Octropolis

Octropolis is now free to download and play! If you like it, however, might I suggest leaving a tip? I've put far more effort into this weird little Pac-like than you know....

Guide an octopus through the huge Octropolis, collecting eggs, escaping sharks, and consuming "mega eggs" that let you attack the sharks back. If this sounds a bit like Pac-Man, that's no accident. Octropolis is a modification to and

elaboration on ideas established by that game and its sequels. It's got colorful neon graphics, and hearkens back to an age where all ages could play video games. Beginners can enjoy bettering their score; experienced players can try clearing the massive board.

Octropolis pretends to be an arcade machine: it has a cycling attract mode and a screen of operator settings. Octropolis supports keyboard and Xbox 360 gamepad (not analog stick yet). It also has mouse/touch controls -- but trust me, you don't want to play this with a mouse.

Note 1: Octropolis makes use of rapid full-screen wave and shimmer effects that I think may trigger epileptic attacks in susceptible players. You can disable these in the game by going into Settings (Press Backspace from the title screen) then turning on "LO GRAFX."

Note 2: There is now a Linux version, but it seems to perform rather worse than the Windows version. If you wish to try it, you might want to consider setting the game to "LO GRAFX" in the Settings screen (Backspace from the title screen).

VERSION 1.5 (November 2016):

A new title screen! Some new effects and sounds! A light show if you win! Also, the scoring rules have been tweaked a bit. Reflecting the new rules, the challenge scores have been updated.

My high score on Expert is 2,569,898 under the new rules. On Master, I've made it to 2.6M....

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• Instead of just four ghosts, there are eight different kinds of sharks, each with its own personality. They aren't all in play at the start, but are added as the game continues.
• Vivid special effects: the whole board waves and shimmers as the game continues.
• AI is heavily inspired by the inner workings of classic arcade maze games -- many of the same escape tactics will work here.
• Dynamic scrolling and scaling effects ensure you see enough of the maze around you even at hyper speed.
• Hint system hands out secret tips after each game.
• Attacks by Great White sharks: ruthless pursuers that are always faster than you. If you can catch one while it's vulnerable, it's gone for good... or at least until the next attack. But while it's vulnerable, it zooms away at high speed and takes random turns at intersections. The only way to catch it is it running into you....
• Instead of many levels, Octropolis has one very large board, giving you lots of room to flee from sharks. Is it even possible to clear it all??
• The game starts out moderately fast, and progresses to blisteringly fast as it continues.
• Get lots eggs in sequence for bonus points. Rumor has it you can get very large scores this way....
• Four challenging difficulty levels. Beginner has a shallower difficulty curve, saving some of the harder sharks for later. Advanced has Great White attacks later on. Expert is the competition-level difficulty: it has several Great White attacks, and ends with the Frenzy, a swarm of sharks that tracks you down. Master is the same as Expert... but with an entirely different maze, one that's a lot harder to navigate. Good luck with that.
• In real life, hammerhead sharks give birth to live young. Please do not base your understanding of marine biology on a video game.

A version of Octropolis is also available for Android on the Google Play store. Music by Snabisch, from OpenGameArt, used under Creative Commons 3.0 BY. Please support his fine work!