Game0, a game for the 'use SDL' assignment by Evan Mullinix, with code help from Jim McCann's nest library and glprogramming.com, and pictures from gametap.com users TheQuestionable and fght111 as well as rankopedia.com, woosk.com, aspects.net, twogroove.com, jimdavies.org, singular.at and starkeith.net. The characters were originally developed by Namco and Midway.
In my game, I wanted to give a different perspective on one of the classic historical video game battles. In doing so, I also wanted to apply a more modern input interface to an old time classic to see what effects such a change would have on game difficulty and playability.
First I had to merely get the game to draw a level in the background using the OpenGL library and load textures to use as sprites for the game. Next, I built a path finding algorithm that would allow the sprites to navigate the level to reach a designated target destination. Because this resulted in movement so rapid it resembled teleportation, I had to slow the sprites down to make the game playable. Then, I added a few intro screens to give the game some context and an ending screen to let the user know the game has ended. Finally, I made a few playability tweaks like forcing the characters to be always moving and highlighting the one you control, so as to make the game as whole more dynamic.
First and foremost, this game turns morality on its head by demonizing one of video gaming's oldest heros. In terms of game play, however, it applies a much more modern control interface in something similar to a real time strategy game to an old timey classic.
Unfortunately, the RTS-like interface makes this game ridiculously easy. I tried to take a few steps to make this more difficult, like causing the ghosts to drift if you leave them alone and don't give them instructions. In the end, there's just no escaping the fact that trapping pacman is like shooting ducks in a barrel. The best way around this would probably be investing another week or so to establish a much smarter algorithm for pacman running away than simply maximizing the distance between itself and the ghosts.
If given the opportunity to add more features on top of that. I would also like to create a scenario in which pacman can win, either by surviving for a certain amount of time or by adding power pellets that pac man can win by consuming all or a certain percentage of them. Powerups for both sides would be nice as well. The obvious choice for pacman would be to have the larger pelletes that allow up to eat the ghosts. One cool thing for the ghosts to be able to get would be the ability to move through walls, perhaps by eating the fruit that used to give pacman points in the original game.