A modern board game adaption of a classic included an electronic Pac-Man figure, sculpted ghosts, and a giant plastic game board complete with 76 plastic dots to “eat”. I was contracted to redesign its gameplay to meet a fast-approaching card deck and artwork deadline. I quickly evaluated the client’s game, proposed solutions, and iteratively play tested the new core gameplay mechanics so it worked for 2 - 5 players.
Initially, Pac-Man and the ghosts moved based on numerical values on each card in the deck. Our improvements included: splitting Pac-Man’s movement out from the card deck and giving players 3 six sided dice, adding a press-your-luck element to the Power Pellet sequence, and transforming the eaten ghosts into eyes, (just like the videogame) so they had to race back to the cage to be resurrected.