Game Theory: Your Superpower Is In Your PANTS! (A Difficult Game About Climbing)

The host introduces the episode with a humorous discussion about a loincloth in the game, questioning its physics and how it stays in place.

A Difficult Game About Climbing is a rage game created by Pontypants as a spiritual successor to Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, where the character climbs without using a hammer or feet.

The episode explores the physics of the game's loincloth, which leads to discovering unexpected scientific inconsistencies throughout the entire game world.

• Why does the climber have such extreme buoyancy in water? • How is he able to climb so easily without a harness? • What material makes the loincloth so effective?

The climber can ascend the entire mountain, city, and clouds without breaking a sweat, climbing without a harness and without using his feet—a technique called free soloing or campusing.

When the climber falls into water, he shoots up like a bath toy, indicating he has far lower density than a normal human.

Using pixel measurements with F-shaped concrete barriers as a reference, the climber is measured to be 6 feet 5 inches or nearly 2 meters tall, the same height as Bo Burnham.

• Total volume: 0.1057 cubic meters • Submerged volume: 33% or 0.035 cubic meters • Calculated density: 330.13 kilograms per cubic meter (about as dense as bamboo) • Mass: only 41.3 kilograms or 91 pounds (versus 222 pounds for a normal person of his size)

With his low mass, the climber has lower inertia, allowing him to stop his swing almost instantly according to Newton's first law of motion.

By dropping the climber from a measured height of 5.7 meters and timing his fall at 0.81 seconds, the acceleration due to gravity was calculated using kinematic equations.

The world's gravity is 19.853 meters per second squared—more than double Earth's 9.8 meters per second squared, comparable to Galileo's and Apollo 15's experiments.

• Normal 6'5" person on Earth: needs 1,020 newtons of force to climb • Game climber: needs only 692 newtons of force • Difference: 32% less force required due to combined low mass and altered gravity

• Thin enough to flow and flap in the wind • Waterproof so water falls off instead of absorbing • Stiff enough to maintain coverage despite gravity and movement • Strong enough to withstand the climbing environment

The loincloth is made of canvas, a versatile material that can be woven at various thicknesses while remaining strong. The game files confirm it uses a plain weave pattern typical of canvas.

• Higher gravity makes thin canvas act heavier, keeping it downward • Canvas has low absorbency, making it naturally water-resistant • Historical precedent: canvas was used for sailcloths and lining canoes in early 19th century North America • Can be treated with wax or oil for additional waterproofing

At the bottom of the mountain sits a shipwreck—the climber's vessel. After becoming shipwrecked with soaking wet and torn clothes, he fashioned this canvas loincloth from the ship's sailcloth to climb to safety.