RULE SET FOR CREATING WORD-PUZZLES

• US 20130260887A1
• Filed: 03/28/2012
• Published: 10/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Cahill, Jason, Thornton, John, Cahill, Elissa
• Application Number:
  US13/432,886
• Publication Number:
  US 20130260887A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/33 using wide area network [WAN] connections
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/44 involving timing of operations, e.g. performing an action within a time slot
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/46 Computing the game score
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/75 Enforcing rules, e.g. detecting foul play or generating lists of cheating players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5586 for enforcing rights or rules, e.g. to prevent foul play
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6009 for importing or creating game content, e.g. authoring tools during game development, adapting content to different platforms, use of a scripting language to create content
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/61 Score computation
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8064 Quiz
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8094 Unusual game types, e.g. virtual cooking
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 3/0423 Word games, e.g. scrabble electric A63F3/0421; two-dimensional puzzles with rotating rings or discs A63F9/0811, A63F9/0819

Abstract

A game interface having multiple game-object locations is constructed by removing a remaining game-object from a pool of game-objects and loading that removed game-object into an empty game-object location for each of the game-object locations. A candidate game interface that is fully loaded with game-objects is compared to a rule set. A candidate game interface is rejected if it violates the rule set. If a candidate game interface does not violate the rule set, the candidate game interface is deployed to a gaming environment as an approved game interface.

Claims

1. A storage subsystem holding instructions executable by a logic subsystem to:

for each of a plurality of empty game-object locations in a game interface, remove a remaining game-object from a pool of game-objects and load that removed game-object into that empty game-object location to construct a candidate game interface that is fully loaded with game-objects;

if the candidate game interface violates an intra-game rule set, reject the candidate game interface; and

if the candidate game interface does not violate the intra-game rule set, deploy the candidate game interface as an approved game interface.

2. The storage subsystem of claim 1, wherein each of the game-objects includes a letter or a combination of two or more letters.

3. The storage subsystem of claim 1, wherein the game interface includes a four-by-four rectangular matrix of game-object locations.

4. The storage subsystem of claim 1, wherein a rule of the intra-game rule set defines a threshold number of words that include a particular letter.

5. The storage subsystem of claim 1, wherein a rule of the intra-game rule set defines a threshold number of words that include a particular game-object of the candidate game-interface.

6. The storage subsystem of claim 5, wherein the rule of the intra-game rule set further defines a threshold number of common words of which the particular game-object is a member;

wherein the threshold number of common words is less than the threshold number of words.

7. The storage subsystem of claim 5, wherein one or more of the game-objects is a polygram game-object including two or more letters;

wherein a rule of the intra-game rule set further defines a threshold number of polygram words that include the polygram game-object;

wherein the threshold number of polygram words is greater than the threshold number of words.

8. The storage subsystem of claim 1, wherein a rule of the intra-game rule set defines a minimum number of words that can be formed from the game-objects of the candidate game interface;

and

wherein another rule of the intra-game rule set defines a maximum number of words that can be formed from the game-objects of the candidate game interface.

9. The storage subsystem of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further executable by the logic subsystem to:

if the candidate game interface violates either the intra-game rule set or an inter-game rule set, reject the candidate game interface; and

if the candidate game interface does not violate either the intra-game rule set or the inter-game rule set, deploy the candidate game interface as the approved game interface;

wherein the inter-game rule set defines a threshold number or threshold proportion of words formed from letters of the game-objects that are shared by the candidate game interface with one or more preceding approved game interfaces.

10. A method for a computing device, comprising:

generating one or more candidate game interfaces, each candidate game interface including a plurality of letters of an alphabetic system having corresponding game-object locations within the candidate game interface;

comparing the one or more candidate game interfaces to an intra-game rule set;

if at least one candidate game interface of the one or more candidate game interfaces satisfies the intra-game rule set, promoting the at least one candidate game interface to an approved game interface; and

deploying the approved game interface to a gaming environment.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a rule of the intra-game rule set defines at least a threshold number of words that include a particular letter.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein a candidate game interface satisfies the intra-game rule set if each letter of that candidate game interface is a member of at least the threshold number of words;

wherein the threshold number of words includes at least three words; and

wherein each candidate game interface includes exactly sixteen game-object locations for at least sixteen letters.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein a rule of the intra-game rule set defines at least a threshold number of common words of which the particular letter is a member.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein generating the one or more candidate game interfaces includes generating a polygram game-object for each candidate game interface, the polygram game-object including two or more letters of the plurality of letters, the two or more letters having a shared game-object location within the candidate game interface;

wherein a rule of the intra-game rule set defines at least a threshold number of polygram words that include the two or more letters of the polygram game-object.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein a rule of the intra-game rule set defines at least one pair of letters that have a pre-established game-object location relationship relative to each other.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises comparing the one or more candidate game interfaces to an inter-game rule set;

wherein said promoting further includes promoting the at least one candidate game interface to the approved game interface if the at least one candidate game interface satisfies both the intra-game rule set and the inter-game rule set;

wherein the plurality of letters of each candidate game interface forms a set of words of the language;

wherein the inter-game rule set defines a threshold number or threshold proportion of the words of each candidate game interface shared with one or more preceding candidate game interfaces; and

wherein a candidate game interface satisfies the inter-game rule set if less than the threshold number or threshold proportion of the words of that candidate game interface are shared with the one or more preceding candidate game interfaces.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein deploying the approved game interface to the gaming environment includes transmitting a game-object arrangement defining the approved game interface over a communications network to one or more client devices for presentation.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein generating the one or more candidate game interfaces includes:

programmatically assigning a subset of the plurality of letters to corresponding game-object locations within the candidate game interface, the subset forming a set of themed words, and randomly assigning a remainder of the plurality of letters to remaining corresponding game-object locations within the candidate game interface not occupied by the subset.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein a rule of the intra-game rule set defines a minimum number of words and a maximum number of words formed by the plurality of letters.

20. A storage subsystem holding instructions executable by a logic subsystem to:

for each of sixteen empty word-game-object locations in a word-game interface forming a four-by-four matrix of word-game-object locations, remove a remaining word-game-object from a pool of word-game-objects and load that removed word-game-object into that empty word-game-object location to construct a candidate word-game interface that is fully loaded with word-game-objects, each word-game-object including a letter or a combination of two or more letters;

if the candidate word-game interface does not violate an intra-game rule set and does not violate an inter-game rule set, deploy the candidate word-game interface as an approved word-game interface by initiating delivery of the approved word-game interface to a remote computing device over a communications network;

the intra-game rule set defining a minimum threshold number of words formed from each letter of each candidate game interface; and

the inter-game rule set defining a maximum threshold number of words of each candidate game interface shared with one or more preceding deployed approved game interfaces.