Pac-Man 3D
Description
For a university project, my team and I reimagined the classic arcade game Pac-Man as a 3D spooky maze action game. Developed in Unity during summer 2021, our adaptation retained the core mechanics of the original while introducing a new first-person perspective to heighten immersion.
Similar to the classic game, Pac-Man must collect items while being chased by four ghosts. However, in our version, players experience the game from Pac-Man's point of view, navigating the maze from a 3D perspective. To strategise, they can temporarily switch to a top-down view, revealing the maze layout and the locations of ghosts and collectible items. However, movement is only possible in the first-person view, forcing players to balance awareness with quick reflexes. Instead of collecting traditional fruit, Pac-Man gathers student-themed items such as coffee, energy drinks, pizzas, and burgers. The player starts with three lives, losing one each time they are caught by a ghost. Once all lives are lost, their final score is recorded on a high-score leaderboard, encouraging replayability and competition.
My Contribution
Working in a team of four, we collaborated closely to give a new perspective to a classic arcade game. However, my main task in this project were the ghosts and their patterns. Our game had the four ghosts Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde just as the original game. Each of them had their own distinct movement and attack patterns which I closely based on their patterns in the original game. All of them switch between a chase and a scatter mode when moving and kill the player when colliding with him. A ghost getting close to the player is indicated by a red dot in the upper right corner and an increase in pitch of the background music. The ghosts change to frightened mode when the player collects an energizer. When the player collides with a frightened mode, he kills them and they return to the ghost house. Th frightened mode is indicated by a blue dot in the corner and a decrease of the pitch of the background music.
