Video game applications traditionally undergo a variety of testing to determine whether the game is functional (e.g., substantially free of bugs) and/or entertaining. Software such as a game may undergo various stages of release, both internally and externally, such as an alpha and beta release. Beta testing may refer to a limited release to external users. The users may report back to the maker of the software any bugs that are discovered and/or provide feedback on the quality of various aspects of the software. The software maker may fix the bugs and/or alter functionality of the software to emphasize those features which testers felt were successful. This process can be time consuming and may not be predictive about the quality of the software.
In game development in particular, quality assurance can be difficult because users may play the game in ways that are unexpected or difficult to predict. Unexpected behavior may, therefore, make use of standard software engineering techniques less reliable. One way game developers attempt to test a game application is by engaging a quality assurance company that may test the software. Another option employed by game developers is fuzz testing, where random inputs are generated in the hope that the inputs will test portions of the software that human testers may not stumble upon. Another option is to write a custom artificial intelligence (“AI”) for the game (e.g., a bot). The AI may have coverage issues, however, because it will only find portions of the game that it has been coded to find or test.
According to an implementation of the disclosed subject matter, one or more inputs from one or more users of an application may be obtained. A first set of draw signals for the application may be obtained. Correlations may be determined between at least a portion of the first set of draw signals for the application with at least a portion of the inputs from the one or more users of the application. At least one computer-implemented player model may be generated based on the correlations.
In an implementation, a system is provided that includes a database and a processor connected thereto. The database may store one or more inputs from users of an application. The processor may be configured to obtain the inputs from the users of the application and obtain a first set of draw signals for the application. It may determine correlations between at least a portion of the first set of draw signals for the applications with at least a portion of the inputs from the users of the application. The processor may be configured to generate at least one computer-implemented player model based on the correlations.
The implementations disclosed herein disclose generation of a computer-implemented player model that may provide feedback to developers in the form of a prediction of how the developer's game is likely to be received by users. 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 provide examples of implementations 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.
In an implementation a method of generating a player model for a video game is disclosed. The player model may be a computer-generated player that behaves similar to a group of users based on a variety of signals that indicate the group of users' behavior. The developer for the game may be one source of signals and other signals may be captured from a device on which a user plays the game (e.g., touch input, key strokes, actions a user takes, etc.) and/or a wireless device input. Other signals may obtained from system data such as the time of day, other application notifications (e.g., was a user pulled out of a game for some other reason), location, movement, etc.
A machine learning technique may be applied to the received signals to build a predictive model of what a group of users (e.g., players) will do in the game at any given time. Multiple player models may be generated for each game and each player model may be representative of a group of users who play the game. For example, player models may define groups of users based on demographics or different behaviors (e.g., user skill level, user speed of movements, etc.). The generated player model(s) may be used to make a prediction as to whether or not a game will be successful. Success may be evaluated by a number of criteria such as retention of users in the number of games played per day, average session length, profitability, average expected lifetime value paid by a user, likelihood and/or frequency of a user making an in-game purchase, how likely a user is to engage a social network based on the game, etc. The player model may be used to provide quality assurance feedback to the developer. For example, each player model may be used to perform several thousand simulations of a video game or portion thereof.
A video game may have multiple versions and users' actions on the prior versions of the game may be utilized as input to generate the player model. For example, a popular video game on mobile devices may involve using a slingshot to hurl an irate avian creature at some less-than-sturdy structures populated with dismayed swine. The majority of the touch input for such a game would be a user drawing the creature in the slingshot back at different angles and releasing the slingshot to hurl the creature toward the structure. The touch inputs may be analyzed and/or measured in terms of a success metric that indicates how many points a user ended up with at the end of a level or with a particular move, for example. A success metric may indicate, for example how user movements correlate with getting a high score in a level or a particular moment in a game, obtaining popular items in a game, etc. There may be other touch inputs that do not coincide with the slingshot (e.g., where a user selects an item, interacts with a menu, etc.). An example of user inputs 510 for such a game are shown in
The player model may adapt to the information displayed on the screen. For example, it may know what power-ups are available to the user and be capable of using those power-ups in the game simulation. The player model may represent a user who can roughly play the game and a player model's behavior may change from simulation to simulation of the video game. For example, in one simulation, the player model may make a purchase of a power-up item while in a second simulation that player model may forego that purchase.
When a developer uploads a new version of a video game, a variety of information about the new version can be ascertained. For example, draw calls which instruct a process or graphics processor what to draw on a screen may be treated as a signal that is used in generating the player model. The draw calls for a game may be sent via an API, for example, to a server. The draw calls may be correlated with other signals obtained by the system. A prediction about the draw calls may be made in the event a developer uploads a new game version with draw calls that the developer has not made before. For example, if the new version's draw calls indicate that there are several rectangular shapes and text disposed therein, it may be inferred that the object (the rectangles and the associated text) are a component of the user interface. Thus, a developer may receive feedback from the player model simulations. For example, the simulations may show that many player models had difficulty selecting a particular button in the user interface. The developer would then be able to make the button larger.
After the simulations with the player models have been run, the developer may receive a performance indicator. The performance indicator, for example, may show screen shots of some of the simulation. For example, if a majority of the simulations terminated at the same spot or roughly same duration, the developer may be able to examine screenshots or video from just before the player model terminated the games. The screenshots may reveal that the player model in multiple simulations became trapped at a particular part of the game, indicating a bug. The screenshots may show a request for payment screen suggesting that users are unlikely to pay for more content. The performance indicator may show that in previous version of the game, the player model successfully completed a level on average one out of a hundred simulations. However, the new level the developer uploaded was completed half as frequently, suggesting that the new level is substantially more difficult than the past versions of the game. A performance indicator may be, for example, a number of games played per day, an average session length, a profitability indication, an error indication, and a social indication.
In an implementation, an example of which is provided in
A player model response may be estimated 680 for draw signals from the version A 620 that do not resemble draw signals from version B 640, 660. Draw signals may be, for example associated with an object (e.g., a menu item, a game item, a pathway, a wall, etc.). If a device is instructed to draw a large box with several smaller boxes, each containing text, arrayed in a column inside the large box, the draw signals may indicate a menu even though the size and location of the large box differs from a menu the system had observed in the previous version of the game. Similarly, an obstacle may be determined based on the properties the obstacle presents. The system may determine that an objects draw calls indicate that it is an impassible and immovable wall.
Based on the player response determined and estimated for similar 650 and dissimilar 660 draw calls respectively and the player model for version A 630, the system may generate a refined player model 690. The refined player model 690 may simulate version B a desired number of instances. Thus, if the developer uploads a new user interface feature (e.g., a dialog box), a player model can predict how to respond to the new user interface feature (e.g., a dialog box) based on past draw signals. The player model model(s) may be modified based on the determination and estimation. Each simulation may generate performance data 693 indicating the likelihood of success for version B and/or quality of version B (e.g., software bugs). The system is dynamic and may update such inferences as user input data for version B 697 and simulation data 695 are returned. For example, it the system may determine that what it inferred as a wall is actually a curb based on user inputs 697. The user inputs 697 may have indicated character elevation changes upon stepping onto the curb and/or that users pressed a “jump” keystroke before characters began walking on the curb. Thus, the player model may be refined 690 as more data are obtained from simulations and as version B is played by actual users.
In an implementation, an example of which is provided in
Implementations of the presently disclosed subject matter may be implemented in and used with a variety of component and network architectures.
The bus 21 allows data communication between the central processor 24 and the memory 27, which may include read-only memory (ROM) or flash memory (neither shown), and random access memory (RAM) (not shown), as previously noted. The RAM is generally the main memory into which the operating system and application programs are loaded. The ROM or flash memory can contain, among other code, the Basic Input-Output system (BIOS) which controls basic hardware operation such as the interaction with peripheral components. Applications resident with the computer 20 are generally stored on and accessed via a computer readable medium, such as a hard disk drive (e.g., fixed storage 23), an optical drive, floppy disk, or other storage medium 25.
The fixed storage 23 may be integral with the computer 20 or may be separate and accessed through other interfaces. A network interface 29 may provide a direct connection to a remote server via a telephone link, to the Internet via an internet service provider (ISP), or a direct connection to a remote server via a direct network link to the Internet via a POP (point of presence) or other technique. The network interface 29 may provide such connection using wireless techniques, including digital cellular telephone connection, Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) connection, digital satellite data connection or the like. For example, the network interface 29 may allow the computer to communicate with other computers via one or more local, wide-area, or other networks, as shown in
Many other devices or components (not shown) may be connected in a similar manner (e.g., document scanners, digital cameras and so on). Conversely, all of the components shown in
More generally, various implementations of the presently disclosed subject matter may include or be implemented in the form of computer-implemented processes and apparatuses for practicing those processes. Implementations also may be implemented in the form of a computer program product having computer program code containing instructions implemented in non-transitory and/or tangible media, such as floppy diskettes, CD-ROMs, hard drives, USB (universal serial bus) drives, or any other machine readable storage medium, wherein, when the computer program code is loaded into and executed by a computer, the computer becomes an apparatus for practicing implementations of the disclosed subject matter. Implementations also may be implemented in the form of computer program code, for example, whether stored in a storage medium, loaded into and/or executed by a computer, or transmitted over some transmission medium, such as over electrical wiring or cabling, through fiber optics, or via electromagnetic radiation, wherein when the computer program code is loaded into and executed by a computer, the computer becomes an apparatus for practicing implementations of the disclosed subject matter. When implemented on a general-purpose microprocessor, the computer program code segments configure the microprocessor to create specific logic circuits. In some configurations, a set of computer-readable instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium may be implemented by a general-purpose processor, which may transform the general-purpose processor or a device containing the general-purpose processor into a special-purpose device configured to implement or carry out the instructions. Implementations may be implemented using hardware that may include a processor, such as a general purpose microprocessor and/or an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) that implements all or part of the techniques according to implementations of the disclosed subject matter in hardware and/or firmware. The processor may be coupled to memory, such as RAM, ROM, flash memory, a hard disk or any other device capable of storing electronic information. The memory may store instructions adapted to be executed by the processor to perform the techniques according to implementations of the disclosed subject matter.
In situations in which the implementations of the disclosed subject matter collect personal information about users, or may make use of personal information, the users may be provided with an opportunity to control whether programs or features collect user information (e.g., a user's performance score, a user's work product, a user's provided input, a user's geographic location, and any other similar data associated with a user), or to control whether and/or how to receive instructional course content from the instructional course provider that may be more relevant to the user. In addition, certain data may be treated in one or more ways before it is stored or used, so that personally identifiable information is removed. For example, a user's identity may be treated so that no personally identifiable information can be determined for the user, or a user's geographic location associated with an instructional course may be generalized where location information is obtained (such as to a city, ZIP code, or state level), so that a particular location of a user cannot be determined. Thus, the user may have control over how information is collected about the user and used by an instructional course provider.
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.
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Prosecution History from U.S. Appl. No. 14/170,898, dated Nov. 24, 2015 through Apr. 21, 2016, 26 pp. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20160354695 A1 | Dec 2016 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 14170898 | Feb 2014 | US |
Child | 15243239 | US |