Patent Publication Number: US-2016236070-A1

Title: Game apparatus and method

Description:
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 
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     RELATED APPLICATIONS 
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     BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     1. Field of the Disclosure 
     The embodiments relate generally to a game apparatus and method comprising four sets of playing pieces, a plurality of dice, a set of bonus cards, a set of trap cards, and a set of defense cards. Specifically, the embodiments relate to an apparatus and method where a plurality of playing pieces travel across a maze from a starting place to an ending place encountering bonuses and punishments in the way. 
     2. Background of the Invention 
     There are many tabletop games that employ square-shaped boards, dice to dictate movement of playing pieces and locations to trigger actions or punishments when a player lands therein. Similarly, many games use mechanics where a player controlling a plurality of playing pieces directs them across the board from one starting place to a finishing place. In most of these games, the game board is static with just one board design usable by the players. There are not however games that combine locations and playing piece travelling with a dynamic board that creates a new puzzle each time the game is played. 
     SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     This disclosure relates generally to a game apparatus comprising a game board, four sets of five playing pieces, a plurality of dice, a set of bonus cards, a set of trap cards, and a set of defense cards. In a preferred embodiment, the gaming board has a square shape divided into 10 rows and columns consisting of 100 equally-sized squares. Each side of the board corresponds to a player&#39;s home area and is identified by one of four colors. The playing pieces have matching colors to the player&#39;s home area. The corner squares are not used in play. Thus, each player&#39;s home area comprises eight (8) squares. The board is comprised of special squares that extend a player&#39;s home area and squares where the player can get bonus, defense or trap cards. These special squares are referred to in this specification as locations. 
     The object of the game is to race all of the playing pieces from the player&#39;s home area to the home area directly opposite to it. The home area directly opposite to the player&#39;s home area is known in this specification as the landing area. Each square in a player&#39;s home area has a value printed on it. This value represents the number of points that a player will get when landing (i.e. arriving) at that square with a playing piece. Squares with higher value are harder to complete. 
     At the start of the game, each player chooses five of the squares in his or her home area and places the corresponding playing pieces (the playing pieces of the same color) in these squares. This is the player&#39;s starting position. Once all players have chosen their starting position, the first player rolls the pair of dice to determine how many squares he may move. The playing pieces move (travel) through the internal squares until the playing piece reaches the landing area opposite to the home area. Squares may have one or more bold sides indicating that a playing piece cannot travel through that side. After the player has moved its pieces and resolved any location, play continues clock-wise with the next player throwing the dice. It is understood that a person or ordinary skill in the art would recognize that the placement of walls and locations may be determined dynamically at the beginning of each game. These elements are explained in more detail below. 
     The game ends when all players cross the board from their starting place and the player with the most points wins the game. In a preferred embodiment, there are two ways in which players earn points: (1) a player&#39;s ending position, and (2) bonus cards. In another embodiment, players may also receive points for arriving at the first place, second place, and third place. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein, constitute a part of the specification and illustrate the preferred embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 1  shows a first general structure of the present disclosure in accordance with the principles of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 2 a    shows defense, trap, bonus locations and corresponding card piles. 
         FIG. 2 b    shows shield square locations. 
         FIG. 3  shows a computer device capable of implementing the method disclosed herein. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       FIG. 1  shows a preferred embodiment of the game apparatus. Gaming board  1  is made up of ten columns and ten rows comprising one hundred equally-sized squares. The corner squares  2  are never used in play. Each side of the game board comprises home areas  3 , 4 , 5 , 6  where each player will set up their playing pieces. Each home area is identified with a color, pattern or any other visual aid useful to identify a home area. In a preferred embodiment, the home area visual aids correspond to matching visual aids on each of the sets of playing pieces. 
     The object of the game is to race all of the playing pieces to the home area directly opposite to the player&#39;s home area. This area is known as the landing home area, or simply the landing area, and squares within the landing area are known as landing squares. For instance, the player in home area  3  will race all of his or her playing pieces to landing home area  5  while the player in home area  4  will race of all his or her playing pieces to landing home area  6 . Conversely, a player in home area  5  needs to race all of his or her playing pieces to landing home area  3 . Each player receives points according to the landing square on the landing home area. For instance, landing squares  23  show the points that the player in home area  6  would receive if he/she were to land at those squares. 
     Players roll the dice to determine the number of squares his or her playing pieces will move. Once a player chooses a playing piece, the player has to move the number of squares in the dice until she cannot move any further (i.e. the playing piece becomes blocked by other playing pieces or walls). Players are encouraged to choose playing pieces that are able to move (i.e. not blocked). Thus, in a preferred embodiment, players cannot choose a playing piece that would not be able to travel the number of squares dictated by the dice. If the player cannot move any of her playing pieces, that player is skipped and play continues with the next player. 
     In a preferred embodiment, the player uses two six-sided dice to determine the number of squares a single playing piece will move. In another embodiment, players use two six-sided dice until they are a predetermined number of squares far from the landing area. When the player reaches the predetermined number of squares, the player uses only (1) dice. In yet another embodiment, the player uses a plurality of six-sided dice with each dice determining the number of squares that a single piece will move. Thus, if a player has three (3) dice, he/she may move three (3) playing pieces. In this embodiment, the player may receive more dice from a dice pool as a bonus or defense. A player may also inflict a trap card to another player wherein the player has to return one of her dice to the dice pool. In such an embodiment, the minimum number of dice a player may have is one (1). It is understood that dice with different number of sides (i.e. d4, d6, d12, etc.) may be used without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure. 
     Playing pieces may only move forward and/or sideways with respect to their home area. Further, playing pieces may only move backward as a trap or as a defense. Traps and defenses will be explained in more detail below. 
     Players are encouraged to choose paths where the playing piece does not travel through the same square more than once in a single move. Further, playing pieces cannot pass through walls  20 . Thus, the only option players have when they have reached a wall is to go around it. Walls  20  are identified by bold sides in a square or any other suitable visual aid. 
     In one embodiment, playing pieces may get trapped between walls if the player is not able to move backwards before the game ends. In those cases, the player continues playing with his or her remaining pieces and the trapped piece is not counted towards his or her final score. The game is considered to have ended when all non-blocked pieces have reached their landing area. Such an embodiment is useful since playing pieces have to move the number of squares dictated by the dice enhancing the luck/strategy balance of the game. In another embodiment, a player may not move his or her playing pieces to places where the pieces would become blocked. Such an embodiment is useful for beginners learning the mechanics of the game. 
       FIG. 2A  shows the bonus, defense, and trap locations and their corresponding card piles. The gaming board further comprises a plurality of squares with the printed words BONUS  7 , DEFENSE  8  or TRAP  9 . It is understood that the words BONUS, DEFENSE and TRAP may be replaced with any suitable visual aid. Said visual aid may match the back of the BONUS, DEFENSE and TRAP cards. These squares are hereby referred to as locations. If a playing piece lands in any of these locations, the player picks up the topmost card of the corresponding card pile  7   a , 8   a , 9   a.  This process is known as resolving a location. 
     Bonus cards  7   a  give bonus points to the player. In one embodiment, bonus cards comprise an evenly distributed set of twenty cards providing 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 points. Bonus cards only provide points to the player holding the bonus card at the end of the game. 
     Trap cards  8   a  a trap (or punishment) upon the player that lands at the TRAP location. In one embodiment, trap cards comprise a set of twenty (20) cards providing three abilities: (1) the trapped player chooses a random bonus card to give to each other player, (2) the trapped player chooses a random defense card to give to each other player, and (3) the trapped player removes a playing piece from the game. 
     Defense cards  9   a  give players particular abilities such as being able to move backwards or blocking traps from other players. Defense cards may be played at any time during game play. In one embodiment, defense cards comprise a set of twenty (20) cards providing three abilities: (1) player does not have to move a piece blocking another player, (2) move backwards up to three squares, or (3) blocks a trap (i.e. trap cards or when landing on another player&#39;s shield squares). 
       FIG. 2B  shows shield square locations within the gaming board. The gaming board further comprises shield squares  10 , 11 , 12 , 13  matching the visual aids of each home area. In a preferred embodiment, there are three shield squares per home area. Playing pieces in the home area or in the corresponding shield squares are shielded from receiving traps from other players. Shield squares do not shield from traps that affect the player, instead of the playing piece. For example, the shield square does not prevent a player from returning one of his or her dice to the dice pool or losing one of his or her bonus cards, when such a trap is inflicted. In another embodiment, if a player lands in another player&#39;s shield square, the owner of the shield square may inflict a trap (or punishment) on the player that landed there without using any of his or her trap cards. The traps that may be inflicted in this way may be the same as those found in the trap cards or they may provide different traps such as: (1) the owner of the shield square steals a random bonus or defense card from the landing player, (2) the owner of the shield square forces the playing piece to move backwards three squares (if not able to move backwards the player playing the trap card may choose whether the playing piece will move left or right), or (3) the owner of the shield square chooses which playing piece the player will move during the next turn. 
     It is understood that the configuration of walls, location squares, and shield squares, as well as the points awarded for each landing square may be modified. This results in a different gaming board each time the game is played. In one embodiment, the gaming apparatus provides means for modifying such elements of the game. In another embodiment, the configuration of the walls may be modified after a predetermined number of player turns or after players trigger the configuration to change. Players may trigger a configuration change by landing on a location marked with the words WALL or any other visual aid suitable for that purpose. Players may also trigger a configuration change via trap or defense cards. Future configurations may be previously revealed to the players before the configuration change is triggered or may be randomly selected at the time that the configuration change is triggered. Finally, WALL locations and walls may have matching visual aids wherein a particular wall location only affects the walls matching its visual aid. It is understood that a plurality of visual aids may be used to allow for the configuration change of a plurality of matching walls. 
     During the course of the game, playing pieces may become blocked by walls and or other playing pieces. When this happens, any player that cannot move any of its playing pieces is skipped and play continues with the next player. When playing pieces become blocked in this way, a player has to move if at least one playing piece is able to move. In those cases, players have to move a playing piece, if it is able to move, even if it cannot the full distance dictated by the dice. 
     In another embodiment, the game provides a cooperative variant wherein players attempt to collect bonus and defense cards while collectively advancing the playing pieces to their respective landing areas. In such an embodiment, the players must clear the path to the landing areas by triggering successive wall configuration changes. Configuration wall changes are designed in such a way that players must act together to maximize the number of playing pieces that arrive at the landing areas. In this cooperative embodiment, players win if more than a predetermined number of playing pieces arrive at the landing areas (i.e. are not blocked from reaching the landing areas) and a predetermined threshold of points have been collected by the players. In this embodiment, players do not inflict traps on each other. Rather players arriving at trap locations resolve the trap against the playing piece arriving at the trap location or against the player herself. Likewise, players may share defense cards freely or at predetermined times. In the cooperative variant, shield squares protect any playing piece regardless of whether it matches its visual aid or not. It is understood that the game may also be played in teams, with each member of the team controlling a set of playing pieces. 
     It is also understood that the game herein described may be embodied in a computer-implemented method and in a computer device. In such an embodiment, the dynamic nature of the game would be conveniently handled by the computer and the players would not have to redesign the board each time they want to play a different gaming board. Computer-implemented methods and devices also advantageously offer the capacity to play with remote players through a network such as the Internet. In a computer-implemented method, the number of rows and columns as well as the number of playing pieces for each player may be modified without departing from the spirit of this disclosure. 
       FIG. 3  shows a computer device capable of performing the method disclosed herein. The computer device  100  comprises a processor  101 , memory  102 , non-transitory computer-readable media  103 , and, optionally, a network connection  104 . Non-transitory computer-readable media  103  comprises instructions for a gaming platform  110  capable of performing one or more embodiments herein described. In one embodiment, network connection  104  provides networking capabilities to gaming platform  110 . These aspects are well-known in the computer arts. Advantageously, players may engage in multiplayer digital games through a Local Area Network (LAN) or through the Internet. Multiplayer gaming is also well-known in the computer arts. 
     The disclosure is not limited to the precise configuration described above. While the disclosure has been described as having a preferred design, it is understood that many changes, modifications, variations and other uses and applications of the subject invention will, however, become apparent to those skilled in the art without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of this disclosure after considering this specification together with the accompanying drawings. Accordingly, all such changes, modifications, variations and other uses and applications which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention are deemed to be covered by this invention as defined in the following claims and their legal equivalents. In the claims, means-plus-function clauses, if any, are intended to cover the structures described herein as performing the recited function and not only structural equivalents but also equivalent structures.