Patent ID: 9715792
Date: 2017-07-25
CPC Classifications: G07F

Claim:
1. A method of operating a gaming device including a display having a game play grid of symbol locations and a characteristic indicator display, a memory configured to store a credit amount and a plurality of game symbols including a predetermined symbol having a plurality of different appearances each with respective different characteristics, a wager input device structured to receive physical items associated with a currency value, and a processor, the method comprising: receiving a signal indicating receipt of a physical item associated with a currency value; increasing the credit amount stored in memory based on the currency value of the received physical item; initiating a gaming event in response to a received wager, the wager deducted from the credit amount; initiating a reelspin of a plurality of game reels each associated with a sequence of game symbols from the plurality of game symbols, the reelspin including spinning each game reel by moving at least a portion of the sequence of game symbols associated with each game reel through the game play grid; randomly selecting at least one of the plurality of different characteristics associated with the predetermined symbol prior to any of the game reels coming to a stop from spinning; displaying the randomly selected characteristic in the characteristic indicator display prior to any of the game reels coming to a stop from spinning; ending the reelspin by stopping the game reels from spinning after selecting the at least one characteristic; determining whether the predetermined symbol appears in at least one symbol location of the game play grid as a result of the reelspin; determining whether any predetermined symbol appearing in a symbol location of the game play grid as a result of the reelspin is associated with the randomly selected characteristic from the plurality of different characteristics; in response to determining that the predetermined symbol appears in at least one symbol location and that at least one appearance of the predetermined symbol includes the randomly selected characteristic, replacing the one or more predetermined symbols having the selected at least one characteristic with a modifying symbol; and analyzing resulting symbols to identify matching symbol combinations.