ScarePac

ScarePac

ScarePac is PacMan-style arcade game with a few twists and additions. Consume all the pellets to complete a level, while watching out for Dark PacMan who will delete the board piece-by-piece if you are caught! If you can survive long enough, another adventure awaits.

FEATURES:

• Single-player main "story" mode with endgame
• Enemies haunt you throughout your quest. Ghosts can injure PacMan unless in frightened mode, others may alter your gameplay or the board itself.
• 1- and 2-player classic arcade modes

CONTROLS:

• Movement --  ⬆️ ⬇️  ⬅️ ➡️ Up, Down, Left, Right Arrows  (or WASD)
• Hold Boost --  Hold SHIFT when consuming a Green Super Pellet
  Release SHIFT key to begin boost
• Skip Beginning Scene -- Press ENTER

NOTES:

If you beat Level 5 on the main game, it will trigger the endgame sequence, and there is still another ~5 mins of new game content. I think you'll enjoy it!

A perfect playthru takes me about 10 mins or less to beat. Could take perhaps 20 to 30 mins if you get a few game overs.

If you want to skip the beginning corridor sequence (for ex. you just got a game over), press ENTER  to load Level 1.

You will automatically boost if you consume a green super pellet without pressing any keys.

There is pause feature, accessible by pressing ESC, but due to testing limitations (I did not pause at every imaginable junction of gameplay) there could be points in the game where a character may or may not pause/unpause as expected. The best way to pause on the web version is to simply click out of the game window, which should be more reliable.

BACKSTORY:

My desire and curiosity to learn game development led me to install Unity and give it a go late last year. After I completed a PacMan in C# tutorial, I found that I rather enjoy making games, so I thought to create a new one expanding it.

I wanted to keep everything on a certain level, like you would get from an arcade machine in the 1980s, which only had enough controls for what the game needed. In this case a 4-direction joystick and 2 buttons (I really only used 1 though). I also kept graphics and maze design as close to their original look as I could. Or at least, attempted to make it look consistent. The added music (which I composed) used a limited set of digital instruments, and I unapologetically reused assets for the highly advanced VFX you see in the beginning & end scenes. In short, I wanted to make something at my limited experience level that *could have existed* as a physical arcade game in the 80s.

If you had fun playing, please leave a comment!