IP Library Granted Patent US 9,715,789
Granted Patent B1
US 9,715,789 · App. 13/077,706 · Granted Jul 25, 2017

Method and system of incorporating team challenges into a social game

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,715,789
App. No.
13/077,706
Granted
Jul 25, 2017
Kind
B1
Abstract

In a method and system of incorporating team challenges into a social game, a request to start a team challenge is received. The team challenge includes an in-game task that a plurality of players is to complete, with the plurality of players including an initiator and a helper. A selection of the helper from a set of buddies is received, with the set of buddies being based on a social network of the initiator. A completion of the in-game task by each of the plurality of players is detected. A reward is provided to each of the plurality of players based on the completion. In this way, new players are attracted to the social game, and current players increase their levels of participation in the social game.

Claims (30)

1. A method comprising:

generating a user interface for controlling participation of a player of a plurality of players of a game executing on a game networking system in a plurality of team challenges associated with the game, the user interface representing the plurality of team challenges based on a plurality of definitions defining the team challenges, the plurality of definitions stored in a database of the game networking system, each of the plurality of definitions specifying an objective that is to be achieved together by a subset of the plurality of players within the game to complete the team challenge and an unlock value that specifies an experience level that the player must have to initiate the team challenge, the user interface including:

a first user interface element, the first user interface element allowing the player to, based on a level of mastery of the player or based on the experience level of the player satisfying the unlock value corresponding to the first team challenge, serve as an initiator of the first team challenge by requesting to start the first team challenge; and

a second user interface element, the second user interface element allowing the player to serve as a helper in a completion of a second team challenge of the plurality of team challenges based on the level of mastery of the player or based on the experience level of the player satisfying an unlock value corresponding to the second team challenge, the second team challenge previously initiated by an additional player of the plurality of players, the additional player being a buddy of the player;

based on a detecting of a completion of the first team challenge or the second team challenge the completion of, increasing the experience level of the player with respect to the first team challenge or the second team challenge;

based on the increased experience level of the player with respect to the first team challenge or the second team challenge, increasing the level of mastery of the player;

unlocking a third team challenge for starting by the player based on the increased level of mastery of the player; and

generating an update to the user interface, the update including a representation of the unlocked third team challenge and a representation of the increased level of mastery of the player, one or more modules incorporated into the game networking system to configure one or more processors of the game networking system to perform the updating of the user interface.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of definitions includes a time constraint and the increasing of the level of mastery is based on the completion of the first team challenge or the completion of the second team challenge falling within the time constraint.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of definitions includes a count constraint and a size of the subset is limited based on the count constraint.

4. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium embodying a set of instructions included in one or more modules incorporated into a game networking system that, when executed by one or more computer processors of the game networking system, cause the one or more computer processors to perform operations, the operations comprising:

generating a user interface for controlling participation of a player of a plurality of players of a game executing on a game networking system in a plurality of team challenges associated with the game, the user interface representing the plurality of team challenges based on a plurality of definitions defining the team challenges, the plurality of definitions stored in a database of the game networking system, each of the plurality of definitions specifying an objective that is to be achieved together by a subset of the plurality of players within the game to complete the team challenge and an unlock value that specifies an experience level that the player must have to initiate the team challenge, the user interface including:

a first user interface element, the first user interface element allowing the player to, based on a level of mastery of the player or based on the experience level of the player satisfying the unlock value corresponding to the first team challenge, serve as an initiator of the first team challenge by requesting to start the first team challenge; and

a second user interface element, the second user interface element allowing the player to serve as a helper in a completion of a second team challenge of the plurality of team challenges based on the level of mastery of the player or based on the experience level of the player satisfying an unlock value corresponding to the second team challenge, the second team challenge previously initiated by an additional player of the plurality of players, the additional player being a buddy of the player;

based on a detecting of a completion of the first team challenge or the completion of the second team challenge, increasing the experience level of the player with respect to the first team challenge or the second team challenge;

based on the increased experience level of the player with respect to the first team challenge or the second team challenge, increasing the level of mastery of the player;

unlocking a third team challenge for starting by the player based on the increased level of mastery of the player; and

generating an update to the user interface, the update including a representation of the unlocked third team challenge and a representation of the increased level of mastery of the player.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 4 , wherein each of the plurality of definitions includes a time constraint and the increasing of the level of mastery is based on the completion of the first team challenge or the completion of the second team challenge falling within the time constraint.

6. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more modules incorporated into a game networking system, the one or more modules configuring the one or more processors to, at least:

generate a user interface for controlling participation of a player of a plurality of players of a game executing on a game networking system in a plurality of team challenges associated with the game, the user interface representing the plurality of team challenges based on a plurality of definitions defining the team challenges, the plurality of definitions stored in a database of the game networking system, each of the plurality of definitions specifying an objective that is to be achieved together by a subset of the plurality of players within the game to complete the team challenge and an unlock value that specifies an experience level that the player must have to initiate the team challenge, the user interface including:

a first user interface element, the first user interface element allowing the player to, based on a level of mastery of the player or based on the experience level of the player satisfying the unlock value corresponding to the first team challenge, serve as an initiator of the first team challenge by requesting to start the first team challenge; and

a second user interface element, the second user interface element allowing the player to serve as a helper in a completion of a second team challenge of the plurality of team challenges based on the level of mastery of the player or based on the experience level of the player satisfying an unlock value corresponding to the second team challenge, the second team challenge previously initiated by an additional player of the plurality of players, the additional player being a buddy of the player;

based on a detecting of a completion of the first team challenge or the completion of the second team challenge, increase the experience level of the player with respect to the first team challenge or the second team challenge;

based on the increased experience level of the player with respect to the first team challenge or the second team challenge, increase the level of mastery of the player;

unlock a third team challenge for starting by the player based on the increased level of mastery of the player; and

generate an update to the user interface, the update including a representation of the unlocked third team challenge and a representation of the increased level of mastery of the player.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein each of the plurality of definitions includes a time constraint and the increasing of the level of mastery is based on the completion of the first team challenge or the completion of the second team challenge falling within the time constraint.

Assignments (5)
TERMINATION AND RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS Recorded May 23, 2022
From: BANK OF AMERICA, N.A., AS ADMINISTRATIVE AGENT
To: ZYNGA INC.
Reel/Frame 060163/0437 →
NOTICE OF GRANT OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS Recorded Dec 14, 2020
From: ZYNGA INC.
To: BANK OF AMERICA, N.A., AS ADMINISTRATIVE AGENT
Reel/Frame 054719/0490 →
TERMINATION AND RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS Recorded Dec 11, 2020
From: BANK OF AMERICA, N.A., AS LENDER
To: ZYNGA INC.
Reel/Frame 054701/0393 →
NOTICE OF GRANT OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS Recorded Dec 21, 2018
From: ZYNGA INC.
To: BANK OF AMERICA, N.A., AS LENDER
Reel/Frame 049147/0546 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 15, 2011
From: KANE, MICHAEL; SINGH, HARSIMRAN
To: ZYNGA INC.
Reel/Frame 026755/0370 →