Final Report

What seemed like an easy and fun project has turned out to be surprisingly difficult and demanding, with all manner of problems, from being unable to make the shape I wanted, to needing code even my lecturer couldn't figure out. Despite all the many problems and obstacles I've encountered, I have enjoyed this project, and I think I'll come back to my game at some point and try to improve on it, as I'd quite like to finish it off because it would be nice to be able to play it.

If I was to do the project all over again, I think I'd make a different game, as the coding for this was impossible. The furthest I managed to get was making a Ghost move along one line, and whenever I tried to make it repeat it, the ghost fell straight through the floor and landed quite literally flat on it's face.


Regarding the weekly exercises, no communication was needed for this game, it did not need to contact anything external. HUDs may have been useful for letting you know how many pellets were left, etc, but I never got that far in the coding, so it was never implemented. Learning how to create a teleport was very useful, as there are three in my game, one to access the game, and two within it, and they are the only parts that currently work.

Game Description

My game is a reworked version of Pacman, more suited for Second Life and it's way of doing things. In the original game, you are able to run off the screen on one side and come back in at the other. In my game, this is represented by two teleports, each of which teleports you to the other, producing a similar effect. In the original game, you simply control Pacman, but in my version, you ARE Pacman, as a suit is provided. As in the original, you have to avoid the four Ghosts that patrol the maze, although in my game they merely travel along set paths, instead of actively chasing you. Also the same is the collecting of pellets in order to win, although my version does not include the big pellet that makes the ghosts scared.
In the original, the Cherries bonus pops up briefly, giving the player a chance to score extra points. In mine, it ends the game, and can only be collected once the player has found every pellet.

User Guide.

Assuming my game actually worked:

The avatar reaches my game by using a teleport booth, located near the lighthouse on the Island. It has a Pacman at the top of the booth, along with a message telling you it will take you to the game. On arrival at the maze, the avatar will be confronted by a large Pacman suit telling them to wear it. After putting it on and activating the game, the avatar, now 'Pacman', has to run round the maze collecting all the pellets that are dotted around. The final object to be collected is the cherries bonus-this will not be able to be 'collected' until every pellet is gone, meaning it won't vanish on contact if you still have pellets to collect. Your task will be made more difficult by Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde, the four Ghosts within the maze, who will be moving along set paths during the game. Contact with the ghosts means instantly losing the game. If Pacman manages to collect all the pellets and then get the cherries bonus, they win the game, stopping the Ghosts movement. The suit is then removed and the avatar is thrown out of the game.

Pacman Suit

For my Assignment, I've made a Pacman Suit for my Avatar to wear. A friend suggested selecting one face at a time, and this allowed me to colour the mouth in black, with the outside a bright, traditional yellow. The actual shape was created by making two hemispheres and overlapping them at an angle, creating an almost complete sphere with a wedge missing for the mouth. When I first wore it, it automatically attached to my arm, and was at an odd angle, so I changed it to attaching to the spine, and rotated and moved it until it lined up neatly. For a while, if you looked into the Pacman mouth, you'd still see my Avatar's T-shirt, which considering it had a dragon on it, was rather cool, but I shifted the costume's position so it's all that's visible. That said, my feet are still sticking out of the bottom of the costume, but not as bad, especially when you consider the pacman costumes you can buy in real life, with big yellow arms and legs and a nose and things.

I may add eyes to the costume, but I'm considering keeping it as it is, because you never see his eyes in the original game.

Talking Objects.

This is a screenshot of me and my round bench, fittingly named 'Donut Bench.' Whenever it's touched, it says 'Good Afternoon' and greets the Avatar by name. Finding the right code to make it find the Avatar's name took a while, but I'm pleased with the result. I'd like to be able to get it to sense what time of day it is, and change it's greeting accordingly, but that will most likely be far more complicated than it sounds.

Now I just need a zap noise.

I finally made a gun fire yesterday. I now have a rather simple looking energy blaster. My biggest problem, as a friend had to point out to me, was getting the bullet inside the blaster to be both physical and temporary, because it kept not copying the changes to the bullet that was inside the blaster.

Rotation has proved to be a problem too, as when I first tried with a cylinder, equipping it to my right hand had the ends of the central hole pointing left and right, and sometimes up and down, making it look like I'd turned my hand into a hammer. I could not get it to point forwards, so I made my next attempt out of an altered sphere.

I did manage to use a glow effect to make the bullets became energy blasts though.

I claim this Moonbase.....

.......with a giant Banana.

I found a Moon area a couple of thousand feet above Anglia Ruskin's Island, and showed it to everyone else.

Here I am on it. I made the banana, but not the flag or rocket :(