Arcade · Playable

Pac-Man

Eat tasks. Fix bugs. Ship before the deadline

Playable

28 × 31 Grid

intermediate Difficulty

PixiJS Engine

DATAWORM

// NEW PROJECT INITIALIZED / SPRINT 1

> MAZE: 28x31 CODEBASE SECTORS

> OBJECTIVE: SHIP ALL TASKS

> DEADLINE: 3:00 (SPRINT TIMER ACTIVE)

> BUGS: 4 (STACKOVERFLOW / 404 / UNDEFINED / SINGLETON)

> DEBUGGER: BREAKPOINTS AVAILABLE

PRESS [ENTER] TO INITIATE

Specs

Difficulty: intermediate
Grid: 28 × 31
Engine: PixiJS

Topics

gamearcadepacmanmazebfspixijs

Languages

TypeScript 68%
Svelte 20%
CSS 12%

About

Why I built this

Pac-Man is one of those games where the simplicity is deceptive. I thought it'd take a weekend — it took two weeks. The maze layout, ghost personalities, scatter/chase cycles, tunnel slowdowns, power pellet timing — every detail matters. I re-themed it as a developer shipping tasks while avoiding bugs (STACKOVERFLOW, 404, UNDEFINED, SINGLETON), which turned out to be a surprisingly accurate metaphor for real sprints.

Highlights

4 Ghost Personalities BFS pathfinding with unique targeting per ghost

Sprint Timer 3-minute deadline — ship all tasks before time runs out

Power Pellets Debugger mode — chase and eat bugs for bonus points

Dot-Based Release Ghosts leave the pen at 5, 15, and 30 dots eaten

Scatter/Chase Cycles Ghosts alternate between roaming and targeting you

Tech Stack

ghost-ai.ts

phase.ts

maze.ts

engine-input

Dev Notes

Each ghost has a unique personality: STACKOVERFLOW chases directly (BFS), 404 targets ahead of you, UNDEFINED mirrors your position, and SINGLETON roams freely.

BFS pathfinding existed in the codebase from day one but was never wired up — ghosts used Manhattan-distance greedy search until a recent refactor.

The dot-triggered release system replaced a percentage-based threshold that kept 3 of 4 ghosts in the pen for most of the game.