Systems and methods of processing player interactions in a multiplayer virtual game space

A computer program product stored to a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, the computer program product comprising instructions that are configured to cause at least one hardware processor of a computing system to perform operations comprising:

• storing, to a data storage system, player records for each player, the player records including a skill parameter;
• receiving requests to join a multiplayer game from a plurality of computing devices, each of the computing devices associated with at least one player;
• generating a new instance of the multiplayer game for a plurality of players;
• for each corresponding player of the plurality of players that is included in the instance of the multiplayer game, dynamically generating a group of rival players by selecting multiple ones of the plurality of players, wherein the multiple ones are selected based on a comparison of the skill parameter of the corresponding player to the skill parameter of other players, wherein as a result of the dynamic generation, different groups of rival players are assigned to different ones of the plurality of players that are included in the multiplayer game, wherein a total number for each group of rival players is smaller than a total number of the plurality of players included in the multiplayer game;
• communicating, to those computing devices associated with each of the plurality of players, data including the dynamically generated group of rival players for each corresponding player to carry out the multiplayer game;
• during the multiplayer game:
• 1) Receiving updates from each of the plurality of computing devices,
• 2) updating, based on the received updates, gameplay data for the multiplayer game, and
• 3) Communicating, to each of the plurality of computing devices, client updates configured to cause, upon reception thereof and based on the dynamically generated group of rival players communicated to a corresponding computing device, graphical renderings that graphically differentiate the dynamically generated group of rival players from other players that are rendered within the multiplayer game;
• determining results of the multiplayer game;
• and
• calculating, for at least some of the plurality of players, an update to the skill parameter, wherein the skill parameter is updated based on how each player performed in the multiplayer game in comparison to the dynamically generated group of rival players.

A method for processing a multiplayer game, the method comprising:

• storing, to a data storage system, player records for each player, the player records including a skill parameter;
• receiving requests to join a new instance of a multiplayer game from a plurality of computing devices, each of the computing devices associated with at least one player;
• generating a new instance of the multiplayer game for a plurality of players;
• for each corresponding player of the plurality of players that is included in the instance of the multiplayer game, dynamically generating a group of rival players by selecting multiple ones of the plurality of players, wherein the multiple ones are selected based on a comparison of the skill parameter of the corresponding player to the skill parameter of other players, wherein as a result of the dynamic generation, different groups of rival players are assigned to different ones of the plurality of players that are included in the multiplayer game, wherein a total number for each group of rival players is smaller than a total number of the plurality of players included in the multiplayer game;
• communicating, to those computing devices associated with each of the plurality of players, data including the dynamically generated group of rival players for each corresponding player to carry out the multiplayer game;
• during the multiplayer game:
• 1) Receiving updates from each of the plurality of computing devices,
• 2) Updating, based on the received updates, gameplay data for the multiplayer game, and
• 3) Communicating, to each of the plurality of computing devices, client updates configured to cause, upon reception thereof and based on the dynamically generated group of rival players communicated to a corresponding computing device, graphical renderings that graphically differentiate the dynamically generated group of rival players from other players that are rendered within the multiplayer game;
• determining results of the multiplayer game;
• and
• calculating, for at least some of the plurality of players, an update to the skill parameter, wherein the skill parameter is updated based on how each player performed in the multiplayer game in comparison to the dynamically generated group of rival players.