Real money gambling payouts that depend on online social activity
Granted: May 23, 2017
Patent Number:
9659446
Software on a server and/or client device causes a view in a graphical user interface (GUI) for a game to be displayed to a user. The game is an online gambling game for real money. The software receives input from the user. The input includes a wager and play according to game mechanics for the game. The software calculates a payout from the play. The payout includes a promotional payout that depends at least in part on a measure of social activity associated with the user or a measure…
Crew creation for quest progression
Granted: May 23, 2017
Patent Number:
9656177
Methods, systems, and computer programs for creating a crew to participate in a mission challenge in an online game includes identifying quests to complete the mission challenge. Each quest includes a plurality of tasks and each task includes a plurality of subtasks. A request feed is sent to members of a social graph of a user requesting the members to join the crew and to participate in completing the subtasks of the challenge. Skill set associated with each member of the social graph…
2D animation from a 3D mesh
Granted: May 16, 2017
Patent Number:
9652880
Two-dimensional (2D) animation may be generated from a three-dimensional (3D) mesh by a machine or device that flattens, textures, and modifies the 3D mesh, which results in distorting the texture of the 3D mesh. The machine or device is configured to access and flatten a 3D mesh of 3D vertices. At least some of the 3D vertices of the flattened 3D mesh are texture mapped with a 2D image. The machine or device generates a first 2D frame of animation by rendering the 3D mesh (e.g., with…
Updating virtual worlds based on interactions between real-world items
Granted: May 16, 2017
Patent Number:
9649566
A method of updating virtual worlds based on interactions between real-world items is disclosed. An interaction between a first real-world item and a second real-world item is detected. The first real-world item is a real-world item that is associated with a first player of a computer-implemented game and the second real-world item is a real-world item that is associated with a second player of the computer-implemented game. A virtual world of the computer-implemented game is updated…
Asynchronous social events in computer-implemented games
Granted: May 9, 2017
Patent Number:
9643080
This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods to provide an asynchronous social event in a computer-implemented game. The social event may for example be a virtual party that is staged in a game instance of a host player and may comprise automated attendance of player characters associated with one or more guest players. An event invitation may be sent to the guest players, with the player characters of guest players who accept the invitation being displayed as automatically…
Mobile device interface for online games
Granted: May 2, 2017
Patent Number:
9636584
The present disclosure generally relates games and applications in general and in particular to computer-implemented online games playable on mobile devices.
Display screen or portion thereof with animated graphical user interface
Granted: May 2, 2017
Patent Number:
D785645
Display screen or portion thereof with animated graphical user interface
Granted: May 2, 2017
Patent Number:
D785644
Shared social asset in game
Granted: April 25, 2017
Patent Number:
9630115
Methods, systems, and computer programs are presented for online game cooperation. One method includes an operation for receiving a first request from a first user to place a game asset in a first game board of the first user. The game asset is associated with a task to be performed in the game. Further, the method includes an operation for receiving a second request from a second user to place the game asset in a second game board of the second user. The first user and the second user…
Incentivizing location-based actions by groups
Granted: April 18, 2017
Patent Number:
9626689
A method of incentivizing location-based actions by groups is disclosed. A group of users of a game networking system is notified that an incentive reward is to be provided based on a number of members of the group performing a location-based action transgressing a threshold. The incentive reward is provided based on the number of members of the group performing the location-based action transgressing the threshold.
Semi-synchronous multi-participant application updates
Granted: April 18, 2017
Patent Number:
9623323
Individual participants in a multi-participant collaborative computing application may be sent intermittent updates of actions taken by other participants. These updates need not be sent to a participant's device until the participant has interacted with a specified object in the application. The participant's device may then be sent an update including object interactions of the other participants occurring since the participant's previous object interaction. The update may be used to…
Portion of display having graphical user interface with transitional icon
Granted: April 18, 2017
Patent Number:
D784363
Slots-fueled adventure
Granted: April 4, 2017
Patent Number:
9613486
Methods, systems, and computer programs are provided for executing games, processed by one or mover servers. The one or more servers are provided with access to a network for communication with one or more client computers. One method includes operations for sending an interface for a casino-type game to a client computer, and for starting an online game that is displayed with the interface for the casino-type game. The method further includes operations for detecting a bet placed in the…
Delivery of projections for rendering
Granted: April 4, 2017
Patent Number:
9610501
A workflow for 3D content authoring, delivery, and rendering is facilitated based on pre-authored image projections to obtain improvements in authoring efficiency. Additionally, a content delivery platform centered on such pre-authored image projections provides a mechanism for significantly improving streaming efficiency for 3D worlds. Multiple images encode primary surface detail of 3D worlds in real-time applications. Examples of such projections include images that can be as rich as…
Sending and receiving configurable buckets of communications
Granted: March 28, 2017
Patent Number:
9609087
A method of sending and receiving configurable buckets of communication is disclosed. A request to send a communication from an application executing on a client to an application executing on a server is received. The communication has a first priority. A request to send an additional communication from the application executing on the client to the application executing on the server is received. The additional communication has a second priority. The communication is placed into a…
Combining games based on levels of interactivity of the games
Granted: March 28, 2017
Patent Number:
9607016
A method of combining games based on levels of interactivity of the games is disclosed. It is identified that a player is idle with respect to a primary game, the primary game having a first level of interactivity. A secondary game having a second level of interactivity is selected based on the second level of interactivity being compatible with the first level of interactivity. The player is provided with an option to participate in the secondary game while the player is idle with…
Adaptive task assignment for online games that uses player profiles
Granted: March 28, 2017
Patent Number:
9604145
Software at an online game website assigns to a player of a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game a first game task in a conditional series of game tasks. The assignment is based at least in part on a measure of difficulty associated with the first game task. The measure of difficulty depends on a profile associated with the player that includes an Active Social Network (ASN) metric as determined by data that has been read from an in-memory database and that has been retrieved from a…
Social game play using social network features
Granted: March 28, 2017
Patent Number:
9604130
An apparatus and method for integrating social game play with social network features is disclosed herein. Content generated in the game is posted to the social network to initiate social game play. Recipients of the content that respond to the content are automatically taken to the game to join the game in a controlled manner. Recipients' interaction with the game may be selectively reviewed and incorporated into a playing space associated with an existing player of the game.
Display screen or portion thereof with animated graphical user interface
Granted: March 28, 2017
Patent Number:
D782507
Location-based achievements framework
Granted: March 21, 2017
Patent Number:
9597596
A method of encouraging actions by users with respect to a game networking system is disclosed. An indication of a presence of a user of a game networking system at a physical location is received. An opportunity for the user to perform an action within a game associated with the game networking system to obtain an achievement pertaining to the game is identified. The availability of the opportunity is triggered based on the presence of the user at the physical location. A notification…
