COMPUTER-READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM HAVING INFORMATION PROCESSING PROGRAM STORED THEREON AND INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS

• US 20090241038A1
• Filed: 03/18/2009
• Published: 09/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Taito, Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Taito, Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: Kimura, Yuichi, Mizuno, Tomokazu, Kira, Satoshi, IZUNO, Toshiharu
• Granted Patent: US 8,175,993 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/757
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/219 for aiming at specific areas on the display, e.g. light-guns
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/22 Setup operations, e.g. calibration, key configuration or button assignment
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/426 involving on-screen location information, e.g. screen coordinates of an area at which the player is aiming with a light gun
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/533 for prompting the player, e.g. by displaying a game menu
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/573 using trajectories of game objects, e.g. of a golf ball according to the point of impact
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/577 using determination of contact between game characters or objects, e.g. to avoid collision between virtual racing cars
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/822 Strategy games; Role-playing games A63F13/825, A63F13/828 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/303 for displaying additional data, e.g. simulating a Head Up Display
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/308 Details of the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6054 by generating automatically game commands to assist the player, e.g. automatic braking in a driving game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6623 for animating a group of characters

Abstract

An instruction target object which is located outside a predetermined area of a virtual space is detected at an interval of the unit time, and a substitute icon associated with the instruction target object is displayed in a screen. Next, after it is detected that a first operation has been performed on the substitute icon from the operation data, it is detected that a second operation has also been performed. Based on the pointed position in the screen when the second operation was detected, the instruction target object associated with the substitute icon processed by the first operation is caused to perform a predetermined motion.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon an information processing program to be executed by a computer of an information processing apparatus for displaying, in a screen at an interval of a unit time, a virtual space containing at least one instruction target object which performs a predetermined motion based on an operation of a player, the information processing program causing the computer to perform:

an outside-the-area object detection step of detecting, at an interval of the unit time, the instruction target object which is located outside a predetermined area of the virtual space;

a substitute icon display step of, when the instruction target object which is located outside the predetermined area is detected in the outside-the-area object detection step, displaying a substitute icon associated with the instruction target object in the screen;

a pointed position calculation step of obtaining operation data from an operation device at an interval of the unit time and calculating a pointed position on the screen pointed to by the operation device based on the operation data;

a first operation detection step of detecting, from the operation data, that a first operation has been performed on the substitute icon;

a second operation detection step of detecting, from the operation data, that a second operation has been performed after the first operation was detected in the first operation detection step; and

a motion execution step of causing the instruction target object associated with the substitute icon processed by the first operation to perform a predetermined motion based on the pointed position when the second operation was detected in the second operation detection step.

2. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon the information processing program according to claim 1, wherein the outside-the-area object detection step performs the detection where an area displayed in the screen is set as the predetermined area.

3. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon the information processing program according to claim 1, wherein the motion execution step moves the instruction target object associated with the substitute icon processed by the first operation to a position in the virtual space corresponding to the pointed position.

4. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon the information processing program according to claim 1, wherein the motion execution step causes the instruction target object to perform a predetermined motion on an object located at a position in the virtual space corresponding to the pointed position.

5. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon the information processing program according to claim 1, wherein the substitute icon display step displays the substitute icon at a position in the screen closest to the instruction target object associated with the substitute icon.

6. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon the information processing program according to claim 5, wherein the substitute icon display step displays a plurality of the substitute icons while adjusting display positions thereof so that the substitute icons do not cross each other.

7. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon the information processing program according to claim 1, wherein the information processing program further causes the computer to execute a line display step of generating a line connecting the instruction target object associated with the substituted icon processed by the first operation and a position in the virtual space corresponding to the pointed position and displays the line on the screen, after the first operation is detected before the second operation is detected.

8. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon the information processing program according to claim 7, wherein the line display step displays information regarding a distance between the substituted icon or the instruction target object associated with the substituted icon and the position in the virtual space corresponding to the pointed position.

9. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon the information processing program according to claim 1, wherein:

the operation device includes at least one key;

the first operation detection step detects that a predetermined key among the at least one key has been pressed in the state where the substitute icon and the pointed position overlap each other, as the first operation based on the operation data; and

the second operation detection step detects that the pressed state of the key predetermined detected as the first operation has been cancelled, as the second operation based on the operation data.

10. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon the information processing program according to claim 1, wherein:

the operation device includes imaging means for imaging an imaging target;

the operation data includes at least any of data on a taken image imaged by the imaging means, data representing two predetermined positions of the imaging target in the taken image, and data representing a position of the imaging target in the taken image; and

the pointed position calculation step calculates the pointed position from any of the data on the taken image imaged by the imaging means, the data representing two predetermined positions of the imaging target in the taken image, and the data representing the position of the imaging target in the taken image, which are obtained from the operation device.

11. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon the information processing program according to claim 1, wherein:

the operation device includes an analog stick, which is an analog system direction pointing device; and

the information processing program further causes the computer to execute a stick scroll step of scrolling the screen in accordance with a direction pointed by the analog stick.

12. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon the information processing program according to claim 1, wherein the information processing program further causes the computer to execute a screen end scroll step of determining whether or not the pointed position overlaps a predetermined area including any of top, bottom, right and left ends of the screen, and when the pointed position overlaps, scrolling the screen in accordance with the direction represented by the end included in the overlapping predetermined area.

13. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon the information processing program according to claim 1, wherein the substitute icon display step displays, as attached to the substitute icon, information based on a parameter representing a state of the instruction target object associated with the substitute icon.

14. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon the information processing program according to claim 1, wherein:

the virtual space contains at least one related object associated with the instruction target object; and

the motion execution step causes the instruction target object and also the related object to execute the predetermined motion.

15. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon the information processing program according to claim 14, wherein the substitute icon display step displays, as attached to the substitute icon, information on the number of the related objects associated with the instruction target object.

16. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon the information processing program according to claim 1, wherein the information processing program further causes the computer to execute an action information display step of, when the first operation is detected, providing an action information display representing an action which can be taken by the instruction target object, associated with the substitute icon processed by the first operation, on an object displayed in the screen other than the instruction target object, the an action information display being provided as overlapping the object other than the instruction operation object.

17. An information processing apparatus for displaying, in a screen at an interval of a unit time, a virtual space containing at least one instruction target object which performs a predetermined motion based on an operation of a player, the information processing program comprising:

outside-the-area object detection means for detecting, at an interval of the unit time, the instruction target object which is located outside a predetermined area of the virtual space;

substitute icon display means for, when the instruction target object which is located outside the predetermined area is detected by the outside-the-area object detection means, displaying a substitute icon associated with the instruction target object in the screen;

pointed position calculation means for obtaining operation data from an operation device at an interval of the unit time and calculating a pointed position on the screen pointed to by the operation device based on the operation data;

first operation detection means for detecting that a first operation has been performed on the substitute icon;

second operation detection means for detecting that a second operation different from the first operation has been performed after the first operation was detected by the first operation detection means; and

motion execution means for causing the instruction target object associated with the substitute icon processed by the first operation to perform a predetermined motion based on the pointed position when the second operation was detected by the second operation detection means.

18. An information processing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the outside-the-area object detection means performs the detection where an area displayed on the screen is set as the predetermined area.

19. An information processing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the motion execution means moves the instruction target object associated with the substitute icon processed by the first operation to a position in the virtual space corresponding to the pointed position.

20. An information processing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the motion execution means causes the instruction target object to perform a predetermined motion on an object located at a position in the virtual space corresponding to the pointed position.

21. An information processing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the substitute icon display means displays the substitute icon at a position in the screen closest to the instruction target object associated with the substitute icon.

22. An information processing apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the substitute icon display means displays a plurality of the substitute icons while adjusting display positions thereof so that the substitute icons do not cross each other.

23. An information processing apparatus according to claim 17, further comprising line display means for generating a line connecting the instruction target object associated with the substituted icon processed by the first operation and a position in the virtual space corresponding to the pointed position and displays the line on the screen, after the first operation is detected before the second operation is detected.

24. An information processing apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the line display means displays information regarding a distance between the substituted icon or the instruction target object associated with the substituted icon and the position in the virtual space corresponding to the pointed position.

25. An information processing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein:

the operation device includes at least one key;

the first operation detection means detects that a predetermined key among the at least one key has been pressed in the state where the substitute icon and the pointed position overlap each other, as the first operation based on the operation data; and

the second operation detection means detects that the pressed state of the predetermined key detected as the first operation has been cancelled, as the second operation based on the operation data.

26. An information processing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein:

the operation device includes imaging means for imaging an imaging target;

the operation data includes at least any of data on a taken image imaged by the imaging means, data representing two predetermined positions of the imaging target in the taken image, and data representing a position of the imaging target in the taken image; and

the pointed position calculation means calculates the pointed position from any of the data on the taken image imaged by the imaging means, the data representing two predetermined positions of the imaging target in the taken image, and the data representing the position of the imaging target in the taken image, which are obtained from the operation device.

27. An information processing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein:

the operation device includes an analog stick, which is an analog system direction pointing device; and

the information processing apparatus further comprises stick scroll means for scrolling the screen in accordance with a direction pointed by the analog stick.

28. An information processing apparatus according to claim 17, further comprising screen end scroll means for determining whether or not the pointed position overlaps a predetermined area including any of top, bottom, right and left ends of the screen, and when the pointed position overlaps, scrolling the screen in accordance with the direction represented by the end included in the overlapping predetermined area.

29. An information processing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the substitute icon display means displays, as attached to the substitute icon, information based on a parameter representing a state of the instruction target object associated with the substitute icon.

30. An information processing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein:

the virtual space contains at least one related object associated with the instruction target object; and

the motion execution means causes the instruction target object and also the related object to execute the predetermined motion.

31. An information processing apparatus according to claim 30, wherein the substitute icon display means displays, as attached to the substitute icon, information on the number of the related objects associated with the instruction target object.

32. An information processing apparatus according to claim 17, further comprising action information display means for, when the first operation is detected, providing an action information display representing an action which can be taken by the instruction target object, associated with the substitute icon processed by the first operation, on an object displayed in the screen other than the instruction target object, the an action information display being provided as overlapping the object other than the instruction operation object.

33. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon an information processing program to be executed by a computer of an information processing apparatus for displaying, in a screen at an interval of a unit time, a virtual space containing at least one instruction target object which performs a predetermined motion based on an operation of a player, the information processing program causing the computer to perform:

an outside-the-area object detection step of detecting, at an interval of the unit time, the instruction target object which is located outside a predetermined area of the virtual space;

a substitute icon display step of, when the instruction target object which is located outside the predetermined area is detected in the outside-the-area object detection step, displaying a substitute icon associated with the instruction target object in the screen, and when there are a plurality of the substitute icons, displaying the substitute icons while adjusting display positions thereof so that the substitute icons do not cross each other; and

a motion execution step of causing the instruction target object associated with the substitute icon to perform a predetermined motion based on a predetermined operation.

34. An information processing apparatus for displaying, in a screen at an interval of a unit time, a virtual space containing at least one instruction target object which performs a predetermined motion based on an operation of a player, the information processing apparatus comprising;

outside-the-area object detection means for detecting, at an interval of the unit time, the instruction target object which is located outside a predetermined area of the virtual space;

substitute icon display means for, when the instruction target object which is located outside the predetermined area is detected by the outside-the-area object detection means, displaying a substitute icon associated with the instruction target object in the screen, and when there are a plurality of the substitute icons, displaying the substitute icons while adjusting display positions thereof so that the substitute icons do not cross each other; and

motion execution means for causing the instruction target object associated with the substitute icon to perform a predetermined motion based on a predetermined operation.