Patent ID: 7588493

Claim:
A method performed by a gaming device of analyzing a game situation of a computer game, wherein the gaming device manages a representation of a game space and a plurality of game elements each having a position within the game space, the method comprising: dividing the game space, using the gaming device, into a plurality of cells having boundaries such that each cell is associated with a game element of the plurality of game elements and the boundary of each cell is such that points within that cell are closer to the position of the game element associated with that cell than the points are to the positions of game elements associated with other cells of the plurality of cells; determining, with the gaming device, a state for each of the plurality of game elements, wherein the state of each game element includes at least the game element's position in the representation of the game space formed by the plurality of cells; selecting, with the gaming devices a position in a cell in the plurality of cells, the selected position not including a position of any game elements; performing, with the gaming device, an analysis of the game situation based on the representation of the game space using a first game element's position in the representation of the game space in relation to the selected position in the cell; and performing an action, with the gaming device, that changes state of at least one game element in the plurality of game elements using the analysis of the game situation.