Patent Application
20220305838
The disclosed subject matter is directed generally to published and digital materials with the purpose of guiding a player or players through a number of gamebook and or activity book activities.
Gamebooks and activity books have presented a familiar set of experiences such as sudoku, word play, crosswords, mazes, coloring books, or other such fun activity, for many years now. A person may grab a pencil and a gamebook and have an entertaining experience. However, it is hard for a player of such a gamebook to have a more interactive experience such as that provided by a board game or video game with a gamebook without adding dice, cards, or other external mechanics to the gamebook to enable random experiences and ever changing game play.
Some gamebooks do enable and provide for more interactive experiences by encapsulating complex rules in their pages, and requiring a player to provide their own additional objects, such as note paper, grid paper, various dice, playing pieces, to fully experience the game. Role playing game rule books are one such example of this approach to more interactive gamebooks. However, such gamebooks do not provide a fully contained experience in the book itself.
Video games have commonly provided such interactive experiences to players—such as “rogue-like” games wherein a player traverses a dungeon or other such game world, and randomly generated numbers determine the type of encounters, items, monsters, and other such elements of the game. Players can then experience an infinite number of fun experiences from a single such game algorithm. However, gamebooks have not been able to provide such an experience to players.
According to an implementation of the disclosed subject matter, a gamebook may be created that enables a player to experience a randomly generated game. The gamebook may consist of a binding enclosure containing, in order, a series of pages containing game maps and game instructions, a spinner mechanism, and a pullout page that unfolds to extend beyond the border of the binding enclosure when unfolded. The gamebook may further have a binding mechanism that enables adding and removing game maps and instructions to play different types of games (or art activities, and so on).
If we are looking at an open gamebook, the spinner mechanism and game instruction pages may be positioned on the right hand side of the book taking up the upper third of the book layout, with the game maps on the right hand side taking up the bottom two thirds such that both are visible at the same time. The pullout page may then unfold to extend beyond the binding enclosure to the right or left.
The spinner mechanism may present a spinner with an arrow or other such indicator that can be spun by the player to randomly select an outcome. The outcomes may be printed on various game instruction pages, or may be provided in markings underneath the spinner area. The spinner mechanism may be constructed of wood, plastic, thick paper, cardboard, or other rigid material and may provide additional rigidity to better enable drawing on the gamebook. The spinner mechanism may further contain raised elements that may be used to provide support to the game instruction and map pages.
The game instructions pages may be separated from the game map pages such that the player may switch (paginate) between different instruction pages while remaining on the same game map page. Some of the game instruction pages may have cutouts to enable them to be overlaid on the spinner mechanism, such that a player may spin the spinner and have it point to one of the instructions on the instruction page.
The pullout page may include moveable indicators to track a player's game statistics such as health. Such indicators may be implemented using paperclips, magnets, or using more complex paper mechanisms such as pull-out tabs or spinning wheels.
The game map pages may be printed with grids or other game activity templates that enable game play in coordination with the instruction pages.
A player playing this gamebook would do so as follows. First, they open the book, unfolding the pullout page to display their game metrics (health and equipped items). They then read the game overview and instructions on the first few full sized pages, then arrive at the first page with game maps and game instructions. Finally they begin to spin the spinner to determine what map tile to draw in the next open position, after which they draw that map tile in themselves using a pen, pencil, or other such writing device. They continue spinning the spinner to discover what to draw on the map, and have their character navigate the map as possible based upon obstructions and other game play elements.
A gamebook may contain many single page games, or it may contain complex games spanning multiple pages of maps and instructions. A simple game might be a game where players spin to discover the next map tile to place, with the goal to construct a path from one location on the map to another. A more complex game might be a game where players explore a world of grasslands, swamps, deserts, mountains, forests, and caves, with maps linking to one another via “magic portals” and “caves”, and the game instructions detailing the method of creating the map varying depending on complex rules across multiple instruction pages. More complex games may include elements of discovering and or equipping items, encountering and or fighting monsters and other characters, and leveling up as players successfully navigate the game. In this way, a complex game may be equivalent to a paper based video game.
A gamebook as described here may also be created and presented to players digitally, such that a web or mobile application is created to replicate the experience of playing the physical gamebook. This digital gamebook may include the spinner mechanism with the game instructions overlaid around the spinner, and the game map underneath. Digital pagination and other methods of switching between instructions and map pages may be provided to players. As a digital device may not provide the ability to unfold a page beyond the device (as the pullout page does in the physical book), the digital version of the gamebook may present these in modal dialogs or other graphical user experience methods as appropriate to play the gamebook on a limited device screen.
Additional features, advantages, and implementations of the disclosed subject matter may be set forth or apparent from consideration of the following detailed description, drawings, and claims. Moreover, it is to be understood that both the foregoing summary and the following detailed description are exemplary and are intended to provide further explanation without limiting the scope of the claims.
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosed subject matter, are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings also illustrate implementations of the disclosed subject matter and together with the detailed description serve to explain the principles of implementations of the disclosed subject matter. No attempt is made to show structural details in more detail than may be necessary for a fundamental understanding of the disclosed subject matter and various ways in which it may be practiced.
A gamebook with a spinner mechanic is provided herein. The gamebook may enable a player to enact a number of different games incorporating an element of chance via the included spinner mechanic. The element of chance may be applied to the gamebook activity via instruction pages that are placed over the spinner mechanic, or other instructions included elsewhere in the gamebook. The player may track their progress in a game or activity using map pages or pullout pages in the gamebook.
According to an implementation disclosed herein, a gamebook may contain zero or more single page activities, or it may contain zero or more complex activities spanning multiple pages of maps and instructions. A simple activity might be a game where players spin to discover the next map tile to place, with the goal to construct a path from one location on the map to another. A more complex activity might be a game where players explore a world of grasslands, swamps, deserts, mountains, forests, and caves, with maps linking to one another via “magic portals” and “caves”, and the game instructions detailing the method of creating the map varying depending on complex rules across multiple instruction pages. More complex games may include elements of discovering and or equipping items, encountering and or fighting monsters and other characters, and leveling up as players successfully navigate the game. In this way, a complex game may be equivalent to a paper based video game. Activities need not only be games, as artistic applications such as drawing or coloring by number activities may be implemented.
Implementations of the presently disclosed subject matter may be implemented in and used with a variety of gamebook layouts, arrangements, binding mechanisms, and other variations in publication and printing format.
Many other elements of a published gamebook (not shown) may be included in the gamebook in a similar manner (e.g., sudoku sheets, blank drawing pages, coloring pages and so on). Conversely, all of the elements shown in these
More generally, various layouts and arrangements of the instruction pages, map pages, and spinner mechanic may be implemented other than that shown here. Implementations may also be implemented in the form of digital representations of the gamebook, gamebook contents, and spinner mechanic.
As shown in
The pullout page 350 may be folded when stored, and then unfolded as shown by motion arrow 320 to extend beyond the binding enclosure to the right or left (shown here extending on the right) 350. The pullout page may include printed templates 360 to be filled in and or otherwise modified by the player, as well as moveable indicators 340 to track a player's game statistics (shown here as health hearts).
Many other elements of a pullout page (not shown) may be included in a gamebook, as may multiple pullout pages (or no pullout pages). The concept of a pullout page may extend beyond tracking a character's progress in the gamebook to include other tracking indicators or other gamebook activity supporting contents. Moveable indicators 340 are shown here as simple paperclip style markers, but may be implemented in many other ways such as using magnets or more complex paper mechanisms such as pull-out tabs or spinning wheels. All the elements in
As shown in
Again, all of the elements shown need not be present, nor need they be present in the arrangement shown in these figures. The spinner cutouts need not be circular, the tabs may be positioned elsewhere, or other pagination support elements may be implemented. The grid is not required for a gamebook map page, nor must the grid be rectangular— other grids may be used as well, whether hexagonal, dot grid, or other.
The spinner mechanic page 720 may be constructed of numerous materials from paper to plastic to cardboard to wood to metal and so on. Likewise the spinner mechanic 730 may be constructed of numerous materials. The spinner mechanic page 720 need not contain all of the elements to practice the present disclosure, and may contain many other elements as well.
The spinner wheel 830 may be constructed of transparent material to enable the player to see the spinner graphics and results contents 850, conversely the spinner graphics and results contents may be printed on the spinner wheel 830 itself, with an indicator on the instruction pages 260 or the raised element 840 to indicate which of the spinner graphics and results contents are to be selected for any given spin.
Many other types of a spinner (not shown) may be included in the spinner mechanic in a similar manner (e.g., arrows, other types of wheels, other shapes). Conversely, all of the elements of spinner mechanic construction need not be present to practice the present disclosure. The spinner mechanic may be constructed in different ways from that shown.
The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has been described with reference to specific implementations. However, the illustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit implementations of the disclosed subject matter to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The implementations were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of implementations of the disclosed Subject matter and their practical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to utilize those implementations as well as various implementations with various modifications as may be suited to the particular use contemplated.
