Pac-Man Game in Pygame

This repository contains a simple implementation of the classic Pac-Man game using Python and Pygame. The project demonstrates basic game development concepts, including player movement, collision detection, AI for enemies, and basic sound integration.

Introduction

This project is a simplified version of the classic Pac-Man game. The player controls Pac-Man, navigating through a maze while eating pellets and avoiding ghosts. The game ends if Pac-Man is caught by a ghost or if all the pellets are consumed.

Features

• Pac-Man Movement: Use the arrow keys to move Pac-Man around the maze.
• Ghost AI: Ghosts move randomly within the maze, changing direction when they hit walls.
• Pellets: Collect all the pellets to win the game.
• Collision Detection: Includes basic collision detection between Pac-Man, ghosts, walls, and pellets.
• Sound Effects: Plays sound effects when Pac-Man eats a pellet or collides with a ghost.

Installation

Install the required packages: Ensure you have Python and Pygame installed. If not, you can install them using:

pip install pygame

Run the game:

python pacman.py

How to Play

• Start the Game: Run the pacman.py file.
• Move Pac-Man: Use the arrow keys to move Pac-Man in the desired direction.
• Objective: Collect all the pellets while avoiding the ghosts.
• Game Over: The game ends if a ghost catches Pac-Man, or you win if you collect all the pellets.

Code Explanation

The code is structured to handle different aspects of the game, including player movement, ghost AI, collision detection, and rendering.

Main Components

• Constants and Colors: Basic constants for game dimensions, speeds, and colors are defined at the beginning of the code.
• Initialization: Pygame is initialized, and the game window is set up.
• Game Elements:
  • Walls: Defined using rectangles (pygame.Rect) and drawn as blue blocks.
  • Pellets: Small white circles scattered throughout the maze for Pac-Man to collect.
  • Ghosts: Red circles that move randomly within the maze. Ghosts change direction upon hitting a wall.
  • Pac-Man: Controlled by the player, represented by a yellow circle.
• Game Loop: The main game loop handles events (like key presses), updates positions of Pac-Man and ghosts, checks for collisions, and redraws the game elements on the screen.
• Collision Detection:
  • Pac-Man with Walls: Prevents Pac-Man from moving through walls.
  • Ghosts with Walls: Adjusts ghost direction when they hit a wall.
  • Pac-Man with Ghosts: Ends the game if Pac-Man collides with a ghost.
  • Pac-Man with Pellets: Removes pellets from the game when Pac-Man eats them, playing a sound effect.

Sound Effects

Two sound effects are included:

• Eating Pellet: Played whenever Pac-Man eats a pellet.
• Pac-Man Death: Played when Pac-Man collides with a ghost.

Game Over Conditions

• Victory: The player wins by collecting all pellets.
• Defeat: The game ends if Pac-Man collides with a ghost.

Known Issues

• Ghost AI: The ghosts move randomly and may sometimes seem to wander without posing much of a threat. They do not currently follow Pac-Man as they do in the original game.
• Wall Collision: In certain corner cases, Pac-Man may "stick" to a wall if the movement direction is changed too quickly.
• Ghost Spawn Locations: Ghosts are spawned randomly in areas outside of walls, but occasionally they might spawn very close to walls, leading to immediate direction changes that look unnatural.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a pull request or open an issue to discuss changes.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.