Abstract:
A recorded medium comprises a flash module including flash graphic data and action scripts associated with the flash graphic data. The flash module analyzes the flash graphic data and the action scripts. A platform program installed on a client transmits the functionality necessary for game processing through communication with a game server. When a user requests information which requires communication with the game server, the flash module provides a parameter associated with the user request to the platform program. The platform program analyzes the parameter, requests the information from the game server and provides the information to the flash module.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This application is a Continuation of International Application No. PCT/KR2006/001198, with an international filing date of Mar. 31, 2006, which claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 10-2005-0027213, filed Mar. 31, 2005, the complete disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0002]     The present invention relates to a method and recorded medium for displaying an online game menu screen by flash in an on-line game application.  
       BACKGROUND  
       [0003]     Along with the development of the Internet, on-line games (which are different from a package format game) are becoming increasingly popular. On-line games include many kinds of games such as RPGs (Role playing game), shooting games, board games and so on. On-line games are popular because competition with other on-line users is possible unlike in package format games.  
         [0004]     A service provider may provide various kinds of games such as go-stop, porer, baduk, block games and so on, where users select a game to play from a web page of the game site.  
         [0005]     When a user selects a game, channel information is transmitted. The user then selects a game room among the game rooms generated in the selected channel to play the game.  
         [0006]     When a user selects a game, an application corresponding to the selected game is executed by the control of web page script or ActiveX Control. The application provides a menu screen by which users can select a channel and a game room.  
         [0007]     Conventionally, a menu screen by which users select a channel and a game room is provided by an application. A programmer programs the menu screen using a graphic display interface (GDI) and other tools, which requires much design time.  
         [0008]     Graphics implemented by the application are in a fixed form. Thus, a screen with having an improved design can not be provided.  
         [0009]     Although tools including a flash can provide improved graphics, a flash can transmit and receive only text data in a socket communication. Thus, a flash has many disadvantages in server communication. Therefore, when flash data is used for an on-line game menu screen, a full flash menu screen can not be implemented using conventional methods.  
       SUMMARY  
       [0010]     In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a method and recorded medium for implementing and displaying an on-line game menu screen by flash.  
         [0011]     The present invention also provides a method and recorded medium that can provide a game menu screen with improved graphics while reducing the time required for designing the game menu screen.  
         [0012]     Furthermore, the present invention provides a method for displaying a flash-implemented game menu screen that enables efficient communication with a game server.  
         [0013]     According to an embodiment of the present invention, a recorded medium readable by a digital processing device tangibly embodies a program of instructions executable by the digital processing device for implementing an on-line game menu display by flash. The recorded medium includes a flash module that includes flash graphic data and action scripts associated with the flash graphic data. The flash module analyzes the flash graphic data and the action scripts. The recorded medium also includes a platform program installed on a client for transmitting game processing functionality through communication with a game server. In response to a user request for information which requires communication with the game server, the flash module provides a parameter corresponding to the user request to the platform program. The platform program analyzes the parameter and requests that the game server provides the information to the flash module.  
         [0014]     According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method for displaying an on-line game menu screen using flash where the on-line game menu screen is displayed by a flash module and a platform program is provided. The method includes receiving a user request for information at a game menu screen displayed by the flash module. The flash module calls an action script to provide a first parameter corresponding to the user request to the platform program when communication with a game server is required to obtain the information associated with the user request. The platform program receives the information associated with the user request in response to receiving the first parameter from the flash module. The platform program provides the received information to the flash module as a second parameter.  
         [0015]     According to still another embodiment of the present invention, a method executes in a server for displaying an online game menu screen by flash. The method includes providing a flash module and a platform program to a user client. Information associated with a user request is received from the platform program. Data corresponding to the user request is transmitted to the user client. In the event that the information associated with the user request requires communication with a server, the flash module provides a parameter corresponding to the user request to the platform program. The platform program then requests information associated with the parameter from the server, receives the requested information, and provides the received information to the flash module. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0016]      FIG. 1  illustrates a system where a method for implementing a game menu screen using a flash of the present invention is applied.  
         [0017]      FIG. 2  is a signal flow diagram illustrating a menu screen implementing method using flash according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0018]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating a flash module according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0019]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating a module of the platform program according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0020]      FIG. 5  is a signal flow diagram illustrating a start operation of a platform program and a flash player according to user game selection information.  
         [0021]      FIG. 6  is a signal flow diagram illustrating a process for displaying channel information on a game menu screen implemented by flash according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0022]     Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.  
         [0023]      FIG. 1  illustrates a system where a method for implementing a game menu screen using a flash of the present invention is applied.  
         [0024]     Referring to  FIG. 1 , the system includes a user client  100 , a game server  110  and a game connection server  112 . The game server  110  is coupled to the game connection server  112 . The game connection server  112  is coupled to the user client  100  by a network. A web browser  102 , an ActiveX Control  104 , a flash module  106  and a platform program  108  may be installed on the user client  100 .  
         [0025]     The user client  100  executes a game application through communication with the game server  110 . The user client  100  may include digital data devices which can communicate through the network and operate an application program such as the web browser  102  and the platform program  108 . The digital data devices may include a PC, a PDA, a digital notebook, a mobile communication terminal, and the like.  
         [0026]     In conventional on-line games, a process for a user to connect to a game site and select a game is performed through the web browser  102 . When a user connects to the game connection server  112  initially, the game connection server  112  provides a web page by which users can select a particular on-line game. The web page provided by the game connection server  112  is displayed on the web browser  102  installed on the user client  100 . The on-line game may include board games such as go-stop and poker, block games or other types of on-line games.  
         [0027]     The web page may include ActiveX Control information. The ActiveX Control  104  controls the user client  100  to execute a corresponding game when a user selects a particular game. The ActiveX Control information may be included on the web page in the form of an object tag. If the ActiveX Control  104  is not installed on the user client  100 , a process for downloading the ActiveX Control  104  is performed.  
         [0028]     When the ActiveX Control  104  is installed on the user client  100  and a user selects a game from the web page, the ActiveX Control  104  controls the user client  100  to download a platform program corresponding to the selected game.  
         [0029]     The game selected through the web page need not be necessarily executed by the ActiveX Control  104  It would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the selected game can also be executed in other ways such as by java script of a web page.  
         [0030]     The platform program  108  communicates with the game server  110  and executes the selected game. Conventionally, if the platform program  108  is executed, a menu screen provides channel information for the selected game and receives selected channel information from a user for selecting a particular game room. According to selection information from the user, the game is processed. In other words, display of the menu screen and communication with the server is conventionally performed by the platform program.  
         [0031]     As described above, because a menu screen for channel and game room selection is conventionally provided by the platform program, a programmer designs the game menu graphic data. Due to limitations of the design tool, it is difficult to provide a well-designed game menu.  
         [0032]     Therefore, the present invention provides a method by which a game menu graphic is provided by flash, and game execution and communication with a game server is performed by a platform program.  
         [0033]     In the present invention, the flash module  106  cooperates with the platform program  108  and displays a menu screen selected by a user. The flash module  106  displays a menu screen corresponding to a user-selected game. If the user inputs request information such as channel selection or game room selection, the flash module  106  processes the request information by executing its script or through communication with the platform program  108 .  
         [0034]     When a game menu graphic is implemented by flash, the game menu graphic can be implemented only in accordance with a design of a flash designer. Therefore, design time can be saved when a game menu graphic is implemented by the platform program  108 . Furthermore, a relatively high quality design of the game menu graphic can be achieved.  
         [0035]     Moreover, the present invention provides a method in which efficiency can be maximized by cooperation of the flash module  106  and the platform program  108 . A conventional flash can perform a simple communication process such as a URL connection and the calling of java script. However, relatively complex communication could not be performed by flash, especially in socket communication. Specifically, only text data and binary data could be conventionally transmitted through flash.  
         [0036]     In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, according to the present invention, when communication with the game server  110  is necessary to process a user request, the user request is transferred from the flash module  106  to the platform program  108 . The platform program  108  communicates with the game server  110  and information received from the game server  110  is transferred to the flash module  106 .  
         [0037]     Through operation of the flash module  106  and the platform program  108 , a game menu with an improved design can be provided, and flash communication limitations can be overcome by the platform program  108 .  
         [0038]      FIG. 2  is a signal flow diagram illustrating a menu screen implementing method using flash according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0039]     Referring to  FIG. 2 , when a user selects a particular game though a web page, the corresponding platform program is executed. The platform program requests the flash module to display an initial screen of the selected game (operation  200 ). Although it is not shown in  FIG. 2 , when the platform program is executed, the platform program may perform a process which determines if a version update or a flash data update is necessary though communication with the game server.  
         [0040]     The flash module displays an initial screen of the selected game in response to the request from the platform program (operation  202 ). The flash data of the initial screen of the game may be pre-stored at the client.  
         [0041]     In the initial screen of the game, a menu by which users can select a channel of the game is provided. The user requests a particular channel by selecting a particular channel (operation  204 ).  
         [0042]     The flash module that received the channel selection provides the channel selection information to the platform program (operation  206 ).  
         [0043]     The platform program that received the channel selection information requests the game server to transmit data associated with the selected channel (operation  208 ) The platform program receives the channel data from the game server (operation  210 ). In one embodiment, the platform program requests and receives the channel data by a socket communication method.  
         [0044]     The platform program provides the received channel data to the flash module (operation  212 ). The flash module displays the channel information using the received channel data (operation  214 ). The channel information may include game room information included in the selected channel or user information associated with the selected channel. The flash module may display the channel information on a pre-stored channel information flash screen.  
         [0045]     A user may select a game room from among the game rooms displayed on the channel information display screen, and the flash module receives the game room selection information (operation  216 ).  
         [0046]     The flash module that received the game room selection information transmits the selection information to the platform program (operation  218 ).  
         [0047]     The platform program that received the game room selection information requests the game server to transmit information associated with the selected game room (operation  220 ). The platform program that received the game room selection information then receives the selected game room information (operation  222 ). In one embodiment, the platform program requests and receives the game room information by a socket communication method.  
         [0048]     The platform program provides the game room information to the flash module (operation  224 ). The flash module displays the game room information on the predetermined game room flash screen (operation  226 ).  
         [0049]     Information such as channel information and game room information provided from the game server is a relatively large amount of data. This large amount of data can be transmitted and received effectively by a socket communication method. As described above, the user request is provided to the platform program and the platform program communicates with the game server. The received channel information and the game room information is not displayed by the platform program. Rather, the received channel information and the game room information is displayed by the flash module which receives this information from the platform program.  
         [0050]     As such, according to the present invention, role allocation for graphics processing and communication can be performed effectively through communication between the flash module and the platform program. The detailed communication method between the flash module and the platform program is described below.  
         [0051]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram of a flash module according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0052]     Referring to  FIG. 3 , the flash module may include a flash data module  300  and a flash player module  302 . The flash data module  300  may include flash graphic data  304 , an operation control action script  306  and a platform communication action script  308 .  
         [0053]     The flash graphic data  304  is data for displaying graphics externally by a flash player. As described above, the graphic design can be implemented by a flash designer, rather than a programmer. The flash graphic data may include flash data for an initial game screen, flash data for a channel information screen, flash data for a game room screen, and the like. It would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various types of flash data can be provided depending on the particular game application.  
         [0054]     The flash data for an initial game screen and the flash data for channel information may be stored in separate flash files or in a unified flash file.  
         [0055]     When flash data for each screen are stored in separate files, the flash data corresponding to a user request is loaded by the flash player module  302 . When different flash data is stored in a single flash file, only the flash layer corresponding to the user request is displayed and the other layers are hidden.  
         [0056]     Action script includes the operation control action script  306  and the platform communication action script  308 . The operation control action script  306  controls an internal flash operation in accordance with predetermined events. For example, when a user positions a mouse cursor on a channel interface, the operation control action script  306  controls the flash player to display information on a corresponding channel (e.g., age restriction information for accessing the channel). In another example, when a user selects an icon, the operation control action script  306  controls the flash player to perform animation of a character.  
         [0057]     The platform communication action script  308  provides a user request to the platform program when communication with the game server is necessary to process the user request. The platform communication action script  308  receives data from the platform program and processes the data using a predetermined processing method. For example, when channel information is provided from the platform program, the platform communication action script  308  displays the channel information on the flash screen.  
         [0058]     Specifically, the platform communication action script  308  calls a function of the platform program and provides a parameter to the function to provide the user request to the platform program. The platform program calls the platform communication action script  308  associated with the information to be provided and provides the information to the called script as a parameter.  
         [0059]     The flash player module  302  displays flash graphic data on the client and analyzes the operation control action script  306  or the platform communication action script  308  to execute a process predetermined by the script when a predetermined event occurs. The flash player module  302  displays the flash graphic data that may be installed on the user client in the form of ActiveX Control, such as general flash.ocx. It would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the flash player module  302  can be installed on the user client in forms other than ActiveX Control.  
         [0060]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating a module of the platform program according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0061]     Referring to  FIG. 4 , the platform program according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a channel information collecting module  400 , a channel information transforming/providing module  402 , a game room information collecting module  404 , a game room information transforming/providing module  406  and a game data transmitting/receiving module  408 .  
         [0062]     The channel information collecting module  400  receives channel information through communication with the game server. When a user requests channel information of a particular channel through flash, the platform communication action script of flash provides the user request through communication with the platform program. The channel information collecting module  400  is called and the channel information collecting module  400  receives the channel information from the game server. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the flash player analyzes the platform communication action script and provides a parameter corresponding to the channel information request to the platform program. The channel information collecting module  400  provides the channel information corresponding to the parameter to the flash player.  
         [0063]     The channel information transforming/providing module  402  transforms the channel information into a predetermined format data. The channel information is received by the channel information collecting module  400 . The channel information transforming/providing module  402  provides the transformed channel information to the flash module. The transformed data format may be one of various types. For example, the transformed data may be in an XML format or a string data format. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the channel information transforming/providing module  402  calls platform communication action script that displays channel information on the screen through communication with the flash player and provides the channel information as a parameter.  
         [0064]     The game room information collecting module  404  receives game room information through communication with the game server. When a user requests game room information through flash, the corresponding platform communication action script is called and the flash player provides the user request through communication with the platform program. The game room information collecting module  404  is called and receives the requested game room information from the game server.  
         [0065]     According to an embodiment of the present invention, the flash player analyzes platform communication action script and provides a parameter corresponding to the requested game room information to the platform program. The game room information collecting module  404  collects game room information corresponding to the parameter provided from the flash player.  
         [0066]     The game room information transforming/providing module  406  transforms the game room information received by the game room information collecting module  404  into the predetermined format data. The game room information transforming/providing module  406  provides the transformed information to the flash module. As described above, the data format of the transformed game room information may be one of various types. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the game room information transforming/providing module  406  calls platform communication action script that displays the game room information on the flash screen through communication with the flash player and provides the game room information as a parameter.  
         [0067]     The game data transmitting/receiving module  408  transmits game data generated by user input or by an occurrence of a predetermined event. The game data transmitting/receiving module  408  receives game data generated from other clients by user input or by the occurrence of a predetermined event through the game server.  
         [0068]     In  FIG. 4 , only modules for communication with the game server and the flash are shown to implement a game menu screen with flash. As would be appreciated by those skilled in the art, additional modules can be further included for processing a game application. Moreover, as shown in  FIG. 4 , channel information and game room information are shown as data provided to the flash. As would be appreciated by those skilled in the art additional information could be transmitted/received between the flash and the platform program depending on the particular game application.  
         [0069]      FIG. 5  is a signal flow diagram illustrating a start operation of the platform program and the flash player according to game selection information.  
         [0070]     Referring to  FIG. 5 , when a user selects a game among a variety of games provided by a game site through a web browser, the script for executing the selected game requests execution of the platform program (operation  500 ). In response to the request of the script, the platform program is executed (operation  502 ). In one embodiment, the platform program may also be executed by an ActiveX Control associated with the web page.  
         [0071]     During execution of the platform program, the platform program requests the flash player to display an initial game screen (operation  504 ). According to an embodiment of the present invention, the platform program provides flash file information corresponding to initial screen data as a parameter to the flash player.  
         [0072]     The flash player displays the initial game screen using the parameter provided from the platform program (operation  506 ).  
         [0073]      FIG. 6  is a signal flow diagram illustrating a process for displaying channel information on a game menu screen implemented by flash according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0074]     Referring to  FIG. 6 , the flash module receives selected channel information (operation  600 ). In one embodiment, the channel may be selected by a mouse. In response to user selection of the channel, the action script associated with the channel selection is called (operation  602 ).  
         [0075]     In response to the called action script, a parameter corresponding to the selected channel information is provided from the flash module and a function of the platform program is called. According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the flash module calls the function of the platform program, a function such as FSCommand( ) can be used. Generally, FSCommand( ) is used for calling java script of a webpage or for communication between a swf flash file and a flash player. However, according to the present invention, FSCommand( ) is used to provide the user request to the platform program. The platform program processes the user request. When the flash module provides a parameter corresponding to a channel request as the parameter of FSCommand( ), the platform program determines that the flash module requests channel information through the parameter.  
         [0076]     According to an embodiment of the present invention, the flash module calls the function of the platform program through a COM interface.  
         [0077]     The platform program determines that channel information for a specified channel is requested when a function is called (operation  606 ). The platform program requests the channel information for the corresponding channel from the game server (operation  608 ). The game server provides the requested channel information to the platform program (operation  610 ).  
         [0078]     The platform program transforms the received channel information into a predetermined format data (operation  612 ). The platform program then calls the function that processes the channel information display through a COM interface. The function that processes the channel information display may be action script included in the flash data. The platform program provides a parameter corresponding to the channel information when calling “function(action script)”.  
         [0079]     The flash module displays the corresponding channel information on the predetermined screen using the parameter corresponding to the channel information provided from the platform program (operation  616 ).  
         [0080]     A method for providing/requesting channel information to/from the flash module has been described with reference to  FIG. 6 . As would be appreciated by those skilled in the art game room information or other information can also be communicated between the flash module and the platform program through the method described with reference to  FIG. 6 .  
         [0081]     As described above, according to an embodiment of the present invention, game menu design time can be reduced and a game menu screen with improved graphics can be provided.  
         [0082]     Further, according to an embodiment of the present invention, efficient communication with a game server can be performed using a flash-implemented game menu.  
         [0083]     The accompanying drawings and the detailed description are only examples of the present invention and do not limit the scope of the present invention. Therefore, those who skilled in the art would appreciate that many changes and equivalent embodiments can be made without departing from the present invention. Thus, the true scope of the present invention is determined by the accompanying claims.