Commander Shepard is not someone we expected to pop up in an Apple patent from 2009 (granted today), but here we are, staring into his icy visage. He and the rest of the Normandy's crew are used as just one example of a system that Apple patented, which turns game story choices into a unique comic book (nevermind the fact that Mass Effect comics exist on their own). Of course, like with so many of these patents, it's possible this system'll never see the light of day, but we'd like to detail it all the same for the sheer strangeness of its ambition.

Essentially, the results of a player's in-game choices are used to populate a post-game comic book-style story -- progress, character info, settings, dialogue, achievements and screenshots are all pumped into an algorithm alongside the results of said variables, metrics from your playthrough, and your performance therein. The comic could be pushed to the cloud directly from your game console or PC, according to images included with the patent, which could then be pulled back down to a variety of devices (a tablet it shown, as well as standard televisions and PC monitors). Apparently Apple couldn't identify a good storytelling example from its own iTunes App Store, as Commander Shepard and co. are the only example given of a game use case. Again, it's rather unlikely we'll see this stuff pop up in Apple products anytime soon (if ever), but it's quite a concept nonetheless. That watch patent, however ... that's another story.

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Apple

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Source: USPTO