A VIDEO GAME PROCESSING APPARATUS, A METHOD AND A COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PROCESSING A VIDEO GAME

• US 20070155501A1
• Filed: 07/28/2006
• Published: 07/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Square Enix
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Square Enix
• Inventors: KANEMORI, Yuichi, SHIOKAWA, Yosuke
• Granted Patent: US 7,927,202 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/37
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/533 for prompting the player, e.g. by displaying a game menu
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/5372 for tagging characters, objects or locations in the game scene, e.g. displaying a circle under the character controlled by the player
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/303 for displaying additional data, e.g. simulating a Head Up Display
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/306 for displaying a marker associated to an object or location in the game field
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/308 Details of the user interface

Abstract

It is an object that a normally selectable command or a command for specifying an appropriate action in accordance with the state of a player character can be easily selected through a simple operation by a player. In a command control process, at least one normal action specifying command for specifying a normal action that the player character can normally carry out is selectably displayed; at least one local action specifying command for specifying a local action that the player character can locally carry out in accordance with a state of the player character and corresponds to the state of the player character is selectably displayed when the player character becomes the corresponding state; and an action of the player character is controlled in response to the command selected, through operation by the player, from the displayed at least one normal action specifying command and the displayed at least one local action specifying command.

Claims

1. A video game processing apparatus that causes an image display apparatus to display a player character of a video game on an image screen of the image display apparatus, the video game processing apparatus controlling progress of the video game by controlling an action of the player character displayed on the image screen in accordance with operations by a player, the video game processing apparatus comprising:

a normal action specifying command display controller that selectably displays at least one normal action specifying command for specifying a normal action that the player character can normally carry out;

a local action specifying command display controller that selectably displays at least one local action specifying command for specifying a local action that the player character can locally carry out in accordance with a state of the player character;

a command selection receiver that receives a command selected, through an operation by the player, from one of the at least one normal action specifying command displayed by the normal action specifying command display controller, and the at least one local action specifying command displayed by the local action specifying command display controller; and

a player character action controller that controls an action of the player character in response to the command received by the command selection receiver,

wherein the at least one local action specifying command corresponds to the state of the player character, and the local action specifying command display controller selectably displays the at least one local action specifying command when the player character becomes the corresponding state.

2. The video game processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one local action specifying command includes multiple categories of local action specifying commands that respectively correspond to the states of the player character, and wherein the local action specifying command display controller displays a local action specifying command to which a current state of the player character corresponds from the multiple categories of local action specifying commands.

3. The video game processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the video game processing apparatus also causes the image display apparatus to display at least one other character of the video game on the image screen of the image display apparatus, wherein the at least one character may be a target character of at least one of a normal action and a local action, and the multiple categories of local action specifying commands respectively correspond to the categories of target characters, each of which is to be a target of the local action of the player character.

4. The video game processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the multiple categories of local action specifying commands respectively correspond to the categories of the states of the player character.

5. The video game processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a degree of display priority is set to each of the multiple categories of local action specifying commands, and the local action specifying command display controller selectably displays a local action specifying command having a highest degree of display priority in the case where there are at least two local action specifying commands that correspond to the current state of the player character.

6. The video game processing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising;

a normal action target identifying display controller that distinguishably displays identification of a normal action target character that is a target of the normal action of the player character in the case where one of the at least one normal action specifying command for specifying the normal action, which is selectably displayed by the normal action specifying command display controller, is selected,

wherein, in the case where two or more local action specifying commands correspond to the current state of the player character, the local action specifying command display controller selectably displays the local action specifying command that specifies the local action whose target is the normal action target character, identification of which the normal action target identifying display controller displays, in priority to any other local action specifying command.

7. The video game processing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising:

a local action target identifying display controller that distinguishably displays identification of a local action target character that is a target of the local action of the player character in the case where the at least one local action specifying command for specifying the local action, which is selectably displayed by the local action specifying command display controller, is selected.

8. The video game processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

a normal action target identifying display controller that distinguishably displays identification of a normal action target character that is a target of the normal action of the player character in the case where the at least one normal action specifying command for specifying the normal action, which is selectably displayed by the normal action specifying command display controller, is selected; and

a target character change controller that causes the local action target characters, whose identification is to be displayed by the local action target identifying display controller, to change,

wherein, in the case where the player character becomes a state that corresponds to a predetermined local action specifying command, the target character change controller changes the local action target character that is a target of the local action of the player character when the predetermined local action specifying command is selected, to the normal action target character, identification of which is displayed by the normal action target identifying display controller.

9. The video game processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the state of the player character that corresponds to the at least one local action specifying command includes a state that a distance between the player character and the target character that is a target of the local action of the player character is within a predetermined distance.

10. The video game processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an operation signal output controller that outputs operation signals including a first operation signal and a second operation signal, which is different from the first operation signal, to the command selection receiver in accordance with an operation by the player,

wherein the command selection receiver receives selection of the at least one normal action specifying command in response to an output of the first operation signal from the operation signal output controller, and receives selection of the at least one local action specifying command in response to an output of the second operation signal from the operation signal output controller.

11. A method of processing a video game by causing an image display apparatus to display a player character of a video game on an image screen of the image display apparatus, the method controlling progress of the video game by controlling an action of the player character displayed on the image screen in accordance with operations by a player, the method comprising,

selectably displaying at least one normal action specifying command for specifying a normal action that the player character can normally carry out;

selectably displaying at least one local action specifying command for specifying a local action that the player character can locally carry out in accordance with a state of the player character and corresponds to the state of the player character, when the player character becomes the corresponding state;

receiving a command selected, through an operation by the player, from one of the at least one displayed normal action specifying command and the at least one displayed local action specifying command; and

controlling an action of the player character in response to the received command.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the at least one local action specifying command includes multiple categories of local action specifying commands that respectively correspond to the states of the player character, and the selectably displaying at least one local action specifying command includes displaying the local action specifying command to which the current state of the player character corresponds among the multiple categories of local action specifying commands.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the image display apparatus is also made to display characters of the video game other than the player character on the image screen of the image display apparatus, each of the characters is to be a target character of the normal action and/or the local action, and the multiple categories of local action specifying commands respectively correspond to the categories of target characters each of which is to be a target of the local action of the player character.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein the multiple categories of local action specifying commands respectively correspond to the categories of the states of the player character.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein a degree of display priority is set to each of the multiple categories of local action specifying commands, and the selectably displaying at least one local action specifying command includes selectably displaying a local action specifying command having a highest degree of display priority in the case where there are at least two local action specifying commands that correspond to the current state of the player character.

16. The method according to claim 13, further comprising:

distinguishably displaying identification of a local action target character that is a target of the local action of the player character in the case where the selectably displayed local action specifying command for specifying the local action is selected.

17. The method according to claim 13, wherein the state of the player character that corresponds to the at least one local action specifying command includes a state that a distance between the player character and the target character that is a target of the local action of the player character is within a predetermined distance.

18. The method according to claim 11, wherein the receiving a command further includes:

receiving selection of the at least one displayed normal action specifying command in response to an output of a first operation signal; and

receiving selection of the at least one displayed local action specifying command in response to an output of a second operation signal different from the first operation signal.

19. A computer program product for processing a video game, progress of the video game is controlled by causing an image display apparatus to display a player character of a video game on an image screen of the image display apparatus, and controlling an action of the player character displayed on the image screen in accordance with operations by a player, the computer program product causing a computer to execute:

selectably displaying at least one normal action specifying command for specifying a normal action that the player character can normally carry out;

selectably displaying at least one local action specifying command for specifying a local action that the player character can locally carry out in accordance with a state of the player character and corresponds to the state of the player character, when the player character becomes the corresponding state;

receiving the command selected, through an operation by the player, from one of the at least one displayed normal action specifying command and the at least one displayed local action specifying command; and

controlling an action of the player character in response to the received command.

20. The computer program product according to claim 19, wherein the at least one local action specifying command includes multiple categories of local action specifying commands that respectively correspond to the states of the player character, and the selectably displaying at least one local action specifying command includes displaying the local action specifying command to which the current state of the player character corresponds among the multiple categories of local action specifying commands.

21. The computer program product according to claim 20, wherein the image display apparatus is also made to display characters of the video game other than the player character on the image screen of the image display apparatus, each of the characters is to be a target character of the normal action and/or the local action, and the multiple categories of local action specifying commands respectively correspond to the categories of target characters each of which is to be a target of the local action of the player character.

22. The computer program product according to claim 20, wherein the multiple categories of local action specifying commands respectively correspond to the categories of the states of the player character.

23. The computer program product according to claim 20, wherein a degree of display priority is set to each of the multiple categories of local action specifying commands, and

wherein the computer program product further causes the computer to execute:

selectably displaying the local action specifying command having the highest degree of display priority in the case where there are at least two local action specifying commands that correspond to the current state of the player character.

24. The computer program product according to claim 21, wherein the computer program product further causes the computer to execute:

distinguishably displaying identification of a local action target character that is a target of the local action of the player character in the case where the selectably displayed local action specifying command for specifying the local action is selected.

25. The computer program product according to claim 21, wherein the state of the player character that corresponds to the at least one local action specifying command includes a state that a distance between the player character and the target character that is a target of the local action of the player character is within a predetermined distance.

26. The computer program product according to claim 19, the computer program product further causes the computer to execute:

receiving selection of the at least one displayed normal action specifying command in response to an output of a first operation signal; and

receiving selection of the at least one displayed local action specifying command in response to an output of a second operation signal different from the first operation signal.