Controlling a user interface of a computer device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9776093-B2
Application number	US-201514611733-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 2, 2015
Priority date	Feb 2, 2015
Publication date	Oct 3, 2017
Grant date	Oct 3, 2017

Abstract

A computer device having a user interface configured to display user actuatable game elements in a game board and to detect user input when a user engages with a game element in a move; a processor configured to receive a detected user input and on detecting a match game condition to control the user interface to remove at least three game elements from the display and to generate replacement user game elements for a subsequent move; and a graphics rendering component operable to render the game elements on the user interface, each game element having a graphical representation on a tile having a background appearance, wherein the processor is configured to determine on detecting the match game condition if at least one tile in the match game condition has an attained background appearance and if so to apply the attained background appearance to each tile of the match condition.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer device having:
a user interface configured to display user actuatable game elements in a game board and to detect user input when a user engages with a game element in a move;
a processor configured to receive a detected user input and on detecting a match game condition to control the user interface to remove at least three game elements from the display and to generate replacement user game elements for a subsequent move; and
a graphics rendering component operable to render the game elements on the user interface, each game element having a graphical representation on a tile having a background appearance,
wherein the processor is configured to determine on detecting the match game condition if at least one tile in the match game condition has an attained background appearance and if so to apply the attained background appearance to each tile of the match condition;
wherein if the processor determines on detecting the match game condition that no tile in the match game condition has an attained background appearance, it is configured to cause replacement tiles of the match game condition to be rendered with tiles of a standard background appearance, wherein the standard background appearance differs visually from the attained background appearance.

2. A computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the standard background appearance is a first colour and the attained background appearance is a second colour.

3. A computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the standard background appearance is matt and the attained background appearance is shiny.

4. A computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the graphics rendering component is operable to render game elements in multiple varieties, each variety differing from another variety in its shape and/or colour of the game element rendered on each tile.

5. A computer device according to claim 4 , wherein the game elements resemble candies.

6. A computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to control the graphics rendering component to generate on the game board at least one special game element, wherein a special game element causes multiple further game elements to be removed when it is involved in a match game condition.

7. A computer device according to claim 6 , wherein the tiles on the game board are arranged in rows and columns.

8. A computer device according to claim 6 , wherein the special game element causes a column of existing game elements on the game board to be removed in a line blast feature.

9. A computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the direction of refill of the game element is downwards from a top portion of the game board when viewed by a user.

10. A computer device according to claim 1 , wherein each tile has a selectable physics which controls the direction in which its game element moves to replenish a vacancy left by removed game elements.

11. A computer device according to claim 1 , wherein a game element is engaged by a user to be switched with an adjacent game element to create a match.

12. A computer device having:
a user interface configured to display user actuatable game elements in a game board and to detect user input when a user engages with a game element in a move;
a processor configured to receive a detected user input and on detecting a match game condition to control the user interface to remove at least three game elements from the display and to generate replacement user game elements for a subsequent move; and
a graphics rendering component operable to render the game elements on the user interface, each game element having a graphical representation on a tile having a background appearance,
wherein the processor is configured to determine on detecting the match game condition if at least one tile in the match game condition has an attained background appearance and if so to apply the attained background appearance to replacement tiles of the match game condition at the location of the removed game elements of the match condition;
wherein the processor is configured to control the graphics rendering component to generate on the game board at least one special game element, wherein a special game element causes multiple further game elements to be removed when it is involved in a match game condition,
wherein the processor is further configured to detect whether the special game element was on a tile with an attained background appearance, and if so to render all tiles with replaced game elements to have the attained background appearance.

13. A computer device having:
a user interface configured to display user actuatable game elements in a game board and to detect user input when a user engages with a game element in a move;
a processor configured to receive a detected user input and on detecting a match game condition to control the user interface to remove at least three game elements from the display and to generate replacement user game elements for a subsequent move; and
a graphics rendering component operable to render the game elements on the user interface, each game element having a graphical representation on a tile having a background appearance,
wherein the processor is configured to determine on detecting the match game condition if at least one tile in the match game condition has an attained background appearance and if so to apply the attained background appearance to replacement tiles of the match game condition at the location of the removed game elements of the match condition;
wherein the processor is configured to control the graphics rendering component to generate on the game board at least one special game element, wherein a special game element causes multiple further game elements to be removed when it is involved in a match game condition;
wherein the processor is further configured to detect if the special game element was on a tile with an attained background appearance, and if not to apply a refill procedure, wherein the tiles on the game board are arranged in rows and columns, the special game element causes a column of existing game elements on the game board to be removed in a line blast feature, and the refill procedure detects whether any game elements removed in the line blast feature are on an attained background appearance, and if so to apply the attained background appearance to refill game elements for that game element and game elements in a refill direction of the column.

14. A computer device having:
a user interface configured to display user actuatable game elements in a game board and to detect user input when a user engages with a game element in a move;
a processor configured to receive a detected user input and on detecting a match game condition to control the user interface to remove at least three game elements from the display and to generate replacement user game elements for a subsequent move; and
a graphics rendering component operable to render the game elements on the user interface, each game element having a graphical representation on a tile having a background appearance,
wherein the processor is configured to determine on detecting the match game condition if at least one tile in the match game condition has an attained background appearance and if so to apply the attained background appearance to replacement tiles of the match game condition at the location of the removed game elements of the match condition;
wherein the game element represents letters, and a match condition is determined by the formation of a word stored in a dictionary accessible to the processor.

1

Assignees

• King Com Ltd
• King Com Ltd

Inventors

• Nyblom Tobias
• Hansson Magnus

Classifications

• A63F13/35

  Details of game servers · CPC title

• A63F13/80 Primary

  Special adaptations for executing a specific game genre or game mode · CPC title