PROJECT PROPOSAL
A 2-player maze chase game built on p5.js. Players are each assigned a role, the hunter and the prey. The maze is set in the nighttime, meaning that neither the prey nor the target can see the full maze. Each player is equipped with a flashlight, which spotlights them and allows them to see some surroundings. Prey’s goal is to escape the maze before the hunter chases them. Hunter’s goal is to catch the prey before they escape from the maze. Prey’s flashlight is stronger and hence allows us to see more of the maze because I feel like their goal may be more challenging to fulfill.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE
I identify my biggest challenge for this project as the building of the maze itself. I have the hardest time understanding the logic behind the building of anything that uses grids. Besides that, I have minimal knowledge of algorithms that allow for maze generation. To help myself with that, I will refer to the multi-part youtube tutorial by The Coding Train, in which they create a maze generator using a depth-first search algorithm with recursive backtracking. I have also found this page useful in introducing myself to the pros and cons of different maze-building algorithms.
IMPLEMENTATION
I decided to start by addressing my biggest concern for this project, which is adding a self-generating maze. The tutorial that I have referred to uses a randomized depth-first search. After looking through other possible algorithms, I have settled on Kruskal’s algorithm, which generates more dead ends in the maze. So far, the code that I have generates a maze with one player and one maze exit. The player can move around the maze using WASD for controls. The maze exit doesn’t do anything yet.
THINGS TO WORK ON
Basically everything else (e.g. sound, player sprites, spotlight, intro window, player interaction, etc). As for the maze, I need to add another player to it, and possibly control the position of the maze exit so that it is closer to the “prey” than to the hunter. For now, it is pretty easy to get from the start to the end of the maze even with all of the dead ends. However, I think that the difficulty of the game won’t be a question once I have the spotlight feature implemented.