Workshop › Pac-Man-style Maze Chase › Step 38 of 42

Eat a scared ghost

What we are doing

Meeting a scared ghost is good news: it is eaten. You get chain points, and chain doubles for the next one (200, 400, 800, 1600). The ghost goes back into the house and waits 3 seconds before it comes out again, no longer scared.

```js
    if (!g.scared) {
      caught()
      return
    }
    // A scared ghost is eaten: points, and back to the house for a while.
    score += chain
    chain *= 2
    Object.assign(g, { col: 9, row: 9, dir: STOP, progress: 0, waiting: 180, scared: false })
```

What it means

• Only an unscared ghost catches you now.
• chain *= 2 doubles the value for the next ghost; frighten puts it back to 200.
• The eaten ghost is placed in the house with waiting: 180, so the countdown in update releases it later.

Your turn

In the catch loop of update, put caught(); return inside if (!g.scared) { ... } and write the eating lines under it.

Skills: Collision detection, Game states

← Scared ghosts wander slowly Blue, then flashing →

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