JP2001162039A - Video game device and recording medium storing program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technique presenting a hint that communications are made correctly and giving an affinity with a character in a video game making communications with the character displayed on a display means via interactive actions. SOLUTION: The mental inner data of a character 31 are recorded. When the mental interior is displayed on a character display screen as shown in Fig. (a), whether the screen is an interior display screen or not is judged, and the mental interior data are read and displayed as shown in Fig. (b) if the screen is the interior display screen. When the attribute value 35 of the character 31 is to be changed by the display of the mental interior data, the propriety of the above display input is judged.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video game apparatus which has a conversation with a character displayed by an interactive operation and a recording medium storing a program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a video game of this kind, options such as dialogue, action, and thing for a conversation with a character are selected, and the story branches and proceeds according to the selected option. In general, the attribute value and the score of the character increase or decrease due to the branching of the story, and generally reach a happy end or a bat end.

For example, when selecting a conversation line as an option, a plurality of replies to a question or the like of the displayed character are displayed as a line, and a player selects a desired one from the lines. By this selection, the screen proceeds to the next screen of the story, and the set value of the screen is added to or subtracted from the attribute value or score of the character.

[0004]

However, in a game in which a story is advanced by selecting such an option, it is not known whether the branch of the story currently being advanced is in the right direction or not until the result is finally displayed. There was a lack of interest in the game. In addition, the displayed character merely outputs a line determined on the screen or performs an action, and the character tends to be less familiar.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and presents a hint as to whether or not communication is correctly performed in a video game in which an interactive operation is performed with a character displayed on a display means. Another object of the present invention is to provide a technique for giving the character a sense of closeness.

[0006]

A first means of the present invention is as follows.
A video game device that communicates with a character displayed on a display means by an interactive operation, wherein: an inner surface data recording unit that records data of an inner surface of the mind of the character; and an input unit that performs input for viewing the inner surface. Display determination means for determining whether or not the inner surface can be displayed in response to an input from the input means; and when the display determination means determines that display is possible, the data on the inner surface of the mind of the character is stored in the inner surface data recording means. And a display control means for reading from the display means and displaying on the display means.

A second means of the present invention is the first means, wherein the attribute value changing means for changing an attribute value of the character when the inner surface is displayed by the display control means; Input permission determining means for determining whether input of the input means is possible based on the attribute value changed by the changing means, wherein the input means receives an input when the input permission determining means determines that input is possible. is there.

[0008] According to the first means and the second means, the inner surface of the character can be displayed by the input, and the attribute value of the character is changed by the inner surface display, and the acceptability of the input is determined by the attribute value. Is determined.

Here, the display means means a display device such as a CRT or a liquid crystal display. The character means a non-player character such as a human, an animal, or a virtual creature that is operated by a computer. The communication means conversation, action, use of items, and the like between the player and the character. The inner part of the mind means a thought, a facial expression, a imagined scene, or the like in the mind. The attribute value of a character means a state value of the character such as an affection value, an ability value, an experience value, and the like.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium storing a program for communicating with a character displayed on a display means by an interactive operation, wherein data on the inner surface of the mind of the character and the inner surface are stored. An input receiving step of receiving an input for viewing, a display determining step of determining whether or not the inner surface can be displayed in response to the input receiving of the input receiving step; and A display control step of reading data on the inner surface of the heart and displaying the data on the display means.

Here, the recording medium is a CD-RO
M, a game cartridge, a memory card, a floppy disk, a magnetic disk, a magneto-optical disk and any other recording media can be used. Among them, a CD-ROM and a game cartridge are particularly suitable for a game.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a state in which the video game device of the present invention is connected to a video display device 5 (hereinafter, simply referred to as “display 5”).

The game machine body 1 is provided with a CD-ROM (Compa) (not shown) under a cover 2a of the CD-ROM drive.
ct Disc-ROM) 2 is provided, and provides a game program and game data. Also, a controller 3 is connected as an external input device and a memory card 4 as an external storage device.

The display 5 is for providing display symbols output from the game machine body 1 as display images, and the speaker 6 is for providing audio symbols to the player as audio. A general household television receiver is used. Can be.

The controller 3 has various operation buttons. On the left side of the controller 3 as viewed from the plane, there are provided direction keys 7 for up, down, left and right directions. By pressing the keys in the corresponding directions, the character can be moved in a desired direction, the cursor can be moved on the selection screen, and the like. Used. On the other hand, on the right side of the controller 3, there is a circle button 8 used for determination input, and a cross button 9 used for cancel input. In addition, the □ button 10 and the △ button 11 are used for inputting a specific command. A start button 12 is provided at the center of the controller 3 and is used for temporarily stopping or restarting the game.
Is used for screen switching and the like.

FIG. 2 shows a hardware block diagram of the video game device. The video game device has a CP
U (Central Processing Uni)
t) A control system composed of 21 and its peripheral devices, and a GPU (Graphic) for drawing in the frame buffer 28
(Processing Unit) 27 and SP for generating music, sound effects, etc.
U (Sound Processing Unit) 3
1 and the like, a CD-ROM control unit for controlling the CD-ROM 2, a communication control unit for controlling an instruction input from the controller 3 by a player and an input / output with the memory card 4, and the like.

The control system includes the CPU 21 and interrupt control and DMA (Dynamic Memory Access).
s) Peripheral device control unit 22 that controls transfer, and RAM (Random Access Me) as a main storage device
(memory) 23 and a ROM (Read) storing programs such as an operating system for managing a main storage device, a graphic system, a sound system, and the like.
Only Memory) 24.

The graphic system is a CD-RO
An image decoder 25 for decoding the compressed and encoded image data read from M2, and an image decoder 25
GTE (Geometry Tra) that performs processing such as coordinate calculation and rendering on the image data decoded by
nsfer Engine) 26 and a GPU 27 that performs drawing such as shading, texture mapping, and raster processing based on the data calculated by the GTE 26.
A frame buffer 28 for storing an image drawn by the GPU 27, a decompression device 29 for decompressing the image data and performing digital / analog conversion,
An NTSC encoder 30 that converts the video signal into a C-system video signal and outputs it to the display 5 is provided.

The above sound system is based on an SPU 3 for generating music, sound effects and the like based on an instruction from the CPU 21.
1, a sound buffer 32 for storing waveform data and the like by the SPU 31, and a DAC (Digital) for decoding audio data reproduced by the CD-ROM device 34.
(Analog Converter) 33 and a speaker 6 for outputting the decoded data.

The CD-ROM control unit includes a CD-ROM
2 for reproducing programs, data, etc. stored in
ROM device 34 and CD for noise filtering
-DSP (CD-Digital Signal Pr)
processor 35, a decoder 36 for decoding, for example, programs and data stored with an error correction code added thereto, and a reproduction data from the CD-ROM 2 by temporarily storing reproduction data from the CD-ROM device 34. A buffer 37 for speeding up reading.
Image data and audio data reproduced and decoded by these devices are sent to a graphic system and a sound system via a bus 20, respectively.

The communication control unit includes a communication control 38 for bidirectionally controlling communication with the CPU 21 via the bus 20, a controller 3 for inputting an instruction from a player, and an external storage for storing game setting data and the like. A memory card 4 is provided as a device.

Here, the video game stored in the CD-ROM 2 is a love simulation game in which the love value of the opponent character is raised by an interactive operation to fulfill the love.

FIG. 3A shows a conversation screen displayed on the display 5 of the game described above. The player selects one response from the conversation selection window 32 in response to the dialogue of the character 31 "Goodbye". Here, if "A: Let's do so" is selected, the dialogue "Characteristic" of the character 31 is displayed. Here controller 3
Is pressed, an animation in which an arrow 34 is shot from the arrow mark 33 of the heart to the character 31 is displayed. Note that the number of arrows that can be shot is displayed in the heart arrow mark 33, and the number of shots decreases each time one shot. In the lower left of the screen, the current affection value 3 of the character 31 is displayed.
5 is displayed.

FIG. 3 (b) shows a heart voice display screen displayed when the heart arrow 34 is shot in FIG. 3 (a).
The voice 36 of the heart of the character 31 "It is not bad" is displayed, and the face of the heart appears and the expression becomes sad. By displaying the voice of the heart, the player can know the emotion of the character 31 and obtain a hint on how to proceed with the subsequent conversation. Also, the affection value 35 increases as compared with FIG.
Also, the heart arrow mark 33 increases as the affection value increases. The heart voice screen is not always displayed, but is displayed only on a predetermined conversation screen. For this reason, the player needs to guess a conversation screen in which the arrow 34 of the heart is shot from the flow of the conversation.

FIG. 4 shows how the expression of the character 31 in FIG. 3B changes and a sad expression appears as a face of the mind. When the button 8 is pressed in the state of FIG.
The image becomes black and white, and the eyes, nose, and mouth appear at slightly shifted places (FIG. 4B). The whole face and body appear while the facial expression is animated (FIG. 3 (c)). After one night, it disappears in the reverse order (FIG. 3D) and returns to its original state (FIG. 3E).

FIG. 5A shows another example of the conversation screen. When "A: I want to hear" is selected from the conversation selection window 32 for the dialogue "Don't listen" of the character 31, the dialogue "I can't speak very much" of the character 31 is displayed. Here, when the ボ タ ン button 8 of the controller 3 is pressed and the heart arrow 34 is shot, the heart image screen of FIG. 5B is displayed. The screen is a character 31 standing on the beach and is a scene that the character 31 has experienced in the past. By displaying the image screen of the mind, the player can obtain a hint to understand the character 31 as in the case of FIG. Also, the affection value 35 increases, and the number of the heart arrow marks 33 increases accordingly. The heart image screen is not always displayed like the above-mentioned heart voice screen.

FIG. 6 shows a conceptual configuration of the inner surface data in which the above-mentioned heart voice, heart image and the like are recorded. A heart voice corresponding to each screen number on which a heart voice or a heart image is displayed, a heart face at this time, a heart image screen number, and an increase / decrease in affection value are set.

FIG. 7 shows a functional block diagram of the present embodiment. The display control unit 71 reads the conversation data from the data recording unit 72 and displays the conversation data on the display 5. Input unit 7
When the 3 receives the press of the o button 8 of the controller 3, the input availability determination unit 74 determines whether or not there is a remaining number in the heart arrow mark 33, and the display control unit 71 displays an animation of shooting the heart arrow 34. . The display determining unit 75 determines whether the conversation screen is a screen showing the inner surface of the mind, and if the screen is the screen, the display controller 71 reads the inner surface data of the mind from the data recording unit 72 and displays it. The attribute changing unit 76 increases the affection value of the character 31, and the input availability determination unit 74 increases the number of heart arrow marks 33.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing this. This will be described below with reference to the functional block diagram of FIG. The display control unit 71 reads the conversation data from the data recording unit 72 (101) and displays it on the display 5 (10).
2). When the input unit 73 receives the press of the ボ タ ン button 8 of the controller 3 (103), the input availability determination unit 74 determines whether or not the heart arrow mark 33 has a number.
4), the display controller 71 displays an animation of shooting an arrow (105), and reduces the number by one (106). The display determination unit 75 determines whether the screen is a screen representing an inner surface. If the screen is a relevant screen (107), the display controller 71 reads the inner surface data from the data recording unit 72 (108),
It is displayed (109). The attribute changing unit 76 changes the affection value of the character 31 based on the inner surface data (11
0). Further, the input availability determination unit 74 changes the number of heart arrows (111). The above steps 101 to 111 are repeated until the game ends (112).

As described above, according to this embodiment, the inner surface of the character's mind can be viewed by pressing the o button on the conversation screen, and the affection value can be increased, so that the playability of the game can be enhanced.

The arrow of the heart may fly toward the heart irrespective of the display position on the screen of the character.

[0032]

According to the present embodiment, in a video game in which an interactive operation is performed with a character displayed on a display means, a hint as to whether communication is correctly performed is presented, and a sense of closeness to the character is displayed. Technology can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which a video game device of the present invention is connected to a video display device.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration centered on a game machine main body.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a screen showing an inner surface of a heart;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a screen showing an inner surface of a heart;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a screen showing an inner surface of a heart;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for explaining inner surface data.

FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram for explaining the embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining an embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Game machine main body 2a CD-ROM drive cover 3 Controller 5 Display 6 Speaker 7 Direction key group 8 ○ button 31 Character 33 Heart arrow mark 34 Heart arrow 35 Love value

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A video game apparatus for communicating with a character displayed on a display means by an interactive operation, wherein: an inner surface data recording means for recording data of an inner surface of the mind of the character; Input means for performing an input; display determination means for determining whether or not the inner surface can be displayed in response to the input of the input means; when the display determination means determines that the display is possible, the data of the inner surface of the mind of the character is displayed. A video game device comprising: display control means for reading from the inner surface data recording means and displaying on the display means. 2. An attribute value changing means for changing an attribute value of the character when the inner surface is displayed by the display control means, and an input to the input means based on the attribute value changed by the attribute value changing means. 2. The video game apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an input availability determination unit that determines availability, wherein the input unit accepts an input when the input availability determination unit determines that the input is available. 3. A recording medium storing a program for communicating with a character displayed on a display means by an interactive operation, wherein an input for receiving data of an inner surface of the mind of the character and an input for viewing the inner surface is provided. A receiving step; a display determining step of determining whether or not the inner surface can be displayed in response to the input receiving of the input receiving step; and reading the data of the inner surface of the mind of the character when the display determining step determines that the display is possible. A recording medium storing a program comprising: a display control step of displaying on the display means.