Arrangement for building and operating human-computation and other games

• US 8,137,201 B2
• Filed: 01/09/2009
• Issued: 03/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chickering, David M., Law, Edith, Mityagin, Anton
• Primary Examiner(s): Toledo, Fernando L
• Assistant Examiner(s): SINGAL, ANKUSH K
• Application Number:
  US12/351,564
• Publication Number:
  US 20100178985A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,166 Days
• Field of Search: 463/7, 463 14- 15, 463/19, 273240-243, 273/258, 273/260, 273271-272, 273/153.R
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/60 Generating or modifying game content before or while executing the game program, e.g. authoring tools specially adapted for game development or game-integrated level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6009 for importing or creating game content, e.g. authoring tools during game development, adapting content to different platforms, use of a scripting language to create content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/221 Parsing markup language streams streaming G06F40/149

Abstract

A game description language is provided for human computation games, as well as a game platform or generator component that can generate the code base for the game. The game description language and schema framework can be used to represent the game logic and synchronization patterns of a human computation game. The automated code generation tool takes a file, e.g., a file made from the above game description language, or the like, as an input and generates a code base for the corresponding human computation game. These tools allow a prototype of a human computation game to be generated within minutes.

Claims

1. A tangible computer-readable medium, comprising instructions for causing one or more processors in an electronic device to perform a method of generating code for a game server from a markup language schema for a human computation web-based game, the method comprising the steps of:

a. analyzing a markup language schema that includes a game states element that describes the states and synchronization points of a multi-player game and that specifies a game state machine, the game state machine including a set of game states that each correspond to a union of all players'"'"' states and to a set of events that causes transitions between game states, the game states machine being usable to synchronize players'"'"' actions; and

b. generating code from the analyzed markup language schema.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, in which the markup language schema further includes a game element, the game element including a number of players element, a game time element, a player states element, and the game states element.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein, in the generating, a name of an individual class is generated for each state described in the schema.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, in which the generating includes generating a set of user interface components including a game screen.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, in which the generating includes generating a set of server components including a set of game state synchronization points and a set of game state transitions.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, in which the game element further includes a database element.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, in which the player states element includes a set of player states and a set of transitions between player states, and the game states element includes a set of game states representing different phases of the game and a set of events that cause transitions between game states.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, in which the method further comprises the step of, upon detecting a database element, generating a set of tables and generating code for reading from and writing to the tables.

9. A method of generating code for a game server from a markup language schema for a human computation web-based game, the method comprising the steps of:

a. analyzing a markup language schema that includes a game states element that describes the states and synchronization points of a multi-player game and a bot element that is employable as an opponent against a human player in a human computation game; and

b. generating code from the analyzed markup language schema.