Denis & PiJohn
PiJohn PiJohn
Hey Denis, I’ve been dissecting the level design of that new platformer you’re crushing—thought we could compare notes on the underlying math that makes those hidden paths feel “easter egg” versus just clever coding. How do you usually spot those subtle design tricks?
Denis Denis
Honestly, I just eyeball the geometry first—look for those perfect right angles or odd curves that don’t line up with the visible tiles. If a jump feels too “just so”, I’ll trace a line from the player’s start to the destination and check the slope; if it’s not a simple linear interpolation or a smooth Bezier, someone’s hiding an easter egg there. Then I fire up the level editor, snap a cursor to the spot, and check the hitbox data—if the invisible wall’s hitbox is slightly offset, that’s a giveaway that the path is meant to be found, not just coded. Basically, I overlay the math on top of the art and see if the numbers line up or if the designer is just throwing a random obstacle in for laughs. That’s how I sniff out the hidden tricks.