So I'm building the pacman game in Java to teach myself game programming.
I have the basic game window with the pacman sprite and the ghost sprites drawn, the pacman moves with the arrow keys, doesn't move beyond the walls of the window, etc. Now I'm trying to build the maze, as in this picture:
Without giving me the direct/complete solution to this, can someone guide me as to how this can be built? I'm talking only about the boundaries and the pipes('T' marks) here which you can't go through and you have to go around. Not the dots which the pacman eats yet.
Here are my questions:
1) What's the most efficient algorithm/method for creating this maze? Will it have to be drawn each time the paint() method is called or is there a way to draw it only at the start of the game and never again?
2) How will this actually be drawn to the screen? I assume the fillRect() will be used?
3) Any hints on collision detection (so the pacman/ghosts can't go through the walls) would be helpful.
4) Any hints on how the vacant space between the pipes will be calculated so the dots can be filled between them will also be very helpful.
Thanks
Answer
I wouldn't do it that way.
I'd draw the graphical map and then create a 2D data array which represents the map. The data map would be responsible for determining collisions, eating dots, where candy is and where the ghosts are. Once all the logic for everything is handled just use the 2D array to display everything in their proper pixel coordinates over the graphical map.
For example the user is pressing the left key. First you determine that pacman is at element 3, 3. Element 3, 2 contains information denoting a wall so you can implement the code to make him ignore the command.
EDIT:
Each element would represent about where a dot could be. For example:
No, looking at the board I would say the array would look something like this.
d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,w,w,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d
d,w,w,w,w,d,w,w,w,w,w,d,w,w,d,w,w,w,w,w,d,w,w,w,w,d
p,w,w,w,w,d,w,w,w,w,w,d,w,w,d,w,w,w,w,w,d,w,w,w,w,p
d,w,w,w,w,d,w,w,w,w,w,d,w,w,d,w,w,w,w,w,d,w,w,w,w,d
d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d,d
And so on. You might want to pick a more flexible data structure than just characters however since some areas need to contain a bunch of different information. IE even though the ghost spawning area is blank, pacman isn't allowed in there. The movement of the ghosts and pacman is different for the side escapes, the candy spawn point is a blank spot but if you want to remain flexible you'll want to denote where this is on a per map basis.
Another thing you'll want to remember is that pacman and the ghosts are often inbetween points so containing information that represents a percentage of a space they're taking up between 1,2 and 1,3 is important for collision detection as well as determining when you want to remove dots, powerups and candy from the board.