GAME

Abstract

A game is disclosed. The game includes two or more tiers or levels in which a player must achieve certain benchmarks or goals at each tier to advance to the next tier, whereby each tier of the game represents a certain phase or definable segment in a person's life based upon one or more of the following: career goals; personal goals; educational goals or geographic location.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a game and, in particular, to a game that has multiple tiers in which a player must achieve certain benchmarks or goals at each tier to advance to the next tier.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The invention may be better understood by referring to the following figures. The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. In the figures, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an implementation of titles that may be utilized in association with the game in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of the three tiers forming concentric circles on a playing field in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates examples of the goals that must be achieved at each tier in order to win the game in accordance with the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As noted above, the present invention is a game that includes two or more tiers or levels in which a player must achieve certain benchmarks or goals at each tier to advance to the next tier. Each tier of the game represents a certain phase or definable segment in a person's life based upon their career goals, personal goals, educational goals and optionally, their geographic location, among other things. At one or more of the tiers, there may be sub-tiers that provide players optional paths that may offer different benefits and/or drawbacks to the player, which may avail different options to a player and impact a player's ability to achieve certain goals in the current or future tiers.

The game may take the form of a board game or an electronic game that may be access or played on any electronic devices, including but not limited to a gaming device, mobile device or computer. The electronic game may be a network accessible and/or a downloadable game. In summary, those skilled in the art will recognize that the game may be developed and played in any medium, with one or more players.

One example implementation of the game is a game designed to mimic the life of an individual that lives in the Silicon Valley and that is attempting to cultivate an idea through funding, development and evidential initial public offering (i.e., an entrepreneur). In the illustrated game, the first tier is designed around the player holding a steady job. The second tier is centered around the player starting their own business and raising capital and the third tier is centered around the player taking the company to an initial public offering. In the illustrated example, during the first tier, subtiers or levels may, for example, be included to allow the player to earn an advance degree, take vacation, get married and have kids. Taking these paths may be an option, and may provide certain benefits to the player as the game is played out. As one example, additional salaries may be earned with advanced degrees.

FIG. 1 illustrates example tiles that may be utilized in each of the three tiers and respective sub-tiers of the game. The tiers may be illustrated in any format. FIG. 2 shows one example illustration of the three tiers forming concentric circles on a playing field. FIG. 3 illustrates examples of the goals that must be achieved at each tier in order to win the game. While the illustrated example show the tiers taking the form of circles, those skilled in the art will recognize that the tiers may be represented graphically in a number of different ways and should not be limited to the illustration of FIG. 2.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, each tier contains a number of tiles that individuals can land upon and that allows or requires certain actions that affect one's ability, both positively and negatively, to achieve set goals at each respective tier. To advance to the next tier, a certain set number of goals must be achieved. The goals may be the same for each player, may vary by player, and/or may vary for each game played.

As seen from FIG. 1, in the illustrated example, the individual at the first tier level has commenced their career and is attempting to save to pursue their own business plans. Once certain goals are met at the first level, the player may advance to the second tier level. In the second tier level, as one example, the individual may start his/her own company with the money that he or she saved in tier 1. In tier 2, the individual starts his business, hires employees and is required to meet certain goals or achievements to advance to tier 3. In tier 2, the individual is required to get third-party financing to fund his or her business idea. At tier 3, in this example, the player is required to take his company to an initial public offering. The player is also required, in addition to taking the company to an initial public offering, to achieve other landmarks or other goals to win the game. Once a player achieves and meets all of the goals designated at each level, the player has successfully won the game. The goals may be motivated entirely by money and/or by achievements, material possessions, personal goals or other advancements. The game may be created and established such that any number of obtainable, identifiable goals and/or objects may be required for advancement to the next level.

The example implementation shows an individual developing an idea into a business and then eventually taking the business to an initial public offering in the region of Silicon Valley. The game includes specific references to the culture of Silicon Valley and particular challenges that individuals face that are specific to the region. In other words, the game is implemented around the specific challenges and life experiences particular to Silicon Valley. Those skilled in the art will, however, recognize that the game may be implemented in any number of different ways to represent various life paths a person may take which may or may not be specific to a specific industry, time period in a person's life or geographic region.

For example, the game may be geared toward an aspiring actor or actress in Hollywood. The game may also be geared towards an aspiring musician and may start in one Tier by the band forming and getting their first show in a venue that sells a certain number of tickets. Tier 2 could include radio play and a record deal and tier 3 could require the band to be a headliner in a concert tour and achieve platinum record status. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the game may be designed to track many different careers, including, but not limited to, political careers.

The game may also be designed for players in specific age groups. For example, the game may be geared towards individuals moving into retirement. The game may further be geared towards high school students attempting to apply to, and be accepted at various colleges. The game could further be designed to trace a college student's life and their social and educational achievements. As another example, the game may be geared toward people with a certain hobby, such as traveling.

As mentioned earlier, the game may take the form of a board game or may be implemented as an electronic game, playable on a mobile device, a computer or a gaming or other electronic device. The game may be played and accessed through the Internet or a mobile network as a part of a social media or other web site to name a few examples. The game may further be designed with optional overlays to enhance the game play. Further, the game is designed to be interactive, include product placement and celebrity endorsements, and even further, to create virtual worlds where individual businesses are developed or careers are launched virtually for game play purposes.

As mentioned previously, the game may include various events, activities or occurrences that center around events that take place during the course of a person's life. These events may be reflected on a large scale by various tiers and on a more detailed level by tiles within the tiers. FIGS. 1 and 2 only illustrate one example of the how the game may be implemented. Various tiers and life experience may be reflected in the game and may vary by version, upgrades, overlays, to the game. Further, the game may be set in the current day, may be historic or may be futuristic.

Accordingly, it will be understood, and is appreciated by persons skilled in the art, that one or more processes, sub-processes, or process steps described in this application may be performed by hardware and/or software. If the process is performed by software, the software may reside in software memory (not shown) in a suitable electronic processing component or system. The software in software memory may include an ordered listing of executable instructions for implementing logical functions (that is, “logic” that may be implemented either in digital form such as digital circuitry or source code or in analog form such as analog circuitry or an analog source such an analog electrical, sound or video signal), and may selectively be embodied in any computer-readable medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system that may selectively fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. In the context of this disclosure, a “computer-readable medium” is any means that may contain, store or communicate the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The computer readable medium may selectively be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus or device. More specific examples, but nonetheless a non-exhaustive list, of computer-readable media would include the following: a portable computer diskette (magnetic), a RAM (electronic), a read-only memory “ROM” (electronic), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) (electronic) and a portable compact disc read-only memory “CDROM” (optical). Note that the computer-readable medium may even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via for instance optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted or otherwise processed in a suitable manner if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory.

It will be understood that various aspects or details of the invention may be changed without departing from the scope of the invention. Furthermore, the foregoing description is for the purpose of illustration only, and not for the purpose of limitation—the invention being defined by the claims.

Board Game Example Rules

As illustrated in FIGS. 2 & 3, when played as a board game, the game may comprises a planar board having a plurality of printed images on the board. The game may further include a plurality of player placeholders or game pieces and monetary units. To advance a game piece, any number of different randomizers may be utilized, including, but not limited to, dice, spinning wheels, and drawing cards. The game further comprises a plurality of landing panes or tiles that contain references to events associated with, in the illustrated example, entrepreneur culture. The landing tiles also contain instructions on movement of pieces on the board, awarding of game objects or money, interchange of items with other players, and modulation of game play, including turns. The landing tiles may also contain references to situations that require the player to make a decision related to entrepreneurial culture.

FIG. 1 provides examples of various instructions or game play options that may be utilized in connection with each tier and may appear on individual tiles. Sub tier instructions are also provided, and may be characterized as detours. The game may be implements such that the sub tiers are optional, required or both, depending upon game play.

Below is an example of rules that may be associated with game play for the game illustrated in FIGS. 1-3.

Pre-Game

Each player:

• • Takes $110,000
  • Takes one of each card to fill: Steady Job (blue) (Tier 1), Start-up (pink) (Tier 2), Venture Capital (green) (Tier 3)
  • Picks a playing piece (binder clip)
  • Puts it on the starting space
  • Rolls the two dice. The player with the highest roll goes first.

Fill your cards by taking a paper clip from the center of the board and clipping it to the edge. Place the stack of Marriage Licenses by the Family loop, and the Degrees by the School loop.

Game Play

You have a chance to make it big in Silicon Valley. You will have three cards, each with things to collect at different levels of a Silicon Valley life. The first player to fill up all three cards wins—and boy do they win big! Along the way you will face risks (lawsuits anyone?) and opportunity (did someone say Series B?) Game play for each level is a little different, so if you want to win, it'll behoove you to RTFM.

Steady Job (Blue) (Tier 1)

Your goal for this level is to make 3 important contacts, have 1 idea, and save up $100,000 for the next level. The cautious among you will want to save up even more for the perils ahead before venturing into the Start-up (pink) level.

• • Why is the blue level a funny shape?. Props to you for being observant. The main circle is where you play it safe, racking up pay days and going about the life of a typical salaried person in Silicon Valley. You will find that life in this circle becomes boring pretty quickly. In order to advance into the Start-up world, you must to take a few risks and take a side detours for some combination of School, Family, Conferencing and Vacation. The following is an overview of the detours and why a player would choose to go on one:
  • 1. School: In addition to a degree that makes Pay Days more lucrative, school is a great place to network.
  • 2. Family: While pricey, having a family offers a player the security of health insurance as well as an opportunity to have an Idea or two.
  • 3. Conferencing: A way to network—one you will find is much more affordable than school.
  • 4. Vacation: Who doesn't love vacation? What better way to clear your mind and have an idea?
  • In general, a space will tell you what to do if you land on it. We're going to assume that you're smart enough to follow those directions and will avoid talking about them here. This applies to spaces at every level.
  • If you land on a space with another player during the blue round, each player gets a networking piece.
  • If you run out of money, ask for a Pay Day from another player. You must pay back your Pay Day plus $5k before advancing to the next round.
  • If you don't like a space, the group can vote on better ones. We'd love to hear what you come up with! Please email your ideas to Kaitlin@paloaltoinstitute.org or Martini@pa-investors.com!

Startup (Pink) (Tier 2)

Your goal for this level is to cash out on a successful startup. To do so, your product will need 6 happy employees (at minimum), three publicity pieces, and one million downloads (4 pieces)

• • If you run out of money and cannot pay your employees, go back to the blue START spot and earn money by landing on Pay Day spots. Keep your Start-up card full (pink), and advance up to Startup level through either of the two level-up spaces as soon as you are comfortable with your level of savings.
  • You may Burn Out at some point, and have no choice but to take a vacation. Keep your Start-up card and move back up to the Startup level through either of the two level-up spaces at any time after your vacation.
  • You can go back to your Steady Job with no penalties to your Start-up card at any time through the gateways. You may want to earn some more steady Pay Days if you are tight on cash.
  • At this point, you'll be chomping at the bit to use the coolest piece in the game: your Start-up Pie. Lucky you—now it's time! Each pie piece represents 25% equity in your company. There are a number of funding opportunities that will allow you to sell one pie piece for a predetermined amount of money (Angel, Series A, Series B). Cashing in on one or two will keep you financially solvent, but be careful: sell too many and you'll be out of luck when you cash out and move up to the Venture Capital round. Each of those pieces will become worth $5,000,000 if you manage to take your company to an initial public offering or become acquired.
  • You may get lucky and receive funding in a Friends and Family round. In this case, you get to keep all of your remaining pie pieces.
  • If you land on a space with another player, you each get an employee.
  • Once your card is full, you may get to the next level either by becoming acquired or having an initial public offering.

Venture Capital (green)(Tier 3)

The first player to fill up his or her green card wins the game! In order to do so, you must purchase one mode of transportation, hire one employee, and have $10,000,000,000 dollars.

House Player

In another example of an implementation, the game may have a “play clock” whereby there is a player piece that is not controlled by any player, but controlled by the “house” or by the computer when implemented as an electronic game. This independent “player” moves along their own life sequence from youth to dotage, along their own path. The movement along each sequence can be driven by (1) a round of 1 turn for each player (or some similar consistent pattern), or (2) based on live players landing on a certain panel that instructs the “house” player to move. When the house player arrives at a certain position at the end of the path, then game could be considered over, and all the live players tally their winning units to determine the winner of the game.

In one example, the path for the house player, divided into landing panels, can be just a simple set of numbers or colors, or can contain wording that describes the milestones of the typical American. Or the milestone descriptions can be on the panel where a live player lands on their main board, and it allows the house player to move along their own independent path.

In this example, the live players are not only competing with each other, but also with a “house” player which may, in one example, be leading a different life than the other players. For example, in the entrepreneur implementation, the house may be a typical non-entrepreneur, not silicon valley friendly, living the rockwellian prototypical conventional American life—perhaps from the mid-west. It provides a sense that there is an inexorable progression of life in the background that involved virtually all of our friends from our home towns, and whom we get compared to. For instance, one of the landing panels could say “you get a xmas card from a friend back home with a picture of his wife, 2.1 kids, and a dog.” Meanwhile, the live players are still living on fumes and worthless stock options.

In one example, the milestone panels of the “house” player may include panels or tile with the following:

• • A friend back home graduates college on time.
  • A friend back home accepts entry-level job in large corporation.
  • A friend back home gets first year-end bonus.
  • You receive news that your home town friend is now engaged to a high school sweetheart.
  • A friend back home puts $10,000 down payment on starter home.
  • You receive invitation to a wedding from home town friend. You miss the wedding due to your busy schedule.
  • You receive a holiday card from your home town friend with a picture of 2.1 kids and a dog.
  • A friend back home receives a promotion at work.
  • A friend back home buys a home on 5 acres.
  • A friend back home joins local country club.
  • A friend back home sends kids off to college.
  • A friend back home qualifies for pension.
  • You receive invitation to the retirement party of a friend back home.

Other devices, apparatus, systems, methods, features and advantages of the invention will be or will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the accompanying claims.

The foregoing description of implementations has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not exhaustive and does not limit the claimed inventions to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above description or may be acquired from practicing the invention. The claims and their equivalents define the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A game that includes two or more tiers or levels in which a player must achieve certain benchmarks or goals at each tier to advance to the next tier, whereby each tier of the game represents a certain phase or definable segment in a person's life based upon one or more of the following: career goals; personal goals; educational goals or geographic location.

2. The game of claim 1, further including sub-tiers located at one or more tiers that provide players optional or required paths that offer different benefits and/or drawbacks to a player.