Data-driven state machine for user interactive displays

A method of providing a data-driven interactive display of a computer-implemented game on a client computing system using a state machine, the method comprising electronic operations executed by the client computing system, the operations including:

• obtaining a state machine definition from a server computer system, wherein the state machine definition defines a plurality of states of a plurality of graphical objects in an interactive display for the game, and wherein the plurality of states control characteristics of the respective objects of the plurality of graphical objects;
• loading the state machine definitions within a client-implemented state machine, wherein the client-implemented state machine controls display of the plurality of graphical objects, and wherein the state machine definitions include tokenized strings that represent variable values in respective states applicable to respective graphical objects of the plurality of graphical objects;
• in response to determination by the client-implemented state machine of a first state of a particular graphical object, generating a display of the particular graphical object in the interactive display of the game;
• identifying a runtime variable of the first state from parsing a particular tokenized string with the client-implemented state machine, wherein the runtime variable is determined during runtime of the interactive display of the game to identify a first display property of the first state of the particular graphical object, and wherein the client-implemented state machine uses the first display property of the first state to implement a requirement, a cost, or an effect corresponding with the display of the particular graphical object;
• and
• in response to determination by the client implemented state machine of a second state of a particular graphical object, generating an updated display of the particular graphical object in the interactive display of the game, wherein the client-implemented state machine uses a second display property of the second state to implement a requirement, a cost, or an effect corresponding with the updated display of the particular graphical object.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions, that when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the computing system to:

• obtain a state machine definition from a server computer system, wherein the state machine definition defines a plurality of states of a plurality of graphical objects in an interactive display for a computer-implemented game, and wherein the plurality of states control characteristics of the respective objects of the plurality of graphical objects;
• load the state machine definitions within a client-implemented state machine, wherein the client-implemented state machine controls display of the plurality of graphical objects, and wherein the state machine definitions include tokenized strings that represent variable values in respective states applicable to respective graphical objects of the plurality of graphical objects;
• generate a display of a particular graphical object in the interactive display of the game, in response to a first state of the particular graphical object determined using the client-implemented state machine;
• identify a runtime variable of the first state from parsing a particular tokenized string with the client-implemented state machine, wherein the runtime variable is determined during runtime of the interactive display of the game to identify a first display property of the first state of the particular graphical object, and wherein the client-implemented state machine uses the first display property of the first state to implement a requirement, a cost, or an effect corresponding with the display of the particular graphical object;
• and
• generate an updated display of the particular graphical object in the interactive display of the game, in response to a second state of the particular graphical object determined using the client-implemented state machine, wherein the client-implemented state machine uses a second display property of the second state to implement a requirement, a cost, or an effect corresponding with the updated display of the particular graphical object.

A system, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more memory devices with instructions stored thereon, wherein the instructions are executed by the one or more processors to implement one or more modules, the one or more modules including:
• a state machine client module including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors:
• obtain a state machine definition from a server computer system, wherein the state machine definition defines a plurality of states of a plurality of graphical objects in an interactive display for a computer-implemented game, and wherein the plurality of states control characteristics of the respective objects of the plurality of graphical objects;
• load the state machine definitions within a client-implemented state machine, wherein the client-implemented state machine controls display of the plurality of graphical objects, and wherein the state machine definitions include tokenized strings that represent variable values in respective states applicable to respective graphical objects of the plurality of graphical objects;
• and
• a user interface display module including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors:
• generate a display of a particular graphical object in the interactive display of the game, in response to a first state of the particular graphical object determined using the client-implemented state machine;
• identify a runtime variable of the first state from parsing a particular tokenized string with the client-implemented state machine, wherein the runtime variable is determined during runtime of the interactive display of the game to identify a first display property of the first state of the particular graphical object, and wherein the client-implemented state machine uses the first display property of the first state to implement a requirement, a cost, or an effect corresponding with the display of the particular graphical object;
• and
• generate an updated display of the particular graphical object in the interactive display of the game, in response to a second state of the particular graphical object determined using the client-implemented state machine, wherein the client-implemented state machine uses a second display property of the second state to implement a requirement, a cost, or an effect corresponding with the updated display of the particular graphical object.