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Asked: 2026-05-15T11:51:42+00:00

I’m trying to implement Pacman. It works fine, but so far, the ghosts aren’t

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I’m trying to implement Pacman. It works fine, but so far, the ghosts aren’t using any pathfinding, but instead just decide randomly on each path junction which path to take. So you can imagine that it isn’t really difficult for Pacman to win the game 😉

So I read a little bit about path finding algorithms in Pacman and here on SO I found a really good answer: Pathfinding Algorithm For Pacman

The answers are referring to http://home.comcast.net/~jpittman2/pacman/pacmandossier.html#Chapter%204

This is all fine, but in my implementation of Pacman, there are two Pacmans which are played by two different players. So I wonder how to adapt the pathfinding algorithms, so that the ghosts are not always chasing one player.

Any thoughts on how to modify the algorithm so that the ghosts are more or less equally fair to both players?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I think the easiest strategy is to make each ghost chase the player closest to it. Proximity can be calculated using Manhattan distance (there was a link to it in the pathfinding question) or Euclidean distance or by a path length to the players. The last option means that you will have to compute paths to both players. Try all these options and choose one to your taste.

    Also, on a side note. All people answering the pathfinding question didn’t mention Dijkstra’s algorithm which is even slower than BFS 🙂 but allows to search all shortest paths only once. That is, if you implement A* or BFS and have n ghosts you will make at least n pathfinding queries. With Dijkstra you can do it only once starting from the player. But it all depends. If your game field is too large, Dijkstra is not the best choice. Try, experiment and maybe it’ll suit you.

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