JP2023101680A - Information processing device and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide an effective user interface for selecting a support character in a game to play a stage selected from one or a plurality of candidate stages prepared beforehand using a support character that another user owns.SOLUTION: An information processing device receives selection of a play object stage to be played from a user, and presents one or a plurality of candidate characters that are candidates to be selected as a support character when the play object stage is played to the user that has selected the play object stage in a display mode determined according to relationships between the play object stage and each of the candidate characters.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a program for executing game-related processing.

In a game in which each of a plurality of users plays a stage prepared in advance, when each user plays the game, it is known that each user can use characters owned by other users as support characters in addition to characters owned by himself (for example, Patent Document 1). In such a game, the user may select the support character he/she wants to use from among multiple candidates when playing the game.

JP 2017-164218 A

In the technique of the conventional example described above, it is common that characters suitable for playing in each stage differ depending on the stage. However, when the user selects a support character, it is not always clear which support character is suitable for the stage to be played from now on.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and one of its purposes is to provide an information processing device and a program that can provide an effective user interface for selecting a support character in a game played using the support character possessed by another user.

An information processing apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention is an information processing apparatus that executes a process related to a game in which a plurality of users each possess at least one of a plurality of types of characters, a stage selected from one or a plurality of candidate stages prepared in advance, a use character selected from the characters owned by the user, and a support character selected from characters owned by another user. Means for presenting one or a plurality of candidate characters to be selected as the support character to a user who has selected the play stage, the candidate character presenting means for presenting the plurality of candidate characters in a display mode determined according to the relationship between the play stage and each of the candidate characters.

A program according to an aspect of the present invention includes a computer that executes processing related to a game in which each of a plurality of users possesses at least one of a plurality of types of characters, selects a stage selected from one or a plurality of candidate stages prepared in advance, uses a character selected from among the characters possessed by the user and a support character selected from characters possessed by another user, and receives a selection of a play target stage to be played from among the candidate stages; A program for functioning as means for presenting one or a plurality of candidate characters to be selected as characters to a user who has selected the play stage, and for presenting the plurality of candidate characters in a display mode determined according to the relationship between the play stage and each of the candidate characters. This program may be stored in a computer-readable, non-temporary information storage medium and provided.

1 is a configuration block diagram showing the overall configuration of an information processing system including an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing functions of an information processing system; FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a support character selection screen corresponding to use character information of a play target stage; It is a figure which shows an example of the related information of each stage. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a support character selection screen corresponding to information related to a play target stage;

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiment of this invention is described in detail based on drawing.

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram showing the overall configuration of an information processing system 1. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, an information processing system 1 includes a plurality of client devices 10 each functioning as an information processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and a server device 20 . Each client device 10 is connected to a server device 20 via a communication network such as the Internet.

Each client device 10 is an information processing device such as a smart phone, tablet, or personal computer, and includes a control unit 11, a storage unit 12, a communication unit 13, and an interface unit . The client device 10 is also connected to an operation input device 15 and a display device 16 . In this embodiment, the client device 10 is used by each user who plays the game provided by the information processing system 1 .

The control unit 11 includes at least one processor and executes various information processing according to programs stored in the storage unit 12 . A specific example of the processing executed by the control unit 11 will be described later. The storage unit 12 includes at least one memory device such as a RAM, and stores programs executed by the control unit 11 and data to be processed by the programs. The communication unit 13 is an interface for wireless or wired connection to a communication network. Each client device 10 is connected for communication with the server device 20 by the communication unit 13 .

The interface unit 14 is wirelessly or wiredly connected to the operation input device 15 and the display device 16, and transmits and receives various data to and from these devices. Specifically, the interface unit 14 receives from the operation input device 15 a control signal indicating the content of the operation input performed by the player on the operation input device 15 . Also, it transmits to the display device 16 a video signal indicating the content of the video to be presented to the player.

The operation input device 15 includes, for example, a touch sensor and operation buttons, receives operation input from the player, and transmits a control signal indicating the content of the operation input to the client device 10 . The display device 16 is a liquid crystal panel or the like, and displays an image corresponding to the image signal received from the client device 10 on a display screen to present it to the player. Note that the operation input device 15 and the display device 16 may be configured integrally with the client device 10 by, for example, being arranged on the surface of the casing of the client device 10 .

The server device 20 is an information processing device such as a server computer, and includes a control section 21 , a storage section 22 and a communication section 23 . The server device 20 executes processing related to games provided by the information processing system 1 .

The control unit 21 includes at least one processor and executes various information processing according to programs stored in the storage unit 22 . A specific example of the processing executed by the control unit 21 will be described later. The storage unit 22 includes at least one memory device such as a RAM, and stores programs executed by the control unit 21 and data to be processed by the programs. The communication unit 23 is an interface for wireless or wired connection to a communication network. The communication unit 23 connects the server device 20 to each client device 10 for communication.

Here, an outline of the game provided by the information processing system 1 will be described. This game is assumed to be a game that can be played by a plurality of users at the same time, such as a social game or an online game. In this game, each user possesses at least one character among a plurality of types of characters prepared in advance in the game. Then, the player uses a character selected from the characters owned by the player to play a game with stages prepared in advance. Hereinafter, the characters prepared in advance in the game are referred to as appearing characters, and the characters possessed by each user are referred to as possessed characters. Also, a character used by the user when playing a game in any stage is called a used character.

The owned character of each user is a character that the user obtains in the game and acquires the right to use. Each user can obtain a character by satisfying certain conditions in the game, such as clearing a specific stage, and after obtaining the character, the character can be used in their own game play as a possessed character. Also, each user may be able to obtain one of the appearing characters through an in-game lottery, paid purchase, or the like. A plurality of users may possess the same type of character, or one user may possess a plurality of the same type of characters.

In this embodiment, it is assumed that each user may play a game of any stage using both a character selected from the characters possessed by the user and a character selected from the characters possessed by another user. In the following description, the character selected from among the characters possessed by other users will be referred to as a support character.

In this game, it is assumed that a plurality of stages to be played in the game are prepared in advance. A stage is a game unit to be played once by each user, and the user selects a stage to be played from now on and a character to be used for playing the stage, and then starts playing the game of the stage. In this embodiment, after starting play of a stage, the user cannot change the character selected before the start of the stage until the play of the stage is finished. However, after the play of the stage is finished, or when the play of the stage that has already started is stopped halfway, it may be possible to select another character to use and play the same stage from the beginning. Also, the user may be able to temporarily interrupt the play of one stage in the middle, or resume the interrupted stage from the state at the time of interruption. In addition, a plurality of stages may be played in parallel, such as by playing another stage using another character while the play of a certain stage is interrupted.

The content of the game to be played in each stage may vary and is not particularly limited. However, it is desirable that the content of the game in each stage be such that the degree of difficulty changes according to the relationship between the stage and the type of characters used. For example, characters appearing in this game not only have different numerical values for parameters representing strength, but may also have different properties such as belonging to one of multiple attributes or possessing some of multiple skills (special abilities).

On the other hand, in each stage, conditions are set that affect the advantages and disadvantages of the characters used, depending on the enemy characters that appear in that stage and the content of the game in that stage. For example, a character belonging to a particular attribute may be advantageous in one stage, but a character belonging to that attribute may be disadvantageous in another stage. Also, depending on the stage, a character with a specific skill may play an active role, but another skill may not affect the play of that stage. In this way, various characteristics are set for each of the appearing characters, and different characteristics are set for each stage, so that the difficulty of capturing the stage changes greatly depending on the combination of the stage and the character used. When starting to play each stage, the user will consider the nature of the stage and the nature of selectable characters, and select a character suitable for playing that stage as a character to use. As a result, the user can enjoy not only playing the game in each stage, but also selecting which character to use from among the characters owned by the user as part of the game.

However, if the types of appearing characters and stages increase, it becomes difficult for the user to grasp the nature of the stage to be played and the characters appearing, which may complicate the selection of characters to use. In particular, when a support character is selected from among characters possessed by other users, there is a possibility that characters of a type that the user does not own and whose properties are not fully understood may be candidates for selection. Therefore, the information processing system 1 according to the present embodiment is provided with an interface that presents information for assisting each user in selecting a support character. This will be described in detail below.

Functions realized by each device in the information processing system 1 according to the present embodiment will be described below using the functional block diagram of FIG. 2 . Here, one of the plurality of client devices 10 is assumed to be the focused client device 10n, and its function will be described, but the other client devices 10 are assumed to have similar functions. A user who uses the client device of interest 10n is hereinafter referred to as a user of interest.

The client device of interest 10n functionally includes a stage selection operation reception unit 31, a support character selection operation reception unit 32, a character selection operation reception unit 33, and a game processing execution unit . These functions are realized by executing a program stored in the storage unit 12 by the control unit 11 of the focused client device 10n. The server device 20 also functionally includes a candidate character notification unit 41 and a game control unit 42 . These functions are realized by executing the program stored in the storage unit 22 by the control unit 21 of the server device 20 . These programs may be provided to each device via a communication network such as the Internet, or stored in a computer-readable information storage medium such as an optical disk and provided to each device.

The stage selection operation receiving unit 31 of the client device of interest 10n receives an operation of selecting a play target stage (hereinafter referred to as a stage selection operation) from the user of interest. The play target stage is a stage that the noted user intends to play from now on. Specifically, the stage selection operation receiving unit 31 makes an inquiry to the game control unit 42 of the server device 20 and acquires information on one or more candidate stages playable by the noted user at that time. Then, based on the acquired information, a list of candidate stages is presented to the user of interest. The user of interest performs a stage selection operation for designating a stage to be played by selecting a stage that the user wishes to play from among the presented candidate stages. For example, this stage selection operation may be an operation of tapping one of the stages displayed as a list on the screen of the display device 16 to designate it.

The support character selection operation reception unit 32 of the client device of interest 10n receives from the user of interest a selection operation of a support character to be used for playing the play target stage selected by the stage selection operation (hereinafter referred to as a support character selection operation). Specifically, the support character selection operation receiving unit 32 presents to the user of interest candidate characters to be selected as support characters in a state where the play target stage is selected. The user of interest selects a support character to be used in the play target stage from among the presented candidate characters. Similar to the stage selection operation, the support character selection operation may be an operation of tapping one of a plurality of candidate characters displayed in a list.

Candidate characters for supporting characters are notified from the candidate character notification unit 41 of the server device 20 . The candidate character notification unit 41 notifies a candidate character list in response to a request from each client device 10 . The list of candidate characters notified to each client device 10 by the candidate character notification unit 41 may be different for each user. For example, when a friendship relationship is set between users who use the information processing system 1, the candidate character notification unit 41 randomly selects a character possessed by the user who is set as a friend of the user who uses the client device 10 of the request source, and notifies it as a candidate character. Also, a character possessed by another user who is not a friend may be randomly selected and notified as a candidate character. It should be noted that each user may preliminarily register a character that is permitted to be used by another user as a support character among the characters owned by the user. In this case, the candidate character notifying part 41 acquires the information of the character registered by each user for the support character, and when notifying the candidate character, notifies the candidate character selected from the characters registered by each user. In this embodiment, the candidate character notification unit 41 randomly selects and notifies a candidate character regardless of the stage to be played.

In the present embodiment, the support character selection operation reception unit 32 presents a plurality of candidate characters to the user of interest in a display mode determined according to the relationship between the stage to be played and each of the candidate characters, in order to assist the user of interest in selecting a support character. Note that the “display mode” in this embodiment includes the display order, display color, display size, presence/absence of additional image display (including effects), and the like of the candidate characters. A specific example of this display mode will be described later in detail.

The character-to-be-used selection operation receiving unit 33 of the client device of interest 10n receives, from the user of interest, an operation (hereinafter referred to as character-to-be-used selection operation) for selecting a character other than a support character among the characters to be used in the play target stage selected by the stage selection operation. The use character selection operation is an operation of selecting a use character from the characters possessed by the noted user. Note that when using a plurality of possessed characters to play one stage, the noted user needs to select a plurality of characters to use. In this case, the noted user may be able to register in advance a character set (deck) in which a plurality of possessed characters that the user wishes to use together is put together. If a character set is registered in advance, the user of interest can collectively select a plurality of characters to be used simply by selecting the registered character set.

The client device of interest 10n may receive either the use character selection operation or the support character selection operation from the user of interest first. However, the support character selection operation receiving unit 32 receives the support character selection operation after the stage selection operation is received and the play stage is specified in order to present the candidate character to the user of interest in a display mode corresponding to the play target stage.

After a stage to be played is selected by a stage selection operation reception unit 31 and a character to be used is selected by a support character selection operation reception unit 32 and a use character selection operation reception unit 33, the game of the selected stage is started. The game processing execution unit 34 of the focused client device 10n cooperates with the game control unit 42 of the server device 20 to execute the game processing of the selected stage.

Specifically, for example, the game processing execution unit 34 acquires information about the game of the selected stage, such as enemy characters appearing in the selected stage, from the game control unit 42 . A game screen is drawn based on the acquired information and displayed on the screen of the display device 16 . In addition, the game processing execution unit 34 receives game operations related to the game from the user of interest. This game operation may include an operation that instructs the character to behave during the game of that stage. The game processing execution unit 34 progresses the game according to the game operation received from the user of interest, and notifies the game control unit 42 of the result.

Note that the processing related to the progress of the game may be executed on the client device 10 side, or may be executed on the server device 20 side. When the client device 10 side executes the processing related to the game progress, the game processing execution part 34 executes the processing for progressing the game according to the user's game operation, and when the game of the target stage is finished, the result of the game of the stage is transmitted to the game control part 42 of the server device 20. - 特許庁On the other hand, when the server device 20 side executes the processing related to the progress of the game, the game processing execution unit 34 transmits the content of the game operation received from the noted user to the server device 20 each time. The game control unit 42 of the server device 20 executes processing for progressing the game according to the content of the received game operation, and as a result, transmits a display instruction including information to be presented to the user to the client device 10 . The game processing execution unit 34 of the client device 10 displays the content corresponding to the received display instruction on the screen of the display device 16 . The game progresses by repeating such processing. Further, the processing related to the progress of the game may be performed by both the client device 10 and the server device 20, instead of being executed by only one of them. In any case, after the user selects a stage to be played and a character to be used and starts the game of the stage to be played, the game of the stage proceeds without changing the character to be used, and when the game of the stage is finished, information about the result of the game is notified to the game control part 42 of the server device 20.例文帳に追加

A specific example of a display mode when the support character selection operation receiving unit 32 presents candidate characters for the support character to the user of interest will be described below. As described above, the support character selection operation reception unit 32 displays a screen presenting a plurality of candidate characters on the display device 16 in a display mode determined according to the relationship between the play target stage and each candidate character. Hereinafter, a screen for presenting a plurality of candidate characters and accepting selection of a support character from among them will be referred to as a support character selection screen.

As a first example, the support character selection operation reception unit 32 may preferentially display candidate characters that have been used by other users in the play target stage in the past in the support character selection screen. This makes it easier to select a candidate character suitable for use in the play target stage.

In this example, the support character selection operation reception unit 32 acquires from the server device 20 information about characters used when the user of the information processing system 1 played the play target stage in the past (hereinafter referred to as used character information). Then, the candidate characters are presented in a display mode determined according to the use character information.

The used character information may be information specifying a character that has been used particularly frequently among the characters actually used in the past play on the play target stage. Also, the used character information may include information about the frequency of use (that is, the number of times of use in a predetermined period in the past) of each character used in the play on the play target stage. The information on the frequency of use may be information indicating the numerical value of the frequency of use itself, or may be information indicating the order of the characters when arranged in order of frequency of use.

In order to provide such use character information, the game control part 42 of the server device 20 records information relating the stage targeted for the play and the type of character used in the play each time the game is played by each user. Based on the recorded information, the characters frequently used in the play in each stage are totaled and recorded for each predetermined period. When the list of candidate characters is displayed, the support character selection operation reception unit 32 makes an inquiry including information specifying the stage to be played to the server device 20, and acquires use character information as a response to this inquiry. Note that the frequency of use of a character here may not simply be a numerical value representing the number of times the character has been used, but may represent the number of times the game of the play target stage has been cleared (successfully) using the character. By including the characters frequently used when clearing the play target stage in the used character information, it is possible to present to the user of interest characters that are assumed to be more effective in clearing the stage.

If a character specified by the character information to be used exists among the candidate characters, the support character selection operation reception unit 32 displays the character with a high priority. Also, if there are a plurality of characters specified by the character-in-use information, those characters may be displayed in descending order of frequency of use. FIG. 3 is an example of a support character selection screen that displays characters used by other users with high priority. In the example of this figure, the characters that are frequently used in clearing the play target stage are displayed in the "Everyone's cleared characters" column, and these characters are displayed in a manner that is prioritized over the characters in the "Other" column.

As a second example, the support character selection operation reception unit 32 may present the candidate characters in a display mode determined according to the relationship between the relevant information set for the play target stage and each of the plurality of candidate characters. Here, the relevant information is information that is associated with each of the stages that are candidates for selection and that is used to identify characters suitable for playing the stage. Specifically, the relevant information may be information specifying the character's skill that works favorably in the play in each stage. Furthermore, information indicating the degree of importance of the skill (degree of necessity of the skill for capturing the stage) may be associated. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of such related information.

In this example, the support character selection operation accepting unit 32 makes an inquiry including information specifying a play target stage to the server device 20, and acquires information related to the play target stage as a response to this inquiry. Then, candidate characters having skills included in the relevant information are displayed with high priority. Also, if the related information includes a plurality of skills, a candidate character possessing a skill with a higher degree of importance may be displayed with a higher priority. FIG. 5 shows an example of a support character selection screen that preferentially displays candidate characters possessing skills of high importance. In the example of this figure, characters who possess skills (here, "skill 1" and "skill 3") that are effective in clearing the play target stage are displayed in the "main gimmick compatible characters" column, and characters who do not possess such skills are displayed in the "other" column. Also, the example in this figure shows a display example in which "skill 3" is more important than "skill 1" for clearing the stage to be played, and the more important "skill 3" is displayed with a higher priority than "skill 1".

Note that the specific examples described above may be applied in combination. For example, in the support character selection screen, the support character selection operation reception unit 32 may display the candidate characters side by side in the following order: first, a column of "all clear characters", then a column of "main gimmick compatible characters", and then a column of "others".

In addition, the support character selection operation reception unit 32 may divide the candidate characters into groups based on criteria different from the criteria described above, and display the candidate characters separately for each group. For example, the support character selection operation receiving unit 32 may display the characters possessed by users who have established friendships with the user of interest, and the characters possessed by users who have not established friendships, in a separate state. Also, a candidate character that was once selected as a support character and cannot be selected as a support character again may be displayed separately from the selectable candidate characters. In such a case as well, the support character selection operation reception unit 32 may preferentially display characters with high usage frequencies and characters possessing important skills in each group.

In addition, the support character selection operation reception unit 32 may switch between the support character selection screen whose display mode is determined according to the play target stage described above and the support character selection screen whose display mode is not dependent on the play target stage, according to the instruction of the user of interest. Specifically, the selection screen may include an interface such as a button for receiving an instruction from the user of interest to rearrange the candidate characters according to a given criterion. The noted user may want to select the support character based on his or her own ideas. In such a case, by rearranging the candidate characters according to the criteria specified by the user, it is possible to select a character other than the character determined according to the character information and related information, etc., as the support character. Note that the support character selection screen may include an interface for narrowing down and displaying only candidate characters that match given criteria, such as characters possessing specific skills. In this case, even when only candidate characters that match the criteria specified by the noted user are displayed, the support character selection operation reception unit 32 may determine the priority of the candidate characters to be displayed based on criteria similar to those described above. Note that the examples of FIGS. 3 and 5 include interfaces (attribute buttons) for narrowing down candidate characters by attribute.

According to the information processing system 1 according to the present embodiment described above, when selecting a support character, the candidate character to be a selection candidate is presented in a manner corresponding to the relationship with the play target stage to be played from now on. Therefore, it becomes easier for the user to select the support character.

In addition, embodiment of this invention is not restricted to what was demonstrated above. For example, the contents of the screens in the above description are merely examples, and the client device 10 may present support character candidate characters to the user in various forms. For example, in the above description, candidate characters assumed to be suitable for use in the play target stage, such as candidate characters with high frequency of use and candidate characters possessing highly important skills, are displayed with high priority. Alternatively, or in addition to this, candidate characters assumed to be suitable for use in the play target stage may be displayed in a different background color from other candidate characters or displayed in a larger size than other candidate characters for highlighting.

Moreover, at least part of the processing to be executed by each of the client device 10 and the server device 20 in the above description may be distributed and executed by a plurality of devices. At least part of the processing to be executed by the client device 10 may be executed by the server device 20, and conversely, at least part of the processing to be executed by the server device 20 may be executed by the client device 10. In particular, not the client device 10 but the server device 20 may determine in what display mode the candidate characters are presented to the user. In this case, the server device 20 determines the display order of each candidate character and whether to display them in the background color, etc., controls presentation to the user, and the client device 10 draws the support character selection screen according to the instruction received from the server device 20.

1 information processing system, 10 client device, 11 control unit, 12 storage unit, 13
Communication unit, 14 interface unit, 15 operation input device, 16 display device, 20 server device, 21 control unit, 22 storage unit, 23 communication unit, 31 stage selection operation reception unit, 32 support character selection operation reception unit, 33 use character selection operation reception unit, 34 game processing execution unit, 41 candidate character notification unit, 42 game control unit.

Claims (6)

A plurality of users each possess at least one of a plurality of types of characters, and a stage selected from one or a plurality of candidate stages prepared in advance is played using a character selected from the characters possessed by the user and a support character selected from characters possessed by other users.
stage receiving means for receiving a selection of a play target stage to be played from among the candidate stages from any one of the plurality of users;
means for presenting one or a plurality of candidate characters that are candidates to be selected as the support character when playing the play stage to a user who has selected the play stage, the candidate character presenting means for presenting the plurality of candidate characters in a display mode determined according to the relationship between the play stage and each of the candidate characters;
An information processing device comprising: In the information processing device according to claim 1,
further comprising used character acquisition means for acquiring used character information related to characters used when the plurality of users played the play target stage in the past,
The information processing apparatus, wherein the candidate character presenting means presents the plurality of candidate characters in a display mode determined according to the used character information. In the information processing apparatus according to claim 2,
The used character information includes information on the frequency of use of each of the used characters,
The information processing apparatus, wherein the candidate character presenting means presents the plurality of candidate characters in descending order of frequency of use. In the information processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
Each of the plurality of stages is associated with related information used to identify a character suitable for playing the stage,
The candidate character presenting means presents the plurality of candidate characters in a display mode determined according to the relationship between the relevant information set for the play target stage and each of the plurality of candidate characters. In the information processing device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The candidate character presenting means switches between presentation of the candidate character in a display mode determined according to the relationship between the play stage and each of the plurality of candidate characters and presentation in a display mode independent of the play stage in accordance with an instruction from a user who has selected the play stage. A plurality of users each owns at least one of a plurality of types of characters, and a stage selected from one or more candidate stages prepared in advance is played using a character selected from the characters owned by the user and a support character selected from characters owned by other users.
stage receiving means for receiving a selection of a play target stage to be played from among the candidate stages from any one of the plurality of users;
means for presenting one or a plurality of candidate characters that are candidates to be selected as the support character when playing the play stage to a user who has selected the play stage, the candidate character presenting means for presenting the plurality of candidate characters in a display mode determined according to the relationship between the play stage and each of the candidate characters;
A program to function as

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