Workshop › Pac-Man-style Maze Chase › Step 6 of 42

The player

What we are doing

The player is an object with a column and a row. placeActors finds the P in the map and puts the player there; draw paints a yellow circle on that tile.

```js
let player

function placeActors() {
  const row = MAZE.findIndex((line) => line.includes('P'))
  player = { col: MAZE[row].indexOf('P'), row }
}

function reset() {
  fillPellets()
  placeActors()
}

  ctx.fillStyle = '#facc15'
  ctx.beginPath()
  ctx.arc(player.col * TILE + TILE / 2, TOP + player.row * TILE + TILE / 2, 10, 0, Math.PI * 2)
  ctx.fill()
```

What it means

• findIndex returns the position of the first item for which the function is true: the row that contains 'P'.
• indexOf('P') is the position of P inside that string: the column.
• { col: ..., row } is short for { col: ..., row: row }.
• The player is drawn last, on top of everything, as a circle of radius 10 in the middle of its tile.

Your turn

1. Under let powers ... write let player.
2. Above function reset() write placeActors; inside reset add placeActors().
3. At the end of draw, after an empty line, write the four player lines.

Skills: Game states, Drawing on a canvas

← Draw the pellets Where can you walk? →

All steps

1. The maze as text
2. The game loop
3. Draw the walls
4. A set of pellets
5. Draw the pellets
6. The player
7. Where can you walk?
8. What a mover remembers
9. One frame of movement
10. Move every frame
11. Turns you can press early
12. Glide between tiles
13. Turn back at once
14. Swipes on a phone
15. Eat the pellets
16. Show the score
17. Clear the maze
18. A red ghost
19. A ghost never turns back
20. The ghost walks
21. The ghost hunts you
22. Four ghosts in the house
23. One by one out of the house
24. Scatter or chase?
25. Every ghost to its corner
26. Pink cuts you off
27. Orange is shy
28. Cyan works with red
29. Wait for the first key
30. Tell the player to start
31. Three lives
32. Caught!
33. Game over
34. Play again
35. Frighten the ghosts
36. Power pellets work
37. Scared ghosts wander slowly
38. Eat a scared ghost
39. Blue, then flashing
40. Harder levels
41. A best score that lasts
42. Build it yourself: the slow tunnel