US 12,472,436 B2
Game definition file
Luke Dicken, San Francisco, CA (US); Johnathan Pagnutti, San Francisco, CA (US); and Yang Wen, San Francisco, CA (US)
Assigned to Zynga Inc., San Francisco, CA (US)
Filed by Zynga Inc., San Francisco, CA (US)
Filed on Aug. 17, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/889,677.
Application 17/889,677 is a continuation of application No. 17/027,483, filed on Sep. 21, 2020, granted, now 11,465,052.
Prior Publication US 2023/0076907 A1, Mar. 9, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. A63F 13/69 (2014.01); A63F 13/45 (2014.01); A63F 13/77 (2014.01); A63F 13/79 (2014.01); G06F 9/445 (2018.01)
CPC A63F 13/69 (2014.09) [A63F 13/45 (2014.09); A63F 13/77 (2014.09); A63F 13/79 (2014.09); G06F 9/44505 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method implemented at a client device, the method comprising:
accessing compiled software for a game engine, the game engine being for playing a plurality of games via the client device;
receiving and storing at the client device a plurality of game definition files comprising respective game definition file for each of the plurality of games, each game definition file comprising a respective ruleset that defines game mechanics specific to a corresponding one of the plurality games, wherein each game definition file defines the respective ruleset using non-compiled machine-readable code; and
executing the game engine at the client device to enable playing, at different instances of execution, each of the plurality of games via the client device by use of the game engine, wherein executing the game engine in each instance comprises:
accessing the respective game definition file of a user-selected one of the plurality of games; and
providing, via a user interface generated on the client device, interactive gameplay of the selected game according to the game mechanics specific to the selected game as defined by corresponding game definition file, the game engine thus implementing different game mechanics for different respective games using in common the compiled game engine software in unmodified form between the respective instances of execution.