Patent ID: 11878249
Assignee: ELECTRONIC ARTS INC.
Field: Furniture, games (Other fields)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 0:
1. A computing system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more memory devices, each of the one or more memory devices communicatively coupled to at least one of the one or more processors, the one or more memory devices storing computer-executable instructions that when executed cause the one or more processors to:
deploy a curiosity agent for a first instance of a first virtual interactive environment of a video game;
associate the curiosity agent to a player character of the video game;
cause the curiosity agent to direct the player character to navigate the first virtual interactive environment from a first spawn point, over a plurality of explorations until a navigation threshold is reached, by:
(i) receiving, from the curiosity agent, perception data corresponding to one or more of the plurality of explorations performed by the player character, and
(ii) providing, to the curiosity agent, one or more navigation commands to cause the curiosity agent to direct the player character, wherein the one or more navigation commands are based at least in part on the perception data and a visitation state buffer;

store, within the visitation state buffer, a new data entry corresponding to a new location visited by the player character, wherein the new data entry corresponds to a location of an existing data entry of the visitation state buffer that is beyond a distance threshold;
update, within the visitation state buffer, counters associated with each of the existing data entries when the curiosity agent directs a player character to visit a location within the distance threshold of the respective existing data entry;
provide, to the curiosity agent, a reward based in part on the visitation state buffer; and
determine if a spawn threshold is met, wherein meeting the spawn threshold causes a curiosity agent service to:
(i) determine a location for a subsequent spawn point in the first instance of the first virtual interactive environment, and
(ii) set the subsequent spawn point in the determined location for a subsequent exploration among the plurality of explorations.