SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING GAME-PLAYING EXPERIENCES

• US 20140228112A1
• Filed: 02/13/2013
• Published: 08/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Unity Technologies SF (Unity Software, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Applifier Oy (Unity Software, Inc.)
• Inventors: Laakkonen, Jussi, Sinerma, Olli
• Granted Patent: US 9,233,305 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/31
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/20 Input arrangements for video game devices
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/49 Saving the game status; Pausing or ending the game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/497 Partially or entirely replaying previous game actions
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/537 using indicators, e.g. showing the condition of a game character on screen
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/63 by the player, e.g. authoring using a level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/86 Watching games played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/552 for downloading to client devices, e.g. using OS version, hardware or software profile of the client device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/554 by saving game or status data
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/634 for replaying partially or entirely the game actions since the beginning of the game
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/031 Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/32 on separate auxiliary tracks of the same or an auxiliary record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

A system for managing game-playing experiences includes one or more game-playing devices provided with communication interfaces for exchanging game-playing experiences therebetween. Each device includes computing hardware coupled to a graphical interface for presenting an interactive game thereupon. The computing hardware is operable to execute one or more game software products recorded on machine-readable data storage media for generating the interactive game. The one or more game software products include a game experience software module (GESW) for generating metadata concurrently with recording the game-playing experience substantially as presented via the graphical interface which enables the recorded game-playing experience to be subsequently managed prior to communication for distribution for viewing. Optionally, the metadata includes one or more metadata events which are searchable when subsequently viewing the game-playing experience.

Claims

1. A system for managing game-playing experiences, comprising:

a game playing device configured to execute an interactive computer game, record an execution of the computer game, the recorded execution of the computer game comprising a gameplay experience;

another game playing device configured to record a gameplay experience;

a communication interface for exchanging recorded gameplay experiences between the game playing devices;

the game playing devices comprising computing hardware coupled to a graphical interface for presenting the interactive computer game thereupon, and wherein the computing hardware is configured to execute a game software product recorded on machine-readable data storage;

the one or more game software products include a game experience software module (GESW) for generating a s metadata concurrently with recording the gameplay experience substantially as presented via the graphical interface, the stream of metadata enabling the recorded gameplay experience or an arbitrary number of points or segments of time in the recorded gameplay experience to be subsequently described, identified, analysed, managed, searched or edited.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein stream of metadata is generated automatically during the execution of the game by the game experience software module.

3. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the stream of metadata is recording during execution of the interactive computer game.

4. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the stream of metadata includes timestamps for synchronizing with timestamps included in the recorded gameplay experience.

5. The system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the stream of metadata is configured to identify or describe a corresponding gameplay experience or arbitrary number of points in time or segments thereof;

edit the gameplay experience;

annotate the gameplay;

highlight the gameplay;

to execute searches for gameplay experiences or points of interest or segments within gameplay experiences;

navigate contents of the gameplay experience;

share the gameplay experience;

describe the user through his gameplay in one or multiple games;

describe the user through observing what of types of gameplay experiences and points of interest within gameplay experiences are viewed; and

recommend to a user interesting other users or game-play experiences that are relevant based on the metadata collected about users and game-play experiences and correlations between them.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stream of metadata is linked to the user that generated the gameplay experience and an interactive game from which the metadata was recorded.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the game experience software module includes computer executable instructions, that when executed by the computing hardware are configured to:

record one or multiple streams of data corresponding to the game playing experience comprising a video content corresponding to the gameplay experience, an audio content corresponding to the gameplay experience, a video content of the user captured using a camera recording device during execution of the interactive computer game or, screen shots of the execution of the interactive game including graphical user interface elements, and the stream of metadata corresponding to the gameplay experience.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stream of metadata includes one or more metadata events which are searchable when subsequently searching for gameplay experiences and while viewing the gameplay experience.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication interfaces are configured to communicate the recorded gameplay experience via a database arrangement for selective distribution therefrom to viewers.

10. The system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the database arrangement is configured to generate one or more social groups of users and related properties for selective distribution of gameplay experiences therebetween.

11. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the devices are implemented using at least one of:

smart telephones, pad computers, tablet computers, lap-top computers, personal computers, game-playing consoles.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the stream of metadata comprises one or more metadata events with associated timestamps that are synchronized with the recording.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the generated stream of metadata is recorded during one or both of playing of the interactive computer game or entered by the user, the stream of metadata being used to perform one or more of:

describing a corresponding gameplay experience;

editing the recorded gameplay experience;

annotating the recorded gameplay experience;

highlighting the recorded gameplay experience

executing searches of the recorded gameplay experience;

navigating contents of the recorded gameplay experience;

sharing the recorded gameplay experience;

describing the user through his gameplay in one or multiple games;

or

recommending to the user interesting other users or other user gameplay experiences that are relevant based on metadata collected about the other users and the other gameplay experiences and correlations between the other users and the other gameplay experiences.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the stream of metadata is linked to at least one of:

a user that generated the gameplay experience;

a type of game from which the stream of metadata was recorded

and wherein the linking is used to search, over one or more social networks, other players that are interested in a game type corresponding to the recorded gameplay experience.

26. The system of claim 1, where the stream of metadata is used to analyse a behaviour of one or more players during the recorded gameplay experience, the analysis enabling a gameplay coaching service.

12. A method of managing game-playing experiences in a system, wherein the system includes one or more game-playing devices provided with communication interfaces for exchanging game-playing experiences therebetween, wherein each device includes computing hardware coupled to a graphical interface for presenting an interactive game thereupon, and wherein the computing hardware is configured to execute one or more game software products including a game experience software module recorded on machine-readable data storage media for generating the interactive game, wherein the method comprises:

recording an execution of the computer game during execution of the computer game on a game experience software module running on the game playing device, the recorded execution of the computer game comprising a gameplay experience;

using the game experience software module to generate a stream of metadata concurrently with recording the gameplay experience substantially as presented via the graphical interface;

the stream of metadata enabling the recorded gameplay experience and an arbitrary number of points or segments of time in the recorded gameplay experience to be subsequently identified, described, analyzed, searched, managed, or edited.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, comprising arranging for the stream of metadata to include timestamps for synchronizing with timestamps included in the recorded gameplay experience.

14. A method as claimed in claim 13, comprising arranging for the stream of metadata to include one or more metadata events which are searchable when subsequently searching for gameplay experiences and while viewing the recorded gameplay experience.

15. A method as claimed in claim 14, comprising generating one or more metadata events automatically by the game experience software module (GESW).

16. A method as claimed in claim 12, comprising operating the communication interfaces to communicate recorded gameplay experiences via a database arrangement for selective distribution therefrom to viewers.

17. A method as claimed in claim 16, comprising operating the database arrangement to generate one or more social groups of users and related properties for selective distribution of gameplay experiences therebetween.

18. A method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the devices comprise one or more of smart telephones, pad computers, tablet computers, lap-top computers, personal computers or game-playing consoles.

19. A software product recorded on a non-transitory computer readable medium, the software product is executable upon computing hardware, the software product when executed upon the computing hardware being configured to execute the method as claimed in claim 12.

20. The method as claimed in claim 12, comprising filtering or editing the recorded game-play experience prior to uploading or live streaming the recorded game-play experience to others by splitting the recorded game-play experience into segments, where each segment is associated with one or more metadata event(s), the metadata events defining a starting point and an ending point of the segment, parameters on how to process or edit the segment and an annotation of the segment.

21. The method as claimed in claim 12, comprising:

record one or more streams of linked data corresponding to the gameplay experience, the streams of linked data comprising a video content corresponding to the recorded gameplay experience, an audio content corresponding to the recorded gameplay experience, a video content of the user captured using a camera recording device during execution of the interactive computer game, or screen shots of the execution of the interactive game including graphical user interface elements; and

recording a stream of metadata corresponding to the recorded gameplay experience concurrently with the recording of the multiple streams of linked data.

23. The method of claim 12, wherein the stream of metadata comprises one or more metadata events with associated timestamps that are synchronized with the recording.