PAC.EXE

Cinevva's analyzer read this game's design doc and its source, then wrote the brief below. "Make your own" hands it to the game creator as your opening message, so you start from a real spec rather than a one-line idea.

Create a browser-based 3D horror arcade maze game titled PAC.EXE. Use a dark, top-down slightly tilted perspective with a centered 15-by-15 grid maze: blocky nearly black walls on a very dark floor, heavy dark fog, soft colored point-light glows, and strong vignette/scanline overlay. The maze should be readable as corridors and walls, with small floating spherical orbs distributed across every walkable cell. The overall presentation is minimalist retro-terminal horror: monospaced HUD text, translucent black panels, pale lavender/white text, red glitch flashes, and occasional screen jitter.

The game has two sequential phases. On the title screen, show large centered text “PAC.EXE”, with “.EXE” in hot pink/red, the subtitle “Collect them. Don’t look back.”, “Press ENTER to begin”, and “(Click once to enable sound.)”. Enter starts Phase 1, with the HUD showing MODE: PAC-MAN, an ORBS counter in collected/total format, and a horizontal STAMINA bar. The player controls a warm yellow/orange glowing Pac-Man-like sphere with a black mouth that subtly animates open and closed. Move through the maze using WASD or arrow keys, with wall collision and corridor alignment. Holding Shift while moving gives a speed boost but drains the stamina bar; releasing it slowly restores stamina. Collect nearby normal orbs, playing a brief pickup sound and updating the counter. Some distant orbs are visibly dark red/crimson and cursed; they cannot be collected during Phase 1, making this phase unwinnable.

A hostile dark red/black emissive rotating torus-knot creature starts at the opposite end of the maze and actively hunts the player through the grid, choosing valid cardinal corridor directions toward the current target. It accelerates gradually with elapsed time and collected-orb progress, and a proximity/panic effect intensifies as it approaches. When it catches Pac-Man, do not simply end: trigger a distorted scream, a red expanding ring and fading red afterimage at the collision point, a glitch flash, and a subtitle such as “…MAKE IT STOP”. Then transform into Phase 2.

In Phase 2, hide the yellow Pac-Man and turn the hunter into PAC-MAN.EXE: a rotating black/red emissive sphere with a void-like black mouth and creepy eyes that are only visible when illuminated. The HUD mode becomes “GHOSTS (BLINKY)” or the selected ghost name, and the resource label changes from STAMINA to BATTERY. Reveal four colored ghost spheres: BLINKY (red/pink), PINKY (pink), INKY (cyan), and CLYDE (orange). The player controls the currently selected ghost with WASD/arrows and switches between them using number keys 1, 2, 3, and 4. The controlled ghost moves through the maze, while the other three visibly follow in a loose group around it. Collecting is now fully enabled, including all previously cursed crimson orbs, and the objective is to clear every orb in the maze. PAC-MAN.EXE hunts the currently controlled ghost, is slightly faster than the first-phase hunter, and catching the current ghost causes game over.

Include a Phase 2 flashlight mechanic: press F to toggle it. When on, use a cold blue-white light and shift to a tighter, low forward-looking ghost POV/camera aimed in the current movement direction; when off, use the normal elevated top-down camera. The flashlight drains the BATTERY bar while on and recharges while off; automatically turn it off at empty battery and show a brief “…dead battery” subtitle. The flashlight makes PAC-MAN.EXE’s eyes visible. Keep the enemy marked by a pulsing red glow. In Phase 2, periodically display short ghost whisper subtitles near the bottom, such as “don’t stop moving.”, “he’s right behind you.”, “the maze is wrong.”, “we never left.”, “keep collecting…”, “i can hear him smiling.”, and “it’s not pac-man anymore.”, with occasional glitch flashes and subtle filtered whisper audio.

The win condition exists only in Phase 2: collecting all orbs stops the game and shows a dark overlay with the large message “…SAFE?” and “Press R to play again”. If PAC-MAN.EXE catches the active ghost, show a dark/red game-over overlay with “YOU BELONG HERE” and “Press R to restart”. R should hard reset the maze, orb states, actors, phase, and title screen. M toggles mute. Start audio only after a click or key interaction: use a low droning ambience, short detuned/triangle pickup pings, escalating panic tones based on hunter proximity, a distorted descending scream on the Phase 1 capture, and sparse filtered noise whispers in Phase 2. Keep the upper-left translucent HUD visible during gameplay with MODE, ORBS, the resource bar, and a small control hint line: “WASD/Arrows • Shift sprint • 1-4 switch ghosts • F flashlight • R restart • M mute • Click to enable audio”. Add persistent dark radial vignette and horizontal scanlines, plus brief red/cyan glitch overlays during pickups, danger, transformation, and end states. The style should remain sparse, ominous, low-poly, and arcade-readable rather than adding unrelated enemies, power-ups, lives, or maze features.