production accounting of the individual players during the production competition event. Other examples are contemplated.
By way of example, without limitation, the event controller 126 may be configured to retrieve event information 202 regarding a race event to be started at a specific point of time, e.g., T, in the online game, and to be ended at time T+t in the online game. The event information may specify the result of the race event is to be updated every hour during the event period. The event information 202 may specify a location of a race event handler 204 may be used by the event controller 126 to start the race event, and/or to update the results of the race event for presentation in the game interface 206 provided on client device 104. At time T, the event controller 126 may start the race event by invoking the race event handler, which may instigate a specific race event setup routine in the online game. Once the race event is started at time T, the event controller 126 may update the result of the race event once every hour by invoking the specific race update event routine provided by the race event handler.
Returning to
In some implementations, the messenger daemon 128 may receive instructions from the event controller 126 to transmit messages regarding a specific event implemented by the event controller 126. For example, the messenger daemon 128 may receive an event announcement request from the event controller 126, and the received request may include the announcement message the event controller 126 requests the messenger daemon 128 to transmit to the client devices 104. In that example, the messenger daemon 128 may extract the event announcement message from the event announcement request and transmit it to the client devices 104. In some implementations, the event controller 126 may be configured to request the messenger daemon 128 once in every certain period, for example—every hour, to transmit event update messages to the client devices 104. The event update messages may include information indicating the progress of the event in the online game, current player rankings in the event, one or more highlights that have taken place in the event, and/or any other event update information.
The delivery daemon 130 may be configured to determine and/or distribute awards for the players participating in the events implemented by the event controller 126. This may involve instantiating awards of corresponding award types, distributing the instances of the awards to the inventory of players, recording the awards that have been distributed to the players, and/or any other operations. In some examples, this may involve dynamically obtaining for a given player for a given rank at the end of the event period; and distributing an award to the given player's inventory based on the given rank. For example, in a case where a given player achieves a fourth place rank at the end of the event period, an award may be distributed to the player's inventory based on the rank achieved by the given player; and, by comparison, if the given player achieves a second place rank at the end of that event period, a different award may be distributed to the given player by the delivery daemon 130 for awarding the given player achieving the second place rank in the event; and so on. In some examples, the award distributed to the player inventories by the delivery daemon 130 may be in accordance with one or more award tables, conversion tables, and/or any other award schemes predetermined by the provider, administrator, moderator, and/or any other entities related to the online game. For example, an award table may be predetermined by the provider of the online game to specify different Awards for the first place rank, second place rank, third place rank, and so on.
In some implementations, the delivery daemon 130 may determine and/or distribute awards to individual players based on award information regarding individual types of awards, which may be obtained from an event information database, a game database, and/or any kind of electronic storage related to the online game. The award information regarding a given type of award may specify information including name, quantity, time and/or frequency of distribution, graphical representation, and/or any other award information for distributing instances of awards of the given award type to players within the online game. By way of illustration, award information regarding a rare virtual item may specify the name of the award (e.g., medal of honor), the quantity of the virtual item distributed as the award (e.g., one), graphical representation of the award (e.g., a piece of art representing a medal), and/or any other information. The delivery daemon 130 may obtain such award information and instantiate instances of the awards in accordance with the award information.
In some implementations, the award information regarding a given type of award may include information indicating a corresponding award handler. Such an award handler may include a block or blocks of script code that may be executed by the game engine 124. For example, the award handler may be used by the delivery daemon 130 to control award determination and/or distribution of the instances of the award of the given type. For example, an award handler of mystery box award type may be configured to open the mystery box and perform the stochastic distribution of the mystery box after it is awarded to the user. As another example, an award handler of a Gacha spin tokens may be configured to deposit the awarded Gacha spin tokens into a Gacha box for a player in the online game after the Gacha spin tokens are awarded to the player. Still as another example, an award handler of a resource hold limit may be configured to increase the limit the player may hold his/her resources after an award to increase resource hold limit is awarded to the player. Yet as another example, an award handler of a player level increase award may be configured to increase the player level in the online game after an award of level increase is awarded to the player in the online game. Other examples are contemplated.
Below is an exemplary award handler (Redeemer) configured to handle award (elite car) distribution to players within the online game.
As shown
The delivery daemon 130 may be invoked by the event controller 126 when implementing a given event to distribute one or more event awards to inventories of the players based on their rankings at the end of the event. For example, the event controller 126 may invoke the delivery daemon 130 at the end of an event executed by the event controller 16 to have the delivery daemon 130 distribute one or more event awards to top ranked players in the event. In response to such a request from the event controller 126, the delivery daemon 130 may distribute the event awards.
Returning to
The event interface component may be configured to provide an interface on a client device 104 enabling a player associated with the client device 104 to provide event information 202, which may be used by the event controller 126 to implement events in the online game.
Returning to
The award interface component 116 may be configured to provide award interfaces on client devices 104 to enable users to provide information regarding awards to be distributed within the online game.
Returning to
The servers 102 and 122, client computing platforms 104, and/or external resources 106 may be operatively linked via one or more electronic communication links. For example, such electronic communication links may be established, at least in part, via a network such as the Internet and/or other networks. It will be appreciated that this is not intended to be limiting, and that the scope of this disclosure includes implementations in which servers 102, client computing platforms 104, and/or external resources 106 may be operatively linked via some other communication media.
A given client computing platform 104 may include one or more processors configured to execute computer program components. The computer program components may be configured to enable an expert or user associated with the given client computing platform 104 to interface with system 100 and/or external resources 106, and/or provide other functionality attributed herein to client computing platforms 104. By way of non-limiting example, the given client computing platform 104 may include one or more of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a handheld computer, a tablet computing platform, a NetBook, a Smartphone, a gaming console, and/or other computing platforms.
The external resources 106 may include sources of information, hosts and/or providers of virtual environments outside of system 100, external entities participating with system 100, and/or other resources. In some implementations, some or all of the functionality attributed herein to external resources 106 may be provided by resources included in system 100.
The server 102 may include electronic storage 110, one or more processors 108, and/or other components. The server 102 may include communication lines or ports to enable the exchange of information with a network and/or other computing platforms. Illustration of server 102 in
Electronic storage 110 may comprise electronic storage media that electronically stores information. The electronic storage media of electronic storage 110 may include one or both of system storage that is provided integrally (i.e., substantially non-removable) with server 102 and/or removable storage that is removably connectable to server 102 via, for example, a port (e.g., a USB port, a FireWire port, etc.) or a drive (e.g., a disk drive, etc.). Electronic storage 110 may include one or more of optically readable storage media (e.g., optical disks, etc.), magnetically readable storage media (e.g., magnetic tape, magnetic hard drive, floppy drive, etc.), electrical charge-based storage media (e.g., EEPROM, RAM, etc.), solid-state storage media (e.g., flash drive, etc.), and/or other electronically readable storage media. The electronic storage 110 may include one or more virtual storage resources (e.g., cloud storage, a virtual private network, and/or other virtual storage resources). Electronic storage 110 may store software algorithms, information determined by processor 108, information received from server 102, information received from client computing platforms 104, and/or other information that enables server 102 to function as described herein.
Processor(s) 108 and processor(s) 122 are configured to provide information processing capabilities in server 102 and server 120, respectively. As such, processor 108 and/or processor 122 may include one or more of a digital processor, an analog processor, a digital circuit designed to process information, an analog circuit designed to process information, a state machine, and/or other mechanisms for electronically processing information. Although processor 108 and processor 122 is shown in
It should be appreciated that although components 112, 114, 116, 118, 124126, 128 and 130 are illustrated in
In some embodiments, method 700 may be implemented in one or more processing devices (e.g., a digital processor, an analog processor, a digital circuit designed to process information, an analog circuit designed to process information, a state machine, and/or other mechanisms for electronically processing information). The one or more processing devices may include one or more devices executing some or all of the operations of method 700 in response to instructions stored electronically on an electronic storage medium. The one or more processing devices may include one or more devices configured through hardware, firmware, and/or software to be specifically designed for execution of one or more of the operations of method 700.
At an operation 702, an instance of an online game may be executed. In some implementations, operation 702 may be performed by a game engine the same as or similar to game engine 124 (shown in
At an operation 704, award information may be received from the users of the online game hosted in operation 702. The award information received at operation 704 may define types of in-game awards to be distributed to players within the online game. For example, award information for awarding a virtual item to players within the online game may be provided by a user of the online game, which may include administrator, moderator, programming, developer, and/or any other entities related to the online game. In some implementations, operation 704 may be performed by an award information management component the same as or similar to award information management component 118 (shown in
At an operation 706, award handlers corresponding to the award information received at operation 704 may be stored. In some implementations, the award information regarding a given type of award as received at operation 704 may include information indicating a corresponding award handler. The corresponding award handler may be used by a game engine to control award determination and/or delivery for instances of the award of the given type in the instance of the online game executed in at operation 706. For example, an award handler of mystery box award type may be configured to open the mystery box and perform the stochastic distribution of the mystery box after it is awarded to the user. Operation 706 may be performed by an award information management component the same as or similar to award information management component 118 (shown in
At an operation 708, event information may be received from players for implementing events in the online game. The event information received from the players at operation 708 may include event award information indicating instance(s) of an award of a given award type defined by the award information received at operation 706. In some implementations, operation 708 may be performed by an event information management component the same as or similar to event information management component 114 (shown in
At an operation 710, an event may be implemented in accordance with the event information received at operation 708. In some implementations, operation 708 may be performed by event controller the same as or similar to event controller 126 (shown in
At an operation 712, one or more awards may be distributed to participating players of the event implemented at operation 710 in accordance with the event information received at operation 708. In some implementations, operation 712 may be performed by a delivery daemon the same as or similar to delivery daemon 130 (shown in
Although the present technology has been described in detail for the purpose of illustration based on what is currently considered to be the most practical and preferred implementations, it is to be understood that such detail is solely for that purpose and that the technology is not limited to the disclosed implementations, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover modifications and equivalent arrangements that are within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. For example, it is to be understood that the present technology contemplates that, to the extent possible, one or more features of any implementation can be combined with one or more features of any other implementation.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6755742 | Hartman | Jun 2004 | B1 |
| 8257177 | Saund | Sep 2012 | B1 |
| 8267792 | Buchholz | Sep 2012 | B2 |
| 8366554 | Yuan | Feb 2013 | B1 |
| 9168459 | Delaet | Oct 2015 | B1 |
| 9440143 | Wakeford | Sep 2016 | B2 |
| 9539509 | Delaet | Jan 2017 | B2 |
| 9623322 | Wakeford | Apr 2017 | B1 |
| 9744454 | Delaet | Aug 2017 | B1 |
| 10193999 | Howell | Jan 2019 | B1 |
| 10498860 | Howell | Dec 2019 | B2 |
| 10702780 | Howell | Jul 2020 | B2 |
| 10709977 | Delaet | Jul 2020 | B2 |
| 10938959 | Howell | Mar 2021 | B2 |
| 20030031062 | Tsurugai | Feb 2003 | A1 |
| 20060079329 | Yamada | Apr 2006 | A1 |
| 20060189388 | Hartman | Aug 2006 | A1 |
| 20070294387 | Martin | Dec 2007 | A1 |
| 20080057894 | Aleksic | Mar 2008 | A1 |
| 20080146338 | Bernard | Jun 2008 | A1 |
| 20090197684 | Arezina | Aug 2009 | A1 |
| 20100004045 | Roemer | Jan 2010 | A1 |
| 20100135544 | Mattiuzzi | Jun 2010 | A1 |
| 20100162207 | Nathan | Jun 2010 | A1 |
| 20110086701 | D'Amico | Apr 2011 | A1 |
| 20110263332 | Mizrachi | Oct 2011 | A1 |
| 20120015740 | Vanbragt | Jan 2012 | A1 |
| 20120036003 | Tong | Feb 2012 | A1 |
| 20120123570 | Guinn | May 2012 | A1 |
| 20120283008 | Martone | Nov 2012 | A1 |
| 20130172076 | Bramble | Jul 2013 | A1 |
| 20130225282 | Williams | Aug 2013 | A1 |
| 20130273996 | Froy | Oct 2013 | A1 |
| 20130303288 | Mccoy | Nov 2013 | A1 |
| 20130304584 | Mccoy | Nov 2013 | A1 |
| 20130310084 | Irish | Nov 2013 | A1 |
| 20130316811 | Azuma | Nov 2013 | A1 |
| 20130324056 | Maguire | Dec 2013 | A1 |
| 20130326374 | Harvey | Dec 2013 | A1 |
| 20140039990 | Georgi | Feb 2014 | A1 |
| 20140258474 | Kim | Sep 2014 | A1 |
| 20140370969 | Lemay | Dec 2014 | A1 |
| 20150005055 | Alderucci | Jan 2015 | A1 |
| 20150011277 | Wakeford | Jan 2015 | A1 |
| 20150045105 | Leslie | Feb 2015 | A1 |
| 20150194013 | Herold | Jul 2015 | A1 |
| 20160038835 | Delaet | Feb 2016 | A1 |
| 20160292810 | Fine | Oct 2016 | A1 |
| 20160309292 | Kerr | Oct 2016 | A1 |
| 20170103410 | Kerr | Apr 2017 | A1 |
| 20180365935 | Howell | Dec 2018 | A1 |
| 20190143210 | Delaet | May 2019 | A1 |
| 20190149637 | Howell | May 2019 | A1 |
| 20200084298 | Howell | Mar 2020 | A1 |
| 20200330865 | Delaet | Oct 2020 | A1 |
| 20200330879 | Howell | Oct 2020 | A1 |
| 20210176343 | Howell | Jun 2021 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 2498789 | Mar 2004 | CA |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20220219088 A1 | Jul 2022 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16920567 | Jul 2020 | US |
| Child | 17707680 | US | |
| Parent | 16115305 | Aug 2018 | US |
| Child | 16920567 | US | |
| Parent | 14965742 | Dec 2015 | US |
| Child | 16115305 | US |
