Video gaming system environments providing mini-games

A computer system, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• a communication interface communicatively coupled to the at least one processor;
• and
• a memory device storing executable code that, when executed, causes the at least one processor to:
• track user progress, via a user resource profile, towards achieving one or more real-world goals based on a plurality of resource-related actions performed by a user, at least one of the plurality of resource-related actions comprising storing a real-world resource to a user-specific location, wherein the user resource profile provides, at least in part, information about the user-specific location;
• determine, from the user resource profile, that the user is not progressing to achieve the one or more real-world goals;
• ascertain an amount of time that has lapsed since the user initiated play of an online video game;
• responsive to the determination that the user is not progressing, transmit a notification to the user device over a network, wherein the notification communicates that access to one or more tasks within the online video game has been restricted, wherein the notification includes a machine-readable embedded link to access a mini-game that is a module of the online video game, and wherein the notification is transmitted is at a time predicted, by a prediction model, to have a highest probability that the user will play the mini-game;
• restrict, based on the determining that the user is not progressing, user access to one or more tasks that can be performed by the user via the online video game, the restricting exempting the mini-game playable within the online video game if the amount of time that has lapsed is less than a predefined threshold limit, the mini-game comprising one or more features limiting playability by the user.

A computer-implemented method, comprising:

• tracking user progress, via a user resource profile, towards achieving one or more real-world goals based on a plurality of resource-related actions performed by a user, at least one of the plurality of resource-related actions comprising storing a real-world resource to a user-specific location, wherein the user resource profile provides, at least in part, information about the user-specific location;
• determining, from the user resource profile, that the user is not progressing to achieve the one or more real-world goals;
• responsive to the determination that the user is not progressing, transmit a notification to the user device over a network, wherein the notification communicates that access to one or more tasks within an online video game has been restricted, wherein the notification includes a machine-readable embedded link to access a mini-game that is a module of the online video game, and wherein the notification is transmitted is at a time predicted, by a prediction model, to have a highest probability that the user will play the mini-game;
• and
• restricting, based on the determining that the user is not progressing, user access to one or more tasks that can be performed by the user via an online video game, the restricting exempting, based on satisfaction of a real-world resource condition of the real-world resource associated with the user-specific location, a mini-game playable within the online video game, the mini-game comprising one or more features limiting playability by the user.