Iwatani made two more unsuccesful games, before he noticed the nature of videogames, and the audience they attracted. Iwatani observed that nearly all videogame players in the early '80s were socially-inept males. Where were the women, he wondered -- and why were videogames considered so culturally unacceptable? He decided that it might be because so many games -- and here is where his Galaxian example comes in -- revolve around shooting. While the games might be enjoyable, there is this constant theme of destruction; of killing. What, Iwatani wondered, would a game for women involve? What drives women on?

His answer: fashion, and eating.

As a result, he built a game where the goal is to eat all of the cookies ("dots", to us Westerners) in sight. If any other food happens to pop on screen -- such as a piece of fruit -- all the better. Eat that, too. All the time, the player is chased, and hemmed in, by a trio of colorful monsters (and one confused free-roamer), each with its own unique strategy.

Further: "The monsters do not die," Iwatani stressed for the first of many times. You may eat them (once you have consumed a "power cookie"), yet when you do so their spirits just run away home to their nest, to be reborn.

The last key element lies in the walls of the maze. Iwatani was conscious of the solid lines of so many other games; he was unfond of how hard and uncompromising they seemed. To de-emphasize their presence, and to make the player feel less trapped, the walls in Pac-Man are left open; they are more empty space than guideline.

When Iwatani showed the game to his boss, his boss ordered that Iwatani change all of the monsters to red. His boss insisted that the game was too confusing; that the player would be unable to understand what is or is not an opponent, as things were. Iwatani was frustrated, as this change would foil one of the main objectives of the game: to be colorful, for the benefit of a female audience. Besides, it was clearly an inane order. As an experiment, Iwatani passed out a questionaire to every Namco employee he could find; he asked them which they preferred: all-red monsters, or monsters in a variety of colors. The response was unanimous in favor of his original plan. His boss stared at the data for a while, then reluctantly withdrew the order.

On a similar note, Iwatani's programmer, Mr. Funaki, refused to code anything outside of the main game. There was no need for story segments between levels; they had nothing to do with gameplay, so clearly they added nothing. Iwatani recognized, however, the importance of character in this game. The more empathy the player felt, the better. These were not just game pieces; each had its own personality, bourne of its in-game behavior, its appearance, and the nature of interaction amongst the game elements. Iwatani did convince the programmer of the importance of these sequences (some of the first cutscenes in videogaming), yet it took some effort to do so.