US-20260124533-A1 - GAMEPLAY INPUT TIMER TRAINING TO REINFORCE MUSCLE MEMORY

US20260124533A1US 20260124533 A1US20260124533 A1US 20260124533A1US-20260124533-A1

Abstract

Methods and systems are disclosed to provide assistance to a player by providing practice game scenarios that replicate a key event that the player finds difficult to complete and a timing requirement within which the achieve the key event. The practice game scenarios are customized for the player and are based on input skills acquired by the player during different gameplay sessions. Along with the practice game scenario several tools are provided to assist the player to achieve their goal of mastering the inputs for the video game.

Inventors

Andrew Herman
Travis Baurmann

Assignees

SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT INC.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20241105

Claims (20)

1 . A method to allow a player to practice providing inputs to a video game, comprising: analyzing gameplay of the player from one or more prior gameplay sessions of the video game to identify a portion of the gameplay where the player needs the practice to provide the inputs for a key event contained within; generating a practice game scenario designed to replicate the key event that the player can practice to provide the inputs, the practice game scenario specifying a timing requirement for completing the key event; and providing the practice game scenario on a help interface returned to a client device of the player for rendering on a screen of the client device used to interact with the video game, the help interface used to render content of the practice game scenario, a visual representation of control inputs used to provide the inputs required to progress in the key event included within, and a timer to track the inputs provided by the player meets the timing requirement specified for the key event within the practice game scenario, wherein operations of the method are performed by a muscle memory input training module executing on a server computing device.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the timing requirement for the practice game scenario is defined in accordance to an event timing requirement defined for the key event in the video game.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the practice game scenario is defined to be played a plurality of times, wherein the timing requirement for an initial practice game scenario is defined to be longer than the event timing requirement defined for the key event in the video game, and for the practice game scenario played during a subsequent time by the player, the event timing requirement is decreased till the timing requirement matches or is less than the event timing requirement for the key event defined in the video game.
4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the timing requirement is increased by a predefined percent for said each subsequent time, upon detecting the player has mastered the inputs within the timing requirement defined for a prior practice game scenario.
5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the timing requirement for the practice game scenario is defined to be a shorter interval than the event timing requirement defined in the video game, the shorter interval defined to ensure the player is able to meet the timing requirement of the key event when providing the inputs in the video game, and wherein upon detecting the player mastering the inputs for the key event, providing the player with option to resume the gameplay of the video game.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the practice game scenario includes, determining recency of gameplay of the video game by the player, the recency determined by computing an amount of time that has elapsed between prior gameplay session and a current gameplay session of the player; determining a resumption point from where the player wants to resume the gameplay of the video game during the current gameplay session; and generating the practice game scenario in accordance to the recency of the gameplay, the resumption point, one or more key events included in the video game prior to the resumption point, and game skill of the player.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the practice game scenario is provided as a targeted training exercise for the player to practice providing the inputs for a defined number of times, wherein, for each subsequent practice, one or more metrics of the practice game scenario is dynamically adjusted, based on performance of the player in a prior practice game scenario, and wherein the defined number of times is specified by the player or defined by the muscle memory input training module based on the performance of the player in the prior practice game scenario, game skill required to complete the key event and game skill achieved by the player in said prior practice game scenario.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein a practice key event included in the practice game scenario generated for the player is selected to replicate the key event previously attempted by the player in the video game.
9 . The method of claim 1 , further includes providing feedback to the player on the progress in the practice game scenario, wherein the feedback provides details related to the inputs provided and meeting the timing requirement, wherein the feedback is provided in one of audio format, textual format, haptic format, visual format, or any combinations of two or more thereof.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the practice game scenario for the player further includes, determining a complexity of the inputs required for completing the key event; identifying game skills acquired by the player by analyzing inputs from the one or more prior gameplay sessions, wherein the game skills identify details related to consistency of a type, a sequence and a speed of the inputs provided by the player in the one or more prior gameplay sessions; and designing a subsequent practice game scenario by adjusting complexity of the inputs required for completing the key event, the complexity of the inputs adjusted to build up on the game skills of the player.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein designing the practice game scenario further includes, generating multiple secondary practice game scenarios, wherein each secondary practice game scenario of the multiple secondary practice game scenarios includes a distinct key event and is designed to iteratively increase the complexity of the inputs required to complete the distinct key event to build up the game skills of the player, and wherein iteratively increasing the complexity includes at least one of increasing a speed of gameplay, reducing timing requirement for completing the distinct key event, and increasing an input speed of providing the inputs required for completing the distinct key event included within said each secondary practice game scenario.
12 . The method of claim 1 , further includes dynamically adjusting complexity of the inputs required to complete the key event for subsequent gameplay, based on performance of the player in the practice game scenario.
13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein rendering the visual representation of the control inputs on the help interface further includes, presenting an image of a controller used for providing the control inputs available for the video game, the presenting includes demonstrating activation of specific ones of the control inputs to complete the key event, the visual representation providing guidance on sequence and timing of the control inputs for the player to practice, and wherein the control inputs needed to complete the key event includes any one of sequential inputs, parallel inputs, and a combination of sequential and parallel inputs, and the visual representation shows the control inputs needed for completing the key event.
14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the timer to track the inputs includes a count-down timer to keep track of time left to meet the timing requirement for completing the key event, the count-down timer provided as anyone of a progress bar, a pie chart, a count-down clock, a digital timer, a bar graph, or any combination thereof.
15 . A method, comprising: monitoring inputs provided by a player for a key event included in a portion of a video game selected for gameplay by the player in a current gameplay session; detecting the player struggling to provide specific control inputs to complete the key event in the current gameplay session; generating a help interface having information about the specific control inputs required to complete the key event; and providing a practice game scenario for the player to practice providing the specific control inputs, wherein the practice game scenario is designed to replicate the portion of the video game where the player is struggling, the practice game scenario provided to assist the player to practice in providing the specific control inputs required to complete the key event.
16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein providing the practice game scenario includes inheriting attributes of a game scenario of the video game in which the key event is occurring, and the help interface provides a visual representation of the specific control inputs required to complete the key event.
17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the practice game scenario includes a plurality of secondary practice game scenarios, wherein each subsequent secondary practice game scenario of the plurality of secondary practice game scenarios is designed to iteratively increase in complexity of inputs from a previous secondary practice game scenario, so as to allow the player to gradually improve providing the specific control inputs for completing the key event.
18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the practice game scenario includes a plurality of secondary practice game scenarios, wherein each secondary practice game scenario of the plurality of secondary practice game scenarios includes a distinct key event that requires a subset of the specific control inputs to complete, and the help interface provides a visual representation of the subset of the specific control inputs used to build up input skills of the player required to complete the key event.
19 . The method of claim 15 , further includes, generating additional practice game scenarios for the player for follow-up practice providing the inputs following the practice game scenario, each of the additional practice game scenarios generated by adjusting an input complexity for the portion of the video game included within; monitoring performance of the player in the practice game scenario; and dynamically presenting a second practice game scenario that is one of the additional practice game scenarios generated for the player for the follow-up practice, the second practice game scenario identified based on the performance of the player in the practice game scenario, wherein the second practice game scenario presented to the player is of increased input complexity upon detecting the player consistently succeeding to provide certain ones of the specific control inputs required to complete the key event included in the practice game scenario, and wherein the second practice game scenario presented to the player is of decreased input complexity upon detecting the player consistently struggling to provide the certain ones of the specific control inputs required to complete the key event included in the practice game scenario.
20 . The method of claim 15 , further includes providing feedback in substantial real time on a progress made by the player in the practice game scenario, the feedback includes input metrics identified for the inputs required for the practice game scenario, the input metrics of the player used to determine input skills gained, and overall performance of the player.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present disclosure relates to providing assistance to a user in gameplay of a video game, and more specifically, providing practice game scenarios with help interface to provide visual control inputs for the user to practice their input skills prior to gameplay of the video game. 2. Description of the Related Art Video gaming industry has grown in popularity and represents a large percentage of the entertainment market and interactive content generated worldwide. Various types of video games are available for playing. There are single-player video games and multi-player video games. In the case of multi-player video games, the users can play individually against one another or can be part of a team of users playing against at least one other second team. Further, the users of the multi-player video games can be co-located or remotely located from one another. A player can select a video game for game play and provide game inputs used to affect a game state of the video game and to update game content. The updated game content includes game scenes that are returned to client device of the player for rendering. In the case of the multi-player video game, the game inputs of the different players are used to affect the game state and to synchronize the game content generated and returned to the client devices associated with the different players. When a player is engaged in watching a recorded video of gameplay of a video game, it is easier to follow the type and sequence of game inputs that is required to accomplish a task in a game scene. However, when the player has to actually provide the game inputs, the player may experience difficulty in providing the types or sequences of game inputs or at a speed that is necessary to accomplish the task. The difficulty may be due to the player not being able to recall the sequence or combinations (e.g., sequential vs. non-sequential, single press vs. multiple presses, etc.,) of game inputs or due to the passage of time since the player last played the video game. As the amount of time since the player last played the video game increases, the potential for muscle memory loss also increases. Analysis of the gameplay history of the video game maintained for the player can be used to determine if the player is experiencing difficulty due to being unable to recall the sequence or combinations or due to lacking the dexterity for providing the type, sequence or combination of the game inputs expected in certain sections of the video game in the prior gameplay sessions or due to passage of time between video game playing sessions. In some cases, the player may be able to accomplish the task using a specific type or sequence of inputs but there can be alternate ways of providing the game inputs that are better, faster, or simpler that the player is not aware of. The lack of the skill set required to navigate the challenging tasks in the video game can lead to frustration and disappointment in the player and drive the player away from the video game. It is in this context that embodiments of the invention arise. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Implementations of the present disclosure relate to systems and methods for providing a mechanism to assist a player of a video game to remember or recall inputs required to progress in the video game. The player may be accessing the video game for gameplay after an extended period of time. Consequently, the player may have forgotten the types, sequence, and timing of game inputs required to progress in the video game. Alternately, looking at the history of gameplay of the player may indicate that the player is having difficulty in certain sections of the video game - specifically certain types, sequence and/or timings of game inputs. The mechanism may be used to determine a portion where the player needs assistance in improving their game input skills and provide the player with an option to improve their game input skills in that portion. The portion of the gameplay may be identified to be where the player had difficulty progressing or where the player had left off in a previous gameplay session and may include one or more game events and/or game tasks that need to be completed or accomplished. The player is presented with a game scenario that includes one or more game events that are similar in scope or complexity or context to the game events that were identified within the portion of the video game where the player had previously attempted and had difficulty and needed some assistance or practice. The game scenario is presented on a user interface for the player to select and practice their game input skills. The game interface may be presented to the player upon detecting a request for gameplay of the video game received from the player so that the player can practice their game input skills prior to tackling the actual video game. In addition to the game scenario, the user interfa