A system and method for controlling the animation and movement of in-game objects. In some embodiments, the system includes one or more data-driven animation building blocks that can be used to define any character movements. In some embodiments, the data-driven animation blocks are conditioned by how their data is described separately from any explicit code in the core game engine. These building blocks can accept certain inputs from the core code system (e.g., movement direction, desired velocity of movement, and so on). But the game itself is agnostic as to why particular building blocks are used and what animation data (e.g., single animation, parametric blend, defined by user, and so on) the blocks may be associated with.