Methods for using touch-screens to simulate balancing and manipulation of curved object during gameplay

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9468845-B2
Application number	US-201414259125-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 22, 2014
Priority date	Apr 22, 2014
Publication date	Oct 18, 2016
Grant date	Oct 18, 2016

Abstract

Methods and computer programs include associating a three-dimensional collider component and a rigid body component to a two-dimensional game object used in the game play. The three-dimensional collider component and the rigid body component define a plurality of physics attributes to enable control of physical behavior of the game object. A second three-dimensional collider component is associated with a game cursor that is used for providing user input to the gameplay. The game cursor is defined as a two-dimensional object with at least a portion of the game cursor having a spherical contour. User input is detected at a touch screen interface of a computing device that is rendering the gameplay. The user input causes the spherical contour of the game cursor to control movement of the game object within the game scene of the gameplay, the movement being adjusted in accordance to physics attributes of the game object.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for controlling user input in a gameplay of a video game, comprising:
associating a three-dimensional collider component and a rigid body component to a two-dimensional game object used and rendered in the gameplay, the three-dimensional collider component and the rigid body component used for assigning a plurality of physics attributes to the game object to enable control of physical behavior of the game object;
associating a second three-dimensional collider component around a game cursor that is used for providing user input to the gameplay, wherein the game cursor is defined in two-dimensions and at least a portion of the game cursor has a circular contour; and
detecting user input at a touch-screen interface of a computing device rendering the gameplay, the user input applied to the circular contour portion of the game cursor to move and control the game object within a game scene of the game play, wherein in addition to the user input, the movement and control of the game object being adjusted by one or more of the plurality of physics attributes associated with the game object,
wherein operations of the method are executed by a processor.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein one dimension of the three-dimensional collider component and the second three-dimensional collider component being fixed during gameplay.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein geometry of the three-dimensional collider component correlates with dimension and shape of the game object and the geometry of the second three-dimensional collider component correlates with the dimension and shape of the game cursor.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the game object selected for gameplay has a circular contour.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein a shape of the three-dimensional collider component provided around the game-object is one of a box collider, a sphere collider, a capsule collider, a wheel collider or one or more combinations thereof.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user input is used to balance the game object on the spherical contours of the game cursor.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user input is used to balance the game object on the spherical contours of the game cursor and to flick the game object across the game scene during gameplay, the flick used in determining one of a velocity or a force to be imparted to the game object during manipulation of the game object.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein determining velocity further includes,
identifying video frames of the touch-screen interface that have registered the user input defined in the flick;
analyzing the user input at each of the video frames to identify one or more input parameters, wherein the input parameters identified from the analysis include at least a direction of the user input, distance traveled within the video frame and time taken to travel the distance;
computing normal angle of the flick by identifying contact point between the game cursor and the game object as provided by the user input when the game cursor enters collision zone of the game object; and
computing the velocity as a function of the direction, distance and time parameters of the user input determined from the analysis and the one or more of the plurality of physics attributes associated with the game object, the velocity used in manipulating the distance and direction of movement of the game object along the computed normal angle within the game scene of the game play.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the game object is flicked when the velocity defined by the user input is greater than a pre-defined threshold value.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein an angle of curvature of the circular contour of the game cursor provided at the game scene to move the game object is adjustable to correlate with a level of the video game selected for gameplay.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user input is used to manipulate around one or more objects within the game scene during gameplay, wherein the one or more objects include stationary objects and moveable objects, one or more of the stationary objects are configured to exhibit a force of attraction to attract the game objects toward the stationary object when the game object enters an attraction zone of the one or more stationary objects, and one or more of the moveable objects are configured to dynamically identify location of the game object and move toward the game object.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user input is used to re-establish contact with the game object during gameplay.

13. A method for using a touchscreen interface to provide user input to a game during gameplay, comprising:
detecting selection of a game object for the gameplay, the game object being rendered in two-dimensions and being associated with a rigid body component and a three-dimensional collider component, the rigid body component and the three-dimensional collider component are used to associate one or more physics attributes to the game object to enable control of the physical behavior of the game object during gameplay;
detecting user input at the touchscreen interface of a computing device rendering the gameplay, the user input used in moving and controlling a game cursor provided in a game scene of the game, wherein at least a portion of the game cursor has a circular contour, the game cursor is associated with a second three-dimensional collider component, wherein the user input is applied at the circular contour portion of the game cursor; and
controlling movement of the game object of the game using the game cursor based on the user input, the controlling of the game object includes at least one of balancing the game object on the circular contour portion of the game cursor and moving the game object in the game scene, the movement being adjusted in accordance to one or more of the plurality of physics attributes associated with the game object,
wherein the operations of the method are executed by a processor.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein one dimension of the three-dimensional collider component and the second three-dimensional collider component being fixed during gameplay.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the game object selected for gameplay has a circular contour.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the physics attributes defined for the game object include one or combination of mass, linear drag, angular drag, gravity, kinematic attributes, collision detection, and motion constraints.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the controlling of the game object further includes,
determining contact point between the game object and the game cursor defined by the user input;
computing a normal angle of impact based on the contact point defined by the user input; and
analyzing the user input to determine one or more input parameters, the input parameters used in computing velocity or a force to be imparted to the game object in a direction defined by the normal angle.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein computing velocity further includes,
identifying video frames associated with the user input;
analyzing each video frame to identify direction of the user input, distance traveled in pixels within the video frame and time taken to travel the distance; and
computing the velocity as a function of the direction, distance and time parameters of the user input determined from the analysis and the physics attributes associated with the game object, the velocity used in controlling the distance and direction of movement of the game ob

Assignees

• Zynga Inc

Inventors

• Mehra Sumit
• Dayal Shivendra
• Kuri Moolchand
• Bates Robert

Classifications

• A63F13/2145 Primary

  the surface being also a display device, e.g. touch screens · CPC title

• A63F13/42

  by mapping the input signals into game commands, e.g. mapping the displacement of a stylus on a touch screen to the steering angle of a virtual vehicle · CPC title