Toasted Pac

Inspiration

This is a game concept that I wanted to develop years ago. I thought it would be interesting to take a classic game and re-imagine it. I don't remember the exact reason for making a drunk Pac-Man, but I thought it would provide for a different game experience and be fun game mechanics. When I first thought of this game, I didn't have the time to build it. When this hackathon came around, I thought it would be a fun little project to include.

What it does

Core Gameplay Loop Navigate maze-like levels from a top-down view (similar to classic Pac-Man). Collect beer pellets scattered throughout the maze to score points and increase Pac’s drunk meter. Avoid (or interact with) roaming ghosts — each themed as one of Pac’s exes.

Drunk Meter System Every beer pellet increases your drunk level. As the drunk level rises: Controls become less responsive or erratic: Delayed input Reversed directions Random movement offsets Visual effects kick in: Screen warping Blur, double-vision, or wobble effects Audio distortion (slurred sounds, echo)

Ghosts (Pac's Exes) Ghosts wander the maze like traditional Pac-Man enemies. When you come into close range: Their drunk level increases, mirroring yours. Their movement becomes unpredictable (they stagger, pause, spin). If both you and a ghost are sufficiently drunk, a Drunk Friendship event triggers: The ghost disappears temporarily You gain bonus points and a small reduction in drunk level The ghost respawns later, potentially stronger or faster

Power-Ups Coffee: Temporarily sobers Pac up. Clears visual distortions Restores control responsiveness Brief speed boost Ectoplasm: Leftover emotional residue. Freezes Pac briefly Increases confusion or control delay Can be avoided or accidentally collected

Cognitive Fatigue / Progression Levels progressively introduce: More complex maze layouts Faster and more aggressive ghost patterns Tighter beer-to-coffee ratios (more chances to get drunk, fewer ways to recover)

No save system: It’s a roguelike loop — each run is unique

Controls Supports keyboard (arrow keys or WASD) and mobile touch input. As drunk level increases, controls may: Misfire (e.g., pressing up moves you sideways) Stick (Pac may continue in one direction briefly) Delay or randomly reverse

Scoring Points are earned by: Collecting beer pellets Triggering Drunk Friendships Clearing mazes

How we built it

I originally built the game as a standalone web game and was going to submit it solely as a web-based game. Once I had the web-based game built, I decided to try my hand at building it for Reddit and their Silly Sh1t challenge. So I took the same ideas from the standalone game and developed them using the Devvit Bolt integration.

Challenges we ran into

I ran into a lot of challenges on this project

I knew nothing about Reddit and how their platform works. (I've never used it.)
Bolt managed to get into a loop blaming the Reddit server when it was something that Bolt added. My first attempt was abandoned due to the loop.
I built everything with a Private visibility like a lot of other people did from what I've seen in the Discord and when you integrate GitHub with your project, the Visibility is locked even if you make your GitHub public. So, I had to duplicate the project to be able to share it.
When I tried to add Leader board integration and score posting to the site, my build was hosed so I had to load a previous version from the backup.

I used Perplexity to assist me in understanding some of the error messages in the console window.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm proud of building, what I consider to be, a neat game with unusual game mechanics that is fun to play and possibly even addictive.

What we learned

I learned about the Reddit platform and how to develop for it. I learned that game engines such as Phaser can be used on the Reddit platform for building the games.

What's next for Toasted Pac

I plan on fully integrating Toasted Pac into the Reddit gaming system with a Leader board, score posting, etc. I plan on using Toasted Pac as a spring board to other re-imagined retro games.