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https://github.com/tylerneylon/pacpac

A lua-based Pac-Man clone.
https://github.com/tylerneylon/pacpac

Last synced: 6 months ago
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A lua-based Pac-Man clone.

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README 

          
# PacPac



This is Pac-Man from a parallel universe.



![PacPac Title](https://raw.github.com/tylerneylon/pacpac/master/screenshots/title.png)



![PacPac Level Samples](https://raw.github.com/tylerneylon/pacpac/master/screenshots/level1_2.png)



There are 3 mazes to play through. This is thrice as

many as the original pac-man :)



You need the [löve](http://love2d.org) game engine to play. The current code is written for löve

v0.9.2.



The original code was written in under 24 hours as a challenge.

My wife didn't believe I could make a pac-man-like game in a day.

Here's a fun [first 24-hour evolution of the game in screenshots](http://tylerneylon.com/pacpac/).



## How to install and run



1. Download and install [löve](http://love2d.org). (Current code has been tested with löve v0.9.2.)

2. Download and unzip the [zipfile of this repo](https://github.com/tylerneylon/pacpac/archive/master.zip).

3. Double-click the file `pacpac.love`.

   Alternatively, in OS X and Ubuntu, type `love pacpac.love` from the command line - which assumes

   the `love` executable is in your path.



## Level Editing



I've set up the game so that you can make your own levels without having to know how to program.

Just edit `level1.txt` or any other `levelN.txt` file to change that level. The file format is

explained within those files, and this format is designed to be human-friendly and flexible.



If you're running PacPac using `pacpac.love`, then you need to run

`make_love_file.sh` before the level changes will show up in the game. This

shell script is meant to be run from the command line by cd'ing into your pacpac

directory (the one containing `make_love_file.sh`) and typing the command

`./make_love_file.sh`.



## Contributions



It would be awesome if other coders contributed more levels. I'd like each level to add something

new to the game. For now, level 2 adds a new layout and color, which in most games would

not count as "new" but since Pac-Man has such a strong 1-layout tradition, I'm counting it as new.



My code philosophy for PacPac is to keep the code a little dirty, as in using global variables

freely. Seriously. It's not that dirty is good, but rather that getting things done is good.

So I'm asking for contributions that fix bugs or improve gameplay, but are not focused on

refactoring. Refactoring is fine as a by-product of other changes, though.



If you'd like to add a level, please read the next section to understand what kind of

level designs would fit in with the game. Thanks!



## Things That Could be Added



### Levels



Below are a few ideas for later levels.

It would be cool to arrange them in the game from easiest to hardest.



* New ghost AI's in different colors.

* A gun that can shoot ghosts.

* A level with keys that can open doors. Doors are basically walls that you can erase

  with a key.

* A level with portal-like mechanics. Maybe a warp door that changes connected doors,

  or a warp gun. (This sounds a little scary to have to debug.)

* A level where the hero and ghosts switch roles. By default, the ghosts are weak - i.e., flashing

  white/blue and can be eaten. The ghosts eat dots, and if they eat a superdot, then the hero

  becomes vulnerable - i.e., the ghosts appear non-flashing temporarily. However, the ghosts no

  longer reincarnate, and it is the hero's goal to eat all of them.



Once we have 10 good and mostly bug-free levels, I'll consider the game to be v1-ready.



### Other features



Summary:



* Tasty foods for bonus points

* One or maybe two extra lives for certain score points

* Replay a previously-played game

* Analytics

* Server-based high-score-of-the-day



#### Tasty foods



In the original game, you can eat fruit like apples and oranges.

It would be cool to add more fun foods like pizza, burgers, fries,

and waffles. Maybe cinnamon rolls. Foods that are tasty and would

make for fun pixel art.



#### Extra lives



In the original game, you also get an extra life once you reach a

certain score. This is a nice feature that we could include

in PacPac.



#### Game replay



Automatically save all the effective commands the user provides so that

we can exactly replay that game as a watch-only experience. Maybe this

could happen automatically for the highest-scoring game, which would

be displayed from the title screen if the user is idle.



There are a couple points to be careful about. The game currently uses

a random number generator, so we'd have to save the seed used. It also

depends on the dt values sent in to update, so we'd have to be careful

about how the replay worked with the dt values. That might be tricky.

Finally, there is technically analog input available through gamepads,

but this can be discretized so that we only need to remember the

successful calls to `dir_request`.



#### Analytics



By this, I mean heat maps of death locations on each level, and average

time-of-life per level. This could help us figure out which levels are

most challenging. From there we could do things like modify too-hard or

too-easy sections, and make sure the levels are in the right order.



#### Server-based scores



This is self-explanatory. Even better is being able to download and watch

a replay of good high scores.



## Credits



This game uses the font 8bitoperator created by

[GrandChaos9000](http://grandchaos9000.deviantart.com/)

(aka Jayvee D. Enaguas) and is distributed under the

[CC-BY-SA](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/) license.



Thanks to [jonfk](https://github.com/jonfk) for upgrading the code

for löve v0.9.2.