Weihao’s PacMan game is a unique derivative of Pac-Man, where you play as Pac-Man and eat the pellets, but instead of them being statically laid out across the board, they randomly appear and disappear. It is rather stressful when you first start, especially since at first, the arrow keys were also manipulating my browser scrolling. The actual rules and verbs of the games are not necessarily complicated though. I instinctively used the arrow keys to move, which after a few rounds, I realized encompassed all actions and were connected with the complete rules of the game. You can use them to move and if you touch one of the pellets, you consume them, increasing your score by one point.
It’s such a simple rule to eat/overlap the pellet and gain a point, but a lot of gameplay can be built around that. We see two primary examples, one where the pellets only appear temporarily and one where they are stationary but we have limited time. Other options could be explored in further levels as well, with ones which slide away from you, are magnetically attracted to you, or that you don’t want to eat them. The two examples included go pretty far though, particularly since the action of eating is so satisfying. This is accomplished perhaps by the psychological effect of eating alongside the rewarding sound played when you collide with a pellet. They go far enough to create an interesting game though mainly due to the time limit.
This time limit introduces a lot to the game. Primarily it is the sense of urgency as you play, providing the actual challenge, since 10 seconds is not a long time to collect pellets. It’s actually over before you know it and can feel quite bad, since you’re often heading towards some pellets but they’ll disappear and you won’t have enough time to redeem yourself. It’s easy to feel quite disappointed if you don’t collect enough and lose, with the dialogue telling us we have to restart, pressing in the wound.
The 10 seconds is not too long though where you feel like you’re wasting time if you keep losing. Being able to complete the level in time always feels like something you can do, no matter how many tries it takes. The combination of the satisfying nature of the game and its actions as well as this small investment, make it not possible to give up on this game. This feels even more the case once you reach the second level, which instead has a few stationary pellets. You got over the hurdle of the ever moving pellets, so these feel even more achievable. That is a complete lie though. The stress of the time is even higher here, as you know where the pellets will be, but if you can’t get them all, it’s likely due to your inefficient path. To make matters worse, you have to start all over. But now you know you can get there, so you’re stuck in that loop again.
Overall, the game takes a few simple actions and rules, presents them in a satisfying fashion, with a super quick turnaround to make the game highly replayable and pleasantly frustrating.