U.S. Patent no. 9,649,568: Game system for changing a difficulty level of a game

Issued May 16, 2017 to Kabushiki Kaisha Square Enix
Priority Date May 30, 2012

Summary:
U.S. Patent No. 9,649,568 (the ‘568 Patent) relates to difficulty levels of gameplay in a video game. In order to improve playtime in a video game it is normally necessary to simply develop new levels for the game. The ‘568 Patent attempts to address this problem in a more cost-efficient manner. Developing new levels may be costly, but the ability to dynamically adjust the difficulty of existing levels may allow for new playing experiences. As more people play a selected level the overall difficulty is increased. When a player attempts a level a selection of points is allocated from the player to the level they are playing. If they complete the level they are awarded the pot of points, but if they fail then another player may attempt the level to earn the available points. These systems work together to increase engagement and playtime of video games without having to develop new content entirely from scratch.

Abstract:
An object of the present invention is to provide a high-preference game system that can reduce a game development burden of a game system operator, can increase the desire of a player to iteratively play a game, and enables a player to play a game without aversion.

When a player requests a game open in a dungeon, 5 points among the points retained by the player is consumed, and 3 points are temporarily pooled in the dungeon. When the player succeeds in satisfying a clear condition of the dungeon, a total of 13 temporarily-pooled and not pooled points is added to a retention point of the player. Also, when the player fails to satisfy the clear condition of the dungeon, the temporarily pooled points are pooled in the dungeon.

Illustrative Claim:
1. A server apparatus that is connectable to a plurality of client apparatuses by network communication, the server apparatus comprising: a memory that stores a game program for progressing a game, the game program for progressing the game not being stored in the plurality of client apparatuses; a game progress controller that controls a progress of the game according to the game program when receiving a game open request from one of the plurality of client apparatuses, the plurality of client apparatuses being operated by players, the game open request being received from the one of the plurality of client apparatuses via a network, the game configured to be executed by the plurality of client apparatuses in a same time period; and an interface for transmitting data of the progress of the game from the server to the one of the plurality of client apparatuses via the network when the game open request is received from the one of the plurality of client apparatuses, wherein the game progress controller controls the progress of the game by changing a difficulty level of the game for all of the plurality of client apparatuses according to a number of times of playing the game or an accumulated play time of the game by the players operating the plurality of client apparatuses, as the number of times of playing the game increases or the accumulated play time of the game increases, the difficulty level of the game becomes higher, when plural client apparatuses from among the plurality of client apparatuses execute the game in the same time period, the game is separately progressed by the server apparatus for each of the plural client apparatuses, and when a first client apparatus of the plural client apparatuses causes the difficulty level of the game to become higher, the difficulty level of the game for a second client apparatus of the plural client apparatuses which executes the game during the same time period as the first client apparatus does not change in real time.