Patent ID: 8043153

Claim:
A method of operating a gaming device, said method comprising: causing a processor to generate game information including a plurality of player selectable elements and at least one award associated with at least one of the player selectable elements, said at least one award selected from the group consisting of: a number of credits, a monetary value, a symbol, and a secondary event; causing the processor to operate with a memory device to store the game information; causing the processor to operate with a display device to display the plurality of player selectable elements; causing the processor to operate with an input device to receive at least one player selection of at least one of the player selectable elements; causing the processor to operate with the display device to display a destruction of the at least one selected player selectable element; causing the processor to determine if the at least one selected player selectable element is associated with the secondary event; if the at least one selected player selectable element is associated with the secondary event: (a) causing the processor to select at least one other non-destroyed player selectable element based on a proximity algorithm configured to select the at least one other non-destroyed player selectable element based on a distance of the at least one other non-destroyed player selectable element from the at least one selected player selectable element, wherein: (i) a first non-destroyed player selectable element that is a first distance from the selected player selectable element has a first probability of less than one hundred percent and greater than zero percent of being selected by the processor as the at least one non-destroyed player selectable element, and (ii) a second non-destroyed player selectable element that is a second, different distance from the selected player selectable element has a second, different probability of less than one hundred percent and greater than zero percent of being selected by the processor as the at least one non-destroyed player selectable element, and (b) causing the processor to operate with the display device to display a destruction of the selected at least one other non-destroyed player selectable element; and causing the processor to operate with the display device to reveal any award associated with each destroyed player selectable element.