PAC-MAN Royale — Status Board

As a player, I want the maze walls to have a 3D beveled neon glow effect (like the arcade cabinet) so the playfield looks polished and premium. Acceptance: walls render with inner/outer edge highlights, glow bloom shader, and depth illusion.

As a player, I want Pac-Man and ghosts to have smooth, high-resolution sprites (128px+) with anti-aliased edges matching the arcade's crisp character rendering. Acceptance: each character has idle, moving, frightened, and dead sprite sets at 128px minimum.

As a player, I want the HUD to feature arcade-cabinet-style score displays with pixel fonts, neon outlines, and animated score counters that roll up on change, matching the arcade aesthetic.

As a visitor, I want an attract mode that plays automatically before anyone joins — showing AI-controlled Pac-Men playing the game with "INSERT COIN" style prompts, just like the real arcade cabinet.

As a player, I want a decorative border around the play area that mimics the physical arcade cabinet's marquee and control panel art, giving the WebGL version a "virtual cabinet" feel.

As a player, I want ghosts to have animated eye tracking (eyes follow nearest Pac-Man), body wobble/bob while moving, and a "poof" disappear effect when eaten — matching the arcade's fluid ghost animations.

As a player, I want pellet collection to produce bright spark showers, power pellets to create screen-wide pulse waves, and ghost eating to produce dramatic explosion effects with lingering particles.

As a player, I want the maze walls to gradually cycle through different neon colours as the match progresses (blue / purple / pink / red as speed increases), creating visual urgency like the arcade version.

As a winner, I want a dramatic victory sequence: winner's Pac-Man grows large and does a victory dance, firework particles explode across the screen, and a "CHAMPION!" banner slams in with the celebration fanfare.

As a player, I want the transition into powered state to feel impactful: screen flash, Pac-Man grows slightly with a glow aura, and the maze briefly pulses — more dramatic than the current implementation, matching the arcade's "supercharged" feel.

As a player, I want new power-up types beyond the classic power pellet (speed boost, ghost freeze, score multiplier) that the arcade CHOMPIONSHIP edition introduced, adding strategic depth to matches.

As a player, I want an animated PAC-MAN Royale logo on the title screen that assembles piece-by-piece with neon glow trails, matching the energy and polish of the arcade cabinet's marquee display.

As a player, I want power pellets to be noticeably larger than regular pellets (2–3× diameter) with a pulsating throb animation — a smooth scale oscillation combined with a bright glow aura that intensifies and fades rhythmically. The throb should convey "eat me for a power-up" at a glance, making power pellets impossible to miss even in a frantic 4-player match. Acceptance: power pellets render at ≥2× base pellet size, throb cycle 0.6–1.0s, glow radius pulses in sync, clearly distinguishable from normal pellets at all zoom levels.

As a player, I want speed boost pellets to have a unique, eye-catching procedurally-generated icon — a stylised winged sneaker (a shoe silhouette with small feathered wings extending from the heel) rendered in electric-blue with a white speed-streak trail. The icon should bob gently and emit a faint particle sparkle trail so it reads instantly as "speed power-up." The design should be distinct from power pellets and regular pellets, making its purpose obvious without a tutorial. Acceptance: procedural sprite generated at runtime (no external assets), clearly reads as a winged shoe at 64–128px, animated bob + sparkle, colour palette distinct from power pellets.

As a player entering the online lobby, I want an exciting, polished UI that immediately tells me I'm about to enter a high-stakes PAC-MAN BATTLE. The current lobby has overlapping text boxes, no field labels, and a flat, lifeless layout. The redesign must: (1) Fix all overlapping/misaligned input fields — player name and server address inputs must be clearly separated with distinct placeholder labels (e.g. “ENTER YOUR NAME”, “SERVER ADDRESS”). (2) Add a bold, arcade-style lobby header with animated glow or neon treatment (e.g. “BATTLE LOBBY” or “ENTER THE ARENA”). (3) Add hype elements: pulsing background, animated Pac-Man or ghost silhouettes, dramatic colour palette (dark bg with neon accents). (4) HOST and JOIN buttons should be large, satisfying, and clearly convey their purpose with hover/press feedback. (5) Connection status should be prominent and colour-coded (red = disconnected, green = connected). (6) Overall feel: arcade cabinet attract-mode energy — the player should feel the adrenaline before the game even starts. Acceptance: no overlapping UI elements, all fields labelled, lobby reads as exciting/high-stakes, passes visual QA on 1080p and 720p, HOST/JOIN buttons have hover + press states.

As a player, I want every screen — from the initial loading splash through the main menu, game mode selection, and local lobby — to share a cohesive neon arcade aesthetic matching the M7 visual overhaul, so the entire journey from first load to first move feels premium and on-theme.

(1) Loading / splash screen — Animated PAC-MAN BATTLE ROYALE logo assembles with neon glow trails; progress bar styled as a pellet trail eaten by Pac-Man; animated maze silhouette with wandering ghost and Pac-Man silhouettes in the background.
(2) Main menu — Dark background (#0a0a0f) with dynamic neon grid or animated maze silhouette; oversized branded header with pulsing glow; PLAY LOCAL and PLAY ONLINE rendered as arcade-button cards with distinct hover (scale + brightness) and press (sink + flash) animations; version and status-page link present but not dominant.
(3) Mode selection / local lobby — Player-slot cards tinted in canonical slot colours (P1 yellow, P2 cyan, P3 pink, P4 orange) with join animations; countdown as an oversized neon digit with punch-scale keyframe; ambient ghost and Pac-Man silhouettes wander behind the UI.
(4) Unified design system — Arcade/pixel typeface, dark neon palette, consistent glow/bloom on all interactive elements, animated ambient background on every screen. No screen resembles a Unity default layout.
(5) Screen transitions — Brief animated wipe (neon chomp or black flash) on all scene changes; no bare instant cuts.
(6) Visual QA — Zero overflow, clipping, or z-fighting at 1920×1080 and 1280×720; all text legible at both resolutions.

PelletTwinkleEffect.OnDestroy() only unsubscribes events but does NOT destroy its overlay GameObjects. When the component is destroyed between games, orphaned SpriteRenderer children persist and render on top of the tilemap. Same issue in PowerPelletGlowEffect. Fix: explicit child GO cleanup in OnDestroy().

Same orphaned-GO root cause as US-8.01, plus ClearClientPowerPellets() does not rebuild twinkle/glow effects after downgrading PPs, leaving power-pellet-styled overlays at wrong positions. Fix: OnDestroy() cleanup + rebuilt effects after PP clear.

Only the classic 28×31 maze exists (US-17, never implemented). Create 3+ additional maze layouts, random selection at game start, updated Reinitialise(). All layouts must pass dead-end validation and have ghost house + tunnels.

Power-ups render at ~60% cell size with 32×32 sprites and 1.5 Hz pulse — easily mistaken for pellets. Fix: 64×64+ sprites, 1.5× cell scale, 6 Hz strobe, coloured glow ring, sorting order ≥14.

Tests for US-8.01/8.02: OnDestroy() destroys overlay GOs; no orphans after ResetForNewGame() + BeginGame(); overlay count matches layout after Reinitialise().

Tests for US-8.03: no dead ends per layout, ghost house exists, tunnels exist, ≥100 pellet tiles, random selection variation, Reinitialise() correct pellet count.

Tests for US-8.04: textures ≥64×64, scale ≥1.2× cell, sorting order >12, 3 distinct sprites, strobe ≥4 Hz.