Online game with animal-breeding mechanic

• US 9,186,575 B1
• Filed: 06/30/2011
• Issued: 11/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zynga Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Zynga Incorporated
• Inventors: Vadlamudi, Vasudev, Harlick, Bruce, Janis, Sean, Omi, Greg, Wang, Tim
• Primary Examiner(s): McCulloch, Jr., William H
• Application Number:
  US13/174,713
• Time in Patent Office: 1,601 Days
• Field of Search: 463/1, 463/30, 463/31, 463 40- 42
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/23 for interfacing with the game device, e.g. specific interfaces between game controller and console
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/52 involving aspects of the displayed game scene
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/533 for prompting the player, e.g. by displaying a game menu
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/63 by the player, e.g. authoring using a level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/825 Fostering virtual characters
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5533 using program state or machine event data, e.g. server keeps track of the state of multiple players on in a multiple player game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/575 for trading virtual items
• 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 2300/65 for computing the condition of a game character
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8058 Virtual breeding, e.g. tamagotchi

Abstract

An animal-breeding mechanic enables the generation of an offspring virtual animal in an online game system by combining features of a male virtual animal and a female virtual animal. Relevant features may include a base color and optional pattern markings with a corresponding pattern color. Additional game aspects may include options for enhancing the likelihood of generating a successful offspring, decreasing the time for generating the offspring, and nurturing the offspring to maturity. Parameter representations for color features enable substituting color values for a specific virtual animal into source artwork to generate a variety of distinctive displays.

Claims

1. A method of breeding virtual animals in an online game that is accessed through a website of game networking system that supports the online game, the method comprising:

receiving instructions for initiating an animal breeding in the online game, the instructions being received through a game interface of a user machine corresponding to a player in the online game, the game interface being enabled by communications with the website of the game networking system that supports the online game, the instructions including a selection of a male animal and a female animal of a virtual animal type, and each of the selected animals being visually characterized by a corresponding parameter set that includes one or more color parameters;

generating, with at least one computer, from the male-animal parameter set and the female-animal parameter set, an offspring-animal parameter set that visually characterizes an offspring animal of the virtual animal type, the generating of the offspring-animal parameter set including;

identifying a first parent-animal parameter from a selected one of the male-animal parameter set or the female-animal parameter set; and

determining a corresponding first offpring-animal parameter for the offspring-animal parameter set by modifying the first parent-animal parameter based on a threshold test that includes a comparison of the first parent-animal parameter with a record of parameter values, the record of parameter values being stored in a computer-readable medium in the at least one computer; and

providing values from the offspring-animal parameter set to the user machine corresponding to the player in the online game for a corresponding display at the game interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each parameter set corresponding to the virtual animal type includes a gender parameter to specify male or female, at least one base color parameter to specify a base color, and at least one pattern color parameter to specify a presence or an absence of animal markings with an associated pattern color.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

before receiving the instructions for initiating the animal breeding, receiving instructions to satisfy preliminary conditions for the animal breeding, the preliminary conditions including a specification of a shelter in the online game for the offspring animal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the instructions for initiating the animal breeding include an enhancement value for the animal breeding, and the method further comprises:

using the enhancement value to increase a likelihood of success for generating the offspring-animal parameter set.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, from the male-animal parameter set and the female-animal parameter set, a plurality of potential-offspring-animal parameter sets that visually characterize a corresponding plurality of potential offspring animals of the virtual animal type; and

providing values from the potential-offspring-animal parameter sets to the user machine.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the offtpring-animal parameter set includes generating a random number to specify the selected one of the male-animal parameter set or the female-animal parameter set.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the offspring-animal parameter set includes:

generating a first random number to specify the selected one of the male-animal parameter set or the female-animal parameter set; and

generating a second random number to select a random variation from a range about the first parent-animal parameter, the random variation being included in the modification of the first parent-animal parameter.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving instructions to satisfy a nourishment requirement for the offspring animal; and

in response to the satisfied nourishment requirement, changing a status of the offspring animal from an offspring status to an adult status so that the offspring-animal parameter set corresponds to one of a second male-animal parameter set that visually characterizes a second male animal of the virtual animal type or a second female-animal parameter set that visually characterizes a second female animal of the virtual animal type.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a source artwork for the offspring animal to the user machine to enable generating a display of the offspring animal by substituting combinations of color-channel values corresponding to the offspring-animal parameter set for color-channel values in the source artwork.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing an adult-animal parameter set corresponding to one of the mal-animal parameter set or the female-animal parameter set to the user machine; and

providing a source artwork for an adult animal corresponding to the adult-animal parameter set to the user machine to enable generating a display of the adult animal by substituting combinations of color-channel values corresponding to the adult-animal parameter set for color-channel values in the source artwork.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using the computer to generate, from the male-animal parameter set and the female-animal parameter set, a plurality of offspring-animal parameter sets that each visually characterize a corresponding offspring animal of the virtual animal type;

providing values from the offspring-animal parameter sets to the user machine; and

receiving from the user machine a selection that corresponds to at least one of the offspring animals.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing the first parent-animal parameter with a sequence of corresponding parameter values from the record of parameter values, the first parent-animal parameter being modified to avoid a repetition in the sequence for a predetermined number of sequence values.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying the first parent-animal parameter to avoid a specified outcome based on the record of parameter values for a predetermined number of parameter values.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold test is based on a number of occurrences of the first parent-animal parameter within the record of parameter values.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the record of parameter values includes one or more previously determined parameter values for a predetermined number of virtual animals in the online game.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores a computer program for breeding virtual animals in an online game that is accessed through a website of me networking system that supports the online game, the computer program including computer-program instructions that, when executed by at least one computer, cause the at least one computer to perform operations comprising:

receiving instructions for initiating an animal breeding in the online game, the instructions being received through a game interface of a user machine corresponding to a player in the online game, the game interface being enabled by communications with the website of the game networking system that supports the online game, the instructions including a selection of a male animal and a female animal of a virtual animal type, and each of the selected animals being visually characterized by a corresponding parameter set that includes one or more color parameters;

generating from the male-animal parameter set and the female-animal parameter set an offspring-animal parameter set that visually characterizes an offspring animal of the virtual animal type, the generating of the offspring-animal parameter set including;

identifying a first parent-animal parameter from a selected one of the male-animal parameter set or the female-animal parameter set; and

determining a corresponding first offspring-animal parameter for the offspring-animal parameter set by modifying the first parent-animal parameter based on a threshold test that includes a comparison of the first parent-animal parameter with a record of parameter values, the record of parameter values being stored in a computer-readable medium in the at least one computer and

providing values from the offspring-animal parameter set to the user machine corresponding to the player in the online game for a corresponding display at the game interface.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein each parameter set corresponding to the virtual animal type includes a gender parameter to specify male or female, at least one base color parameter to specify a base color, and at least one pattern color parameter to specify a presence or an absence of animal markings with an associated pattern color.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer program further includes computer-program instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

before receiving the instructions for initiating the animal breeding, receiving instructions to satisfy preliminary conditions for the animal breeding, the preliminary conditions including a specification of a shelter in the online game for the offspring animal.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions for initiating the animal breeding include an enhancement value for the animal breeding, and the computer program further includes computer-program instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising;

using the enhancement value to increase a likelihood of success for generating the offspring-animal parameter set.

20. The compute-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer program further includes computer-program instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

generating, from the male-animal parameter set and the female-animal parameter set, a plurality of potential-offpring-animal parameter sets that visually characterize a corresponding plurality of potential offspring animals of the virtual animal type; and

providing values from the potential-offspring-animal parameter sets to the user machine.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein generating the offspring-animal parameter set includes generating a random number to specify the selected one of the male-animal parameter set or the female-animal parameter set.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein generating the offspring-animal parameter set includes:

generating a first random number to specify the selected one of the male-animal parameter set or the female-animal parameter set; and

generating a second random number to select a random variation from a range about the first parent-animal parameter, the random variation being included in the modification of the first parent-animal parameter.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer program further includes computer-program instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

receiving instructions to satisfy a nourishment requirement for the offspring animal; and

in response to the satisfied nourishment requirement, changing a status of the offspring animal from an offspring status to an adult status so that the offspring-animal parameter set corresponds to one of a second male-animal parameter set that visually characterizes a second male animal of the virtual animal type or a second female-animal parameter set that visually characterizes a second female animal of the virtual animal type.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer program further includes computer-program instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

providing a source artwork for the offspring animal to the user machine to enable generating a display of the offspring animal by substituting combinations of color-channel values corresponding to the offspring-animal parameter set for color-channel values in the source artwork.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer program further includes computer-program instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

providing an adult-animal parameter set corresponding to one of the male-animal parameter set or the female-animal parameter set to the user machine; and

providing a source artwork for an adult animal corresponding to the adult-animal parameter set to the user machine to enable generating a display of the adult animal by substituting combinations of color-channel values corresponding to the adult-animal parameter set for color-channel values in the source artwork.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the computer program further includes computer-program instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

generating from the male-animal parameter set and the female-animal parameter set a plurality of offspring-animal parameter sets that each visually characterize a corresponding offspring animal of the virtual animal type;

providing values from the offspring-animal parameter sets to the user machine; and

receiving from the user machine a selection that corresponds to at least one of the offspring animals.

27. An apparatus configured to breed virtual animals in an online game that is accessed through a website of game networking system that supports the online game, the apparatus comprising at least one computer configured to perform operations for computer-implemented modules including:

a computer-implemented animal-breeding-instructions module configured to receive instructions for initiating an animal breeding in the online game, the instructions being received through a name interface of a user machine corresponding to a player in the online game, the Same interface being enabled by communications with the website of the Same networking system that supports the online game, the instructions including a selection of a male animal and a female animal of a virtual animal type, and each of the selected animals being visually characterized by a corresponding parameter set that includes one or more color parameters;

a computer-implemented parameter-generating module configured to generate from the male-animal parameter set and the female-animal parameter set an offspring-animal parameter set that visually characterizes an offspring animal of the virtual animal type, the generating of the offspring-animal parameter set including;

identifying a first parent-animal parameter from a selected one of the male-animal parameter set or the female-animal parameter set; and

determining a corresponding first offpring-animal parameter for the offspring-animal parameter set by modifying the first parent-animal parameter based on a threshold test that includes a comparison of the first parent-animal parameter with a record of parameter values, the record of parameter values being stored in a computer-readable medium in the at least one computer; and

a computer-implemented value-providing module configured to provide values from the offspring-animal parameter set to the user machine corresponding to the player in the online game for a corresponding display at the game interface.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the computer-implemented modules further include:

a computer-implemented preliminary-instructions module configured to receive instructions to satisfy preliminary conditions for the animal breeding before receiving the instructions for initiating the animal breeding, the preliminary conditions including a specification of a shelter in the online game for the virtual animal.