INTERACTIVE VIDEO GAME WITH DIFFERENT SIZED TOYS HAVING DIFFERENT ABILITIES WITHIN THE VIDEO GAME

• US 20140100029A1
• Filed: 10/10/2012
• Published: 04/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Activision Publishing Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Activision Publishing Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Reiche, Paul, Huang, I-Wei
• Granted Patent: US 9,937,417 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/31
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/245 specially adapted to a particular type of game, e.g. steering wheels
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1062 being specially adapted to a type of game, e.g. steering wheel
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/302 specially adapted for receiving control signals not targeted to a display device or game input means, e.g. vibrating driver's seat, scent dispenser
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/308 Details of the user interface

Abstract

A video game includes a peripheral device that senses the presence and identity of toys near or on the peripheral. Each of the toys includes an identification device such as an RFID tag. Each of the toys is also associated with a corresponding game character or object. The peripheral device provides lighting effects based on characteristics of the game character or aspects of the game play sequence thereby enhancing the user'"'"'s gameplay experience.

Claims

1. A video game system, comprising:

a first physical object configured for communication with a gaming device;

a second physical object configured for communication with said gaming device, wherein said second physical object is significantly larger than said first physical object;

said gaming device is configured to execute video game instructions for providing a virtual representation, in the form of first a video game character, of said first physical object and a virtual representation, in the form of a second video game character, said second physical object in connection with the video game character, wherein said virtual representation of said first physical object has attributes different from attributes of said virtual representation of said second physical object based on an indication of respective size of said first physical object and said second physical object.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said virtual representation of said first physical object is capable of moving with greater speed within the video game environment than said virtual representation of said second physical object.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said virtual representation of said second physical object has greater strength within the video game environment than said virtual representation of said first physical object.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the second physical object has a dimension at least twice as great as the dimension of the first physical object.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the dimension is height.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the second physical object has a height no greater than three times the height of the first physical object.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first physical object includes a first memory storing the indication of respective size of the first physical object, and the second physical object includes a second memory storing the indication of respective size of the second physical object.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the indication of respective size of the first physical object is directly indicative of respective size of the first physical object, and the indication of respective size of the second physical object is directly indicative of respective size of the second physical object.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the indication of respective size of the first physical object is indirectly indicative of respective size of the first physical object, and the indication of respective size of the second physical object is indirectly indicative of respective size of the second physical object.

10. Computer readable non-transitory medium storing program instructions for execution by a computer, the program instructions including program instructions for:

receiving information indicative of relative size of a toy figure;

commanding display of a game character representative of the toy figure in a virtual world;

determining if a requested action for the game character is possible based on the information indicative of relative size of the toy; and

commanding display of performance of the requested action by the game character if the requested action is determined to be possible based on the information indicative of relative size of the toy.

11. The computer readable non-transitory medium of claim 10, wherein the information indicative of relative size of the toy figure is a flag indicating a larger toy figure or a smaller toy figure.

12. The computer readable non-transitory medium of claim 10, wherein the information indicative of relative size of the toy figure is a value identifying a character.

13. A game system, comprising:

a first plurality of toys in a first size range, each toy of the first plurality of toys including memory storing information relevant to a video game character associated with the toy, the information including information indicative of size of the toy;

a second plurality of toys in a second size range, each toy of the second plurality of toys including memory storing information relevant to a video game character associated with the toy, the information including information indicative of size of the toy; and

a gaming device configured by program instructions to receive the information relevant to video game characters, to provide for game play in which a one of the video game characters associated with a one of the toys interacts with a virtual world, with abilities of the one of the video game characters associated with the one of the toy dependent on the information indicative of the size of the toy.

14. The game system of claim 13, wherein the second size range is between 1.5 and 4 times larger than the first size range in at least one measure.

15. The game system of claim 14, wherein the measure is height.

16. The game system of claim 13, wherein the abilities comprises speed and strength.