Game device, control method of game device, program, and information storage medium

• US 9,724,613 B2
• Filed: 08/13/2012
• Issued: 08/08/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Konami Digital Entertainment Company Limited (Konami Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Konami Digital Entertainment Company Limited (Konami Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Tarama, Naoki
• Primary Examiner(s): CUFF, MICHAEL A
• Application Number:
  US14/349,328
• Publication Number:
  US 20140248956A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,821 Days
• Field of Search: 463 7, 463 31
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/213 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. cameras, photodiodes or infrared cells A63F13/219, A63F13/655 take precedence
• 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 13/814 Musical performances, e.g. by evaluating the player's ability to follow a notation

Abstract

Provided is a game device capable of enabling a user to more readily perceive the rhythm of music when playing a game in which the player performs a game operation to the music. In the game configured so that the player performs the game operation to the music, based on reference timing data indicating a reference timing at which the player should perform the game operation, a game device indicates the reference timing to the player by moving a guide image on a game screen from a generation position to a target position while changing a direction of the guide image in accordance with a beat of the music.

Claims

1. A game device which executes a game in which a player performs a game operation to music, comprising:

a camera which captures an image of the player at a predetermined time interval, and

at least one processor configured to;

obtain reference timing data indicating a reference timing at which the player should perform the game operation from a storage which stores the reference timing data;

obtain moving path data indicating a change timing at which a guide image changes a direction of the guide image from a storage which stores the moving path data;

indicate the reference timing to the player by moving the guide image on a game screen from a generation position to a target position while changing the direction of the guide image in accordance with a beat of the music so as to approximately match a beat timing of the music and the change timing of the guide image based on the reference timing data and the moving path data;

obtain position information indicating a position of a body part of the player based on the captured images;

detect the game operation by the player based on determining whether the body part indicated by the position information is included in a predetermined area; and

evaluate the game operation by the player, based on an operation timing at which the player performs the game operation and the reference timing indicated by the reference timing data.

2. The game device according to claim 1,

wherein the at least one processor indicates the reference timing to the player by moving the guide image from the generation position to the target position while changing the direction of the guide image at a timing defined in accordance with the beat of the music based on the reference timing data.

3. The game device according to claim 1, wherein:

the at least one processor indicates the reference timing to the player by causing the guide image to occur in the generation position at a timing which is earlier than the reference timing by a given time and then moves the guide image to the target position while changing the direction of the guide image, in accordance with the beat of the music in a meter of n beats (n;

natural number), every time a timing which is earlier than the reference timing by k/n (k;

natural number) of a bar arrives based on the reference timing data.

4. The game device according to claim 3,

wherein the at least one processor indicates the reference timing to the player by causing the guide image to occur in the generation position at a timing which is earlier than the reference timing by m bars (m:

natural number) or at a timing prior to the timing, then causing the guide image to make a first direction change at a timing which is earlier than the reference timing by “

m−

1/n”

bars, and then moving the guide image to the target position while changing the direction of the guide image every time the timing which is earlier than the reference timing by k/n (k;

k<

m*n−

1) of a bar arrives, based on the reference timing data.

5. The game device according to claim 1,

wherein the at least one processor displays an image in the generation position or the target position, and changes the image in a case where the guide image occurs or in a case where the guide image changes the direction.

6. The game device according to claim 1,

wherein the at least one processor changes the guide image in a case where the guide image changes the direction.

7. The game device according to claim 1,

wherein at least one processor moves, on the game screen, a dummy guide image from the generation position to any one of direction change positions, in which the guide image changes the direction, on the same path as a path of the guide image and then moving the dummy guide image without changing the direction of the dummy guide image at the one of the direction change positions.

8. The game device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor:

indicates the reference timing to the player by moving, on the game screen, the guide image from the generation position to the target position based on the reference timing data while changing the direction of the guide image in accordance with the beat of the music; and

indicates the reference timing to the player by moving, on the game screen, the guide image from the generation position to the target position based on the reference timing data while changing the direction of the guide image in accordance with a beat different from the beat of the music.

9. The game device according to claim 8, wherein the at least one processor switches a guide method of the reference timing based on a game result of the player.

10. The game device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor:

detects an operation amount of the game operation; and

changes at least one of;

a moving distance and a moving speed of the guide image from the generation position up to a first direction change position;

the moving distance and the moving speed of the guide image from a direction change position up to a subsequent direction change position; and

the moving distance and the moving speed of the guide image from a last direction change position up to the target position, based on the operation amount of the game operation in a case where an evaluation of the game operation is performed.

11. The game device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor:

determines whether or not the game operation has been performed in a case where the guide image changes the direction;

changes the generation position and the target position based on a position in which the direction is changed in a case where it is determined that the game operation has been performed in the case where the guide image changes the direction; and

causes the guide image, for indicating the reference timing arriving after the game operation is performed, to occur in the changed generation position and to move toward the changed target position while changing the direction in accordance with the beat of the music.

12. The game device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor:

detects a first kind of game operation and a second kind of game operation;

the reference timing data indicates a first reference timing at which the first kind of game operation should be performed and a second reference timing at which the second kind of game operation should be performed;

the at least one processor;

indicates the first reference timing to the player by moving, on the game screen, a first guide image from a first generation position to a first target position while changing the direction of the first guide image in accordance with the beat of the music;

indicates the second reference timing to the player by moving, on the game screen, a second guide image from a second generation position to a second target position while changing the direction of the second guide image in accordance with the beat of the music;

changes the first reference timing arriving subsequent to a current time point based on the second reference timing during execution of the game; and

indicates to the player that the first reference timing has been changed by moving an image from the second generation position to the first generation position, or moving the image from the second target position to the first target position, on the game screen in a case where the first reference timing is changed.

13. The game device according to claim 1, further comprising at least one speaker which outputs the music and wherein the at least one processor causes the guide image to move while the music is outputted from the at least one speaker.

14. A control method for a game device for executing a game in which a player performs a game operation to music, comprising:

obtaining reference timing data indicating a reference timing at which the player should perform the game operation from a storage which stores the reference timing data;

obtaining moving path data indicating a change timing at which a guide image changes a direction of the guide image from a storage which stores the moving path data;

indicating the reference timing to the player by moving the guide image on a game screen from a generation position to a target position while changing the direction of the guide image in accordance with a beat of the music so as to approximately match a beat timing of the music and the change timing of the guide image based on the reference timing data and the moving path data;

obtaining position information indicating a position of a body part of the player based on images which are captured by a camera which captures an image of the player at a predetermined time interval;

detecting the game operation performed by the player based on determining whether the body part indicated by the position information is included in a predetermined area; and

evaluating the game operation by the player, based on an operation timing at which the player performs the game operation and the reference timing indicated by the reference timing data.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program for causing a computer to function as a game device, for executing a game in which a player performs a game operation to music, the program further causing the computer to:

obtain reference timing data indicating a reference timing at which the player should perform the game operation from a storage which stores the reference timing data;

obtain moving path data indicating a change timing at which a guide image changes a direction of the guide image from a storage which stores the moving path data;

indicate the reference timing to the player by moving the guide image on a game screen from a generation position to a target position while changing the direction of the guide image in accordance with a beat of the music so as to approximately match a beat timing of the music and the change timing of the guide image based on the reference timing data and the moving path data;

obtain position information indicating a position of a body part of the player based on images which are captured by a camera which captures an image of the player at a predetermined time interval;

detect the game operation performed by the player based on determining whether the body part indicated by the position information is included in a predetermined area; and

evaluate the game operation by the player based on an operation timing at which the game operation is performed by the player and the reference timing indicated by the reference timing data.