JP6176558B2 - Information processing apparatus, computer control method, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for generating notification information using a character obtained by executing an application.

  In recent years, services that provide games on the Internet are rapidly spreading. As one of such services, a breeding game for breeding characters is known (see Patent Document 1). For example, in a farm game, the user grows flowers and fruits by sowing seeds and watering. The user can enjoy that the farms he / she manages gradually become lively as various plants and crops grow.

JP 2001-29682 A

However, characters such as flowers and fruits, which are the fruits of the breeding game, can only be used in the game. Moreover, when a character is provided according to the usage record in the chat application, such a character can be used only in the chat application. Thus, there is a problem that a character acquired by a user by executing an application such as a breeding game can be used only in the application.
The present invention has been made in view of this point, and it is an object of the present invention to make it possible to secondarily use a character acquired by executing an application such as a breeding game.

  Means employed by the present invention to solve the above problems will be described below. In order to facilitate understanding of the present invention, reference numerals in the drawings will be appended in parentheses for convenience in the following, but the present invention is not intended to be limited to the illustrated forms.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, an application apparatus according to the present invention provides an application to a user, and stores a character obtained by executing the application (A, 23, 33). A generating unit (B, 20, 30) for generating notification information including display information for displaying the character image, and a notification unit for notifying the notification information to the notification destination designated by the user ( D, 20, 26, 30, 36).

According to the present invention, notification information including display information for displaying an image of a character obtained by executing an application is notified, so that a character acquired by executing a certain application can be secondary It can be made available.
Further, the “character” is not limited to an anthropomorphic target, but may be “thing” or the like. For example, it may be a treasure given by clearing a certain stage in the game. “Display information for displaying a character image” refers to character image data, link information indicating an address at which the character image data is stored, and character identification information for uniquely identifying the character. It may be. The “application” includes, for example, a game. Further, as the game, a breeding game for breeding characters is desirable. The “application device” may be a terminal device such as a mobile phone or a computer, or may be a management device that can communicate with the terminal device. In the former case, the terminal device functions as an application device by executing the application on the terminal device. In the latter case, the management apparatus may function as an application apparatus by providing a WEB page.

In the above-described application device, the application device includes a setting unit (C, 20, 30) that sets a character to be used for the notification information among characters acquired by the user stored in the storage unit according to an instruction of the user, The unit preferably generates the notification information based on the setting of the setting unit.
According to this invention, since the character used for notification information is set according to a user's instruction | indication, a user's intention can be reflected in notification information. For example, when a plurality of characters are acquired, the notification source user can select a character suitable for the notification destination user.

In the application device described above, it is preferable that the setting unit arranges a character used for the notification information at a position designated by the user in a predetermined area. Alternatively, the setting unit preferably processes the character acquired by the user stored in the storage unit according to the user's instruction, and sets the processed character as a character used for the notification information.
In these cases, the notification information is generated by changing the character according to the user's instruction, and the character can be used as a motif. Note that “processing” includes enlargement / reduction and rotation.

  In the application device described above, it is preferable that the generation unit generates the notification information including invitation information indicating an invitation to the application with respect to the notification destination. According to the present invention, other users are invited to the application using the notification information including the character acquired by executing the application. Therefore, the invited user can acquire characters that can be acquired by executing the application. As a result, it becomes easier to determine whether or not to accept the invitation.

In the application apparatus, the generation unit generates display information for displaying the character image as reference information, and the notification unit notifies the reference information specified by the reference information. It is preferable to provide an update unit that updates in accordance with the elapsed time since then. According to the present invention, since the character image can be changed, it is possible to transmit notification information rich in taste.
Here, the reference information may specify an address at which character image data is stored, or may specify a web page. In any case, a plurality of pieces of image data that change with time for one character are stored in the storage unit. The WEB page is described in the html format, and address information specifying character image data is described. When the reference information specifies the address where the character image data is stored, the update unit may change the image data itself as time passes. On the other hand, when the reference information specifies a WEB page, the updating unit may change the address information of the character as time passes.

Next, a program according to the present invention is a program of an application device including a computer and a storage unit, and the control unit causes the storage unit to store characters obtained by executing the program on the computer. (20, 30), a generation unit that generates notification information including display information for displaying the image of the character, and a notification unit that notifies the notification information designated by the user It is characterized by making it.
According to the present invention, it is possible to secondarily use a character acquired by executing a certain application.
Next, a method for controlling an application device according to the present invention is a method for controlling an application device that provides an application to a user and includes a storage unit, and stores a character obtained by executing the application. Notification information including display information for displaying an image of the character is generated, and the notification information is notified to a notification destination designated by the user. According to the present invention, it is possible to secondarily use a character acquired by executing a certain application.

It is a block diagram of the application system which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a terminal device. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the outline | summary of a farm game. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the figure volume which manages the acquired character. 4 is a flowchart showing processing contents of a setting unit C. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of a birthday card. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of an invitation card | curd. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the edit screen displayed on a display. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the birthday card which processed and arranged the character. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of the invitation card which processed and arranged the character. It is a block diagram of the application system which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a management apparatus. It is explanatory drawing which shows the data structure of a user table. It is explanatory drawing which shows the data structure of a character table. It is a block diagram of the application system which concerns on 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the data structure of the character table which concerns on a modification.

Hereinafter, as an embodiment, an application system that provides an application to a user will be described with reference to the drawings.
<1. First Embodiment>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an application system 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the application system 100, a plurality of user terminal devices 2 are connected via a communication network 1 such as the Internet.

  A user of one terminal device 2 can communicate with a user of another terminal device 2 using e-mail, chat, or the like. The terminal device 2 corresponds to a mobile phone, a smartphone, a personal computer, or the like.

  The terminal device 2 of this embodiment functions as an application device that provides an application to the user. The terminal device 2 includes an application execution unit E that executes an application. The application in this example is a farm game that is a kind of a breeding game for breeding characters, and characters to be trained are flowers and fruits. Note that the application is not limited to a game and may be any application as long as it is an application executed on a computer. For example, a chat application to which a character is assigned according to a usage situation is included.

  The terminal device 2 includes a storage unit A that stores a character obtained by executing a game (application). Characters that the user can acquire in this embodiment are flowers and fruits. The character stored in the storage unit A may store the character image data itself, or may be an address on the Internet where the character image data is stored, or uniquely identify the character. It may be the character identification information CID. In this embodiment, character image data is stored in the storage unit A.

  Moreover, the terminal device 2 includes a generation unit B that generates notification information including display information for displaying an image of a character. The display information may be character image data itself. Further, it may be an address on the Internet where character image data is stored, or may be character identification information CID. In the present embodiment, a mode is adopted in which the display information is character image data itself.

  In addition, the terminal device 2 sets the character used for the notification information among the characters acquired by the user stored in the storage unit A according to the user's instruction, and the notification destination designated by the user. A notification unit D that notifies the notification information. In the present embodiment, when the user acquires a character, the image data of the acquired character is stored in the storage unit A. When the number of characters acquired by the user increases, the character image data stored in the storage unit A also increases. The setting unit C can execute a process of selecting a character to be used for notification information, a process of determining the position of the character on the card, and a process of scaling and rotating the character according to a user instruction. In other words, in the present embodiment, notification information using a character can be generated and notified to a notification destination designated by the user.

  FIG. 2 shows a detailed configuration of the terminal device 2. The terminal device 2 includes a CPU 20 that controls the entire device, a RAM 21 that functions as a work area for the CPU 20, a ROM 22 that stores a boot program, a storage device 23 that stores various applications and data including farm games, and an input including a numeric keypad. And a communication interface 26 for communicating with an external device via the communication network 1. Here, the storage device 23 functions as the storage unit A, the CPU 20 functions as the generation unit B, the CPU 20 and the input unit 24 function as the setting unit C, and the CPU 20 and the communication interface 26 function as the notification unit D.

  Next, the outline of the farm game will be described with reference to FIG. This game progresses by repeating the cycle of sowing seeds → growing crops → harvesting → leveling up. First, in sowing, seeds such as flowers and crops are planted on their own farms. The seeds can be purchased using in-game currency, or can be obtained by a lottery that can be executed every predetermined period.

Next, in the cultivation of crops, the user performs care such as pest control, watering, or fertilizering. The degree of crop growth varies depending on the degree of care. In harvesting, harvest flowers and fruits. The experience value increases according to the harvested deliverables, or the in-game currency can be obtained by selling the harvested deliverables on the market. The user can organize and manage the harvested products in a figure so that they can be viewed at any time. The data of the illustrated volume is stored in the storage unit A. FIG. 4 shows an example of the figure winding.
Next, in the level-up, the level of the user in the game is increased by the experience value obtained according to the cultivation of the crop. As the level increases, it is possible to increase the types of flowers and fruits that can be created by paying the in-game currency for the resulting products, or to expand the farm.

  FIG. 5 shows the contents of the character setting process executed by the setting unit C. When the user operates the input unit 24 to select card creation, the setting unit C starts setting processing. In this case, the setting unit C first displays a screen for selecting the card type on the display 25 and prompts the user to select the card type (S100). As the card types, for example, greeting cards such as birthday cards, baby gift cards, Christmas cards, opening gift cards, greeting cards such as New Year's cards, summer greeting cards, moving, etc., other users to farm games (applications) There is an invitation card to invite. For example, the birthday card is as shown in FIG. 6, and the invitation card is as shown in FIG. The cards shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 are so-called mounts, and as will be described later, an original card can be created by arranging the acquired characters or adding text thereto.

  Next, the setting unit C determines whether or not the user has selected a card (S101), and repeats this process until the user selects it. When the user selects a card, the selection unit C advances the process to S102, and displays the character acquired by the user on the display 25 (S102). Thereafter, the setting unit C determines whether or not the user has selected a character (S103), and repeats this process until the user selects it.

  When the user selects a character, the setting unit C displays the selected character together with the selected card and prompts the user to process and arrange the character (S104). Character processing includes scaling and rotation. The processing in steps S102 to S104 is executed, for example, by displaying the editing screen shown in FIG. On the right side of the editing screen, an area R1 where the acquired character is displayed is provided. In this example, three types of characters are displayed in the region R1, and when the button B1 is clicked, the character scrolls upward, and when the button B2 is clicked, the character scrolls downward.

In the area R2, a card selected by the user is displayed. In this example, it is assumed that the user has selected a birthday card. In order to select a character, the character displayed in the region R1 may be dragged and dropped into the region R2. When the button B3 is clicked while the character is selected, the character is enlarged, and when the button B4 is clicked, the character is reduced. Further, when the button B5 is clicked while selecting the character, the character rotates.
Moreover, what is necessary is just to click button B6 in order to input a text. In addition, the character can be dragged and dropped to adjust the position of the character in the region R2.
For example, the user selects a birthday card, and selects and processes the rose character displayed at the top of the region R1 in FIG. 8 a plurality of times, thereby creating the birthday card shown in FIG. be able to. Further, by selecting an invitation card and selecting, processing and arranging three types of characters displayed in the region R1 in FIG. 8, for example, the original invitation card shown in FIG. 10 can be created.

  Thereafter, the setting unit C determines whether or not saving of the card is selected (S105). Specifically, when button B7 shown in FIG. 8 is clicked, it is determined that the user has selected to save the card. When the user selects saving of the card, the setting unit C saves the generated card in the storage unit A, and then executes a card transmission process (S108). In the card transmission process, the stored card is transmitted to a notification destination designated by the user. The transmission process may be executed in cooperation with the mail application.

  In the embodiment described above, a card can be created using a character such as a flower or fruit, which is a product of the breeding game, as a motif, and this can be transmitted to the terminal device 2 of another user. That is, according to the present embodiment, there is an effect that a character acquired by an application such as a breeding game can be used by another application.

  It is well known to use an email composed of text for an invitation to a game. However, even if you read such an e-mail, you cannot get an overview of the game, and although you participated in the game as a trial, it is often different from your taste. According to this embodiment, the invitation card with the character acquired in the farm game is transmitted to the invited user. As a result, the user who has received the invitation card can know the characters that can be acquired in the farm game, and can easily determine whether or not to participate in the game.

<2. Second Embodiment>
In the first embodiment described above, the application is executed in the terminal device 2 that has downloaded the application such as the farm game, and the acquired character is stored in the storage unit A of the terminal device 2. On the other hand, the application system 101 according to the second embodiment includes a management device 3 that provides a farm game as a WEB application, and the terminal device 2 is different in that the WEB page generated by the management device 3 is displayed by a WEB browser. To do.

  FIG. 11 shows the configuration of the application system 101 according to the second embodiment. The application system 101 includes a management device 3, which includes the storage unit A, the generation unit B, the setting unit C, the notification unit D, and the application execution unit E described in the first embodiment. The application execution unit E executes a WEB application and provides a farm game. In this case, a request based on the operation of the input unit 24 in the user terminal device 2 is transmitted to the management device 3, and a web page is transmitted from the management device 3 to the terminal device 2 as a response to the request. In the present embodiment, the management device 3 functions as an application device that executes an application.

  FIG. 12 shows the configuration of the management apparatus 3. As shown in this figure, the management device 3 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 30 that controls the entire device, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 31 that functions as a work area of the CPU 30, a ROM (Read Only) that stores a boot program, and the like. Memory) 32, a hard disk 33 for storing various applications and data, an input unit 34 including a keyboard and a mouse, a communication interface 36 for communicating with an external device via the communication network 1, and an information recording medium such as a compact disk Is provided. The hard disk 33 stores a user table TBL11, a character table TBL12, a card table TBL13, and the like.

  Here, the user table TBL11 functions as a storage unit A that stores a character acquired by the user, and the CPU 30 functions as a generation unit B that generates notification information including display information for displaying an image of the character, and stores it. Among the characters acquired by the user stored in the part A, the CPU 30 and the communication interface 36 function as a setting part C that sets a character to be used for notification information according to the user's instruction. Functions as a notification unit D that notifies the notification information.

  FIG. 13 shows the data structure of the user table TBL11. The user table TBL11 includes a plurality of records. One record includes a record identification information ID for uniquely identifying a record, a user identification information UID for uniquely identifying an application user, a user nickname, a gender, and a character identification information CID of a character acquired by the user. The character acquired by the user can be specified by referring to the user table TBL11. For example, it can be seen that the user with the user identification information UID “XCV56714” has acquired the characters with the character identification information CID “001” and “002”.

  FIG. 14 shows the data structure of the character table TBL12. The character table TBL12 includes a plurality of records. One record includes character identification information CID and image data indicating an image of the character. By referring to the character table TBL12, the image data of the character specified by the character identification information CID can be obtained. For example, the image data of the character having the character identification information CID “001” is “GD1”.

  Next, the card table TBL13 stores image data of a birthday card (see FIG. 6) and an invitation card (see FIG. 7), which are the basis for the user creating an original card. By referring to the card table TBL13, image data serving as a basis for generating various cards can be obtained.

  In the application system 101 of the second embodiment, the setting unit C is provided in the management device 3 and is not provided in the terminal device 2. The input unit 24 of the terminal device 2 is used only for inputting a user instruction, and the user instruction content is transmitted to the management device 3 via the communication interface 26 of the terminal device 2. As a result, the setting unit C of the management device 3 can receive a user instruction for setting a character to be used for the notification information.

  In the present embodiment, the character display information included in the notification information may be character image data, or may be link information indicating an address where character image data is not stored. . In this case, the link information may indicate an address of image data in the character table TBL12. The character display information may be character identification information CID for uniquely identifying the character.

  When the notification destination is an application user, the notification information may be transmitted by general-purpose mail or may be transmitted by mini-mail used within the application user. On the other hand, when the notification information is an invitation card or the like and the notification destination is not a user of the application, the management apparatus 3 transmits the notification information to the notification destination by a general-purpose mail.

  As described above, in the second embodiment, the management apparatus 3 executes the application. In this case, as in the first embodiment, an effect that a character acquired by a certain application can be used by another application is obtained. is there. Also, when generating an invitation card using a character as a motif, the user who receives the invitation card can know the characters that can be acquired in the farm game, and can easily determine whether or not to participate in the game. There is.

<3. Third Embodiment>
FIG. 15 shows the configuration of an application system according to the third embodiment. The application system 102 according to the third embodiment described above is configured in the same manner as the application system 101 of the second embodiment, except that the SNS management apparatus 4 is provided.

  In the application system 102, the management device 3 functions as an application device that provides a farm game. On the other hand, the SNS management device 4 provides a communication service such as posting, chat, or mail to the SNS user and functions as an application platform provided by the management device 3. That is, the application user is included in the SNS user, and the application user can use the communication service provided by the SNS management apparatus 4.

The application system 102 differs from the application system 101 of the second embodiment in the form of notification information. In the application system 102 of the third embodiment, notification information can be transmitted to a notification destination using a communication service provided by the SNS management device 4 in addition to general-purpose mail and mini-mail that can be used only within the application user. .
Specifically, when the notification destination is an SNS user, notification information such as an invitation card is transmitted to a My Page managed by the SNS user, or notification information is transmitted to the SNS user that is the notification destination by an SNS email. It is also possible to post.

  As in the first and second embodiments, the third embodiment can use a character acquired in one application in another application, and when notifying an invitation card as notification information, The user who has received the invitation card can know the characters that can be acquired in the farm game, and can easily determine whether or not to participate in the game.

<4. Modification>
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the following modifications are possible. Moreover, each modification can be combined suitably.
(1) In the second embodiment and the third embodiment described above, the management device 3 has been described as providing a WEB application. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the application execution unit E is a terminal device. 2, at least one of the storage unit A, the generation unit B, the setting unit C, and the notification unit D may be provided in the management device 3, and the rest may be provided in the terminal device 2. That is, application devices including the storage unit A, the generation unit B, the setting unit C, and the notification unit D may be distributed and arranged in the application system.

(2) In each of the above-described embodiments, it has been described that there is no change in the character image used in the card transmitted to another user. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the character image is a time. It may change with progress. For example, when a flower is harvested in the state of a cocoon, a greeting card using this is created, posted on another user's page, or sent by e-mail, the character image is composed of link information, You may change image data with progress of time. More specifically, when a rose flower is harvested with a camellia, the image data of the character is updated from the image data of the camellia to image data indicating a rose blooming for 3 minutes, and 3 days have passed. The image data showing the roses blooming 3 minutes at the time is updated to the image data showing the roses blooming 7 minutes, and the image data showing the roses blooming 7 minutes is updated to the image data showing the roses in full bloom after 5 days. do it. Thereby, the character displayed on the card of a notice destination can be changed with progress of time.

  In this case, in the application device such as the management device 3, the generation unit B generates display information for displaying the character image as reference information, and the notification unit notifies the reference destination information specified by the reference information. It is preferable to provide an update unit that updates the information according to the elapsed time since the information was notified. The CPU 30 of the management device 3 functions as an update unit. In the example described above, the reference information is an address where character image data is stored, and the reference destination information specified by the reference information is image data.

In addition, at the time of card display calculated based on the time information from the transmission time at the time of card transmission to the current time and the character status information (growth degree) included in the notification information at the time of card transmission Image data corresponding to the character status information (growth degree) may be displayed.
In this case, a character table TBL14 shown in FIG. 16 may be used instead of the character table TBL12 described above. The character table TBL14 stores first to fourth image data that changes between the initial state and the final state for each character identification information CID. In this example, the degree of growth of the character is represented in four stages, the degree of growth 1 is the first image data, the degree of growth 2 is the second image data, the degree of growth 3 is the third image data, and the degree of growth 4 is the fourth image. It corresponds to data.

  For example, the first image data with the character identification information CID “001” is “GD10”, the second image data is “GD11”, the third image data is “GD12”, and the fourth image data is “GD13”. The first image data GD10 is at address [000000], the second image data GD11 is at address [000001], the third image data GD12 is at address [000010], the fourth image data GD13 is at address [000011], It is remembered. That is, the character identification information CID is assigned to the upper 4 bits of the address, and four image data that change with time are assigned to the upper 2 bits of the address for the same type of character.

The card can be displayed on the WEB page, and the generation unit B generates display information for displaying the character image as an address (reference information) of the WEB page. The content of the WEB page that is the information of the reference destination specified by the reference information is updated by the updating unit according to the elapsed time since the notification unit notified the notification information. The WEB page is described in html format, in which address information for specifying character image data is described. The update unit changes the address information of the character as time passes.
The update unit determines the growth degree of the character based on the time information. For example, assume that the degree of growth increases by 1 every day, the time information is 2 days, and the address of the character included in the WEB page is [000001]. In this case, since two days have passed since the transmission time, the current growth rate is advanced by “2”. For this reason, the update unit adds “2” to the address [000001] to update to the address [000011]. Accordingly, it is possible to display a character using image data GD13 having a growth degree 4 instead of the second image data GD11 having a growth degree 2 at the time of transmission.

(3) In each embodiment described above, the setting unit C executes the card transmission process after storing the generated card in the storage unit A, but the present invention is not limited to this, Card storage and card transmission may be processed separately. That is, the user may select a stored card and transmit the selected card. As a result, the user can always use the original card using the acquired character.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Communication network, 2 ... Terminal device, 3 ... Management apparatus, 4 ... SNS management apparatus, 100-102 ... Application system, A ... Memory | storage part, B ... Production | generation part, C ... Setting part , D …… Notification unit, E …… Application execution unit.

Claims (6)

An information processing apparatus for providing a game to a user,
A storage unit for storing characters obtained in the game;
A generating unit that generates notification information including display information for displaying an image of the character;
A notification unit for notifying the notification information to a notification destination designated by the user,
The generation unit generates the notification information including invitation information indicating an invitation to the game with respect to the notification destination, and generates display information for displaying an image of the character as reference information.
An information processing apparatus comprising: an update unit that updates information of a reference destination specified by the reference information according to an elapsed time after the notification unit notifies the notification information . Among the characters acquired by the user stored in the storage unit, a setting unit that sets a character to be used for the notification information according to the user's instruction,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the generation unit generates the notification information based on a setting of the setting unit. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the setting unit arranges a character used for the notification information at a position designated by the user in a predetermined area. The setting unit sets a character user stored in the storage unit has acquired, claim processed in accordance with an instruction of the user, and sets the processed character as the character to be used for the notification information 2 Or the information processing apparatus of 3 . A program that includes a storage unit and that can be executed on a computer that provides a game to a user,
The computer,
A control unit for storing the character obtained in the game in the storage unit;
A generating unit that generates notification information including display information for displaying an image of the character;
Function as a notification unit for notifying the notification information to a notification destination designated by the user;
The generation unit generates the notification information including invitation information indicating an invitation to the game with respect to the notification destination, and generates display information for displaying an image of the character as reference information.
A program that causes information of a reference destination specified by the reference information to function as an update unit that updates information according to an elapsed time after the notification unit notifies the notification information . A computer control method for providing a game to a user,
Storing the character obtained in the game in a storage unit;
Generating notification information including display information for displaying an image of the character;
Notifying the notification information to the notification destination specified by the user,
In the generation of the notification information, the notification information including invitation information indicating an invitation to the game is generated for the notification destination, and display information for displaying the image of the character is generated as reference information. ,
A computer control method , wherein information of a reference destination specified by the reference information is updated according to an elapsed time since the notification information was notified .

Images