Workshop › Pac-Man-style Maze Chase › Step 35 of 42

Frighten the ghosts

What we are doing

The power pellets turn the hunters into the hunted. frighten sets a timer (scaredFor, 7 seconds), resets chain (what the next eaten ghost is worth) and makes every ghost that is out scared. Each scared ghost also turns around at once: a clear sign that something changed.

```js
let scaredFor // frames the ghosts stay scared
let chain // points for the next ghost eaten

  ghosts = GHOSTS.map((g, i) => ({ ...g, col: 8 + (i % 3), row: 9, dir: STOP, progress: 0, frames: 10, waiting: g.delay, scared: false }))

  scaredFor = 0

function frighten() {
  scaredFor = 420
  chain = 200
  for (const g of ghosts) {
    if (g.waiting > 0) continue
    g.scared = true
    turnAround(g)
  }
}
```

What it means

• Ghosts still in the house are not frightened.
• turnAround is the same function that lets the player reverse mid-step.

Your turn

1. Under let clock write the two variables.
2. In placeActors, add scared: false to the ghosts and write scaredFor = 0 under clock = 0.
3. Above caught, write frighten.

Skills: Game states

← Play again Power pellets work →

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