DVD game architecture

Abstract

Methods and systems for creating, managing, and operating electronic games are provided. Example embodiments provide a DVD game environment (“DGE”) that includes game flow logic, interactive DVD game content, enhanced methods of scoring and play, automatic skill level adjustment, and an electronic game board. In one embodiment, the DGE comprises DVD game logic with scoring management, game and participant state information, video and audio game content, and an electronic game board. These components provide functionality that can be incorporated into a DVD game that presents challenges for entertainment, education, training, or testing purposes. The DVD games produced thereby can automatically provide challenges based upon participants' skill levels and automatically detect the correctness or incorrectness of a response in order to maintain an electronic game board.

1 . A DVD medium containing instructions that, when executed, control a processor in a DVD player to perform an interactive electronic game with a participant, the game being presented on a display device associated with the DVD player, by: 
 determining a skill level associated with the participant;    determining a game challenge from a stored plurality of challenge segments based upon the determined skill level;    presenting the determined game challenge to the participant;    receiving an indication of a response of the participant to the presented challenge and determining a corresponding result;    automatically updating a position associated with the participant on an electronic game board stored in the DVD player to reflect the determined result; and    automatically presenting a current state of the updated game board on the display device without use of a separate physical game board.    
     
     
         2 . The DVD medium of  claim 1  wherein each position on the electronic game board reflects a score associated with a participant.  
     
     
         3 . The DVD medium of  claim 1  wherein the automatically presenting a current state of the updated game board presents an animation that represents movement of the participant relative to the board.  
     
     
         4 . The DVD medium of  claim 1  wherein the stored plurality of challenge segments comprise video segments and audio tracks and the determined game challenge has an associated video segment and an associated audio track.  
     
     
         5 . The DVD medium of  claim 4  wherein a plurality of audio tracks are associated with a same video segment and one of the plurality of audio tracks is selected for presenting the determined game challenge.  
     
     
         6 . The DVD medium of  claim 1  wherein the determined skill level is determined by receiving from the participant an indication of at least one of an age or experience metric and automatically determining an appropriate skill level from the metric.  
     
     
         7 . The DVD medium of  claim 1 , the stored plurality of challenge segments including at least one game challenge that is a time-limited movement-related challenge, and wherein the movement-related challenge requires participant timing and coordination skills beyond simple selection of a single answer from multiple choices to respond correctly to the movement-related challenge.  
     
     
         8 . The DVD medium of  claim 1 , the stored plurality of challenge segments including at least one game challenge that is a time-limited movement-related challenge, the movement-related challenge having a plurality of answers that correspond to menu selections that vary over a duration the challenge is presented to the participant.  
     
     
         9 . The DVD medium of  claim 1 , the stored plurality of challenge segments including at least one game challenge that is a time-limited movement-related challenge, and wherein the movement-related challenge is a challenge in which a moving cursor is presented or a challenge in which a moving response is presented.  
     
     
         10 . The DVD medium of  claim 9  wherein a plurality of answers seem to disappear and a successful response to the challenge includes selecting an answer before the answer disappears.  
     
     
         11 . The DVD medium of  claim 1  wherein the presented game challenge comprises at least one of a multiple choice challenge, a time limited challenge, a movement-related challenge, a true/false challenge, a categorization challenge, a visual puzzle, or an open response challenge.  
     
     
         12 . The DVD medium of  claim 1  wherein the presented game challenge presents at least one of an anagram, a circling cursor challenge, a side scroller challenge, a wormhole challenge, a black hole challenge, a fate card, or a factoid.  
     
     
         13 . The DVD medium of  claim 1  further comprising instructions that, when executed, control a processor in a DVD player to perform an interactive, electronic game by: 
 automatically adjusting the skill level associated with the participant based upon the determined result corresponding to the response of the participant to the presented challenge; and    determining a next game challenge for the participant from the stored plurality of challenge segments based upon the automatically adjusted skill level, thereby automatically adjusting game difficulty for the participant based upon game performance.    
     
     
         14 . The DVD medium of  claim 13  wherein the automatically adjusting the skill level is performed for a plurality of participants playing the game to cause game play to be more evenly matched between the skills of each of the participants.  
     
     
         15 . The DVD medium of  claim 1 , further comprising instructions that, when executed, control a processor in a DVD player to perform an interactive, electronic game by: 
 automatically determining a next game challenge for the participant from the stored plurality of challenge segments as a function of the skill level associated with the participant and the game board position associated with the participant.    
     
     
         16 . A method in a digital video playing device for operating an interactive, electronic game with a participant, the game being stored on a DVD medium and presented on a display device associated with the digital video playing device, comprising: 
 determining a skill level associated with the participant;    determining a game challenge from a stored plurality of challenge segments based upon the determined skill level;    presenting the determined game challenge to the participant;    receiving an indication of a response of the participant to the presented challenge and determining a corresponding result;    automatically updating a position associated with the participant on an electronic game board stored in the digital video playing device to reflect the determined result; and    automatically presenting a current state of the updated game board on the display device without use of a separate physical game board.    
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , the game operating with a plurality of participants, the participant being one of the plurality of participants, and further comprising: 
 automatically leveling game play between the plurality of game participants by automatically and dynamically adjusting determined skill level associated with each participant as the game progresses based upon game performance of each participant.    
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 16  wherein the automatically presenting a current state of the updated game board further comprises: 
 automatically presenting an animation that represents movement of the participant relative to the electronic game board.    
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16 , the stored plurality of challenge segments including at least one game challenge that is a time-limited movement-related challenge, and wherein the movement-related challenge comprises a challenge in which a moving cursor is presented or a challenge in which a moving response is presented.  
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19  wherein a plurality of answers seem to disappear and a successful response to the challenge includes selection of an answer before the answer disappears.  
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising: 
 automatically determining a next game challenge for the participant from the stored plurality of challenge segments as a function of the skill level associated with the participant and the game board position associated with the participant.    
     
     
         22 . An electronic game board implemented using a digital video playing device having an associated storage medium with stored instructions, video segments, and audio tracks, comprising: 
 a plurality of sequences of game board position-related video segments stored on the media; each sequence illustrating a plurality of board position animations associated with scores of a game participant from a beginning score to an ending score, one sequence of position animations stored for each of a plurality of game participants; and    a plurality of stored instructions that are structured to, 
 automatically track a current score value associated with each participant;  
 determine a next participant from the plurality of participants; and  
 automatically present a position animation from the stored sequences of game board position-related video segments that corresponds to the current score value associated with the determined next participant.  
   
     
     
         23 . The electronic game board of  claim 22  wherein the game board presents a position animation for one participant at a time in a context of a representation of the entire game board.  
     
     
         24 . The electronic game board of  claim 22  wherein the board appears to rotate to present the position animation associated with the determined next participant.  
     
     
         25 . The electronic game board of  claim 22  wherein the board appears to have positions that correspond to a path from a start position to an ending position, each position associate with a score value.  
     
     
         26 . The electronic game board of  claim 22  wherein the board appears to be arranged in a spoke configuration, wherein each spoke corresponds to a path of a separate participant.  
     
     
         27 . The electronic game board of  claim 22  wherein each sequence of animations is presented in a different color.  
     
     
         28 . The electronic game board of  claim 22  wherein the digital video playing device is a DVD player and the storage medium is a DVD.  
     
     
         29 . A DVD game operated using a DVD player and stored on a DVD medium containing instructions that, when executed, control the DVD player by: 
 determining one of a plurality of challenges to present to a game participant based upon a skill level associated with the participant, wherein each challenge permits multiple outcomes that are based upon a time period associated with responding to the challenge and the time period corresponds to at least one of before a cursor reaches a designated location or before an answer reaches a designated location;    presenting the determined one of the challenges having multiple outcomes;    automatically detecting a response by the participant indicative of one of the multiple outcomes; and    adjusting a score associated with the participant that is based upon the one of the multiple outcomes.    
     
     
         30 . The DVD game of  claim 29  wherein selection between the multiple outcomes is based upon at least one of physical skill or knowledge.