Storage medium storing object controlling program, object controlling apparatus and object controlling method

• US 8,485,902 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2010
• Issued: 07/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: Nishimura, Kentaro, Ono, Sumiaki, Haga, Taketo
• Primary Examiner(s): Ahmed, Masud
• Application Number:
  US12/773,311
• Publication Number:
  US 20110214093A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,169 Days
• Field of Search: 463 25- 42, 715/757
• US Class Current: 463/37
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/2145 the surface being also a display device, e.g. touch screens
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/26 having at least one additional display device, e.g. on the game controller or outside a game booth
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/426 involving on-screen location information, e.g. screen coordinates of an area at which the player is aiming with a light gun
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/44 involving timing of operations, e.g. performing an action within a time slot
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/57 Simulating properties, behaviour or motion of objects in the game world, e.g. computing tyre load in a car race game A63F13/56 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/573 using trajectories of game objects, e.g. of a golf ball according to the point of impact
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/577 using determination of contact between game characters or objects, e.g. to avoid collision between virtual racing cars
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/833 Hand-to-hand fighting, e.g. martial arts competition A63F13/837 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/98 Accessories, i.e. detachable arrangements optional for the use of the video game device, e.g. grip supports of game controllers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1075 using a touch screen
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/646 for calculating the trajectory of an object
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8029 Fighting without shooting
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

A game apparatus includes a first LCD and a second LCD, and on the second LCD, a touch panel is provided. On the first LCD, an enemy object is displayed. On the second LCD, a drawn object generated according to a touch operation is displayed. When the drawn object is generated, the drawn object is moved according to a moving course based on a locus of the touch operation. When the drawn object hits the enemy object, the enemy object is damaged.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing an object controlling program, said object controlling program comprising instructions that cause a computing system to at least:

detect an operation input performed by a player;

generate a first object according to the detected operation input; and

move the generated first object according to a moving course based on a locus indicated by the detected operation input,

wherein said moving course is a course where the locus indicated by the detected operation input is at a time that the first object is generated, the moving course including two or more direction vectors that are sequentially calculated toward coordinates of a start position of the operation input from coordinates of an end position of the operation input, and the first object is moved in accordance with a calculated sequence in a direction indicated by each of the two or more direction vectors for a time period at a moving velocity.

2. The medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the computing system to:

decide a moving direction when said first object moves based on the locus, and

the moving course is further based on the decided moving direction.

3. The medium of claim 1, wherein

the operation input by the player is coordinate data designating coordinates on a display surface of a displayer, and

the first object is generated by connecting coordinates indicated by a plurality of coordinate data in chronological order with a line segment.

4. The medium of claim 3, wherein

a thickness of each one of the plurality of the line segments is set depending on a distance between temporally continuous coordinates.

5. The medium of claim 3, wherein the instructions further cause the computing system to:

move a copy of the generated first object at this time according to a moving course based on the operation inputs which have been detected up to this time when a situation in which the distance between the temporally continuous coordinates is less than a constant distance continues.

6. The medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the computing system to:

change a moving velocity of said first object when a predetermined condition is satisfied.

7. The medium of claim 6, wherein

the operation input by the player is coordinate data indicating coordinates on a display surface of a displayer, and

wherein the instructions further cause the computing system to:

determine whether or not said predetermined condition is satisfied on the basis of a change of the coordinates indicated by a plurality of coordinate data.

8. The medium of claim 1, wherein

a second object different from the first object exists in a virtual space, and

wherein the instructions further cause the computing system to:

give an impact to at least a second object when the first object hits said second object.

12. The medium of claim 1, wherein the detected operation input includes a plurality of coordinate positions and the computing system is further configured to:

determine the moving course based on a reverse input order of the plurality of coordinate positions.

9. An object controlling apparatus, comprising:

a user input that is configured to detect an operation input performed by a player; and

a processing system including at least one processor, the processing system configured to;

generate an object according to the operation input performed by the player; and

move the generated object according to a moving course based on a locus indicated by the operation input performed by a player,

wherein said moving course is a course where the locus indicated by the detected operation input is at a time that the object is generated, the moving course including two or more direction vectors that are sequentially calculated toward coordinates of a start position of the operation input from coordinates of an end position of the operation input, and the object is moved in accordance with a calculated sequence in a direction indicated by each of the two or more direction vectors for a time period at a moving velocity.

10. A method of controlling a virtual object that is processed by a computing system that includes at least one processor, the method comprising:

detecting an operation input performed by a player;

generating an object according to the detected operation inputs; and

moving, via the at least one processor, the generated object according to a moving course that is based on a locus indicated by the detected operation inputs,

wherein said moving course is a course where the locus indicated by the detected operation input is at a time that the object is generated, the moving course including two or more direction vectors that are sequentially calculated toward coordinates of a start position of the operation input from coordinates of an end position of the operation input, and the object is moved in accordance with a calculated sequence in a direction indicated by each of the two or more direction vectors for a time period at a moving velocity.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing an object controlling program, said object controlling program comprising instructions that cause a computing system to at least:

detect an operation input performed by a player, wherein the operation input is associated with a plurality of coordinate positions;

generate a first object according to the detected operation input;

move the generated first object according to a moving course based on a locus indicated by the detected operation input;

determine a plurality of movement vectors for moving the generated first object in accordance with the plurality of coordinate positions; and

generate the moving course based on the plurality of movement vectors,

wherein;

the determined plurality of movement vectors includes a first movement vector,

the plurality of coordinate positions includes a first coordinate position and a second coordinate position, and

the first movement vector determined based on the second coordinate position to the first coordinate position, where the first coordinate position is associated with an earlier operation input than the second coordinate position.