Patent ID: 7988555

Claim:
A method performed by a computing system to control movement of a simulated object in a game environment, the method comprising: displaying a representation of a game environment on a display of the computing system, the game environment including a plurality of game figures that play with or against each other in a simulated ball game or sport event involving a movable object; receiving, via an input device of the computing system, user input that causes a visual representation of a target area to be moved to a user-selected position in the game environment, said target area representing a desired region to which the movable object is to be moved by action of a game figure that strikes or throws the movable object, said target area having a shape and size; receiving user input that causes the game figure to be moved to a starting location from which the movable object is to be stricken or thrown; selecting an end point in said target area as positioned by the user, said end point being an end of a path to be followed by the movable object when the game figure strikes or throws the movable object, wherein the computing system selects said end point by using a random function to select from possible end points falling within the positioned target area; and after the end point is selected in the positioned target area, determining said path to be followed by the movable object from the starting location to the end point.