Posts: software


Riemannian Geometry and Hollow Knight Room Rando

Hollow Knight is a popular metroidvania game that features a vast and interconnected world full of secrets and challenges. Some players enjoy adding more variety and difficulty to their exploration by using mods that randomize the items and locations in the game, a popular concept among many similar games. One such mod is the Randomizer 4, which allows players to choose different options for randomizing items, charms, skills, enemies, bosses, and even room transitions. However, one of the most challenging modes of this mod is the “room rando”, which randomizes every door and transition in the game. This mode can create complex and non-intuitive paths that do not follow traditional Euclidean geometry. Instead, they follow more a Riemannian geometry, which is a branch of differential geometry that studies curved spaces where angles and distances vary from point to point. In this article, I will present a piece of software I made that helps map out the game when using the room rando mode. This software can help players keep track of their progress, find new areas, and avoid getting lost or stuck in loops.