Patent Grant
8734255
Embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods that provide a game center having player specific options and statistics for gaming applications.
Various devices such as electronic devices, computing systems, portable devices, and handheld devices have software gaming applications. These devices can network with each other for a multi-player gaming experience.
One prior gaming device allows players to interact with each other online. This gaming device allows the sharing of a game and accomplishments between players. A user with a game console accesses an online game service to share the gaming experience with other players.
However, this prior approach has limitations in terms of connecting players, playing games with other players, and tracking player performance.
Described herein are methods and systems for providing a game center. For example, in at least certain embodiments, a game center module provides a game center having player specific options and statistics. The game center module can provide a friends option such that a user can view and select from a list of friends. The game center module can provide friend details of a selected friend including a list of games played together between the user and the selected friend and another list of other games in common between the user and the selected friend.
In one embodiment, the list of games played together includes a list of options with each option indicating a respective game name and a comparison of the user's ranking and the selected friend's ranking for the respective game. The list of other games in common includes a list of options with each option indicating a respective game name and a comparison of the user's ranking and the selected friend's ranking for the respective game. Upon selection of an option from the list of games played together or the list of game in common the game center module may provide game details regarding the selected game and a leaderboard option. Selection of the leaderboard option causes the generation of a leaderboard that includes rankings for top players, the user, and optionally the selected friend for the selected game.
The present disclosure includes systems and devices that perform these methods, including data processing systems which perform these methods, and machine readable media which when executed on data processing systems cause the systems to perform these methods.
The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings and in which:
In
Described herein are methods and systems for providing a game center having player specific options and statistics. For example, in at least certain embodiments, a game center module located on a system provides the game center. The game center may be a central area in a gaming system that provides information for numerous games, clients, players, etc., or any combination thereof. The games can be educational, have utility, provide entertainment, or be any category of software applications provided by an application service (e.g., application store).
The game center module can provide a friends option such that a user can view and select from a list of friends. The game center module can provide friend details of a selected friend including a list of games played together between the user and the selected friend and another list of other games in common between the user and the selected friend.
In one embodiment, the list of games played together includes a list of options with each option indicating a respective game name and a comparison of the user's ranking and the selected friend's ranking for the respective game. The list of other games in common includes a list of options with each option indicating a respective game name and a comparison of the user's ranking and the selected friend's ranking for the respective game. Upon selection of an option from the list of games played together or the list of game in common the game center module may provide game details regarding the selected game and a leaderboard option. Selection of the leaderboard option causes the generation of a leaderboard that includes rankings for top players, the user, and optionally the selected friend for the selected game.
As illustrated in
Each of the systems 120-123 illustrated in
In one embodiment, a game center module 130-133 is located on each system 120-123. The game center module is associated with a game center software application that manages a game center in conjunction with the game service. The game center module includes sub-modules (e.g., profile, friends, games, notifications) for managing the game center and providing the gaming experience for multi-player gaming.
In one embodiment, the game center module 130-133 is implemented on a game framework such as that described in co-pending applications U.S. patent application No. 61/321,854, entitled “APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COLLABORATIVE ONLINE APPLICATIONS,” Filed Apr. 7, 2010 by Mike Lampell; U.S. patent application No. 61/321,842, entitled “APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MATCHING USERS FOR ONLINE SESSIONS”, Filed Apr. 7, 2010 by Jeremy Werner, Phillip Smith, Andrew H. Vyrros; U.S. patent application No. 61/321,832, entitled “APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR INVITING USERS TO ONLINE SESSIONS”, Filed Apr. 7, 2010 by Andrew H. Vyrros, Jeremy Werner, and Patrick Gates; U.S. patent application No. 61/321,841, entitled “APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ESTABLISHING AND UTILIZING BACKUP COMMUNICATION CHANNELS”, Filed Apr. 7, 2010 by Jeff Tung, Barry A. Whitebook, Joe Abuan, Hyeonkuk Jeong, Andy Yang, and Roberto Garcia; and U.S. patent application No. 61/321,851, entitled “APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENTLY AND SECURELY EXCHANGING CONNECTION DATA”, Filed Apr. 7, 2010 by Joe Abuan, Jeff Tung, Robert Quattlebaum, Barry A. Whitebook, and Roberto Garcia (hereinafter “Co-pending Applications”), which are assigned to the assignee of the present application and which are incorporated herein by reference. It should be noted, however, that the game framework described in the co-pending applications is not required for complying with the underlying principles of the invention. Additionally, in one embodiment, the friend service operations described herein (e.g., displaying friends lists, sending/receiving friend requests, etc) are managed by the friend service described in the co-pending application U.S. patent application No. 61/321,848, entitled “APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENTLY MANAGING DATA IN A SOCIAL NETWORKING SERVICE”, Filed Apr. 7, 2010 by Amol Pattekar, Jeremy Werner, and Patrick Gates, (hereinafter “Friend Service Application”), which is incorporated herein by reference.
For example, in one embodiment of the present invention, each user is identified within the friend service by either a unique destination signaling identifier (“DSID”) or a unique handle. In one embodiment, a DSID is used to identify users who are known to have accounts on the friend service. These users are sometimes referred to as “in-network users.” A handle can be used to identify users who are not known to have accounts on the friend service 100. These users are sometimes referred to as “out-of-network users.” This may include users who have not yet registered an account on the friend service and/or users who have an account on the friend service but who have not yet associated a particular handle with their account.
A “friend” may be defined as a user having an account that is associated or linked with an account from another user. More details in regards to the friends service operations and defining a “friend” are described in the co-pending Friend Service Application.
The matchmaker service 111 can match two or more systems for a collaborative peer to peer (P2P) session based on a specified set of conditions. For example, users of two or more of the systems may be interested in playing a particular multi-player game. In such a case, the matchmaker service 111 may identify a group of systems to participate in the game based on variables such as each user's level of expertise, the age of each of the users, the timing of the match requests, the particular game for which a match is requested and game-specific variables associated with the game. By way of example, and not limitation, the matchmaker service 111 may attempt to match users with similar levels of expertise at playing a particular game. Additionally, adults may be matched with other adults and children may be matched with other children. Moreover, the matchmaker service 111 may prioritize user requests based on the order in which those requests are received. The underlying principles of the present disclosure are not limited to any particular set of matching criteria or any particular type of P2P application. More details in regards to the matchmaker service are described in co-pending U.S. patent application No. 61/321,842.
In response to a match request, the matchmaker service 111 can coordinate with the CDX service 110 to ensure that all matched participants receive the necessary connection data for establishing P2P sessions in an efficient and secure manner.
In one embodiment, the invitation service 112 also identifies systems for participation in collaborative P2P sessions. However, in the case of the invitation service 112, at least one of the participants is specifically identified by another participant. For example, the user of system 120 may specifically request a collaborative session with the user of system 121. As with the matchmaker service 111, in response to an invitation request, the invitation service 112 can identify the set of participants and coordinate with the CDX service 110 to ensure that all participants receive the necessary connection data for establishing P2P sessions in an efficient and secure manner.
The profile sub-module 210 associated with a profile option provides access to the profile editor option 212 (e.g., avatar editor option) and account data option 214 of the user. An avatar is a representation of a computer user or their alter ego. An avatar is often in the form of a three-dimensional (3D) model used in computer games or a two-dimensional (2D) icon or picture or image or clip art used on Internet forums, social networks and other communities. Avatars can also be used in video games, including online interactive gaming environments. The avatar editor option can create and edit a user's avatar. More details regarding avatars, avatar editing, and features of avatars are described in U.S. provisional patent application No. 61/321,716, entitled “PERSONALIZING COLORS OF USER INTERFACES,” filed Apr. 7, 2010, by Marcel van Os, and U.S. provisional patent application No. 61/321,840, entitled “AVATAR EDITING ENVIRONMENT,” filed Apr. 7, 2010, by Marcel van Os et al., all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
A friends sub-module 220 associated with a friends option provides access to a friends list option 222. These friends can be editing by the user. The list of friends may be friends within one or more networks (e.g., gamecenter network). Certain information (e.g., name, status, representation) regarding each friend is included in the list of friends. A user can obtain additional information regarding a friend by selecting one of the friends. This user selection generates friend details option 224 for the selected friend. These details for the selected friend may include a representation (e.g., avatar), a status, statistics, a list of games played with the friend, a list of other games in common with the friend, a list of games owned by the friend but not owned by the user, etc. A user can select one of the games owned by the friend that the user would like to play. In one embodiment, if the user does not own this game, then the user is automatically directed to an application store option 226 to access the selected game.
A gaming sub-module 230 associated with a gaming option provides access to a games list option 232. Games can be added or deleted from the list of games. Certain information (e.g., game manufacturer, game name, rating) regarding each game may be included in the list of games. A user can obtain additional information regarding a game by selecting one of the games. This user selection generates game details option 234 for the selected game. The games details option 234 can be accessed from option 232 and also from option 224. These game details for the selected game may include a leaderboard option 235, an achievements option 236, a play application/game option 237, a recently played games option 238, and a tell a friend (TAF) option 239.
In one embodiment, these options provided by game details 234 may appear differently depending upon whether a user accessed the game details option 234 from the games list option 232 or from the friend details option 224. For example, if the option 234 is accessed via option 232, then the leaderboard and achievements options relate to the user. If the option 234 is accessed via option 224, then the leaderboard and achievements options relate to a comparison mode with a comparison of user and friend gaming statistics.
A notifications sub-module 240 associated with a notification option provides access to a notification list option 242. These notifications can be edited by the user. The list of notifications may be outgoing requests that are sent or incoming requests that have been received within one or more networks (e.g., gamecenter network). The notification may include gaming updates for a certain game, a notification regarding a new release of a game or a new game being released, etc. Certain information (e.g., name, status, representation) regarding each request is included in the list of notifications s. A user can obtain additional information regarding a notification by selecting one of the notifications. This user selection generates notification details option 244 for the selected notifications. In one embodiment, these details for the selected notifications (e.g., request) may include an invitation to a friend, etc. A user can select an invitation option 246 to invite a new friend. If a new friend is invited at option 246, then option 222 is accessed. Other options and relationships between the options can be provided by the game center module in addition to those illustrated in
At block 302, the processing logic receives a user selection to initiate the game center application and associated game center module. At block 304, the processing logic can automatically present to the graphical user interface selectable options (e.g., profile, friends, games, notifications) of the game center module. At block 306, the processing logic may receive a user selection of a friends option of the game center module. At block 308, the processing logic can send data to be automatically presented to a graphical user interface of the system in response to the user selection. The data is indicative of a list of friends. At block 310, the processing logic may receive a user selection of a friend from the list of friends. The processing logic can send data to be automatically presented to the graphical user interface. The data is indicative of friend details of the selected friend including a list of games played together, a list of other games in common, and a list of games owned by the friend, but not owned by the user at block 312.
In an embodiment, the list of games played together includes a list of options with each option indicating a respective game name and a set of achievements for the friend while playing the respective game. Each option may also indicate a comparison of a user's ranking and the selected friend's ranking for the respective game. The processing logic may receive a user selection of an option from one of the list of games at block 314. At block 316, the processing logic can determine whether a user selection of a game from the games played together or games in common lists is received. At block 318, the processing logic can send data to be automatically presented to the graphical user interface. The data is indicative of game details for the selected game if a game from the games played together list or games in common list is received. At block 320, the processing logic may then optionally receive a user selection of a leaderboard option from game details of the selected game. The leaderboard may include rankings for top players, the user, and the friend for the selected game. Alternatively, the leaderboard may include rankings for top players and the user.
In another embodiment, the processing logic receives a user selection of a game from the games owned by the friend and not owned by the user list at block 314. In this case, at block 322, the processing logic can automatically direct the user to an application service (e.g., application store) to purchase the selected game in response to the user selection.
The game center module is initiated and presents selectable options (e.g., profile, friends, games, notifications) as discussed in blocks 302 and 304 of computer-implemented method 300. At block 402, processing logic can generate data to be presented to a graphical user interface of a system. The data is indicative of game details of a selected game associated with a game center module (e.g., software application). The game details are associated with a game details option (e.g., game details option 234), which can be accessed via a friends option or a games option as discussed above and illustrated in
In one embodiment, the game details are accessed via a games option. In this case, the achievement data includes a user's score based on a number of achievements completed. The achievement data also includes a list of achievements with each achievement having an achievement icon if the achievement is completed by the user. Alternatively, progress information is provided that indicates an amount of completion if the achievement has not been completed.
In another embodiment, the game details are accessed via a friends option. In this case, the processing logic receives a user selection of a friend prior to receiving the user selection of the achievement option. The achievement data that is generated in response to the user selection of the achievement option includes a comparison of a user's score based on a number of achievements completed by the user to a friend's score based on a number of achievements completed by the friend. The achievement data also includes an indication for the friend regarding whether the friend has completed each achievement in the list of achievements and another indication for the user regarding whether the user has completed each achievement in the list of achievements.
The game center application and associated module are initiated and the module presents selectable options (e.g., profile, friends, games, notifications) as discussed in blocks 302 and 304 of computer-implemented method 300. At block 502, processing logic may receive either a user selection of a friends option causing generation of a friends list option followed by a user selection of a friend from the friends list or alternatively the processing logic may receive a user selection of a games option. At block 504, the processing logic can send data to be presented to the graphical user interface. The data is indicative of friend details or a games list based on the respective user selection(s) received at block 502. For example, friend details are generated in response to a user selection of a friend from the friends list option. Alternatively, a games list is generated in response to a user selection of the game option. At block 506, the processing logic may receive a user selection of a game from a list of games owned by a selected friend (i.e., user selection of a game from friend details option) or a user selection from a list of games owned by the user (i.e., user selection of a game from games list option). At block 508, the processing logic can send data to be presented to the graphical user interface. The data is indicative of game details of a selected game associated with the game center module. The game details include comparison information for a selected friend and the user for the selected game if the user accesses the gaming details from the friend details option (e.g., friend detail option 224). Alternatively, the game details include user information only about the user for the selected game if the user accesses the gaming details from the games list option (e.g., games list option 232).
In one embodiment, the comparison information includes a leaderboard option that indicates a comparison of a user's ranking and the selected friend's ranking for the selected game. The comparison information may further include an achievement option that indicates a comparison of the user's set of achievements and the selected friend's set of achievements for the selected game.
In another embodiment, the user information includes a leaderboard option that indicates a user's ranking for the selected game and an achievement option that indicates a user's set of achievements for the selected game. Thus, the game details option presents a first set of options in a comparison mode if accessed via a friend details option and a second set of options in a non-comparison mode if accessed via a games list option.
The game center application and associated game center module are initiated and the module presents selectable options (e.g., profile, friends, games, notifications) as discussed in blocks 302 and 304 of computer-implemented method 300. A user can select a friends option or a games option in order to access a game details option for a specific game as discussed in blocks 502, 504, and 506 of computer-implemented method 500 and also illustrated in
The list of players may include gaming information for each friend of the user such as name, status message, representation (e.g., avatar), and date of last match with the user. The gaming information for each non-friend of the user may include name, representation (e.g., avatar), and date of last match with the user. Each player in the list of players is associated with a selectable option.
At block 608, the processing logic may receive a user selection of a selectable option associated with a non-friend. At block 610, the processing logic can generate data to present to the graphical user interface details. The data includes details in regards to the selected non-friend including a notification (e.g., send friend request) option and a report concern option. At block 612, the processing logic may receive a user selection of the send friend request option. At block 614, the processing logic can generate data to present to the graphical user interface. The data includes a friend request to be sent to the selected non-friend who recently played a game with the user. Thus, a user can invite a non-friend to become a friend based on a list of players that recently played games with the user. A “friend” may be defined as a user having an account that is associated or linked with an account from another user. More details in regards to the friends service operations and defining a “friend” are described in the co-pending Friend Service Application.
At block 702, processing logic in response to a user selection initiates a multi-player gaming application on a system. At block 704, the processing logic can generate data to present to a graphical user interface of the system. The data includes a gaming invite having a list of friends of a user that provides an ability to invite one or more friends for the multi-player gaming application. The friends can be invited individually or simultaneously. At block 706, the processing logic may receive data that identifies one or more of a user's friends to invite to play the multi-player gaming application (e.g., receive a user selection of at least one friend from the list of friends in order to invite the at least one friend to play the multi-player gaming application). At block 708, the processing logic can generate data to present to the graphical user interface. The data includes invite status information for the one or more invited friends and the one or more auto-matched players. The invite status information may includes a list of invited friend positions and one or more auto-matched player positions if needed to meet a minimum player requirement for the multi-player gaming application with each auto-matched player position having an invite friend option. A multi-player gaming application typically has a minimum and a maximum number of player slots or positions. Any empty positions that need to be filled and are not filled by friends of the user can be automatically filled by the auto-matching function of the game center module. In one embodiment, in response to the user's selection of a friend at block 706, a series of invitation transactions may be implemented with the invitation service 112 such as those described in the Co-Pending applications. Additionally, in one embodiment, in order to fill additional player slots or positions, a series of matchmaking transactions may be implemented with a matchmaking service 111 such as those described in the Co-Pending applications.
In one embodiment, each invite friend position has status information including waiting or ready. Each invite friend position having a waiting status may also have an uninvite player option. At block 710, the processing logic optionally receives a user selection of the uninvite player option associated with an invite friend position having a waiting status in order to uninvite the previously invited friend associated with the invite friend position. The user selection of the uninvite player option and subsequent confirmation allows the user to replace the previously invited friend with a player selected automatically by the matchmaker service or a player selected by the user. The invite friend position has a waiting status, which indicates that an invited friend has not accepted an invite. An invite friend position having a ready status, which indicates that the friend has accepted the invitation, may not be replaced with an auto-match player. Alternatively, the invite friend position may have an auto-match option. A user selection of this option causes the invite friend position having a waiting status to be replaced with an auto-match player position.
At block 712, the processing logic optionally receives a user selection of an invite friend option associated with an auto-match friend position in order to replace the auto-match position with the invite friend position. Thus, a user can enjoy a multi-player gaming experience with friends and auto-matched players.
At block 802, the processing logic receives with a system of a user an invite from a specific friend of the user to play a specific game. At block 804, the processing logic determines whether the user owns the specific game. At block 806, the processing logic presents to a graphical user interface various options including an access option to access the specific game if the user does not own the specific game, a decline option to decline the game invite, and an optional dismiss option to dismiss the game invite. Selection of the dismiss option allows the user to decide at a later time whether to decline or access the game.
At block 808, the processing logic automatically directs the user to an application service (e.g., application store) to purchase the specific game in response to a user selection of the access option (e.g., purchase, application store). Alternatively, the processing logic may automatically direct, in response to the user selection of the access option, the user to the application service to access for free a fully functional version of the game for a limited time period or a limited functionality demo copy.
At block 810, the processing logic presents to a graphical user interface an accept option to accept the invite and play the specific game with the sender of the invite if the user owns the specific game on the device. The processing logic also presents to the graphic user interface a decline option to decline the invite and optionally a dismiss option to dismiss the invite for a period of time.
At block 812, the processing logic presents to a graphical user interface a download option to accept the invite and download the specific game with the sender of the invite if the user owns the specific game, but not on the device being used currently by the user. The processing logic also presents to the graphic user interface a decline option to decline the invite and optionally a dismiss option to dismiss the invite for a period of time.
For example, in one embodiment, one player generates and sends an invite to another player. The data service 100 may locate the player to receive the invite and the invitation service 112 sends the invite to this player who can then easily and quickly obtain the game or play the game as discussed above.
In certain embodiments, the user and friends rankings are compared to each other and displayed. For example, for game name 4 the friend may be ranked in the 47th percentile and the user is ranked in the 49th percentile. In this case, the friend and the user are ranked about the same. In another embodiment, the friend is ranked first and the user is ranked last for the game name 4. In this case, the friend is ranked waaaaaaaay higher than me.
The game icon may be retrieved from the client system or a server if the client system does not have the game icon. In an embodiment, a friend selects a color for the friend's representation (e.g., avatar). Processing logic generates this color on the user's system and also automatically selects a complementary color or background based on the friend's color. The background color may be used for at least some of the text on this user interface 1100.
The user selections (e.g., color, background pattern) for the user's representation (e.g., avatar) or other settings may be broadcast such that new game developers can use these selections as part of the game. For example, a user having a color preference of blue may be able to play a new game with the user automatically or by default having a blue game component (e.g., avatar, car) while playing the game.
For each game in common, the list 1180 may include a game icon (e.g., 15), achievements of the friend for the particular game, the name of the game, and a comparison of how the friend and the user rank on the leaderboard (e.g., “ranked higher than me”) for a particular game. For example, the friend is ranked lower than the user for game name 5 displayed in the list 1180.
For each game owned by the friend and not owned by the user (e.g., Mel), the list 1190 may include a game icon (e.g., 16), the game manufacturer of the particular game, the name of the game, a rating for a particular game (e.g., 2 out of 5 stars), and a cost of purchasing the particular game. For example, game name 6 has a two star rating and costs $1.99 to purchase from an online application store. The processing logic automatically directs the user to an online application store (e.g., application service 114) to purchase the selected game in response to the user selection of one of these games (e.g., game name 6).
The game center module may provide a user interface to buy a fully functionally version of the game. Alternatively, the game center module may provide a user interface to access for free a fully functional version of the game for a limited time period or a limited functionality demo copy. In another embodiment, the game center module provides an application seed that uniquely identifies the gaming application on a server (e.g., application store).
In another embodiment, a user receives an invite from a specific friend to play a specific game that the user does not have. As discussed above, the game center module provides a user interface to buy a fully functional version of the game. Alternatively, the game center module provides a user interface to access for free a fully functional version of the game for a limited time period or a limited functionality demo copy. In yet another embodiment, the game center module provides an application seed that uniquely identifies the gaming application on a server (e.g., application store). In an embodiment, these different options are based on a gaming application's preferences for providing limited rights or full rights.
Information for each game in the list of games is displayed on the user interface 1200. This game information includes game icon, user achievements for this game, game name, and ranking for the user playing this game. For example, game name 11 is displayed with game icon 11. The user has 30 of 52 achievements and ranks 250th out of 1,000 players. Alternatively, the ranking for the user can be a ranking among the user's friends rather than a ranking among everyone.
A selection of the option 1350 causes the processing logic to generate user interface 1400 as illustrated in
In certain embodiments, a certain number of top players are listed (e.g., five) and if the user (e.g., Mel) is not in this list, then the user's ranking is also listed (e.g., 25th). A show more option 1480 can be selected to display additional player rankings. Optionally, a games recently played option 1490 can filter the rankings to show rankings of the players that played in the most recent games (e.g., 10 most recent games).
Alternatively, a selection of the option 1350 causes the processing logic to generate user interface 1491 as illustrated in
Friends 1494 includes a ranked list of Mel's friends for Game Name 11. Everyone 1496 includes a ranked list of all users for Game Name 11.
In certain embodiments, a certain number of top players are listed (e.g., five) and if the user (e.g., Mel) is not in this list, then the user's ranking is also listed (e.g., 25th). A show more option (e.g., 1495, 1497) can be selected to display additional player rankings. Optionally, a games recently played option 1490 can filter the rankings to show rankings of the players that played in the most recent games (e.g., 10 most recent games). Different types of metrics can be defined for creating the rankings in the leaderboard. For example, the metrics may include points, number of top finishes, number of finishes within a certain threshold, etc. A game developer can define these metrics and the leaderboard. The user interfaces (e.g., 1400, 1491) may be presented as a smaller snapshot during a game for convenience of the users. The leaderboard presented during a game may have selectable or non-selectable options during the game.
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A selection of a player that is already a friend causes the processing logic to generate user interface 1100 for the selected friend. A selection of a player that is not a friend causes the processing logic to generate user interface 2000 as illustrated in
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A selection of the option 1550 from
In certain embodiments, a certain number of top players are listed (e.g., five) and if the user is not in this list, then the user's ranking is also listed (e.g., 25th). The selected friend (e.g., Susie) may also be included in the rankings to show a comparison between Susie and the user (e.g., Mel). A show more option 1680 can be selected to display additional player rankings. Optionally, a games recently played option 1690 can filter the rankings to show rankings of the players that played in the most recent games (e.g., 10 most recent games).
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Friends 1694 includes a ranked list of Mel's friends for Game Name 11. Everyone 1696 includes a ranked list of all users for Game Name 11.
In certain embodiments, a certain number of top players are listed (e.g., five) and if the user (e.g., Mel) is not in this list, then the user's ranking is also listed (e.g., 250th). Susie's ranking may also be listed even if she is not in the certain number of top players. A show more option (e.g., 1695, 1697) can be selected to display additional player rankings. As discussed above, the user interfaces (e.g., 1600, 1691) may be presented as a smaller snapshot during a game for convenience of the users.
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The game center module and game service provide a game center in which a user can send and receive notifications (e.g., friend requests, game invitations, game updates, etc).
In an embodiment, an incoming friend request may be associated with an email address. The user's address book or contact information associated with the user's contacts can be searched to find a match with the email address. If a match occurs, then the incoming friend request will display a real name or nickname for the player who sent the incoming friend request to the user.
In one embodiment, option 2160 is selected and then user name 22 is also selected.
In an embodiment, user interface 2200 includes options 2250, 2252, 2254, and 2256. In certain embodiments, options 2254 and 2256 are both not included or only one of these options is not included. In certain embodiments, various combinations of these options are possible. Options may also be provided that permit a user to defriend a current friend, decline a friend request once and never receive another invite from this player, or limit friend requests in time (e.g., 1 invite/week).
The user interface 2200 also includes a report concern option 2260 to report a concern regarding the player that sent the invitation. A user selection of the request option 2270 causes the generation of the user interface 2100.
In one embodiment, the user interface 2300 includes a send option 2350 to send the friend request communication to a player, a cancel option 2352 to cancel the communication, a To field 2380 that displays the selected player's user name and is associated with an email address, a text field 2360 for composing a message, and a virtual keyboard 2370. The user interface 2300 may represent an email message. A user selection of the send option 2350 causes an alert message 2400 as illustrated in
In an embodiment, the To field 2380 is prefilled with a user name based on a previous user selection (e.g., selection of option 2050). Alternatively, a user can enter contact information (e.g., name, nickname, alias, email address, phone number) into the field 2380. In another embodiment, a user can select option 2354 and search for contact information for a player to invite from the user's contacts or address book. The user may be able to determine from the contact information whether a particular player is registered with the game service associated with the game center module.
After a user selects the send option 2350, a server associated with the game service receives the contact information in the field 2380. If the contact information is an email address, then the server uses the email address to find a matching email in email accounts registered with the game service or account service. The recipient of the friend request then receives a push notification that appears in the game center module associated with the recipient. If the contact information is not an email address (e.g., alias), then an email address for the recipient can be found using the contact information if the recipient is registered with the game service. Otherwise, if the recipient is not registered with the game service, then an external social network (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) can be searched to find an email address for the recipient. For example, Facebook data can be obtained for the recipient and an email sent to Facebook with this email requesting the email address of the recipient.
In one embodiment, the recipient has a client system (e.g., Apple iPod Touch®, Apple iPhone®, Apple iPad®) and an account with the game service. Upon receipt of the friend request, the game center module of the recipient is launched and the recipient can accept the friend request.
In an embodiment, the recipient has the client system, but does not have an account with the game service. Upon receipt of the friend request, the game center module of the recipient is launched and the recipient receives a recommendation to join the game service associated with the game center module. In another embodiment, the recipient does not have a client system. In this case, the recipient receives the email message and can be directed to web page to join the game service.
The list 2650 includes four positions that are filled with the user (e.g., Mel), an invited friend (e.g., user name 1) that has received an invite but not yet responded, and two auto-match players that will be filled automatically by the game service and matchmaker 111. The list 2650 may include four additional positions for this example. The user can select at least one friend based on one or more factors (e.g., gaming abilities) of the user's friends for the multi-player gaming application.
The matchmaker service can perform the auto-matching and can select auto-match players based on various factors (e.g., player skill level, leaderboard rankings, achievement score, user's ratings, location, time zone, players that are ready to play, age, etc.).
The user interface 2600 also includes a play now option 2660, a cancel option 2662, an add player option 2670, and a remove player option 2672. In an embodiment, a user selection of an add player option 2670 causes the generation of user interface 2500 and the user can add one or more players by selecting one or more friends. The add player option 2670 can be disabled if a maximum number of players for the game has been reached. A user selection of a remove player option 2672 allows the user to remove one or more players by selecting one or more players that have filled one of the positions listed in list 2650. The remove player option 2672 can be disabled if a minimum number of players for the game has been reached.
A user selection of an uninvite option 2652 and subsequent confirmation allows the user to replace the current player (e.g., user name 1) with a player selected automatically by the matchmaker service or a player selected by the user. A user selection of an invite friend option 2654 or 2656 allows the user to replace the auto-match player with a player selected by the user. For example, a user can select the invite option 2654 and invite a friend (e.g., user name 2). These selections cause the generation of user interface 2700. The auto-match position 2684 associated with invite option 2654 has been replaced with a friend (e.g., user name 2) associated with position 2784 having an uninvite option 2754 in user interface 2700. Additionally, user name 1 has accepted the invite and the status for position 2782 has been updated to “Ready.” The auto-match option 2652 has been removed from this position because user name 1 has accepted the invite.
In an embodiment, if user name 1 had declined the invite from the user, then position 2682 or 2782 briefly changes colors and/or flashes. Then, the position reverts to auto-matching. If the invited friend (e.g., user name 1) fails to respond within a certain time period or frequency, then the invited friend is replaced with auto-matching. Alternatively, the invited player can always decline invites from certain other players. The user selected positions and auto-match positions can be ordered with the user selected positions listed first near the top of the user interface.
In an embodiment, one player position has a ready status, two other positions have a waiting status, and remaining positions are filled with auto-matching. If one player selects a play now option (e.g., 2660, 2760), then the game can begin with the player with the ready status and auto-matching players for the other positions. Additional auto-matching players can be added if necessary to meet the minimum player requirement of the game. An alert may be generated indicating that play is beginning without the friends that have a waiting status. In one embodiment, an alert may be generated indicating that a problem needs to be resolved before play can begin or the alert can be generated during play. If Mel drops out of the game or loses connectivity at the time of initiation of the game, then his position can be replaced with an auto-match player.
In certain embodiments, alerts within a game are provided. For example, upon entering a game a welcome alert may slide across the graphical user interface.
In an embodiment, a user can report a concern regarding a player from within a game. A user can also display ratings for other players from within a game.
The user interfaces discussed in the present disclosure are merely examples. Other variations and modifications are within the scope of the present disclosure. For example, some user interfaces have been shown with four options (e.g., profile option, friend option, games option, notifications option) near the bottom of the user interfaces. These options can be located in other locations on the user interfaces or not displayed at all.
Described embodiments may include touch I/O device 3001 that can receive touch input for interacting with computing system 3003 as illustrated in
Touch I/O device 3001 may include a touch sensitive panel which is wholly or partially transparent, semitransparent, non-transparent, opaque or any combination thereof. Touch I/O device 3001 may be embodied as a touch screen, touch pad, a touch screen functioning as a touch pad (e.g., a touch screen replacing the touchpad of a laptop), a touch screen or touchpad combined or incorporated with any other input device (e.g., a touch screen or touchpad disposed on a keyboard) or any multi-dimensional object having a touch sensitive surface for receiving touch input.
In one example, touch I/O device 3001 embodied as a touch screen may include a transparent and/or semitransparent touch sensitive panel partially or wholly positioned over at least a portion of a display. According to this embodiment, touch I/O device 3001 functions to display graphical data transmitted from computing system 3003 (and/or another source) and also functions to receive user input. In other embodiments, touch I/O device 3001 may be embodied as an integrated touch screen where touch sensitive components/devices are integral with display components/devices. In still other embodiments a touch screen may be used as a supplemental or additional display screen for displaying supplemental or the same graphical data as a primary display and to receive touch input.
Touch I/O device 3001 may be configured to detect the location of one or more touches or near touches on device 3001 based on capacitive, resistive, optical, acoustic, inductive, mechanical, chemical measurements, or any phenomena that can be measured with respect to the occurrences of the one or more touches or near touches in proximity to device 3001. Software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof may be used to process the measurements of the detected touches to identify and track one or more gestures. A gesture may correspond to stationary or non-stationary, single or multiple, touches or near touches on touch I/O device 3001. A gesture may be performed by moving one or more fingers or other objects in a particular manner on touch I/O device 3001 such as tapping, pressing, rocking, scrubbing, twisting, changing orientation, pressing with varying pressure and the like at essentially the same time, contiguously, or consecutively. A gesture may be characterized by, but is not limited to a pinching, sliding, swiping, rotating, flexing, dragging, or tapping motion between or with any other finger or fingers. A single gesture may be performed with one or more hands, by one or more users, or any combination thereof.
Computing system 3003 may drive a display with graphical data to display a graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI may be configured to receive touch input via touch I/O device 3001. Embodied as a touch screen, touch I/O device 3001 may display the GUI. Alternatively, the GUI may be displayed on a display separate from touch I/O device 3001. The GUI may include graphical elements displayed at particular locations within the interface. Graphical elements may include but are not limited to a variety of displayed virtual input devices including virtual scroll wheels, a virtual keyboard, virtual knobs, virtual buttons, any virtual UI, and the like. A user may perform gestures at one or more particular locations on touch I/O device 3001 which may be associated with the graphical elements of the graphical user interface (GUI). In other embodiments, the user may perform gestures at one or more locations that are independent of the locations of graphical elements of the GUI. Gestures performed on touch I/O device 3001 may directly or indirectly manipulate, control, modify, move, actuate, initiate or generally affect graphical elements such as cursors, icons, media files, lists, text, all or portions of images, or the like within the GUI. For instance, in the case of a touch screen, a user may directly interact with a graphical element by performing a gesture over the graphical element on the touch screen.
Alternatively, a touch pad generally provides indirect interaction. Gestures may also affect non-displayed GUI elements (e.g., causing user interfaces to appear) or may affect other actions within computing system 3003 (e.g., affect a state or mode of a GUI, application, or operating system). Gestures may or may not be performed on touch I/O device 3001 in conjunction with a displayed cursor. For instance, in the case in which gestures are performed on a touchpad, a cursor (or pointer) may be displayed on a display screen or touch screen and the cursor may be controlled via touch input on the touchpad to interact with graphical objects on the display screen. In other embodiments in which gestures are performed directly on a touch screen, a user may interact directly with objects on the touch screen, with or without a cursor or pointer being displayed on the touch screen.
Feedback may be provided to the user via communication channel 3002 in response to or based on the touch or near touches on touch I/O device 3001. Feedback may be transmitted optically, mechanically, electrically, olfactory, acoustically, or the like or any combination thereof and in a variable or non-variable manner.
Attention is now directed towards embodiments of a system architecture that may be embodied within any portable or non-portable device including but not limited to a communication device (e.g. mobile phone, smart phone), a multi-media device (e.g., MP3 player, TV, radio), a portable or handheld computer (e.g., tablet, netbook, laptop), a desktop computer, an All-In-One desktop, a peripheral device, or any other system or device adaptable to the inclusion of system architecture 3100, including combinations of two or more of these types of devices.
It should be apparent that the architecture shown in
RF circuitry 3108 is used to send and receive information over a wireless link or network to one or more other devices and includes well-known circuitry for performing this function. RF circuitry 3108 and audio circuitry 3110 are coupled to processing system 3104 via peripherals interface 3116. Interface 3116 includes various known components for establishing and maintaining communication between peripherals and processing system 3104. Audio circuitry 3110 is coupled to audio speaker 3150 and microphone 3152 and includes known circuitry for processing voice signals received from interface 3116 to enable a user to communicate in real-time with other users. In some embodiments, audio circuitry 3110 includes a headphone jack (not shown).
Peripherals interface 3116 couples the input and output peripherals of the system to processor 3118 and computer-readable medium 3101. One or more processing units 3118 communicate with one or more computer-readable mediums 3101 via controller 3120. Computer-readable medium 3101 can be any device or medium (e.g., storage device, storage medium) that can store code and/or data for use by one or more processing units 3118. Medium 3101 can include a memory hierarchy, including but not limited to cache, main memory and secondary memory. The memory hierarchy can be implemented using any combination of RAM (e.g., SRAM, DRAM, DDRAM), ROM, FLASH, magnetic and/or optical storage devices, such as disk drives, magnetic tape, CDs (compact disks) and DVDs (digital video discs). Medium 3101 may also include a transmission medium for carrying information-bearing signals indicative of computer instructions or data (with or without a carrier wave upon which the signals are modulated). For example, the transmission medium may include a communications network, including but not limited to the Internet (also referred to as the World Wide Web), intranet(s), Local Area Networks (LANs), Wide Local Area Networks (WLANs), Storage Area Networks (SANs), Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) and the like.
One or more processing units 3118 run various software components stored in medium 3101 to perform various functions for system 3100. In some embodiments, the software components include operating system 3122, communication module (or set of instructions) 3124, touch processing module (or set of instructions) 3126, graphics module (or set of instructions) 3128, one or more applications (or set of instructions) 3130, and game center module [or set of instructions] 3138. In an embodiment, a game center application is associated with a game center module 3138 that includes sub-modules (e.g., profile 210, friends 220, games 230, notifications 240). Each of these modules, sub-modules, and above noted applications correspond to a set of instructions for performing one or more functions described above and the methods described in this application (e.g., the computer-implemented methods and other information processing methods described herein). These modules (i.e., sets of instructions) need not be implemented as separate software programs, procedures or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules may be combined or otherwise rearranged in various embodiments.
In some embodiments, medium 3101 may store a subset of the modules and data structures identified above. Furthermore, medium 3101 may store additional modules and data structures not described above.
Operating system 3122 includes various procedures, sets of instructions, software components and/or drivers for controlling and managing general system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control, power management, etc.) and facilitates communication between various hardware and software components.
Communication module 3124 facilitates communication with other devices over one or more external ports 3136 or via RF circuitry 3108 and includes various software components for handling data received from RF circuitry 3108 and/or external port 3136.
Graphics module 3128 includes various known software components for rendering, animating and displaying graphical objects on a display surface. In embodiments in which touch I/O device 3112 is a touch sensitive display (e.g., touch screen), graphics module 3128 includes components for rendering, displaying, and animating objects on the touch sensitive display.
One or more applications 3130 can include any applications installed on system 3100, including without limitation, a game center application, a browser, address book, contact list, email, instant messaging, word processing, keyboard emulation, widgets, JAVA-enabled applications, encryption, digital rights management, voice recognition, voice replication, location determination capability (such as that provided by the global positioning system (GPS)), a music player, etc.
Touch processing module 3126 includes various software components for performing various tasks associated with touch I/O device 3112 including but not limited to receiving and processing touch input received from I/O device 3112 via touch I/O device controller 3132.
System 3100 may further include game center module 3138 having sub-modules (e.g., profile 210, friends 220, games 230, notifications 240) for performing the method/functions as described herein in connection with
In another embodiment, a system (e.g., 3003, 3100) includes a computer-readable medium (e.g., 3101) that stores a game center module 3138, one or more processing units (e.g., 3118) that execute a set of instructions associated with the game center module 3138, and an input/output device (e.g., 3001, 3112). The one or more processing units may be configured to receive a selection of a friends option of the game center module, to send data to be presented to the input/output device. The data is indicative of a list of friends. The one or more processing unit also may be configured to receive a selection of a friend from the list of friends and to send data to be presented to the input/output device. The data is indicative of friend details of the selected friend including a first list of games played together between a user and the selected friend and a second list of other games in common between the user and the selected friend. The first list of games may include a list of options with each option indicating a respective game name and a comparison of the user's ranking and the selected friend's ranking for the respective game. The second list of games may also include a list of options with each option indicating a respective game name and a comparison of the user's ranking and the selected friend's ranking for the respective game.
In another embodiment, the game center module provides customized game details based on being accessed via a friends option or a games option. The game center module 3138 provides gaming details of a selected game with the gaming details having comparison information for a selected friend and the user if the user selects the friends option and the gaming details having user information if the user selects the games option. The comparison information can include a leaderboard option that indicates a comparison of a user's ranking and the friend's ranking for the selected game. The comparison information may also include an achievement option that indicates a comparison of a user's set of achievements and a friend's set of achievements for the selected game. The user information can include a leaderboard option that indicates a user's ranking for the selected game and an achievement option that indicates a user's set of achievements for the selected game.
In another embodiment, the game center module 3138 can provide a user with an invite from a specific friend of the user to play a specific game. The game center module 3138 determines whether the user owns the specific game and provides a game option to access the specific game if the user does not own the specific game.
Module 3138 may also interact with game center application 3130 to provide the methods and functionality described herein. Module 3138 may be embodied as hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. Although module 3138 is shown to reside within medium 3101, all or portions of module 3138 may be embodied within other components within system 3100 or may be wholly embodied as a separate component within system 3100.
I/O subsystem 3106 is coupled to touch I/O device 3112 and one or more other I/O devices 3114 for controlling or performing various functions. Touch I/O device 3112 communicates with processing system 3104 via touch I/O device controller 2032, which includes various components for processing user touch input (e.g., scanning hardware). One or more other input controllers 2034 receives/sends electrical signals from/to other I/O devices 3114. Other I/O devices 3114 may include physical buttons, dials, slider switches, sticks, keyboards, touch pads, additional display screens, or any combination thereof.
If embodied as a touch screen, touch I/O device 3112 displays visual output to the user in a GUI. The visual output may include text, graphics, video, and any combination thereof. Some or all of the visual output may correspond to user-interface objects. Touch I/O device 3112 forms a touch-sensitive surface that accepts touch input from the user. Touch I/O device 3112 and touch screen controller 3132 (along with any associated modules and/or sets of instructions in medium 3101) detects and tracks touches or near touches (and any movement or release of the touch) on touch I/O device 3112 and converts the detected touch input into interaction with graphical objects, such as one or more user-interface objects. In the case in which device 3112 is embodied as a touch screen, the user can directly interact with graphical objects that are displayed on the touch screen. Alternatively, in the case in which device 3112 is embodied as a touch device other than a touch screen (e.g., a touch pad), the user may indirectly interact with graphical objects that are displayed on a separate display screen embodied as I/O device 3114.
Touch I/O device 3112 may be analogous to the multi-touch sensitive surface described in the following U.S. Pat. No. 6,323,846 (Westerman et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,570,557 (Westerman et al.), and/or U.S. Pat. No. 6,677,932 (Westerman), and/or U.S. Patent Publication 2002/0015024A1, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Embodiments in which touch I/O device 3112 is a touch screen, the touch screen may use LCD (liquid crystal display) technology, LPD (light emitting polymer display) technology, OLED (organic LED), or OEL (organic electro luminescence), although other display technologies may be used in other embodiments.
Feedback may be provided by touch I/O device 3112 based on the user's touch input as well as a state or states of what is being displayed and/or of the computing system. Feedback may be transmitted optically (e.g., light signal or displayed image), mechanically (e.g., haptic feedback, touch feedback, force feedback, or the like), electrically (e.g., electrical stimulation), olfactory, acoustically (e.g., beep or the like), or the like or any combination thereof and in a variable or non-variable manner.
System 3100 also includes power system 3144 for powering the various hardware components and may include a power management system, one or more power sources, a recharging system, a power failure detection circuit, a power converter or inverter, a power status indicator and any other components typically associated with the generation, management and distribution of power in portable devices.
In some embodiments, peripherals interface 3116, one or more processing units 3118, and memory controller 3120 may be implemented on a single chip, such as processing system 3104. In some other embodiments, they may be implemented on separate chips.
In certain embodiments of the present disclosure, the system 3003 or system 3100 or combinations of systems 3003 or 3100 can be used to implement at least some of the methods discussed in the present disclosure.
Some portions of the detailed descriptions are presented in terms of algorithms which include operations on data stored within a computer memory. An algorithm is generally a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result. The operations typically require or involve physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.
It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or the like, can refer to the action and processes of a data processing system, or similar electronic device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the system's memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
The present disclosure can relate to an apparatus for performing one or more of the operations described herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a machine (e.g. computer) readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), erasable programmable ROMs (EPROMs), electrically erasable programmable ROMs (EEPROMs), flash memory, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupled to a bus.
A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, machines store and communicate (internally and with other devices over a network) code and data using machine-readable media, such as machine storage media (e.g., magnetic disks; optical disks; random access memory; read only memory; flash memory devices; phase-change memory).
One or more Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) may be used in some embodiments. An API is an interface implemented by a program code component or hardware component (hereinafter “API-implementing component”) that allows a different program code component or hardware component (hereinafter “API-calling component”) to access and use one or more functions, methods, procedures, data structures, classes, and/or other services provided by the API-implementing component. An API can define one or more parameters that are passed between the API-calling component and the API-implementing component.
An API allows a developer of an API-calling component (which may be a third party developer) to leverage specified features provided by an API-implementing component. There may be one API-calling component or there may be more than one such component. An API can be a source code interface that a computer system or program library provides in order to support requests for services from an application. An operating system (OS) can have multiple APIs to allow applications running on the OS to call one or more of those APIs, and a service (such as a program library) can have multiple APIs to allow an application that uses the service to call one or more of those APIs. An API can be specified in terms of a programming language that can be interpreted or compiled when an application is built.
In some embodiments the API-implementing component may provide more than one API, each providing a different view of or with different aspects that access different aspects of the functionality implemented by the API-implementing component. For example, one API of an API-implementing component can provide a first set of functions and can be exposed to third party developers, and another API of the API-implementing component can be hidden (not exposed) and provide a subset of the first set of functions and also provide another set of functions, such as testing or debugging functions which are not in the first set of functions. In other embodiments the API-implementing component may itself call one or more other components via an underlying API and thus be both an API-calling component and an API-implementing component.
An API defines the language and parameters that API-calling components use when accessing and using specified features of the API-implementing component. For example, an API-calling component accesses the specified features of the API-implementing component through one or more API calls or invocations (embodied for example by function or method calls) exposed by the API and passes data and control information using parameters via the API calls or invocations. The API-implementing component may return a value through the API in response to an API call from an API-calling component. While the API defines the syntax and result of an API call (e.g., how to invoke the API call and what the API call does), the API may not reveal how the API call accomplishes the function specified by the API call. Various API calls are transferred via the one or more application programming interfaces between the calling (API-calling component) and an API-implementing component. Transferring the API calls may include issuing, initiating, invoking, calling, receiving, returning, or responding to the function calls or messages; in other words, transferring can describe actions by either of the API-calling component or the API-implementing component. The function calls or other invocations of the API may send or receive one or more parameters through a parameter list or other structure. A parameter can be a constant, key, data structure, object, object class, variable, data type, pointer, array, list or a pointer to a function or method or another way to reference a data or other item to be passed via the API.
Furthermore, data types or classes may be provided by the API and implemented by the API-implementing component. Thus, the API-calling component may declare variables, use pointers to, use or instantiate constant values of such types or classes by using definitions provided in the API.
Generally, an API can be used to access a service or data provided by the API-implementing component or to initiate performance of an operation or computation provided by the API-implementing component. By way of example, the API-implementing component and the API-calling component may each be any one of an operating system, a library, a device driver, an API, an application program, or other module (it should be understood that the API-implementing component and the API-calling component may be the same or different type of module from each other). API-implementing components may in some cases be embodied at least in part in firmware, microcode, or other hardware logic. In some embodiments, an API may allow a client program (e.g., game center application) to use the services provided by a Software Development Kit (SDK) library. In other embodiments an application or other client program may use an API provided by an Application Framework. In these embodiments the application or client program may incorporate calls to functions or methods provided by the SDK and provided by the API or use data types or objects defined in the SDK and provided by the API. An Application Framework may in these embodiments provide a main event loop for a program that responds to various events defined by the Framework. The API allows the application to specify the events and the responses to the events using the Application Framework. In some implementations, an API call can report to an application the capabilities or state of a hardware device, including those related to aspects such as input capabilities and state, output capabilities and state, processing capability, power state, storage capacity and state, communications capability, etc., and the API may be implemented in part by firmware, microcode, or other low level logic that executes in part on the hardware component.
The API-calling component may be a local component (i.e., on the same data processing system as the API-implementing component) or a remote component (i.e., on a different data processing system from the API-implementing component) that communicates with the API-implementing component through the API over a network. It should be understood that an API-implementing component may also act as an API-calling component (i.e., it may make API calls to an API exposed by a different API-implementing component) and an API-calling component may also act as an API-implementing component by implementing an API that is exposed to a different API-calling component.
The API may allow multiple API-calling components written in different programming languages to communicate with the API-implementing component (thus the API may include features for translating calls and returns between the API-implementing component and the API-calling component); however the API may be implemented in terms of a specific programming language. An API-calling component can, in one embedment, call APIs from different providers such as a set of APIs from an OS provider and another set of APIs from a plug-in provider and another set of APIs from another provider (e.g. the provider of a software library) or creator of the another set of APIs.
It will be appreciated that the API-implementing component 3210 may include additional functions, methods, classes, data structures, and/or other features that are not specified through the API 3220 and are not available to the API-calling component 3230. It should be understood that the API-calling component 3230 may be on the same system as the API-implementing component 3210 or may be located remotely and accesses the API-implementing component 3210 using the API 3220 over a network. While
The API-implementing component 3210, the API 3220, and the API-calling component 3230 may be stored in a machine-readable medium (e.g., computer-readable medium), which includes any mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer or other data processing system). For example, a machine-readable medium includes magnetic disks, optical disks, random access memory; read only memory, flash memory devices, etc.
In
Note that the Service 2 has two APIs, one of which (Service 2 API 1) receives calls from and returns values to Application 1 and the other (Service 2 API 2) receives calls from and returns values to Application 2. Service 1 (which can be, for example, a software library) makes calls to and receives returned values from OS API 1, and Service 2 (which can be, for example, a software library) makes calls to and receives returned values from both OS API 1 and OS API 2. Application 2 makes calls to and receives returned values from OS API 2.
If the user owns the game (e.g., game name 2) on the user's current system, then the alert 3400 also includes an accept option 3420 to accept the specific game, a decline option 3420 to decline the game invite, and an optional dismiss option to dismiss the game invite. Selection of the dismiss option allows the user to decide at a later time whether to decline or access the game.
The invite may be in the form of an alert 3500 if the user owns the game, but not on the current system being used by the user. The alert 3500 includes a user name (e.g., user name 40) of the player that sent the invite, a game name (e.g., game name 2), and a message field 3510. The player that creates the invite composes a message in the message field 3510.
The alert 3500 also includes a decline option 3520 to decline the game invite, a download option 3530 to download the game from an online application service (e.g., application store), and an optional dismiss option to dismiss the game invite. Selection of the dismiss option allows the user to decide at a later time whether to decline or download the game.
The invite may be in the form of an alert 3600 if the user does not own the game. The alert 3600 includes a user name (e.g., user name 40) of the player (e.g., friend) that sent the invite, a game name (e.g., game name 2), and a message field 3610. The alert 3500 also includes a decline option 3620 to decline the game invite, an access option 3530 (e.g., app store, buy) to access a fully functional or limited version of the game from an online application service (e.g., application store), and an optional dismiss option 3640 to dismiss the game invite. Selection of the dismiss option 3640 allows the user to decide at a later time whether to decline or download the game.
Upon a user selection of the access option 3630, the processing logic automatically directs the user to an application service (e.g., application store) to purchase the specific game in response to a user selection of the access option (e.g., buy, application store). Alternatively, the processing logic may automatically direct, in response to the user selection of the access option, the user to the application service to access for free a fully functional version of the game for a limited time period or a limited functionality demo copy. In one embodiment, a game invite includes at least one of a graphical icon for the game, a game name, a rating for the game, an ability to access the game, and a price for purchasing the game.
The user interface 3700 also includes information 3720, which includes a user's name (e.g., Mel), a number of friends, a number of games played, and a number of achievements. The information 3720 also includes games we played together 3730 (e.g, games that Mel and a selected friend have played together), other games in common 3740, and games not owned by Mel 3750.
Friends 3994 includes a ranked list of Mel's friends for Game Name 11. Everyone 3996 includes a ranked list of all users for Game Name 15.
In certain embodiments, a certain number of top players are listed (e.g., 10, 20) and if the user (e.g., Mel) is not in this list, then the user's ranking is also listed (e.g., 1900th). A show more option (e.g., 3995, 3997) can be selected to display additional player rankings.
In an embodiment, an incoming friend request may be associated with an email address. The user's address book or contact information associated with the user's contacts can be searched to find a match with the email address. If a match occurs, then the incoming friend request will display a real name or nickname for the player who sent the incoming friend request to the user.
In one embodiment, option 4260 is selected and then user name 22 is also selected. Information 4230 includes details regarding the player that sent the friend request such as a representation (e.g., avatar) and a short message from this player. The user interface 4200 also includes an accept option 4250 to accept a request, decline option 4252 to decline a request, and a report a concern option 4260 to report a concern regarding the user name 22. Additional options may also be provided as illustrated and discussed in conjunction with the description of
In an alternative embodiment, the user interfaces illustrated in
Various types of texture layers can be used for forming the desired object 4300 or other types of objects. The texture layer(s) can vary in color, intensity, pattern, etc. across portions of a desired object to create a customized object and user interface.
In the foregoing specification, the disclosure has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evident that various modifications may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the disclosure as set forth in the following claims. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.
This application claims the benefit of commonly assigned U.S. Patent Application No. 61/321,861 entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING A GAME CENTER” filed on Apr. 7, 2010 by Marcel van Os, and commonly assigned U.S. Patent Application No. 61/378,886 entitled “METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROVIDING A GAME CENTER” filed on Aug. 31, 2010 by Marcel van Os, the disclosures of which are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference. The invention to be disclosed and claimed in this application was prematurely and without Apple's authorization disclosed to the public when a prototype of Apple's iPhone 4 was apparently stolen from an Apple engineer on Mar. 25, 2010. The U.S. priority applications, on which this application is based, were not filed before the apparent theft.
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