Game effects from spectating community inputs

• US 10,376,795 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2015
• Issued: 08/13/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Garg, Rohit, Evans, Ethan Zane, Verfaillie, David Hendrik, Gilmore, Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Torimiro, Adetokunbo O
• Application Number:
  US14/755,934
• Publication Number:
  US 20170003784A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,505 Days
• Field of Search: 463 1, 463 20, 463 22, 463 25, 463 31, 463 39, 463 40, 463 42, 715716, 715718, 715719
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/355 Performing operations on behalf of clients with restricted processing capabilities, e.g. servers transform changing game scene into an encoded video stream for transmitting to a mobile phone or a thin client
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/86 Watching games played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/87 Communicating with other players during game play, e.g. by e-mail or chat

Abstract

A spectating system that generates game inputs based on spectating inputs and provides the game inputs to game systems according to an application programming interface (API). The spectating inputs may include spectator participation statistics, text chat inputs, audio inputs, and spectator interactions with a spectating user interface. The game inputs may include random numbers based on the spectating inputs that may be used as entropy sources for games. The game inputs may also include parameter inputs that provide values for parameters in the game based on spectating inputs. The spectators may become involved in the games being broadcast by influencing game play via the spectating inputs. Game play for the players may be enhanced by providing interesting variations in game play based on the spectating inputs.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

one or more computing devices configured to implement a spectating system configured to;

broadcast video received from a broadcaster device to a plurality of spectator devices, wherein the video includes game play of a respective broadcaster participating as a player in a game executing on a game system, wherein the plurality of spectator devices participates as non-player spectators of the game;

obtain spectator inputs from the plurality of spectator devices;

analyze the spectator inputs to generate spectating data for the broadcast;

generate values for one or more game inputs based at least in part on analysis of the spectating data, wherein the one or more game inputs comprise one or both of parametric inputs that provide parametric values for parameters in the game or randomizing inputs that provide an entropy source for randomizing functions in the game, and wherein the one or both of the parametric inputs or the randomizing inputs are weighted based at least in part on the spectating data; and

expose the one or more game inputs to the game system according to an application programming interface (API) of the spectating system.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the spectating system is configured to:

iteratively perform said obtain, said analyze, said generate, and said expose during the broadcast;

detect a change in the spectator inputs while iteratively performing said obtain and said analyze; and

change the value of at least one of the one or more game inputs in response to said detecting.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the randomizing inputs are weighted based at least in part on a quantity of the plurality of spectators devices indicated by the spectating data.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the spectator data includes spectating statistics based on spectator participation in the broadcast.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the spectator inputs include one or both of audio inputs or text inputs for a plurality of spectators associated with the plurality of spectator devices.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the spectator inputs include spectator interactions with one or more user interface (UI) elements of a spectating UI on the plurality of spectator devices.

7. A method, comprising:

performing, by a spectating system implemented on one or more computing devices;

streaming one or more broadcasts received from one or more broadcaster devices to a plurality of spectator devices, wherein each broadcast shows game play of a respective broadcaster participating as a player in a game executing on a game system, wherein the plurality of spectator devices participates as non-player spectators of the game;

obtaining spectator inputs from the plurality of spectator devices;

analyzing the spectator inputs to generate spectating data for generating one or both of parametric inputs that provide parametric values for parameters in the game or randomizing inputs that provide an entropy source for randomizing functions in the game for the game, and wherein the one or both of the parametric inputs or the randomizing inputs are weighted based at least in part on the spectating data; and

exposing the spectating data to the game system according to an application programming interface (API) of the spectating system.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

obtaining, by the game system, the spectating data according to the API;

generating, by the game system, values for one or more game inputs according to the obtained spectating data, wherein the one or more game inputs comprise one or both of the parametric inputs or the randomizing inputs; and

affecting execution of the game on the game system according to the generated values.

9. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein said exposing the spectating data to the game system according to the API of the spectating system comprises:

generating values for one or more game inputs according to the spectating data; and

exposing the one or more game inputs to the game system according to the API of the spectating system.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein exposing the one or more game inputs to the game system according to the API of the spectating system comprises providing the one or more game inputs to a game server of the game system according to the API, wherein the game server is configured to distribute the one or more game inputs to one or more game engine instances of the game system.

11. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

obtaining, by the game system, a value for at least one of the one or more game inputs according to the API; and

affecting execution of the game on the game system according to the obtained value.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising providing one or more indications of an effect of the obtained value on the execution of the game to the plurality of spectator devices via the one or more broadcasts, wherein the one or more indications include one or both of visual indications or audio indications.

13. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the game inputs include one or more parametric inputs that provide values for parameters in the game based on the spectator inputs, and wherein the generated values include a value for a particular game parameter.

14. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the game inputs include one or more randomizing inputs that provide an entropy source for randomizing one or more aspects of the game, and wherein the generated values include a random value based on the spectator inputs.

15. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the spectator inputs include spectating statistics based on spectator participation in broadcasts.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the spectators are segmented into two or more groups, and wherein the spectator statistics include statistics that indicate a percentage of spectators who are in each of the two or more groups.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein the two or more groups include subscribers and non-subscribers to the spectating system.

18. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the spectator inputs include one or both of audio inputs or text inputs for a plurality of spectators associated with the plurality of spectator devices.

19. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the spectator inputs include inputs to one or more of controller devices, joysticks devices, motion tracking input devices, or gesture-based input devices.

20. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the spectator inputs include text inputs from one or more social media channels.

21. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the spectator inputs include audio inputs for a plurality of spectators associated with the plurality of spectator devices, and wherein analyzing the spectator inputs to generate spectating data for the game comprises analyzing the audio inputs to generate audio analysis data for the one or more broadcasts.

22. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the spectator inputs include text chat inputs for a plurality of spectators associated with the plurality of spectator devices, and wherein analyzing the spectator inputs to generate spectating data for the game comprises analyzing the text chat to generate chat analysis data for the one or more broadcasts.

23. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the spectator inputs include spectator interactions with one or more user interface (UI) elements of a spectating UI on the plurality of spectator devices.

24. The method as recited in claim 23, wherein the spectator interactions include interactions of a plurality of spectators with the one or more UI elements selecting content or events for the game, and wherein said analyzing the spectator inputs to generate spectating data for the game comprises determining particular content or events for the game according to the selections of the plurality of spectators.

25. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions that when executed on one or more computers cause the one or more computers to implement a game effects module for a spectating system configured to:

obtain spectator inputs for a plurality of spectators watching one or more broadcasts from a spectating system on respective client devices, wherein each broadcast shows game play of a respective broadcaster participating as a player in a game session of an online game, wherein the plurality of spectators participates as non-player spectators of the game;

analyze the spectator inputs to generate spectating data for the game;

generate values for one or more game inputs based at least in part on analysis of the spectating data, wherein the one or more game inputs comprise one or both of parametric inputs that provide values for parameters in the game or randomizing inputs that provide an entropy source for randomizing functions in the game, and wherein the one or both of the parametric inputs or the randomizing inputs are weighted based at least in part on the spectating data; and

provide the one or more game inputs to the game system according to an application programming interface (API) of the spectating system.

26. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 25, wherein the randomizing inputs are generated based at least in part on a generated integer value from spectator audio and spectator text input of the spectator inputs.

27. The non-transitory computer-accessible storage medium as recited in claim 25, wherein the spectator inputs include one or more of spectating statistics based on spectator participation in the broadcasts, audio chat inputs for the plurality of spectators, text chat inputs for the plurality of spectators, or spectator interactions with one or more user interface (UI) elements of a spectating UI on the plurality of client devices.