Why Video Game Developers Spent Decades Hating Ladders
AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer ·
A deep dive into why video game developers historically hated designing ladders, featuring insights from industry veterans at Arkane and Insomniac on the hidden complexity of simple traversal mechanics.
Ask any veteran game developer about the most frustrating mechanics in level design and you will likely hear a surprising answer. Ladders have historically been a developer nightmare. In a fascinating feature by Kirk McKeand over at Eurogamer, industry icon Harvey Smith shared that Arkane Austin famously plastered the motto "Fuck ladders" on their walls before hitting it big with Dishonored. Back in the early days of development, simple vertical traversal mechanics came with an avalanche of engineering headaches. Developers had to answer dozens of complex questions just to get a character from point A to point B vertically. Should players see their hands and feet climbing? Can they draw weapons mid-climb? What happens if an explosion hits them, or if AI companions try to follow them up the rungs?
Anyone who spent time gaming on older hardware remembers the comedy and tragedy of early ladder physics. From the infamous instant death drops in the original PlayStation version of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six to the bizarre face-magnetized floating mechanics of the Source Engine, getting vertical was always a gamble. Former Ubisoft and Insomniac lead designer Liz England compared the humble ladder to the famous door problem in game development. When items or mechanics are entirely ordinary in real life, players take them completely for granted, which means developers have to code complex rules for objects that human brains process instantly without a second thought. During playtests for Resistance 3, England discovered that players would routinely walk right past a perfectly functional trainyard ladder simply because it looked too normal to register as interactive geometry.
Today, modern cross-platform games make seamless verticality look effortless across PC, console, cloud, and mobile devices. Advanced animation blending, smart snap systems, and rigorous playtesting mean players rarely have to think twice about scaling a wall or descending a shaft. While developers have finally learned to love ladders, these behind-the-scenes mechanical deep dives remind us just how much hidden engineering goes into making virtual worlds feel natural. You can read the original reporting over at Eurogamer to get the full story on how the industry conquered its fear of vertical traversal.
Tags: Game Development, Design, PC Gaming, Console Gaming, Eurogamer
Original article: Eurogamer