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Neurotic Pacman

Give the Pacman character neuroses to make the game more difficult
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The game i have in mind is somewhat like Pacman, with a few tweaks.

Firstly, before you start the game, you have to choose one or more of a set of neuroses your character will have: phobias, OCD, narcissism and maybe some others. The more neuroses you choose, the more points you get.

Arachnophobia: The character refuses to pass a spider or has to have several goes at it as the ghosts come ever closer. Also, there's one enormous spider monster which can appear out of a trapdoor beside the maze which if Pacman encounters it will immediately cause a massive heart attack and death, but is otherwise harmless.

Claustrophobia: Again, Pacman refuses to go through narrower parts of the maze.

OCD: Pacman can lock a door to prevent a ghost from coming through but has to go back to check a number of times. Also, it has to pace up and down repeatedly in certain parts of the maze or Ms Pacman will die. You get a choice of a prime number or a number with a lot of factors, depending on the precise nature of your OCD.

Narcissism: One of the corridors in the maze is lined with mirrors and Pacman has to stop and look at itself for several seconds each time it passes one.

Schizophrenia: Ghosts appear in the maze which aren't really there and don't do Pacman any physical harm.

Depression: Pacman is unusually susceptible to failure to find power pills and to the constant attentions of ghosts, turns blue and plods along really slowly or gives up completely and just sits there.

Useful as a form of therapy, i think, because it illustrates people's cognitive errors in a simplified environment.

nineteenthly, Dec 04 2009

Halfbakery: Programme-Em-Up Programme-Em-Up
Shameless spin-off [zen_tom, Dec 04 2009]

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       triskaidekaphobia - Pacman hesitates before eating the thirteenth pill.
hippo, Dec 04 2009
  

       One gaming idea I really like the sound, but haven't seen too many implementations of, is one where the player, rather than directly controlling the game's character, instead sets up a number of "rules" - programming that characters' behaviour, then sits back and watches the fruits of their programme running in a sandbox. The Pacman "world" might be nice and simple enough to form the basis of such a "programme-em-up" style game.   

       So for example, a basic pacman routine might go something like:
1) Look to see what's ahead:
......If it's a pill, continue on course,
......If it's a ghost, reverse direction
......If it's a crossroads, decide whether to turn left or right, or go straight-on.
....etc.
  

       Additional behavioural artefacts like the ones you describe could then be added to spice up the gameplay at the higher levels.
zen_tom, Dec 04 2009
  

       [zen] I think that's worthy of its own spin-off idea. The two player version of this would be fascinating: E.g. you are writing rules for your character to, say, negotiate a maze and find energy pills; I am writing rules for my character to negotiate the maze and find and kill your character.
hippo, Dec 04 2009
  

       Nice one [hippo] check it out - I think there have been attempts at this before, just can't remember what any of them were called, or if they were any good.
zen_tom, Dec 04 2009
  
      
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