👻 Planning Workbook: Pac-Man

How to use this workbook: work top to bottom. It walks you through planning Pac-Man using the method from 01-How-to-Plan-a-Game, then gives you a build order. It tells you what each piece is and which technique to reach for — but you open the Technique Playground and write the code. Wherever you see ✍️ YOUR TURN or a checkbox, that's work for you.

The game in a nutshell

You steer Pac-Man through a maze full of dots. Eat every dot to win. Four ghosts chase you — touch one and you lose a life. Sometimes there are big "power" dots that let you turn the tables and eat the ghosts for a few seconds.

Step 1 — Say it in one sentence

Here's a starting version. ✍️ YOUR TURN: tweak it into your own words.

"Move Pac-Man around a maze eating all the dots without getting caught by the ghosts."

Step 2 — What's on the screen? (objects)

Here are the objects Pac-Man needs. ✍️ YOUR TURN: for each, jot the shape/color you'll use (remember: shapes are fine — Pac-Man is literally a yellow circle).

• Pac-Man — the player. (yellow circle?)
• Walls — the maze. (blue squares?)
• Dots / pellets — the little things you eat. (tiny pale circles?)
• Power pellets — bigger dots with a special effect. (bigger circles?)
• Ghosts — the enemies. (colored squares or circles?)
• Score + Lives text — the HUD.

Step 3 — What does each object DO? (behaviors)

✍️ YOUR TURN: fill in the blanks (a word or two each).

• Pac-Man: moves in the direction you press, and __________ at walls.
• Walls: just sit there and __________ Pac-Man and ghosts.
• Dots: sit still until Pac-Man __________ them.
• Ghosts: move around the maze and try to __________ Pac-Man.

Step 4 — The rules ("when ___, then ___")

Some are written for you. ✍️ YOUR TURN: finish the last two.

• When Pac-Man touches a dot → remove the dot, +10 score.
• When Pac-Man touches a power pellet → remove it, ghosts become "scared" for a few seconds.
• When Pac-Man touches a ghost (normal) → lose a life; if lives = 0, game over.
• When Pac-Man touches a ghost (scared) → __________________________.
• When all dots are gone → __________________________.

Step 5 — States (scenes)

A simple, solid set:

Title ("Press SPACE") → Playing → Win (all dots eaten) or Game Over (lives = 0) → back to Title.

(Technique 11 covers scenes.)

🧩 Your Architecture Map

Two rows are filled in as examples. ✍️ YOUR TURN: complete the rest.

🏗️ Build order (your milestones)

Build these one at a time, in order. After each one, run your game and check the "✅ works when" line before moving on. Never build the next thing until the current thing works.

Milestone 1 — Draw the maze

Build the walls from a text map. A maze is just a grid, and Technique 10 (tile maps) turns a picture-made-of-letters into real wall objects. Here's a starter map you can paste and then redesign — # is a wall, . is a dot, o is a power pellet, space is empty:

#####################
#.........#.........#
#.###.###.#.###.###.#
#o###.###.#.###.###o#
#.........#.........#
#.###.#.#####.#.###.#
#.....#...#...#.....#
#####.### # ###.#####
#........ P ........#
#####.### # ###.#####
#.....#...#...#.....#
#.###.#.#####.#.###.#
#o.................o#
#####################

Use Technique 10 to turn each # into a solid wall (area + body({isStatic:true})), each . into a dot, each o into a power pellet, and each P into Pac-Man.

Use 32×32 tiles (tileWidth: 32, tileHeight: 32). The map is 21 wide and 14 tall, so the level is 672 × 448 pixels — start with kaplay({ width: 672, height: 448, letterbox: true }).

🔑 Make Pac-Man smaller than his corridor. The corridors here are one tile — 32 pixels — wide. If Pac-Man is nearly 32 wide too, he'll catch on every corner and the game will feel broken. A good rule for any grid game: the player should be about 70% of a tile. For 32-pixel tiles that's circle(11) (22 pixels across), leaving 5 pixels of slack on each side. If cornering still feels sticky, go smaller before you go looking for a bug.

⚠️ Exactly one P. Each letter in the map becomes an object, so two Ps means two Pac-Men — both taking your key presses at once. If your player seems to "split in two", count your Ps.

• 🔧 Techniques: 1, 2, 10
• ✅ Works when: you open the game and see your maze drawn on screen.

💡 If your dots sit hugging the top-left corner of each tile instead of the middle, that's expected — a tile's position is its top-left corner. It's cosmetic; fix it later by nudging the dots after the level is built, or just leave it.

Milestone 2 — Pac-Man moves and stops at walls

Add Pac-Man as a body with an area. Read the arrow keys (Technique 4) and move him (Technique 5). Because the walls are solid bodies, they'll block him automatically — that's Technique 7. Make sure you do not turn on gravity for this game (Pac-Man shouldn't fall).

• 🤔 DECISION: In the real Pac-Man, he keeps moving in the last direction you pressed until he hits a wall — you don't hold the key down. Do you want that, or the simpler "only moves while the key is held"? Pick one and note why. (Simpler is a fine first choice — you can upgrade later.)
• 🔧 Techniques: 4, 5, 7
• ✅ Works when: you can drive Pac-Man around the corridors and he can't pass through walls.

Milestone 3 — Eat the dots and score

Give Pac-Man an onCollide with the "dot" tag (Technique 8). When they touch: destroy the dot and add to the score. Show the score with a text label (Technique 12).

• 🔧 Techniques: 8, 12
• ✅ Works when: driving over a dot makes it disappear and the score goes up.

Milestone 4 — Win when all dots are gone

After eating a dot, check how many dots are left. If there are zero, go to the Win scene. (Hint: there's a way to grab every object with a given tag and count them — look for it in Technique 3.)

• 🔧 Techniques: 3, 11
• ✅ Works when: eating the last dot sends you to a "You Win!" screen.

Milestone 5 — Add the ghosts

Add one ghost first (get one working before you add four). A ghost needs to move around the maze. Start simple.

• 🤔 DECISION — how do ghosts move? Choose your first version:
  • Easiest: ghost wanders randomly (pick a new random direction every second or when it hits a wall).
  • Classic feel: ghost chases Pac-Man by moving toward his position — that's Technique 14 (simple chase AI).
  • Write down which you picked. You can start easy and upgrade to chasing later.
• When a ghost touches Pac-Man → lose a life (Technique 12). If lives hit 0 → Game Over scene (Technique 11).
• 🔧 Techniques: 8, 12, 14, and 5/7 for moving in the maze
• ✅ Works when: a ghost moves on its own, and touching it costs you a life.

Milestone 6 — More ghosts + the title and game-over screens

Add the other ghosts (give them different colors and maybe different speeds). Wrap everything in scenes: a Title screen that starts the game, and a Game Over screen that shows your score and lets you restart.

• 🔧 Techniques: 11, 12
• ✅ Works when: the game has a start screen, plays, and ends properly — a full loop.

Milestone 7 (stretch) — Power pellets

Make the o pellets special: when eaten, set a "ghosts are scared" mode for ~6 seconds (change their color to blue). While scared, touching a ghost eats it (send it back home / +points) instead of costing a life. This is a great exercise in tracking a temporary state with a timer.

• 🤔 DECISION: how will you remember "we are in scared mode"? A variable? A timer that flips it back? Plan it before you code it.
• 🔧 Techniques: 8, 9 (timers), 12

🌟 Stretch goals (only after it works!)

• Two dots side by side look better with a real sprite — swap Pac-Man's circle for a sprite image (Technique 2 shows how).
• Make Pac-Man's mouth "chomp" by flipping between two shapes/sprites.
• Add a siren beep or a "wakka wakka" when eating dots (Technique 15).
• Add levels: when you win, load a harder maze and speed the ghosts up.
• Smarter ghosts: each one chases differently (one targets Pac-Man, one tries to get ahead of him).

✅ Pac-Man planning checklist

• I filled in the Architecture Map (all rows, including Components and Technique columns).
• I decided how Pac-Man moves (keep-going vs hold-to-move).
• I decided how ghosts move (random vs chase) for my first version.
• I know my win condition (all dots gone) and lose condition (0 lives).
• I have my milestone list and I'm building them one at a time, testing each.

Now go build Milestone 1. When you get stuck on a piece, the answer is almost always "open the Playground and find that technique." 🎮