DOT-HUNTER

DOT-HUNTER is a maze-chase arcade game inspired by the legendary Pac-Man.

Meet Rat.

Rat has one great ambition in life:

Eat every dot in sight.

Unfortunately, the maze is also occupied by Scary, Ugly, Ghosty and Floaty, four spectral nuisances who regard Rat's dining habits with considerable hostility.

Navigate the maze, eat every dot, collect cheese, avoid ghosts and try to survive long enough to discover what freshly generated labyrinth awaits you next.

Simple.

Apart from everything trying to kill you.

How to Play

Your objective is straightforward:

Collect every dot in the maze.

Use the corridors to keep your distance from the ghosts while gradually clearing the level.

The maze changes from game to game, so there is no single perfect route to memorize.

Watch the enemies.

Plan ahead.

Retreat when necessary.

And when everything goes wrong, remember:

There is always another dot.

Controls

• CURSOR KEYS — move Rat through the maze

That's it.

Four keys.

Any resulting catastrophe is therefore difficult to blame on the control scheme.

Meet the Ghosts

Rat shares the maze with four ghosts:

• Scary
• Ugly
• Ghosty
• Floaty

They have only one significant disagreement with Rat:

They would prefer that she stop moving permanently.

The ghosts pursue Rat through the maze using different movement and pathfinding behaviour.

Some situations can be escaped by speed.

Others require understanding the maze.

And sometimes the most sophisticated strategy available is:

Run the other way.

Cheese!

Scattered through the maze are pieces of cheese.

Rat likes cheese.

This is hardly surprising.

What is slightly less conventional is what happens after she eats it.

For a short time, Rat imagines herself transformed into a fire-breathing dragon.

Whether this transformation is objectively real is philosophically irrelevant.

The ghosts are frightened.

That is what matters.

Use these moments to turn the chase around and deal with enemies who, only seconds earlier, were considerably more confident.

But do not get comfortable.

The effect is temporary.

So is courage.

Every Maze Is Different

DOT-HUNTER does not use one fixed Pac-Man maze.

Instead, its mazes are procedurally generated while still following the general structure required for classic maze-chase gameplay.

Every new maze therefore changes:

• the corridor layout,
• possible escape routes,
• dangerous intersections,
• useful loops,
• and the places where your brilliant plan will unexpectedly stop being brilliant.

Memorization helps less.

Adaptation helps more.

The Important Lessons of Dot Hunting

DOT-HUNTER teaches several profound truths.

1. Eating one dot is easy.
2. Eating every dot requires patience.
3. Fruit may be healthy, but it is not the objective.
4. Ghosts are dangerous until circumstances change.
5. A maze can always surprise you.
6. Later levels become harder.
7. You become better.
8. You can always start again.
9. Retreat is sometimes the intelligent option.
10. Games are supposed to be enjoyed.

The Rat has achieved enlightenment.

Mostly through cheese.

Features

• Classic Pac-Man-inspired maze-chase gameplay.
• Procedurally generated mazes.
• A different layout to solve rather than one fixed board.
• Four ghost opponents.
• Dot-collecting objective.
• Cheese power-ups.
• Temporary reversal of the hunter-and-prey relationship.
• Increasing difficulty.
• Simple four-direction controls.
• Retro arcade inspiration.
• Runs directly in the browser.
• Rodent-based philosophy.

A Little History

DOT-HUNTER is my interpretation of Pac-Man, the iconic arcade game released in 1980.

Pac-Man is one of those designs that demonstrates just how little machinery a great game actually requires.

A maze.

Some dots.

Four enemies.

Four directions.

And an extraordinary amount of panic.

DOT-HUNTER keeps that basic formula but replaces Pac-Man's fixed labyrinth with procedurally generated mazes.

The result preserves the familiar rhythm of collecting, chasing and escaping while making every new maze something that must be understood rather than simply remembered.

Under the Hood

DOT-HUNTER was written in JavaScript using my own evolving LaughingSkull game libraries.

Procedural maze generation is only part of the problem.

Once a new maze exists, the enemies must also understand how to move through it.

The ghosts therefore make use of classic pathfinding techniques including:

• Dijkstra's algorithm
• A*
• and custom maze-generation and navigation logic

These systems allow the ghosts to pursue Rat even though the maze itself was not known before the game generated it.

Building a random labyrinth is entertaining.

Teaching four ghosts how to hunt you through it is where the real fun begins.

For the programmer, naturally.

Play DOT-HUNTER

▶ Hunt Some Dots on LaughingSkull.org

Free to play. No account. No installation.

Eat the dots.

Eat the cheese.

Avoid being eaten.

The food chain is surprisingly negotiable.